Valley a Cell Church  


If you read the end of Acts 2 you will see that the early church was a church of small groups meeting in houses and growing at a phenomenal rate. To belong to the church (the term was not yet known then) meant belonging to a group of people that met in a home. The various groups would then join together for worship in the temple.

Our own Methodist roots were exactly the same, groups of people meeting together in homes in towns around England . The early Methodist church never owned any buildings. Each group known as a class would contribute funds for the hiring of a hall on a Sunday where all the groups came together for corporate worship. The life of the church was the class meeting and it was a vibrant life.

The Methodist Church (class meetings) of the 18th century prevented England from entering a civil war and changed the entire economy of the country around enabling it to be the economic force it is today. This was possible because every member of the class meeting was held accountable to the class for spiritual and moral growth at a time when England was on a slippery road to hell (pardon the term) because of the industrial revolution. There was mass unemployment, alcoholism, illness and social decline, John Wesley (the Father of Methodism) preached from the Gospel and fought against this decline with all his being and, thanks be to God, he prevailed.

Today this emphasizes for us the absolute essential existence of the cell group (a modern name for the class meeting), and our membership in such a group. If you want to change for the better, and all of us do, society to be better, ditto, then join a group near you and be transformed… an agent of transformation. God has done it before and he will do it again. If you want to reach the destination you’d better be on the bus.

 

Alan