From: jmrg9881@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Jon Reid)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Cell Group Churches (2 of 3)
Date: 5 Sep 92 21:20:46 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

Boy, you have a lot of great questions!  I'll try my best to answer them all,
with this caveat: our church is currently in transition. Not everything I
describe has been implemented yet, and the way things are now is not where we
hope to be.

  - Will the small groups be Christian only?

Anyone who wants to come is welcome, including seekers.

There will also eventually be groups specifically for "hard core" unbelievers
who are not searching for the Lord's purpose for their lives, and have no
intention of visiting church activities.  These groups are called Share Groups
and they work like this:

Three or four mature members of a small group launch a share group. The topic
of the group may be anything that touches the needs of unbelievers.  The group
itself usually lasts only 10 weeks -- the purpose is to develop a relationship
with people who have no interest in Jesus, and to meet the people in their
circle of friends (oikos).

We haven't implemented share groups yet for a good reason: the small groups
themselves don't start until October 1.  So back to small groups...

   - Will they all have the same theme (evangelism, spiritual growth,
     etc.) or will each adapt itself to the needs of the group?

The groups have two focuses: evangelism and discipleship.  Or if you prefer,
there is one focus of building people up in Christ Jesus, both Christians and
non-Christians.

All groups will use the same basic material.  During our transition, we are
going through Life Basic Training by Ralph Neighbor.  It has been stressed
over and over again that merely implementing a new structure will not make us
a small group church -- it must be a total change of values.  Life Basic
Training is a kind of values clarification process designed for people who
want to learn the small group church lifestyle.

Whatever material is used (like LBT or discussing the sermon or studying
Scripture), they will be used as _tools_, not the focal point.  The people
present are the focal point, and the group focuses on their needs, and on the
special work that Christ wishes to do in and through the group.

   - Who will act as your small group coordinator?

Small group leaders meet together in "sub-zones" led by a small group
coordinator.  A sub-zone represents roughly 5 small groups.  The small group
coordinators, in turn, meet together in "zones" led by a zone pastor.  Again,
a zone contains roughly 5 sub-zones.  The zone pastors meet together, led by
the senior pastor.

The senior pastor led the zone pastors through Life Basic Training beginning
in March.  The zone pastors in turn began leading the small group coordinators
through LBT in May, and the small group coordinators have been leading the
small group leaders since July. Come October 1, the small groups are
officially launched.

Incidentally, the zone pastors are the first level of leaders who are paid by
the church to do their work full-time.  People are free to move up to any
level of leadership according to their training and ability.  As the zones
multiply, small group coordinators will become zone pastors.

   - Is training available for leaders?

Each leader will have an intern.  The intern will not be involved in any other
leadership; small group coordinator interns, for example, will not also be
small group leaders.  The intern spends his/her time "hanging around" their
leader, observing, learning, and doing everything the leader does.  When it
comes time for the small group / sub-zone / zone to multiply, the intern takes
half the people and the process repeats.

There will also be special training events on occasion.  The main thrust of
the training, though, happens "on the job".

Currently we do not have small group coordinator interns or zone pastor
interns because we're starting this whole thing "in the middle", instead of
from the bottom up, and the leaders are still trying to get their bearings and
change their lifestyles.

   - How often do groups split?

Heh, "split" has a negative connotation.  The word is "multiply".  :) Small
groups multiply when they grow to over 12 members.  Any more than 15 people,
and the group dynamics change, because it is no longer possible for everyone
to know everyone else.  (Remember your topology -- there are (n x n) - n
different interconnections in a group of n people.)

Ideally, groups will multiply every six months; this is a typical pattern in
cell group churches around the world.  This rate of multiplication happens
when each group has about one conversion a month.  It will probably take three
generations before we reach that rate... maybe a couple years.

Note that the church grows through conversion, not through attracting
Christians who are tired of their churches.

   - Will there be any time for the fellowship of the entire body?

Every Sunday!  But you see, the focus of the church is no longer a Sunday
morning meeting.  Our Sunday Celebrations will be a time for everyone to
gather and celebrate all the good things God has been doing throughout the
week in the small groups.

   - Is there a plan to funnel people from small groups into ministry
     activities as they develop a sense of ownership in the church?

Perhaps you can begin to see from what I've written above that the small
groups are *the* key ministry activity in the church.  There will be other
aspects of the church, but their purpose will be to support the small groups.

Most "ministry activity" is a lot of activity and very little ministry in what
counts -- reaching the lost and discipling the believers.

More questions!  Bring on more questions!  :)

-- 
Jon Reid    j-reid@uiuc.edu    GEnie: THE.REIDS
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."