by Richard White

I’m not very fond of the word “cell”.

It has so much negative baggage. My friends who aren’t into church think of either prisons or terrorists. Many of my church friends on the other hand think it means a very prescriptive form of the Singapore or Columbia models of cell-church.

In Dream, the network I work with, we never use the word. We just have “groups” that are building community and learning to be like Jesus.

So why on earth are we calling this network Anglican Cell UK?

A few reasons…

-The movement that grew out of Singapore, etc brought us values that live on. Without it most of us would still be stuck in inward looking home-group bible studies. It also started many of us down a path of a radical new understanding of what it means to be church.

-We can’t think of anything better. “Small missional communities” may be better description, but that’s pretty longwinded and not really any sexier.

-We’ve had a wonderful relationship with Cell UK and want that reflected in our name.

-Sometimes it’s good to have a name that keeps you humble!

Certainly Church Mission Society who are behind this network don’t have the most a trendy and useful name anymore. Neither do Youth With A Mission who launched Cell UK (I was a YWAM’er for eleven years and know that lots of us weren’t exactly “youth” anymore!)

Often the cool new names quickly become just as dated and useless in a few years.

So (for now anyway), we’re going for the Columbo approach to subversive image management.
“Anglican” (The hunched up, greasy-haired detective) + “Cell” (with a crumpled old raincoat)

What do you think about the term?

…now just before I go, could ask you one more question about the night of the murder…