2003.02.23. Rev. Young Jin Cho

"Why must we participate in the cell group?"

John 13:34-35

The preparation for a new start of the cell group that began last year-end reached to an important stage. If you hand in the cell group application by today, we plan to form new cell groups either this or next week on the basis of your applications. By the 1st week in March at the latest we will let you know the details of the cell group formation. On March 21, we plan to have a joint cell group meeting and start a new path.

The revival of cell group was an important task for the third five-year long-term plan that ended last year. It also occupies a critical role in this year's pastoral planning under the theme of "comfort my people." Until now we shouted "cell group" countless times and we tried our best to grow cell groups. Facing the new start of cell groups, we ask ourselves again the following questions: "Why is cell group so important?"; "Why do we have to participate in cell groups?"; and "Why is cell group so emphasized in our life of faith?"

I

(1) The review and new start of the cell group became necessary as our church grew in size.

When 100 members gathered for worship service once a week, this question was not a big issue. Most of the church members knew each other and shared the life of faith in close fellowship for a long time. But as the number of the congregation increased, the number of worship service increased from one to three, the relationship among the members of the congregation became distant. Even though we attend the same Korean United Methodist Church, depending upon whether you attend the 1st, 2nd or 3rd service, it became common that we did not recognize each other. We often hear that when we are introduced to each other at grocery stores, we come to find that we attend the same church.

Under these circumstances, the question as to "Isn't there a way to restore the true fellowship among congregation members?" led to the task of cell group revival. We began to emphasize the importance of cell group as the network to look after and train the growing congregation members. It became impossible to know all seven hundred members of the congregation. If so, how can we restore the beautiful Christian fellowship in which we take care of each other and encourage each other? And how can we realize the communal characteristics of the original church from today's perspective? We had to wrestle with these questions.

Among our church members there are those who want to be left alone. For them it is a positive aspect of our church to respect the individual's right of self-regulation. But, is it a healthy life of faith when there is no connection among the church members and there is no sharing of prayer? Is it the true Christian life? Would our Lord be pleased by this kind of life of faith? These questions led us to think about the changes of the churches that went ahead of us and to see the importance of cell group.

(2) There's another important necessity. Church is not just a meeting place. Church is a place where our lives are reborn within Christ's gospel as the "community of change." Brothers and sisters! If you don't like to change your life based upon God's words, you don't have to come to church. Church is not a place of pursuing a hobby, nor a place for enjoying a cultural life. Church is a place to be reborn within Jesus Christ. It is a place where life becomes reborn and new life begins. Because of Christ, my will and thoughts are broken, and in their place a new life is born. Brothers and sisters! How are we going to carry out this important task? What will make it so that we can hear the voices of joy coming from new lives at every corner of our church? One thing I am sure is that attending worship service once a week is grossly deficient. It is not sufficient to realize change from attending the worship service alone. Our predecessors in faith knew this fact very well. That's why they attempted to revive the church through cell groups. Many people say that cell group is the important place where change of life and growth of discipleship are materialized. Yes, the cell group is the most important channel in which we seek new life and change of life within Christ. The revival of the cell group is an issue we cannot avoid in this contemporary period. That's why we seek to have a new start and review of cell group. We accelerated our walk for the change of life and for a mature church through the revival of cell group.

(3) But, there is a more basic reason than the necessity for the revival of cell group. The revival of cell group means the restoration of the biblical church. From this aspect the new revival of cell group is not merely following the fashion of the time.

Brothers and sisters! If you read the Gospel of Act, the first church was big in size with more than 3,000 people. They not only met at the sanctuary but also in individual homes. They heard God's words and had the worship service at the sanctuary and met at homes. At homes they shared bread and fellowship and learned the words. The home church movement started from the first church. This aspect of the church buried for long time in the church history bloomed by Rev John Wesley's cell movement. In Korean churches, the small churches blossomed transcending denominations.

Brothers and sisters! What is meant by church being renewed? Does it mean to create a new unique church by applying human intelligence? No! Renewal of church means the restoration to the biblical church. The revival of church does not mean revolution but a reformation. The revival of cell group means an attempt to be restored to the biblical church. It is an attempt to grow the church that will please our Lord in this 21st century.

II.

I want to say more concretely. Folks! Why do we have to participate in cell group? Is its participation so important in our life of faith?

(1) Above all, the participation in cell group coincides with the original human condition.

Brothers and sisters! Human being does not exist alone. They exist together. If we look at Genesis, God, seeing Adam alone is not good, created Eve. Of course, we can say it started the marriage system. But, in a wider sense, it tells us that we are beings for togetherness or community.

Many contemporary people say they feel freedom in anonymity when their names are hidden. Professor Harvey Cox of Harvard Theological Graduate School tells us that many agree with such a view. But what are the results of this kind of thinking? How do we feel in this reality where we want our names to stay anonymous? It will be loneliness. It will be isolation. It will be void and solitude. This assertion of freedom in anonymity comes from lack of experience in true association in community.

Why do we have to participate in cell group? Because it can satisfy our natural desire for living together - belongingness, bond, and life of sharing. It can satisfy the desire for a communal association.

But there could be counter-arguments to this assertion. Is the participation in cell group the only way to restore the communal association? Isn't family an association? Aren't there other associations where you feel belongingness and neighborliness? It's true. But, listen to the next point.

(2) Second, there is a need for participation in cell group. That is to live a more meaningful church life.

Folks! Are there any who feel that to attending worship service once a week is plenty for our life of faith? Are there any who feel that as long as the relationship with God is upright it is sufficient? It would be nice if these were true. But the reality of our life of faith is not quite easy.

Following is the statistics used during the training session for the Barnabas mission. It was based upon American churches but it still points out the importance of the deep relationship among church members. The research was based upon the 50 new members who left the church in first 60 days and other 50 new members who decided to stay. Its results show that 8 who did not find any friends, 13 who made 1 friend, 14 with 2 friends all left the church, while 13 who made 7 friends, 12 with 8 friends and 12 with 9 or more friends all were able to establish roots at the new church.

Rev. Rick Warren of the Saddlebrook, California divided the church members into 5 groups according to their participation in the church. The first group belongs to a community of non-believers or occasional comers. The second group is the crowd of the regular attendants. The third group is the congregation who discharges their assigned tasks well. The fourth group is the committed who aspire to grow spiritually. And lastly there is the core, which acts as lay leaders. I want to ask you that in order to have a more meaningful life of faith, you should move from the largest circle of community to the smaller circle of crowd, from the smaller circle of congregation, to smaller circle of the committed and lastly to the core. Where do you belong? Who do you think will benefit when you seek a more meaningful church life through participation in cell groups? Is it for others' benefit? The participation in the cell group represents an important step toward a smaller circle and a more meaningful church life.

(3) Third, there is an important reason for participating in cell group. It is similar to the second point I have mentioned earlier. The true cell life is the pathway toward Christ's disciples.

While thinking back last three years we found many lessons learned. One of the lessons learned was that we did not emphasize enough, and did not drumbeat enough the purpose of cell group. Reflecting the past, the Cell Group Mission redefined the cell group. It asked: "What is a cell group?" Cell group is now defined as "the sharing community of growing disciples." What is the purpose of the cell group? It is to grow as Jesus' disciples.

What is needed to grow as Jesus' disciples? It is sharing. It is to realize the community of sharing. What do we share? What is different from the worldly sharing? I suggest four sharing to support growing as disciples: life within the words, prayer, mission, and gospel. It is to share our life based upon the words, to share our prayer, to share our mission work, and to share the words. This is the cell group that our church is aiming at. This is the purpose and the way of cell group.

Cell group seeks the discipleship through sharing. Through cell group we learned the way to discipleship, and prayed for each other and encourage each other to live the life of discipleship. Of course, life in cell group may not be smooth. Your feelings may get hurt, may incur losses in time and material. But through this process, if you can learn the path to Jesus disciples and the path his disciples must walk, what else can be more worthwhile? Cell group is the most important context for training disciples. If you don't participate in cell group, you are missing this important opportunity.

(4) Fourth, participation in cell group is the most important vehicle for developing our church lay leaders. Because of this fact we cannot give up cell groups.

I heard often that there isn't too many church as ours that has so much unlimited potentials of lay people. But if the lay leadership potentials remain potential, we would not escape His scorn. Any potentialities must be developed and blossomed.

Folks! What is the core of lay leadership? It is important to run church meetings well. It is also important to have various active committees. It is important to have an impeccable administrative capability. But what are we proposing to do through all these activities? It is to love. It is to establish the community of love. It is to realize Christ's body where we share our burden, cry together and laugh together. The true leadership depends upon how much one loves. Why? Because the core of Jesus leadership was love. Without love, Jesus' leadership would have been broken down.

Cell group is the best ground for developing this leadership of love. The cell group leaders who have devoted last three years know this very well. Cell leaders, you must have experienced this. When there were problems with the cell members, how did you feel? When cell members experienced family problems, how did you feel?

Obviously the cell group leader's position is not easy. It is not an easy job. I am truly thankful that most of the cell group leaders who devoted last three years expressed their desire to continue to serve. I am thankful that even though it is not easy, and sometime you feel empty spiritually, you decided to continue to devote to the task for the leadership of love. Cell group leaders! Even though it is a hard road, it is the only way to help cell members. It is the way for your own life. It is because Christian leadership is the leadership of love. Through giving up, you will receive fulfillment.

We all know the famous story of Sunda Singh. In cold winter he was climbing the Himalayan Mountains with a friend. While they were walking with their backs hunched, they came upon a straggler on the snow-covered road. He was still breathing. Sunda Singh proposed to take the straggler along. But Sunda's friend said when they were about to freeze to death themselves, how could they take him, and refused to help. Sunda's friend left by himself, and Sunda carried the straggler on his back and walked the snowy path. It was so heavy he felt like putting him down but he kept on walking. Sunda's body started to perspire. The straggler's body also felt Sunda's warm body. But Sunda soon found that his friend who had left earlier did not go far before falling down to snow.

It is a paradox of Christian faith to die when you want to live. But when you want to die, you can live. Cell leaders! Although it is hard, it is an excellent opportunity to expand the width, depth and height of your love through devotion. Cell group is the best training ground for not only the cell leaders but also for all others who want to develop love within us and leadership of love. So, how can we give up cell group? How can we decline the participation in cell group? Can we afford to defer the decision?

III.

Today we read together John 13:34-35. Our Lord told his disciples, yes, us today. "A new command I give you: love one another, as I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Brothers and sisters! What is the best indication that we are His disciples? Which action of ours will tell the world that we are Jesus' disciples? That is when we love one another. It is love beyond the simple emotional love or love based upon self-interest. It is when we love one another with the same love that Jesus showed us. Then, the world will know we are Christ's disciples.

What do we propose to do as the community of the sharing among the growing disciples? It is to realize the true discipleship through extending love for each other. How wonderful would it be if we could love all 700 members? But according to statistics, we can have meaningful relationship only with maximum of 70 people including the family. Therefore, cell group is really important. When we are told to love our neighbors, many want to go far and practice love. Our Lord told us: "my disciples, if you love one another, the world will know that you have become my disciples." He said that it is important for us to love one another first. Our love of each other is the first gateway for becoming His disciples. I wish you to begin to love within cell groups. I wish you to start loving family members and cell members. Within cell group you can learn and practice this love. Through cell group we can grow to the disciple's life and the life of love.

There is a story that I cannot forget. It was a church member who came to church more than 30 years. He was facing very difficult problems of life. When he was going through agony and pain that he could not share with anyone, he thought about the situation. He went through a list of names to see if he could share his pain and problems honestly and prayer with any brothers and sisters, after having attended the church for 30 years, met many people, and built fellowship. He concluded there was no one to share these problems. If that were the case, he could not help asking himself what was the value of having attended church for 30 years.

Brother and sisters! How about you? Do you have any colleague of faith to share when your soul is lonely and your deep problems block your life's path? Do you have any brothers and sisters who can pray together and cry together?

Why should we have cell group? Why do we have to participate in cell group? The answers are all here!