My Cell Group Experience

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My Cell Group Experience

Forum: Theological Expressions
Date: 2001, Aug 19
From: Wahshing Wahshing

I use to host cell meetings at my place.
For weekly cell programs our church has a format which you can download from the internet. The bible passages and questions we later discuss among ourselves are mostly directed or intune with the vision and direction of the church. For example , when our pastor was made an apostle, the questions later that week at cell meet along with the bible passages are in line with those who advocate this belief of apostles. Questions for discussion will be on how we as members can help pastor in his new ministry (or something to that effect) and also on what today's apostles are to do etc.. etc..,. (It would have been more enlightening if church had allowed opposing views to be voiced officially at cell levels.)
Some yearly highlights are harvest events which we organise on our own or if we intend to do a bigger event like a block party at some HDB (Singapore's public housing) heartland , other cells in our locality will be roped in.
The main two cell evangelistic events are held during the Good Friday holidays and Christmas. Again, a format for holding this events can be downloaded from our church's web site. A few hundred cells will be holding this small/home evangelistic events islandwide , where we will play host to some visitors (non-christians), a small spread in the form of high-tea or luncheon is prepared. Some simple sketches or a video presentaion on the life of Christ or even a christian movie which stars our very own senior pastor. Basically, I find this events good as it fulfils one of our duties as christians. And we cannot be called backbenchers, for in my church (if you are in a cell) chances are you have a part to play in this events. At times we have extra events outside church curriculum ,which are parties or teas we host as touch points with our target areas.
For church wide cell-events Leaders have reporting forms to be submitted the day after this events. Among the details are the number of salvation secured at this events. In my opinion this seems to be the highpoint for the church office for the deadlines must be strictly adhered to.
One other thing our cell does is prayer-walking (made famous by Peter Wagner ; and which was taught to us) This can be done just before any particular event to break the stronghold in the area. We have adopted a block of apartments and had done prayer walking ; binding the area (like some spiritual cleanup)on a weekly basis and for some years. We locate and report back strange feelings we have at some areas (this I can tell you , most times its more emotional) , some places that just had more then the usual idols and we also note down as best we can , the religious beliefs of each household. Seriously, alot of hard work. We did it continually because we wanted to see results. On Hindsight, I believe if this is what God wants us to do , one walk or binding would have been enough. After so many years the block is still cold, although we did have one border line salvation from this block. Border line because , in later months we could not locate this boy and he did not seem to understand what he has got into , even after reciting the sinners prayer. We use an evangelistic method where we begin a conversation and draws the unbeliever into the net. We literally call this "drawing the net". The series of questions with logical answer will open up to our invitation for him to recite the sinner's prayer after us. It is a very simple method of bringing our "sinners nature" across and our need for God to save us. I cannot argue if this is right or wrong , it does work sometimes, other times the visitor is able to evade answering us (that is when he/she was able to spot what we are trying to do) Finally , when salvation comes, I want to believe that it is the work of the Holy Spirit and not our methods. I say I want to .. because sometimes it deludes me as if we had our visitor in an unfair corner. Forgive me, as I am in no position to give any verdict, as it does produce results at times.
Our knowledge of the bible is very much skimmed from the weekly sermons and the cell-meet. Only in recent times, does the church advocates bible study (read through the bible) and that was not until we had outsiders comment about us being shallow in scripture knowledge and members were chided for attending bible studies outside church. Our pastor had once said that all the bible we need to know can be found in his sermons (something worth repeating again ; this was one of the statements that had set me re-evaluating my purpose sitting there)
To be fair, some wonderful and long-lastings friendships were made during this period at cell. We uphold each other, prayed for each other. The sad drawback was when the church wanted to force cell multiplication and gave deadlines. Cells that did not multiply were splitted up. A normal cell of 10-14 people perhaps become 3 or 4 or more cells. Sometimes members are splitted and integrated into other cells. The atmosphere then change as it is difficult to interact with strangers , even christians,or well even if you know some of them, opening up will take time. I wonder if some of this methods are sent back to the drawing board, for re-tuning perhaps. To some extent, damage was done to the feelings of some members. For some of us , its the sad fact of splitting up after a cell had reached a stage of maturity and trust.
When we have slavations ; most of this salvations we see are of people whom we know over time and who knows our faith through the way we live our lives, and whom many of us pray for constantly. Mostly loved one and close friends. This who come to the grace of salvation, tends to grow along with us.
for now!
God Bless...