Cell group

David Hunsicker points out that while house churches are mentioned in the New Testament, the institution of a "well-organized, structured church" resulted in the decline of the small home groups.[6]

The concept was resurrected at the time of the Radical Reformation and "Ulrich Zwingli inadvertently pushed the Anabaptists in the direction of small groups when he started meeting with a small gathering of men who were interested in learning New Testament Greek.[6] The concept of small groups was revived again in the late seventeenth century by Anthony Horneck in Great Britain and Philipp Jacob Spener in Germany.[6]

Philipp Jakob Spener published his Pia Desideria in 1675 and laid out his program for the pietistic revival of the Lutheran Church, emphasising the use of small groups. He suggested the reintroduction of "the ancient and apostolic kind of church meetings," held "in the manner in which Paul describes them in 1 Corinthians 14:26–40." Spener goes on to suggest:

This might conveniently be done by having several ministers (in places where a number of them live in a town) meet together or by having several members of a congregation who have a fair knowledge of God or desire to increase their knowledge meet under the leadership of a minister, take up the Holy Scriptures, read aloud from them, and fraternally discuss each verse in order to discover its simple meaning and what- ever may be useful to the edification of all. Anybody who is not satisfied with his understanding of a matter should be permitted to express his doubts and seek further explanation. On the other hand those (including the ministers) who have made progress should be allowed the freedom to state how they understand each passage. Then all that has been contributed, insofar as it accords with the sense of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, should be carefully considered by the rest, especially by the ordained ministers, and applied to the edification of the whole meeting.[7]

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Influenced by Pietistic Lutheran conventicles, John Wesley took on the concept of small groups, and has been called the "Father" of the modern small-group concept.[8] Wesley encouraged different kinds of small group to develop, so that both leaders and members of the Methodist societies could receive support and challenge in their faith. He formed class meetings to "bring small numbers of people together (usually twelve) to pray, read the Bible and listen to exhortations, and to encourage and enjoy each other's company."[9] Specifically, the format of the class meeting is described as follows:[10]

...following an opening prayer and the singing of a hymn, the class leader shared the status of his or her own spiritual standing, thanking God for victory and progress, and then honestly reported any failures, temptations, and struggles. Following the leader's testimony, each person in the group responded to the all-important question, 'How does your soul prosper' or rephrased 'How is your life with God?' and related any failures of the previous week. The honest answers to direct and specific questions were contagious—accounts eist of members who, having lapsed spiritually since the last meeting, were stricken with conviction and sought pardon and restoration during the class meeting. In order to maintain the confidentiality and privacy of the members, visitors were permitted to visit twice before deciding to join a class. If that visitor decided not to become a member of the class, he or she was excluded from any future meeting of the class.[10]

Class meetings, in Methodist theology (inclusive of the holiness movement), are a means of grace for one's sanctification.[11] Louisa Thomas writes, with regard to Methodist class meetings, that:[10]

Class meetings were intentionally limited to a small group; composed of only ten to twelve members, the group met once a week for an hour with the aim of maintaining personal supervision of the group's spiritual growth. Each member frankly and honestly shared his or her victories and struggles with the others. The groups were coeducational in composition and often were a curious mixture of age, social status, and spiritual maturity. Within each class Wesley intended a blending of the seasoned saints with babes in Christ as a means of educating and encouraging the newest converts.[10]

The first class meetings can thus be summarized as a weekly gathering of Methodists who "spoke about their temptations, confessed their faults, shared their concerns, testified to the working of God in their lives and exhorted & prayed for each other."[12] With respect to the practice of confession among Methodists, it is done "To speak each of us in order, freely and plainly, the true state of our souls, with the faults we have committed in thought or deed and the temptations we have felt since our last meeting."[12]

Those members of class meetings who were backsliding, often joined Methodist penitent bands for counsel.[13]

Cell groups have become more common in the 20th and 21st centuries. Hunsicker suggests that the 'cell' group concept "is becoming prominent in almost every denomination in American Protestantism."[2]