resources: articles

Two articles from Cell UK Magazine...

1. faith environment
2. cells challenge traditional youth work

faith environment
Paul Hopkins

“Ever since that time when you spoke on putting Jesus first in my life and we stepped forward to say ‘Yes Lord, you can have all my life, including the hours I spend on my Playstation II, and the hours I spend grumpy when I am working at the Odeon.’  I have found my prayer life getting better and I’m getting stuck into leading the C.U. at college.”  These were the words of one of our cell leaders to me whilst mentoring him recently.
I mean, I love youth cells.  They are a great tool for seeing discipleship get into the foundations of young people’s lives.  The process of cell life just cuts it in a way that just having big meetings doesn’t.  Throw in mentoring and I think you start to make deep impact.  Add to that larger celebration meetings where you allow God’s Spirit to move in the worship and I think you are starting to hit on a life changing setup.  Our youth love their cells, but also they talk again and again about key celebration meetings that we have where God breaks in – times where their lives change.
If we truly want to bring Jesus into the centre of our young people’s lives then we need to create an environment where young people can experience the power of God as well as the hard work of daily living out discipleship issues.  Discipleship is both a crisis and a process.  It’s making right daily choices, but it’s also letting the Spirit come and transform your heart supernaturally – and that can often happen in a moment of encounter with him that then takes months to walk out.
I don’t think that for a minute that we can engineer God showing up in young people’s lives.  But I do believe that we can create the right environment for it.  Firstly as youth leaders we need to have faith and the boldness that needs to go with that faith.  Some situations and heart conditions just need God to convict, heal and deliver.  I know that to keep seeing that happen I need to be operating in faith that God will break into these young people’s lives.  It’s that that drives me to pray. It’s that that drives me to encourage and confront.  It’s that that means at the right time I will step out in faith and expect that God is going to meet with some of our young people now, in this meeting.  I believe our large meetings are important for this.  We come to our large meetings with the attitude of ‘How do you want to change young people’s lives tonight?’  We don’t always have an altar call, we don’t always prophecy, we don’t always see tears of repentance followed by tears of joy, but we do want to see it now and then!  What could be just another meeting where young people are called forward and prayed for in our eyes, can be life changing moment that is remembered as a mile-stone for ever by the young people, like the young leader that I started with.
Of course, this does not have to be just in large meetings.  We want to create cell environments where this can happen.  We want it happening in our one on ones too.  However, I believe that one of the key places where we can model being open to God breaking in is our large meetings.  We model a faith that expects God to show up to our young people.
How do we grow in this?  Here’s four things. Firstly, make it something that you pray for in your own life and over your own ministry, and not merely ask for, but claim. Secondly, faith is also something that is often caught rather than taught.  Invite people to speak to your young people that have a faith for God to move and learn from them.  Get involved with them, alongside them and ask them to pray for you.  Thirdly, spend time listening for what God wants to do in young people’s lives and step out on what you hear.  Take a risk.  John Wimber used to say that he spelt faith as R-I-S-K.  And fourthly, don’t let disappointing experiences put you off.  Faith grows and we need to learn and that means getting it wrong sometimes and learning from it.
“So he said to me, ``This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel:
   `Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD
   Almighty.”  Zechariah 4:6, NIV
Paul Hopkins is the director for youth for Cell UK Youth Ministries.  He oversees local cell ministry whilst also speaking nationaly and internationaly on youth discipleship and evangelism.  
this article is taken from ‘Cell UK Magazine’ which can be subscribed to via clicking here
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Cells Challenge Traditional Youth Work
Liz West

Imagine a youth work whose central structure is made up of small groups, run by young people themselves – no ‘adults’ present.   In this group young people learn to be disciples themselves.   The worship together, minister to one another and deal with the stuff that holds them back from running after Jesus.   Together they create a community where their friends come to find Jesus.   The group grows, leaders are developed and multiplication happens.   Impossible?
 Do we believe that young people are able to disciple one another and reach out to their friends?   Do they know enough Biblical truth to teach others?   Are they responsible enough to take the lead without adults present?   Can they cope with this responsibility?   Past methods of youth ministry have tended to make young people in consumers of largely or entirely adult driven programmes.   The challenge for church leaders, youth leaders an parents is to give young people enough space to run as far as they can go, while providing enough support to empower them for the process.   Cells provide a framework for this to happen.   We are seeing, in various situations in the UK, that once young people catch the vision for cell life  they run with it extremely effectively.   Why is this?
 If you ask a young person to whom, they would take their problems, the response of many would be that they would talk to their friends.   There is increasing evidence that young people choose to relate closely to their peers, in groups that are small enough to be relational.   As many struggle with family life which often does not provide the support that they look for, having a place where they can be vulnerable and develop trust, becomes ever more vital.  Youth cells build on the value of church being a community of open honest relationships.   Peer led cells of 5 to 12 young people are small enough to meet their need for open, supportive relationships.   More that, cells provide a place where young people can own and participate in creating this community.  Not only are there opportunities to develop leadership, but everyone is encouraged to make their contribution.   They are creating their own story – so vital to young people living within our post modern culture.
 We must recognize that there have been changes in the way young people become Christians.   No longer is ‘Truth’ accepted just because someone preaches is.   Each one is seeking to discover their own ‘truth’.   This means that it is essential for young people to be able to ‘belong before they believe’.   They join the community of the church in order to discover the truth – not because they feel they have already found it.   The cell is an ideal setting for this ‘process’ evangelism.   It is based on relationship and belonging – cell members bringing their friends along to take part in cell life before making a commitment.   Truth can be discovered gradually as it is lived out in the group where others are putting Jesus at the centre of their lives.   They can see answers to their questions – not ‘Is it true?’, but ‘Does it work?’.   They can detect hypocrisy but equally they can see for themselves the impact of faith on the lives of their friends.   Later on, maybe leading to baptism, their understanding of the truth can be checked and gaps plugged.
 As youth leaders we need to accept our changing role in response to the need for change in youth work practice.   We must learn to be enablers and to empower young people to disciple and reach their generation – and cells can help us to do this.   For many this may require a fundamental change in thinking, but I believe a necessary one.  Let us equip and release the responsive few – and watch them create a revolution amongst the rest!
Liz West is a director of Cell UK, leads a cell church in St. Albans and is the author of several cell resources.
this article is taken from ‘Cell UK Magazine’ which can be subscribed to via clicking here
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