Home Cell Guidelines

This site has all the resources necessary to start, run, or renew your home cell, as well as free training resources for those who wish to run home cell training seminars in their community. Encouraged and endorsed by the Church, home cells represent important Christian communities for evangelization, renew, fellowship, ecumenism, encouragement, and exercising the Gifts of the Spirit.

Contents

Renew your Parish within 12 years by Presentation Ministries (A Guide to Implementing Small Faith Sharing Groups in your Parish)
Nihil obstat: Rev. Robert J. Buschmiller
Imprimatur: Most Rev. Carl K Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
Building Small Christian Communities by Presentation Ministries (An extensive - 34 page - manual for training home cell leaders, guidelines for home cells, and implementing home cells in your community.)
Nihil obstat: Rev. Robert J. Buschmiller
Imprimatur: Most Rev. James H Garland, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati - Available soon. Being converted into html script.To receive the Adope version by email, please email us with your request.

Do you know what God is calling you to do? Find out more about your calling in the Body of Christ! See the programme : Exercising the Gifts of the Spirit

Find out more about what the Pope says about:

Home Cells:

"Because the Church is communion, the new 'basic communities,' if they truly live in unity with the Church, are a true expression of communion and a means for the construction of a more profound communion. They are thus cause for great hope for the life of the Church" (Pope John Paul 11, Mission of the Redeemer, 5 1).

"So that all parishes of this kind may be truly communities of Christians, local ecclesial authorities ought to foster the following:

a) adaptation of parish structures according to the full flexibility granted by canon law, especially in promoting participation of the lay faithful in pastoral responsibilities;

b) small, basic or so-called 'living' communities, where the faithful can communicate the word of God and express it in service and love to one another. These communities are true expressions of ecclesial communion and centers of evangelization, in communion with their pastors" (Pope John Paul 11, The Lay Members of Christ's Faithful People, 26).

These communities decentralize and organize the parish community, to which they always remain united" (Pope John Paul 11, Mission of the Redeemer, 5 1).

"Internal to the parish, especially if vast and territorially extensive, small Church communities, where present, can be notable help in the formation of Christians by providing a consciousness and an experience of ecclesial communion and mission which are more extensive and incisive"

(Pope John Paul 11, The Lay Members of Christ’s Faith People, 6 1).

Ministries and Charisms, the Spirit's Gifts to the Church

21. The Second Vatican Council speaks of the ministries and charisms as the gifts of the Holy Spirit which are given for the building up of the Body of Christ and for its mission of salvation in the world(64). Indeed, the Church is directed and guided by the Holy Spirit, who lavishes diverse hierarchical and charismatic gifts on all the baptized, calling them to be, each in an individual way, active and co-responsible.

Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici of John Paul II

Charisms

24. The Holy Spirit, while bestowing diverse ministries in Church communion, enriches it still further with particular gifts or promptings of grace, called charisms. These can take a great variety of forms, both as a manifestation of the absolute freedom of the Spirit who abundantly supplies them, and as a response to the varied needs of the Church in history. The description and the classification given to these gifts in the New Testament are an indication of their rich variety. "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues" (1 Cor 12:7-10; cf. 1 Cor 12:4-6, 28-31; Rom 12:6-8; 1 Pt 4:10-11).

Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici of John Paul II

Exercising the Gifts of the Spirit

By a logic which looks to the divine source of this giving [of the Gifts of the Spirit], as the Council recalls (80), the gifts of the Spirit demand that those who have received them exercise them for the growth of the whole Church.

All are called to use the Gifts (charisms) they have been given by the Holy Spirit, to become active participants in the Life of the Church. Pope John Paul II

Home Cell Guidelines (examples) from Other Christian Communities

Cell Group Materials Download Page
Praise@Work - Singapore Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group For Working Adults
RENEW International Home Page
Canadian Renew website with basic home cell guides
Hatfield Christian Church
Home Cell Guidelines - excellent guidelines for home cells, free for churches or home groups.
Small Group Leaders Manual
Excellent online manual on leading home cells.
The Pilgrimage Training Group - Toolkit
The Small Group Toolkit offers tips on how to make your small group or small group program flourish. Every month you can get Small Group Leader Tips & Ideas from their Small Group Toolkit.
Home Group Primer
Another online training manual covering all facets of home cells. Well worth reading or downloading the self-executing zip file containing the complete manual.