Chris Neal

Its great to welcome the re-emergence of the Anglican Cell UK web site, and to recognise that the challenges raised by the cell Church model are still with us and still relevant. For some the cell movement of the 90s was a thing of its time, and passed on by like so many other initiatives of the past 40 years. However, the issues raised by cell, and the thinking they demand, call into question many of our preconceptions of what it means to be Church, and how we are called to express Christian and indeed kingdom community. To respond to those questions, and to allow them, and indeed God’s Spirit to disturb us at a deep level, means that we are continually called to enter into God’s adventure -  to make His Grace and love known and available to every human being, and every expression of human community.
 

CMS CELL AND SMALL MISSIONAL COMMUNITY

Some may be wondering why CMS, a ‘traditional’ mission agency should be involved with Anglican Cell UK and, indeed, sponsoring this web site.

In one sense the answer is very straight- forward. In the 1970s, John Taylor, the then General Secretary of CMS was exploring the place of the small Christian Community, and recognising that it carried the full DNA (although he wouldn’t have used that phrase!!) of the Body of Christ – the small was as authentic Church as the big.
At its heart CMS has always been a community, and in its current phase of life is exploring this more fully – wanting to be recognised not as a para-church agency, but as an authentic expression of Church -  as a community of mission service. It is a natural extention of this exploration to be involved in the birthing of small missional communities, seeking to put mission at the very heart of all they are and do.

There are, though, three further factors which fuel this commitment.

First, we need to recognise that we are living in a new global paradigm. Old orders and certainties are breaking down with increasing rapidity. This change affects not only the secular world order but also the way in which the global Christian Community understands itself, and then connects as Church. What is certain is the need for every follower of Jesus to view her or his local mission context through a global perspective. Every disciple needs the challenge of disciples from elsewhere in God’s world to understand more fully what it means to follow Jesus, and then to create Christian community, which reflects the global nature of the Body of Christ.

If there is a shifting global paradigm, there is also a fundamental cultural shift going on within our own society, and across Western Europe.  This is not the place for a detailed analysis, this has been done elsewhere, but as Church leaders we need to recognise that we are living in a new world, which brings new demands and challenges as well as new opportunities. As Tom Peters says of the emerging uncertain world ‘the tinkerer will not succeed.’ There is the need for creative, entrepreneurial and imaginative leadership and engagement.

Both these lead to the need for a fundamental reappraisal of the mission landscape that we are now traversing and how we reconnect with our nation, recognising that 60% of the adult population says it is either de-churched or unchurched and has no desire to connect with Church ‘as is’

THE CALL OF TOMORROW

In the uncertain world the prospect of tomorrow can be very threatening and even frightening, and it is all too easy to cling to the know and safe. This, however cannot be the mindset of God’s people. We are called to embrace tomorrow, in order that the people of tomorrow may hear and experience afresh the possibility of God’s grace, and the hope and life he offers in Jesus. The small missional community, cell, gives a way of connection with the emerging world, and can make real and tangible the promise and life of the gospel.
If there is to be hope for the future of the world it seems that the small expression of Church can offer three key ingredients and possibilities :-

i)The possibility of community where people can find a real place of belonging, where they can know and be known, hold and be held, love and be loved. At the heart of each individual there is something of the primeval scream of the longing to find a place called home

ii) The possibility of exploring what it means to be a learning community, not conformed and prescribed by inherited patterns, but rather discovering the creativity of God’s Spirit working in and through the seeming chaos that swirls around us. The small community is not the ark into which we retreat but rather the coracle in which we ride the waves and discover the God who journeys with us and goes ahead to show the way

iii)The possibility of developing a community that is light and fleet enough to engage at every level, and allow God’s  Church to emerge in every context in appropriate and sensitive ways.

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS

The cell church model as expressed in the 90s may well have reached its sell by date ( no pun intended !!), and needs to be questioned and challenged. However, what is certain is that the small Church, small missional community principle needs to be at the centre of and shaping  our mission thinking, not so much being challenged by us, but challenging many of our received convictions and perceptions. If this web site begins that task and prompts that conversation then it will be fulfilling its task, and we may well discover that expressing Christian community in this way is for such a time as this.

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