The principles underlying starting a cell are the same principles as those for starting a church because, after all, a cell is a church meeting in a house. The following elements are helpful steps to follow when you want to start new cells.

1. Training Cell Leaders.

Cell leaders don’t fall from the sky. I often hear pastors say, “I really want to have cells, but I don’t have cell leaders.”

No one sells cell leaders in stores. You can’t find them on the streets. A pastor who wants to start the cell system in his church must recruit and undertake rigorous training for his new converts and for the older members who are interested so that there are hordes of trained leaders to start new cells.

New converts can be generated from ongoing evangelism programs and other church member evangelism programs. We have a step-by-step training program for our new converts until they are ready to start a cell and be responsible for cells. This includes:

a. School of New Believers.

In our church, we have developed a cell leader training program that begins with the School of New Believers. This lasts for six weeks, during which converts learn the foundations of Christianity, including salvation through the blood of Jesus, repentance, water and Holy Spirit baptism, hell, heaven, and speaking in tongues. An administrator attached to the school monitors the attendance of the converts to ensure they have completed all the material, after which they will move on to the next stage of training.

b. Shepherd Training School.

All leaders in our church are generally called shepherds. At this stage, graduates of the School of New Believers are prepared to lead and care for God’s sheep. They are equipped to study the word, pray, evangelize, follow up with converts, and also visit them. Most of the time, we teach from the wonderful practical ministry books authored by my pastor, Bishop Dag Heward-Mills.

His books such as “Laikos”, “The Mega Church”, “Transform Your Pastoral Ministry”, “How to Pray”, “Receiving the Anointing”, “How to Preach Salvation”, and others are very useful for training these church workers. This stage lasts for up to twelve weeks.

c. This is the final part of cell leaders.

This is the last part of the training to become a cell leader. I use most of the materials I share in this book at this stage. Other useful books on cell ministry, including Dr. Yonggi Cho’s “Successful Home Cell Group”, are used as references.

At the end of this part of the training, those who are trained will be able to start, grow, and lead cell meetings. It is at this stage that we teach and train cell leaders about cell work itself. So far, in the other stages, we have developed their own spiritual maturity and also given them pastoral skills. This stage is also taught for four weeks.

What exactly do we teach at this stage?

a) Cell concepts in the Bible,

b) The need to practice both temple and house worship,

c) The destination of cells,

d) How to start cells,

e) What we do at cell meetings,

f) Advantages of cells for members, and

8. Finally, the duties and responsibilities of cell leaders.

They are also taught to be loyal or faithful to the vision of the mother church or the local church for the growth and expansion of the kingdom church of God so that when they…

This text is an excerpt from the book “The Cell System” written by Emmanuel Louis Nterful.

We invite you to read the following article “Moving from a traditionally managed church to a cell-based church.“