Question of the Week: Cell Groups and Small Groups

Is there really a difference between different ways of "doing" small groups?

by Sam O'Neal

We created a bit of buzz on Twitter today with our recent Q & A column, so I figured I would try to transfer that energy to the blog with our newest Question of the Week: What is the difference between a small group and a cell group?

Here's a little background to get started. Randall Neighbour is the newest Q & A expert on SmallGroups.com, and this week we posted the first question he answered for us, which was the same one I asked above. Click here to see his response, which does not pull any punches (and that is pretty consistent with Randall's character, if you've read his blog).

I "tweeted" a little blurb about Randall's article on Twitter, and pretty soon afterward I saw an email about a response from Mark Howell, which you can see here. If you don't know Mark, he spends the better part of his days teaching churches the value of small groups and training leaders on maximizing their group ministries.

So, you can get some good information from the links above from men who have been involved with small groups for a long time. But I'm also curious about your opinions and ideas. So what you do think? Is there really a difference between the different methods of "doing" small groups—whether you call them small groups, cell groups, home groups, life groups, journey groups, or whatever. Or is it all semantics?