I was in one cell church that legalistically, in my opinion, asked the cells to meet each week without exception. If a cell could not meet one week, for whatever reason (e.g., vacation, sickness, etc) it would have to make up the missed meeting by gathering on another night that same week or doubling up the next week. I felt this policy was too strict and didn't take into account unexpected occurrences. 

On the other hand, I hear a lot about churches that start and stop their small groups  each semester, take several months off during the year, or only meet occasionally. Inconsistency cheapens the quality and priority of the small group. 

If small groups are another program in the church (howbeit an important one) there is no problem closing and opening them like Awana, Sunday School,  or Evangelism Explosion. 

Cell churches, on the other hand, prioritize the small groups on the same level as the Sunday celebration. Since the weekly worship service meets throughout the year, the small group ministry does the same. If the church has officially decreed that small groups will not meet during the summer, what happens to the person who receives Jesus during the summer? Will she have to wait until September to receive discipleship and spiritual growth? 

I do  believe, however, there will be natural times in which the small groups will not meet. For example, if 85% of Jim's cell will be gone the last two weeks of August, the group will probably decide to not meet during those weeks. The group will inform the supervisor of their decision. However, perhaps three of the six families in Jim's cell will be home in August and would like to continue to meet (Remember that when the official leader is absent, it's an excellent time for others to exercise leadership). 

Thus, it's best not to make a church-wide decree that all small groups will not meet during a down-time of the church calendar. Small groups should be the life of the church, not subject to programmatic cycles of church calendars or work schedules. My point is this: Let the cell leader (along with those in the cell) make that decision in consultation with the supervisor.  

In December, we will be discussing topics such as: natural cell breaks, weekly cell groups, and special cell outreaches (thinking of Christmas break). If you'd like to receive these blogs daily via email, please sign up HERE. We'll cover:

• Week 1 (December 4-10): Cells meet consistently but not in a legalistic way. There are breaks like Christmas and Easter when individual cells may not meet. I recommend that individual cells make this decision rather than making a church-wide decree.
• Week 2 (December 11-17): The cell is the church. Christians grow and non-Christians are evangelized, just like the celebration service. Weekly cell groups are the norm in cell churches around the world. Why? We'll discuss it here.
• Week 3 (December 18-24): Special occasions in the calendar cycle allow for cells to reach out in a special way. One of those natural outreaches is during Christmas time. Some cells will celebrate Christ's birth by having a party. Others will make it a special time of outreach to those who don't know Jesus Christ.  

Why do you believe it's important to have consistent cells? If you'd like to comment on today's topic, please click HERE.