The 4 W's

Welcome (~10mins)

The Welcome is a question for each member in the cell to answer

The Purpose

• To refocus the group every time it meets – however well we know each other.
• For everyone to contribute right at the start and develop confidence to contribute to the rest of cell.
• To help everyone feel included right at the start. To feel valued as they listen and are listened to.
• To learn something more about each other – asking about the past, present or future.
• Helps build our horizontal relationships before we gather together to relate vertically to God.
• Develops the openness and honesty value of cell.
• The answers can reveal areas that need ministry or gaps in understanding.

How?

When the group settles (probably with drinks and biscuits!), the cell launches with the Welcome.

The Welcome is a question that each member has to answer – mostly going round in a circle giving everyone a chance to answer the question, but sometimes as a discussion together.

The person responsible for the Welcome goes first and sets the levels of openness and honesty and also gives the others give the others a chance to think about their response.

Watch out for an unexpected crisis or emotional response triggered by the question. Minister to them there and then, get people next to them to lay hands and pray in God's comfort etc.

As the group develops in trust, the welcome can become more in depth with harder or more probing questions.

Worship (~15mins)

The Purpose

As the group has focused on each other in the Welcome time, now we focus on God, inviting His presence to be among us. We do this because we recognise we need Jesus at the centre of our cell. Without His life there would be no point in us meeting. This focus on God ensures the 'love God' command is included.

How?

Recognise together that Jesus is with us – when 2 or 3 gather in his name this ushers in the presence of God by the Holy Spirit. We can expect to experience God with us in our cell meeting.

It's helpful early on in the cell cycle to focus on why we worship God, and to discover what difficulties we are experiencing in worship. That can give us helpful insights into our relationship with God

This part needs some prior preparation to get the most out of it - there is potential for this part to be an extremely powerful time as we really meet with God. Be creative in ways we can worship outside of the corporate singing experience, but make sure that your ideas are valid ways that you yourself can worship God in order to successfully lead everyone else in that form of worship. Check with your cell leader if you are unsure if something will work.

As you get into worship, some may bring words of knowledge, or prophecy, which can lead to prayer or ministry. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, expecting that God will speak to you and be ready for the group to respond.

Be bold and prepared to go with the promptings of the Holy Spirit. This will often mean asking the question after a worship time, “Has anyone has got anything from God they want to share?” eg. pictures, scriptures, prophecies.

Don’t compromise if there are not-yet Christians in the cell. The very fact they are there means they are open to explore a spiritual side to life. Worship is very attractive and Jesus doesn’t want to be hidden!

Word (~40mins)

The Purpose

To allow the Holy Spirit to teach us through the Word and the gifts in the group, applying truth to individuals' lives so that they grow. This is not an ethereal bible “study”, but an application of the Word that is 1) personal, 2) specific and 3) practical.

How?

Your role is to facilitate discussion, not to do a 40 min preach!

The success of the Word section has a lot to do with preparation. Make sure you have read through and understood the material, looked up all the scriptures, decided which ones to use and know how you are going to lead different parts through.

The more interactive and creative you can be, the better eg. some of the content can be portrayed visually, even just writing some scriptures or headings out on paper.

The main thing is to get people involved. Splitting people up into smaller groups ensures this is more likely to happen.

Always end by applying the content/scriptures that have been looked at, so that we discover what it means to us here and now. We want the Word section to change us and leave us with some specific, personal challenges to go away with.

Material is provided for the Word section to help reduce the workload. It is recommended that each new cell starts off by going through Issue 1 of the Fusion notes which has 4 weeks on Jesus and 4 weeks on evangelism, relationships, worship and marketplace. The church office and web page have details on the rest of the Fusion material that is available as well as all the material that has been produced by church.

Witness (~15mins)

The Purpose

To reach our friends who don’t know God through cell and so grow big enough to multiply (which is about 15 people).

How?

Effective witnessing should come out of the overflow of our life together in God.

As God challenges us to more radical lifestyles through the work of the Holy Spirit in cell life, we will be motivated to reach out to our friends. We need to experience how much God loves those who don't know Him. That will change our heart attitude towards our friends. This is a subject for prayer, and needs to be worked through in the group. It's vital that evangelism is motivated from love - not duty. We need to receive God's heart for the lost and receive the Holy Spirit's empowering to reach out.

The role of the cell is to empower us to be witnesses and to reach our friends with the gospel. That's done through accountability in the group, to encourage prayer and an expectation that God is going to use us. The group can create strategies together to reach not-yet Christians, taking responsibility together for one another's friends e.g socials to invite people’s friends along to.

A group of believers who loved one another was seen as a powerful witness by Jesus (John 13:35). By exposing a not-yet Christian to this loving community, they experience something of God and are drawn to question what is motivating the group. Once friends begin to respond to God through the group's witness, an excitement grows as everyone sees the power of the gospel at work. That changes the whole dynamic of the group, making growth and multiplication the normal expectation.