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fresh expressions of church

change to cell within existing churches

When existing churches undergo the transition to cell principles they work

towards becoming a church made up of small groups. Each of the small

groups or cells is in nature and practice a full expression of church. The

church like roles of building community, offering worship, hearing and

applying the Word, and engaging with society are normative for each cell.

Every cell is functionally more than a study group, a task group or even 

a care group. It acts as the church in microcosm, including the instinct

(shared with church planting) that groups should deliberately seek to

multiply (principally through relational evangelism) and reproduce new

groups.

The alternative is an intentional halfway house, aiming towards a church

with small groups, sometimes called Meta Church.

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The principal difference

between pure cell and Meta Church is that in `pure cell' the cell is the

primary unit of church and everything else serves the life and growth of the

cells. In `Meta Church' the congregation is equally valid, and the two modes

of church complement one another's strengths. Meta Church's key insight

is that small groups are the ideal context for growing skills in local leaders.

can cell church create a growth mentality?

Revd Paul Simmonds, in a Grove booklet on cell church,

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observes that the

move to cell helps shape and direct growth, but does not create it. Cell

church originally came from parts of the worldwide Church where growth

and evangelism are natural and unexceptional. Cell church was devised 

to cope with the attendant growth.

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Thus it is historically true to say that 

it was not designed to stimulate growth but to channel and develop it.

cell planting

Cell planting involves establishing a new church around cell church

principles. At present two different patterns are emerging.

parallel cell church

One is the creation of a cell based church alongside an existing church that

remains congregationally based. The existing membership has choice about

the style or expression of church to which they wish to commit. People are

discouraged from hopping from one to another. Those who select cell do 

so in the knowledge that it is fundamentally built around principles of

discipleship and relational evangelism. So far the two resulting parallel

churches have always been different expressions connected to one parish,

and serving only roughly the same area.

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A small number of parallel cell

churches have a specific youth rather than all age focus.

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