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What's a Cell Church?

In praying about how to form a church that has the potential to grow into a church planting movement, and examining how Japanese people respond to the different kinds of churches already in existence in Japan, we have come to the conclusion that a "cell church" is a structure that has the characteristics we are looking for.

The term "cell church" is used a lot these days, but many churches that use the term are more like "churches with cells" rather than "cell churches". One way to notice the difference is to consider which of the various meetings of the church is considered the indispensible, main worship meeting. In most churches, the most important meeting is a weekly Sunday morning worship service that is intended to include all members, and smaller "cell" groups are an add-on - good to attend, but not the main event.

A true cell-based church is different than that. There are enough cell groups to accomodate all members and other interested people, and any large meeting designed to gather everyone together is considered secondary. In a classic cell church, as outlined by Ralph Neighbour in his books about cell church structure, the large "celebration" gatherings aren't even weekly, but more typically monthly. The largest church in the world, in Seoul, South Korea, is a cell church - even though there are weekly large gatherings on Sunday, obviously it is impossible for all 800,000 members to attend. In fact, Pastor Yongi Cho sometimes urges regular members not to come on Sunday, because they have a space problem and want to allow for visitors. The Sunday worship is broadcast on the Internet, but sitting at home watching your computer screen is not really "church". The real church (the gathering together of believers) happens in the thousands and thousands of cells throughout the greater Seoul area.

Here is where we will have links to more information about cell churches - stay tuned, as this page is still under construction.

A Link

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