A Culturally Viable, Cell-Based Strategy for Promoting Church Growth Among the Baptist Congregations of Romania

A principle of church growth is that churches which wish to sustain spiritual and numerical growth must provide both quality large-group and small-group experiences for their people. The large-group gathering is called a celebration. This is where the entire body meets to strengthen its faith through preaching, testimonies, and praise. In the past, much emphasis has been placed upon this experience. However, church-growth experts at home and on the mission field are now recognizing the equal importance of the small group. A small group consists of five to fifteen people and represents the smallest official gathering of the body. It is therefore called a cell. This is where spiritual care is provided, new leaders are developed, and church members are mobilized for evangelism. Where this second factor is missing, healthy church growth will be slowed or even stopped.

Instruction in small-group principles has been available to pastors in Romania for several years. However, few models of cell-group ministries have as yet been developed. This is especially true of Baptist churches. Churches begin as Bible studies in the homes of believers and grow quickly, due to the responsiveness of the Romanian people. However, once a group reaches fifty people, large-group worship is begun and cell-group principles are abandoned. Members are given little opportunity for sharing and bearing one another's burdens. As a result of this lack of body life, spiritual and numerical growth is hindered. This is seen in the fact that since the overthrow of communism in 1989, over five hundred Baptist churches have been planted, but only a few have grown beyond seventy members.

This project proceeds from the conviction that cell-group ministries can provide a culturally viable strategy for providing spiritual care and promoting numerical growth among the Baptist congregations of Romania. Research has been conducted to identify both those factors which are currently hindering the development of such ministries and those cultural traits which can be incorporated into an effective strategy for their use. A step-by-step strategy is carefully outlined for churches in a variety of settings along with training tools for equipping small-group leaders.