• Larry’s teaching this morning based on the manual

Larry and Dolly have been involved in cell group ministry for 18 years

• First went to a program-based church, with a traditional structure
• They hungered for something more;
• They opened up their home, invited friends and congregation
• Weren’t trying to start a church, just wanted to grow in Messiah
• Invited unsaved friends to come; dozens of unsaved friends have come to faith
• Home meeting doesn’t negate Sunday or Shabbat service; Bible calls for both

Why cell group ministry? What are the scriptural values for why we do this?

• A core value is something you’re willing to live your life for
• Our vision comes from our values
• As believers in Messiah, our values come from the word of the Lord, amen?
• If we don’t understand our values, what we have is a program or method, not commitment.

God is using three types of churches

• Program-based churches, based on meetings
• Relationship-centered churches, relationships with the Lord, each other and the lost
• Meeting-centered churches, adding home meetings to a church

Some scriptural values:

1) We are preparing for the harvest; we don’t want to miss what God is preparing for us.

• Matt 9:27: ask the Lord to prepare laborers for the harvest
• Unless the farmer prepares for the harvest, he won’t be ready, and miss it.
• Getting prepared means maturing ourselves
• Matt 9:17: "Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins."
• Sometimes there is a need to prepare new structures for the new wine

2) It’s all about relationships, knowing and loving God and our brothers intimately

• God is calling us to know Yeshua and also to help others to know him, as we do.
• People find him more easily in smaller groups

3) Reaching the lost: number one focus needs to be outreach, evangelism

• Maybe when you hear "evangelism," you think of Billy Graham
• But my Bible says that we are all called to share the good news with others
• If our focus is inward, you’ll become like the Dead Sea, stagnant and lifeless
• Yeshua said, my food, what sustains him, is to feed the lost
• You say, "four months…." But I say, "lift up your eyes, the harvest has come."
• Position yourselves to see the fields, looking outward.
• Looking inward exposes our backs to attack, helps us to see mostly our faults
• We don’t know it, but we’re building up the walls that won’t let the unsaved in.
• Looking outward still means relationships, but we’re not looking at ourselves.
• Looking outward, connected with each others, means we have power in unity
• Looking outward means we’ll be healthy, strengthened to do the work
• Yes, we’re have fellowship and pray for each other
• "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you"
• God is calling us to grow in our knowledge of God
• Yeshua knew the Father so well, he was confident about what God wanted to do
• For example, calling Zaccheus down from the tree and inviting himself to his house, in order to bring him the good news of salvation.

4) Go and make disciples

• True discipleship is not just hearing a talk, but hands-on, in the trenches
• Could you imagine someone flying a United Airlines flight after just hearing a tape or watching a video about how to fly?
• Discipleship is imparting a vision and a way of life into a small group of men and sending them out.
• 2 Tim 2:2: "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.
• Four generations of passing on the vision: me, you, reliable men, to teach others.
• God is raising up spiritual fathers and mothers (Larry Krieder’s book)
• Cell group really is a spiritual family of spiritual parents and children
• If there’s in a cell group, it should multiply, as the family of God does, from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to all the children of Israel.

5) Seeing the church as people not a building

• When Yeshua said, in Matthew 16:18, "I will build my church," he wasn’t talking about the building but about the people of God
• Thanks goodness for buildings in which to worship him
• But it’s not the building that’s holy, but God and his people
• God is restoring relationship to the church.
• Another myth is that the pastor is the holy man (who pays the bills)
• My bible says that Yeshua equips all the saints (holy people) to do the work of ministry
• Leaders need to be secure in God to release the people in ministry
• A true father wants to see his sons go twice as far, inheriting double blessing
• In many ways, a church looks like a professional football game: 22 guys doing all the work and thousands of others doing the cheering; 22 guys in desperate need of rest and hundreds of others in desperate need of exercise.
• The Spirit of God wants each of us to do the ministry, fulfilling his commission.

6) Building trusting relationships

• 1 Peter 2: 5 "you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Messiah Yeshua."
• When we come together for Shabbat worship, we can be a pile of stones, or a spiritual house
• A spiritual house means that the stones are built into together, in trusting relationships
• We’re seeing trusting relationships restored in the body of Messiah
• It’s about people being knit together

7) Vision of multiplication

• Without vision the people perish; without a vision for multiplication, you’ll be distracted by other things.
• With a vision, they’ll be restraint, to keep us oriented right.

8) Cell groups are like families

• As families have fathers, cell groups have leaders

9) Cell groups empower the people of God

• God is building teams, allowing Yeshua in their midst,
• No superstars, we need each other.

10) Raising up spiritual parents, releasing them as spiritual fathers and mothers

• 1 Corinthians 4:15 "Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Messiah Yeshua I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me."
• When you stand before the Lord, do you want to stand alone, or with your spiritual children and grandchildren?
• Cell group is a spiritual family
• Genesis 15:5, what God said to Abram, let him say to us: "He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’"

Larry had a brain-storming session with members of our congregation afterwards. I didn’t take notes, however. He and his wife Dolly answered many practical questions, such as:

• What happens in a cell group meeting? (Ice-breaking, short teaching, prayer and fellowship afterward.)
• How long is a meeting? (They meet for an hour and a half, followed by fellowship. Ending on time is important, giving room for the Spirit.)
• How often should they meet? (They meet every other week and get together with some members in intervening weeks; other cell groups meet every week.)
• What to do with children? (They have material for children—Beit Simcha has ordered a copy.)
• How to get started. (Larry recommended starting with a leadership cell group and studying material in the manual about making the transition from a program-based to a cell-based congregation. He agreed that this transition should not be too hard for Beit Simcha.)

For more about the cell group vision and practice, I do recommend the books mentioned at the beginning of these notes. The congregation ordered several copies of each. The leadership team is studying them and will begin meeting as a cell group this week.