Laurence Singlehurst is the director of Cell UK. He reflects here on an emerging vision for “cell planting”.

Occasionally, we all have moments when something comes together. For me it is a case of God speaking to us and what He is saying being highlighted through circumstances that reinforce His voice. We often then have a ‘chance’ conversation and know that it is really significant.

A number of years ago a cell church leader took me to his village and shared with me his dream that in his village of 1000 he can have his big wing, his corporate expression of church. Then in the smaller villages around plant a cell, sending out or empowering two existing people who already live there. In so doing he would put, as it were, a missional mandate around their existing relationships and plant cells and then his corporate wing would support through coaching and encouragement what was happening. As he shared the vision somehow deep inside I knew that this was not just a local thing but one day this would be a new way to galvanise and enthuse the cell movement. I think that day has now arrived.

We had a very exiting day recently when we gathered people who had seen cells planted either in a geographical area or through a particular people group. As I imagined there are a number of situations where cell groups are being planted and here is a story from one initiative:

I am leading a cell plant that has been happening now for a year with good results so far. We are looking to reach out together to the council estate where we live. We have seen 4 people come to faith. We have done fun days, set up youth clubs, done joinery, bricklaying and plastering courses, bbq’s, X factor nights to build relationships.

We now meet as a cell every fortnight – the core group – the in between weeks we do a social where we invite as many people as possible, and also do intentional discipleship with those on the edge of our community on the other week of our four-weekly cycle. Our vision is to have a cell group on every road on our estate. Each person in the core group in cell acts as a street pastor to their road and has the potential to be a cell leader in their own right.

Longer term we see that we will continue as a core group and meet in secondary cells in the in between weeks. We also recognize that lots of people in our community are not ready for cell straight away – we encourage them to go through Alpha and also the Freedom in Christ course whilst doing some intentional discipleship every 4 weeks.

Joe Pienaar, St Chads Church, Romiley

As we think of this idea of planting cell groups many of you might already be thinking that you have done something like this in your own setting and if so we would love to hear about it. Some of you may have planted groups through Alpha courses where the small groups continued on as a new cell.

The challenge as I see it is to hear what God is saying to us and then run with it. Many of our groups will grow in the time honoured way as new people are added in and multiplication occurs. However I think something different is also happening and groups are being planted in lots of different ways. So take a moment to come before God and see if He speaks to you as I think He is speaking to me to see cells planted as a means of kingdom growth. I look forward to hearing the stories of what God is doing amongst you.