Build my Church Church Planting Vol 2

Page 431

Church Planting International PO Box 250, Mt. Gravatt, Queensland 4122, Australia

afterwards and make help available to them through yourself, or one of your appointed counselors. 4: CONGREGATION. This involves the formation of special interest groups in which people can meet. It enables the church to minister more specifically than in the general atmosphere of the celebration. Some churches choose to have an evening when all these electives are available in the church facility. For example, the whole family may go to church together but when they arrive Dad goes to Men's Fellowship, Mum to the Women's Fellowship, teens to the Youth, or Choir, or Music group practice. This style of gathering helps people to congregate with their peers with whom they share special common interests. It also enables various departments e.g. Music group, Choir, Drama group, Soul Winner's Fellowship, to develop their various ministries. Each "congregation" functions under competent appointed leadership which is answerable to, and under the covering of some member of the Pastoral Team. 5: CELL GROUPS. This ministry appears under a variety of names and varies slightly in its style and function from church to church. But the basic idea is that of small groups which meet regularly for fellowship, instruction, activities and evangelism. The fact is that there are certain ministries which Jesus told us to perform for one another which cannot occur effectively in the large, impersonal setting of celebration, or congregation. They require the smaller, less formal, more intimate environment of a small group. There are probably two major ways in which cell groups operate in church life. 1: The church which meets primarily in celebration and congregation, but also has cell groups. 2: The church which functions in cell groups but also meets from time to time in celebration and congregation. I believe that both models are legitimate, but of the two the second model is probably more biblical. (closer to the New Testament model) and I believe that it is also the model of the future. Around the world, sometimes by choice, and sometimes by pressure, this model is emerging as the pattern of the future church. Both models have merit and a great deal in common. Both of them :-

“Build My Church!� Vol 2, Page 431 http://www.servantofmessiah.org


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