The Two Winged Church

As birds of the air or airplanes cannot fly with one wing, so is the body of Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ here on earth is principally designed to function and operate as a two winged organization. The wings that enable its flight are – ‘Celebration’ (full congregational gatherings) and ‘Cell Groups’ (house fellowships). The church, soaring with wings of an eagle, is not possible outside this duo; it will be dysfunctional in nature and function.

What amazes me is the continual imbalance between the two, making flights difficult for the body of Christ – especially in Africa. Too many ministers of African churches concentrate more of their time, energy and resources on the ‘Celebration’ component, only paying lip-service to ‘Cell Group’ development in their churches.

In fact, many churches operate without a small group structure in place: budgets are set to finance all operations regarding Celebration activities and strategies are devised to raise funds for such events over the year – yet the Cell Group wing of the church is completely neglected with no such funds put in place. Please, kindly reflect on that, whether or not it describes your leadership. What an imbalance! Just as Celebration activities need financial support, so do Cells activities. Please, striking a balance here, with two wings in operation, will surprise you with encouraging results.

Except for the fewer number of attendees within a Cell group, there is nothing God does in a Celebration service that cannot be repeated within in the smaller, house fellowship context. Christ promised that where two or three shall gather in His name, He will be there present. Thus, all the healings, deliverance, spiritual gifts and power demonstrations we anticipate to happen in our Celebrations can equally happen in our small groups. In fact, Cell groups often achieve greater results as they operate as the very foundation of the church body.

Small groups can be likened to the tap root system of a fruit tree. Provided that small groups are entrenched into the main stream of church life then everything can flow through the Cell. This is how a fruit tree grows: life flows from the underground root system to the upper foliage, and life from the upper foliage flows downwards (Celebration and Cell Groups are complementary).

A pastor friend once told me that he was too spiritually overloaded to concentrate all his time on small group development. I think there is a misunderstanding here because the Lord is more burdened with things to do than we ever will be. The Lord was anointed with the Holy Spirit without measure, yet operated through the two-winged church approach (small group and large group). My sense is that many ministers in Africa hold the same opinion as my friend about themselves and their ministry, putting all their energy into the Celebration aspect where they enjoy greater number of attendees to bless, causing their fame to travel wide like a forest consumed with fire.

Beloved, there is nothing wrong with this kind of passion, but we must strike a balance in how we ‘do church’ and how we follow Jesus – our great pattern and model for ministry.

Celebrations are good but cannot get the job done alone. Crusades, in-door and out-door, are wonderful experiences (and costly) but will not get the job done. Having a Bible Institute in your ministry is wonderful, but not everyone can be in your Bible Institute. Specialized worker seminars in the church are also a great tool of equipping but I tell you, you cannot get all the members equipped and model ministry life to them ‘one on one’ as the small group can.

“Mass crusades to which I have committed my life will never finish

  the job but one to one will” – Billy Graham.

So what was Jesus’ model for ministry? Think about it. Jesus operated a two-winged church during the time of His ministry on earth: He was a great and mighty crusader - preaching, teaching and healing many in crusades grounds while He was here on earth. Meanwhile, He spent as much time in small group fellowship with the disciples whom He called to be with Him so that they could learn from Him. He later sent them out to do what they had seen Him do. It was in a small group setting that Jesus’ life was modeled to His disciples. What a mentor He was, and still is!

The religious leaders, after Jesus’ ascension, testified of the apostles that though they were unlearned men, they had been with Jesus and knew Him intimately, thus attributing to Jesus their divine power and wisdom. Shouldn’t we learn from this model? Acts 2 tells us how the early Church met daily in the synagogues (Celebration) and went from house to house (Cell Groups), breaking bread.

Friends, are you truly sincere in winning the lost for Christ? Then I urge you to embrace the Cell group method for growing your church. Do you really want to see your members equipped and prepared to do ministry as recommended in Ephesians 4:11-12? Then complement your Celebration activities with Cells. And if you are truly honest and seek to build up the body of Christ you will need this two-winged approach: you will do more effective and efficient ministry with Celebrations and Cell groups in place; you will reach more for Christ while modeling ministry ‘one on one’. Remember the words of Billy Graham as stated earlier as more of your equipped members will now be involved in the work of ministry.

And now a closing statement from the Apostle Paul:

 “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up”(Ephesians 4:11-12 NIV).

(For more information on small group development in your church and possible trainings of your leadership team please contact us at-pastorsam120@gmail.com or call +2348054537890).