9500 Wornall Road

Kansas City, MO 64114

Phone: (816) 942–3272

Senior Pastor: Dr. Ted Nissen

Pastor of Cell Groups Ministry: Rev. David Ruff

A Snapshot View:

• Church history: Founded in 1981

•Church enrollment: 1,900

•Sunday attendance: 1,300

•Number of cell groups: 95

•Typical cell group membership: 8–12

•Cell group weekly attendance: 600 members, 150 visitors

•Frequency of meetings: Weekly or bi-weekly

•Promotion: Pulpit, word of mouth, and Sunday morning classes

•Cell group materials:

Each selects own study material. Materials for beginning groups selected by cell group minister.

•Cell group kick-off:

During major promotions each year, people register and are divided into groups. The first night, they meet together at the church in their respective groups. Then for the next five weeks, they meet in homes. This simple concept makes it easy for those who want to get involved to find places and opportunities to do so.

Leadership Training, Communication, and Co-Leadership

Colonial Presbyterian has developed its cell-group ministry through its Sunday morning adult classes. These classes function like small congregations within the church, and they provide successful vehicles for beginning new groups and strengthening existing adult classes. Each class has a cell-group coordinator who is responsible for promoting and developing new groups from within the class.

Benefits of the Small Group Ministry

1. Assimilation of fringe members into the church.

2. Individual spiritual growth through personal Bible study and interaction with group members.

3. A church known for its warmth and the closeness among its members.

Leadership Training

The eight- to ten-hour initial training session is open to all who would like to attend, and leaders are then selected from this group. Cell-group leaders attend monthly meetings based on the format devised by Carl George of Fuller Institute. These meetings have three purposes:

Vision casting: The senior pastor identifies church vision, mission, and values.

Huddle: Each leader is in a huddle group, led by a huddle coordinator, that provides sharing, caring, encouragement, and training.

Skill-Building: The cell-group pastor and others offer advanced leadership skills training.

Communication

In Search of Excellence, by Tom Peters and Robert Watermann, proposes that successful corporations are built on healthy, enjoyable, internal competition that features exchange, dialogue, and testimonies on what works and doesn't work. From this concept Small Talk, Colonial's cell-groups magazine, was created. It contains short articles, interviews of successful groups, ideas to use in small groups, and answers to questions about small-group problems.

Co-Leadership

From the outset, all group members know that the co-leader's function is to eventually spin off a group from the main group. This knowledge prevents the trauma that usually comes when a group is split. At an appropriate time, either the leader or co-leader can spin off a portion of the people into a new group. The new group will also have a co-leader who will spin off into another group at a future date.

Information provided by David Ruff, pastor of Cell Group Ministry at Colonial Presbyterian Church for fifteen years. He holds a Master of Divinity from Nazarene Theological Seminary and is currently in the doctoral program at Fuller Theological Seminary. David consults with churches starting small groups in the Kansas City area.