The Healthy Core Group in Oz
The leadership priority of the cell church insists that all members participate in leadership training experiences. Equipping tracks rapidly raise the quantity and quality of leaders in the church to very high levels.[1]
Spiritual maturity could be described as having five basic stages correlating to human development: newborns, children, adolescents, parents and grandparents.[2] The goal of developmental spirituality is to fulfill each stage properly and move the individual onward to full developmental spiritual maturity. Problems occur when a person becomes stuck at one stage (arrested development)[3] or is forced prematurely to the next stage (codependency). Churches can become imbalanced such that the majority of ministry is focused on meeting needs at one stage rather than ensuring a steady flow of persons through all of the stages.
Well managed cells can move people rapidly through the stages of
spiritual development toward spiritual maturity. Many cell churches believe this goal can be
achieved in one year. Cells are misunderstood as bible studies, as ministry
teams, and as care groups; they are better understood as spiritual nuclear
families thriving in the context of an highly organized extended family. The
core group itself is the network of adults in the extended spiritual family
working to build each other up in love. Raising people to maturity is best
accomplished in families.
[1]For a visual parable of the differences between the quality of the core group leaders in each type of church, see the visual parable at http://www.disciplewalk.com/parable_army.html.
[2]Greg Ogden talked about these as stages in Paul=s model of spiritual maturity. For more information on levels of spiritual maturity, see Module Four, pages 30-41, in Seminar One, www.disciplewalk.com/Resources.
[3]It is estimated that 83% of worship attenders in traditional churches are stuck at spiritual infancy levels.