This plan is designed to have a Nurturer guide the study and any other cell member support the study (Noted as Support). All instructions are identified for Nurturers. A separate document (cell content) is meant to be shared.
This cell plan is based on the sermon given by pastor Santos on Sunday, September 15th, 2024.
Prepare Ahead
- Read Cell Vision Statement
- Meditate on Hebrews 12:1-4
- This particular study is designed to be a guided prayer session through the passage and focused on outreach, pray ahead for each member of your cell to be prepared ahead of the meeting
- Link to sharable version for members: Cell Content
Opening
Nurturer: If there are new members today joining for the first time. Ask everyone to share their name, hobby, goals for the year. Feel free to change up the question here to dive into different areas of people’s lives (work, family, hobbies, etc.). Read the Cell Vision Statement if you sense that it needs to be reviewed with your group
Icebreaker question: Share one of your previous new years resolutions and whether you were able to achieve your goal or not?
Worship
Go into musical worship if someone is scheduled. Continue to ask if members of the cell are willing to in the future.
Support: Please pray for the group to begin the study.
Word
Nurturer: Today, the plan is to go through a guided prayer to pray through the passage preached, with a specific focus on outreach in the cell context. The prayer prompts are specifically designed to help guide the group to discover their role in outreach. All the prompts (4) should take about 60-75 minutes, depending on the size of the groups (3-4)
Briefly explain the set up of the meeting and how the night will go
Support: Read through the passage once.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross,scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Hebrews 12:1-4
Context and Sermon
Nurturer: Go through a quick summary of the sermon and ask the cell if they have any other highlights they remember and would like to share. Ask the cell to share any journaled reflections they have on the passage after the imaginative exercise.
Sermon Highlights
- Sin is analogous to a lion crouching in wait to pounce at the right moment, its only desire is to eat. It comes out of us and doesn’t come at us.
- It is good to grieve the sin in our lives, as it should lead to growth and repentance
- Growth requires perseverance and often is related to pain, both emotionally and physically
- We are not meant to run alone in this race.
Prayer Meeting
Nurturer/Support: The prayer meeting is designed to be run in small groups without a main leader. The passage has been broken up into 4 sections, each with an additional reference, a share prompt and a prayer prompt.
Ahead of breaking off, share with the cell the size of the waitlist and the list of people (do not share the link)
Decide on how large the group should be and break the cell into small groups (by gender, by age, by random), then share the cell content link with the cell to everyone so they can go through the guided prayer
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
- Additional Reference: Hebrews 10:24-25
- Share: In our spiritual journey, we are not meant to run alone, who are your cloud of witnesses (people running with you)?
- Pray: With a focus on thankfulness and gratitude, Go around and each pray for your spiritual community.
let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us
- Additional Reference: Philippians 2:12-13
- Share: What is an area that is hindering your journey with God?
- Pray: Pray for each other (one other person in your group) about the hindrances, pray for God’s power to be present.
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
- Additional Reference: Matthew 11:28-30
- Share: Who is Jesus to you? How has Jesus changed your life, how has he helped you in your journey?
- Pray: As each person shares, have someone else pray for them and thank God for how they have walked them and their journey ahead
Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
- Additional Reference: Church Vision: to make disciples of all nations, passionately multiplying disciples locally and worldwide
- Share: Jesus shed his blood for us so that we will not be weary and lose heart, enabling us to run the race that we are called to run. Reflecting on the cell vision statement, is there someone who is on your heart right now (that you know or from the request list) that you want to run with in their journey ahead? Share with the group who they are and how you know them.
- Pray: Pray for God to reveal how he will use each member of the group to welcome new cell members and multiply
Witness
- Baptism and membership:
- Classes start week of September 23rd and it’s not too late to join, ask about those in your cell that aren’t baptized or a member yet, ask if they are interested in becoming a members as classes start soon.
- Cell Teams:
- Last Zone, we discussed the cell team and the new cell roles, ask the group to share their thoughts and ask if any of the roles interest them, remind them that we are to multiply and grow as a cell. Below is the recording, if they are interested, let Pastor Ted and/or Andrew know and they will follow up.
- Recording: YouTube Link
- Summary of new Cell Roles: Document Link
- More Details and Sign up forms: https://gcgcny.link/adultzone‘
- As an option, you can ask if any members want to help with facilitating the cell plan in the future
- Last Zone, we discussed the cell team and the new cell roles, ask the group to share their thoughts and ask if any of the roles interest them, remind them that we are to multiply and grow as a cell. Below is the recording, if they are interested, let Pastor Ted and/or Andrew know and they will follow up.
- Outreach (To be facilitated if there’s an outreach coordinator
- Cell Outreach Process
- Gather a group cell members to go and get to know people/person that we are hoping to bring into the cell.
- Existing Relationships
- Share the details with the cell group and pray for the outreaching process
- Cell Request List
- The cell request list is for people without direct connections to anyone in cell right now, pray regularly for the list to see if God is moving you to reach out of any of them
- Existing Relationships
- As relationships establish with others in the cell (outside of the cell setting), share with them the purpose of cell groups (leverage vision statement) and invite them in.
- Gather a group cell members to go and get to know people/person that we are hoping to bring into the cell.
- Cell Outreach Process
- Follow up: For people who missed last cell, did anyone reach out to them to check in? Continue this exercise by following up this week with anyone who couldn’t make it this cell
- Cell Dates: Confirm future cell dates and mark it down in the document as far into the future as possible to help the planners schedule properly! There is a cell activity week coming up, can start discussion as to what to do (and maybe do a bit of outreach)
- Christmas EV: On Dec 20, 2024, we will be having our annual Christmas EV dinner evening. This year, worship ministry is heading up the annual Christmas EV dinner with dinner, and then a Worship EV night, headed up by Xiao. We are starting to gather interest in people who would like to help out with this event, and we would like to start early (August) in planning and preparing and working together to bring the vision of the Christmas EV dinner together.
- We want to offer many opportunities to serve for this evening for anyone who is interested in the roles:
- 1. Event planning team (Will meet 3-4 times to keep the organizing of the event on track and check in with how everything is going)
- 2. Worship EV planning team (Will meet once/twice a month for Aug/Sept to discuss and plan out the worship portion of the evening. Doesn’t have to be part of the actual worship team)
- 3. Worship team (Will meet during November/December at least 4 times to practice through the worship set)
- 4. Hosting Team (Greeters – Generally just greet and meet people and get to know new people and friends who come. Help seat people etc)
- 5. Hosting Team (Waiting – We’d like to have something more special and formal for everyone, so we’d like to have some people who want help wait and serve tables)
- 6. Food Team (Prepare/coordinate/work on food for the evening)