Real People, Real God, Real Relationships, Real Change
This is the essence and the goal of relational discipleship.
Relational discipleship: We want to make disciples of Jesus who have a
heart for God, a mind for truth and a love for the lost and hurting
world by connecting people in life transforming relationships. The
biblical structure that facilitates this goal best is the Cell Church
model. The Cell Church model embraces the two-winged approach where
everyone in the church participates in the large worship service and
the small cell group.
Cell Groups (the most basic unit of the church body): In the Cell
Groups we have one primary agenda – to provide a safe place where lives
can be transformed by the living God. William Beckham correctly
states, “Jesus is the agenda.” There are four dimensions to the Cell
gatherings:
Up – Calling attention to the greatness of God (worship)
In – A safe place to share life (fellowship, prayer, ministry)
On – Helping each other live a life that pleases God as defined in God’s Word, the Bible (Bible study)
Out – Sharing with others the good news of Jesus Christ (evangelism)
In order to accomplish our goal of Real People, Real God, Real
Relationships, Real Change through relational discipleship we ask every
member to be involved in five things that require two meetings each
week:
1. Sunday morning worship service where we experience inspiring
worship and dynamic, biblical preaching. Here we see and experience
the majesty of God.
2. Cell Group where deep relationships are formed. Here we see the
closeness of God. The Sunday morning worship service and the Cell
Group in homes during the week are the two essential meetings. We want
to keep it simple so every member is encouraged to say “no thank you”
to any other weekly commitment.
3. Discover and use our spiritual gifts. As a part of our Growing
in Christ Ministry we offer training on how to discover your spiritual
gifts, passion and personality style and help each individual find out
how he or she can minister in such a way that he or she will be both
fruitful and fulfilled. Every Christian is called to serve, and we ask
and equip each member to serve in one or more of three areas: the
worship service, Cell Group, or on a ministry team.
4. Make friends with unbelievers in order to share Christ with them.
5. Have a regular devotional time each day – a quiet time in prayer and reading the Bible.
Ministry Teams (seeking to serve the two wings of the church): These
teams seek to be an auxiliary resource to the worship service and Cell
Groups in order to facilitate relational discipleship. They will
invite individual Cell Groups from time to time to take part in their
ministry in order to disciple the group in that particular ministry
through the “show and tell” method. Not everyone will be on a Ministry
team, and these teams will not meet weekly. The Ministry Teams are: 1.
Evangelism team 2. Prayer team 3. Children’s Ministry team 4.
Youth Ministry team 5. Recovery team (divorce, alcohol, drugs) 6.
Growing in Christ Ministry team 7. Mops 8. Preschool team.
At Harvest Fellowship we want to keep it simple and make sure
everyone is discipled without being burned out. We don’t want to
stagnate so we continually seek to grow in our love for God, each other
and the world. The Cell Church model of relational discipleship helps
us “keep life simple!”
Sincerely,
Pastor Larry Siekawitch