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Cell Group Ministries

Dr. Robert A. Morey

These are notes from a radio interview of [Dr. Robert A. Morey http://faithdefenders.com] I caught. I always suspected that there was something seriously wrong with cell ministry, and have rejected it and taught against it at every opportunity. My experiences and thoughts will be listed after the notes from Dr. Morey's talk.

Please note: I've inserted some of my own thoughts in with his points. After all, this is my site, blogging my thoughts

 Dr. Robert A. Morey
 1-800-41truth
 faithdefenders.com

Cell ministry

Korean war, Marx before that: communist cells
brainwashing, POWs
adopted by secular psychology
Rogers, others

Group dynamics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_dynamics
3 stages? breaking down, confession of sin, details, lower defenses, then rebuilding
catharsis, gestalt, what else? (I missed this)
Anyone asking questions or using scripture to refute their agenda is strongly discouraged from doing so (I have experienced this numerous times in various churches)
touchy-feely atmosphere
sexual sins explored in detail (hurts, wounds, supposed abuse: sometimes memories of this are manufactured using auto-suggestion, hypnosis, etc.). The greek word for confess in James 5:16 means to rejoice and testify because your sins are forgiven, instead of the common interpretation of blabbing all the details. Jesus told us to confess to God, not to man. (Roman catholic confession: why have protestants fallen into this? )

It gets into the church

the ongoing wonder at how christian ministers stopped relying on the word of God and the Holy Spirit and turned to godless psychology

interesting: Paul Yonggi Cho is from Korea (Dr. Morey didn't mention this, but I remembered this fact; see below)

3 types of cell churches:

*slop:*"ooh, that'll make my church grow"--- totally ignorant of cell ministry, these end up teaching actual bible studies
*pop:*do the seminars, buy the books, but still don't know
*serious:*the big farms, don't preach christ at all
- seeker churches (mega-churches fit in here)
- G-12
- ministers are culled via psych profiles and performance in the cell leadership stairway. God-called ministers are shunned (shepherd boys need not apply)
- where does the accountability fad fit into this?

Josh McDowell is a humanist (I've heard him preach — he was using words like f-ck and screwed on the platform)

Mega-churches

marketing, marketing, marketing
jazzercize

Names he dropped as being part of this conspiracy

Tommy Barnett
Paul Cain
Calvary Chapel
C. Peter Wagner
TBN
Willow Creek — started by Bill Hybels, in Illinois.
Saddleback — Rick Joyner: cloned seeker-sensitive stuff, renaming parts of it to purpose-driven, in California??

Feminization of the gospel

weak Christ
weak ministers
- unmanly
- years ago, denied entrance into military service
- discouraged from many practices such as hunting, fishing, etc.
My experiences and observations concerning cell ministry

Most of what I know about cell ministry is based on my own observances in and around Baton Rouge, Louisiana and also in Atlanta, Georgia, both of which are in the USA.
Bethany World Prayer Center(very big into the G-12 thing as of late)
Christian Life Fellowship(some refer to CLF as a cult)

I was intrigued by the fact that it didn't matter which of these Baton Rouge churches' cell groups one attended: the topics discussed were identical. I never got a straight answer about this, but there has to be some connection between these two churches on a very high level, although no one ever linked them. Is there some sort of plan published for all participating cell ministries to follow (like many denominations do for Sunday school curriculums)?

What kind of control is being exerted over christians involved in cell ministries? How belittled does a cell leader feel when he realizes that he is regarded as unable to hear from God himself, nor to get a word for those looking to him for spiritual guidance? How can so many sincere, well-intentioned christians, simply wanting to know more about the Lord, put up with the cell scam?

Paul (David? Who can keep up?) Yonggi Cho is reported in some circles to be the founder of cell ministry. His church in Seoul claims to have a million members, counted via the cell method. Cho is not born again, as a careful reading of his testimony will bear out. A dear friend of mine from Thailand described to me in detail his experiences while living as a Buddhist monk (he was delivered from demon spirits and wondrously saved through faith in the shed blood of Christ in the mid-80s, and is an evangelist in rice paddy country, last I heard). Cho's testimony reminds me very much of my friend's actions as a monk (details later, perhaps; in short, Cho still meditates in the Buddhist fashion and is in all likelihood demon possessed, as evidenced by his published testimony). Cho has apparently blended his Buddhist practices with Christian theology, mixed with the communist cell techniques, to form the basis of his cell ministry, which he has exported around the globe.