The Significance of Cell Groups: Evangelism, Discipleship, and Church Growth

Cell groups are small groups of people from a church who gather in another meeting place other than a church, like a house or even a restaurant, a “neutral ground” for fellowship and godly connection.

Cell groups are different from churches because they usually occur on a day other than Sunday and are meetings of a small group of people from within the church. Churches form these groups based on factors like location and age.

Jim Egli said it best when he described the purpose of cell groups in his article, “A Second Reformation? A History of the Cell Church Movement in the Twentieth Century.” He said, “The purpose of … cells or home groups is to build up believers in their relationship with Christ and also to reach out and bring others to Christian faith.” 

You might hear people call cell groups “cell churches” or “connect” groups, with the latter emphasizing the purpose of the cell group: as an opportunity to connect, primarily, with other believers.

History of Cell Groups 

So, who brought up this brilliant idea to help churches outreach while maintaining their members for church growth? The concept started with the earliest church. However, as Egli highlights, cell groups became more of a movement over 50 years ago from an Assemblies of God church in Korea. The concept surprisingly emerged following a devastating health crisis the founder of Korea’s largest church, Dr. Yonggi Cho, suffered when he was 27 due to ministry exhaustion. Simultaneously, as Egli describes, similar ideas took shape in Central America and Africa.

As Egli rightly highlights in his article, the cell group structure began for discipleship and as a way of evangelizing. Inviting guests gives cell group leaders and members the excellent opportunity to evangelize to others.

Number of Churches

Currently, several churches have cell groups. However, Dr. Joel Comiskey, who researched and wrote about cell churches in 2000, discovered most churches that have them and are succeeding are in Korea. Cho’s Yoido Full Gospel had 25,000 cell groups and 250,000 in worship attendance as of 2000. In the United States, churches like Bethany World Prayer Center in Baker, Louisiana, have successfully implemented the cell system with 700 cells and 8,000 attending Sunday worship services in 2000. Another church that has been successful in North America is Victory Temple, Tulsa, Oklahoma. The church had almost 12,000 members during Sunday attendance and 1,000 cell groups in 2000. The numbers since then have grown.

Benefits of Cell Groups

Cell groups have a double effect on a church: They grow it and help members in a big church find more close-knit connections. From experience, congregants can feel lost in big churches like Cho’s. They may only be able to know people well if they are involved in cell groups. This challenge is especially real for congregation members who are introverted, have reserved personalities, or are not confident they have excellent social or interpersonal skills, even though they may have them. For these reasons, it’s safe to say every church, including big churches, should have cell groups. There is much value in them. Moreover, from my experience, cell groups have these interconnected benefits:

Keep you connected

Mini groups outside of church services with like-minded people can help keep church members connected. It can also help younger believers to grow. It can give those who are yet to believe a great opportunity to discover who Jesus Christ is and what Christianity is about.

Allow you to make friends

For instance, when cell groups consist of people within the same demographic, such as age, it enables church members to make friends easily in a safe environment. They may be facing the same challenges. But with a cell group of this type, they can “weather the storm” together.  

Foster deeper friendships

Aside from demographics, when church members meet in connect groups and share their struggles, request prayers, and share praise reports, the atmosphere fosters deeper friendships. In most cases, these friendships go outside of the cell groups, and church members can create deeper meanings of friendships. Sharing is of utmost importance in cell groups. Cell groups allow members to share in a safe and small environment. While it is naturally more challenging to share struggles (and even, at times, successes) in huge settings, cell groups allow for the safety and security of a small environment.

Create a close-knit of friends to talk to

In cell groups, you know you have close friends you can always talk to. These types of relationships can reduce feelings of loneliness, for example, and other mood-related issues. While cell groups can be safe places for those who are yet to believe in the faith to ask questions about Christianity and God, even their doubts about His existence, believers can receive mentorship from others who are further along in their walk with God. This mentorship could be by observing the godly character of another believer.

Like family- always there

Through cell groups, you can always feel there are people who are always there for you to share in your struggles, encourage you, and celebrate you with your wins!

Especially in times of struggle, through cell groups, you can truly understand what God means by saying, “Resist him (the devil), standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (1 Peter 5:9, NIV). We are never alone.

Conclusion

Experts predict the idea of cell groups and their numbers will grow as time progresses. According to the New World Encyclopedia, the growth will mainly be because of urbanization and the intense development of traditional churches, creating a greater need for community, smaller groups, and deeper connections or relationships among believers. For outreach, cell groups could be the perfect way to evangelize to those open to Christianity who need help knowing where to start. Therefore, cell groups have much significance; every church should have one, whether small or big.