In some congregations there is the move to discontinue the evening worship service in favor of meeting in various groups, apart from the church building.

In a sense, the church is a group. A congregation is just that - a congregation: a coming together of people. of similar interests, hopes, aims, beliefs. It is a group. And its action is group action, even allowing for the fact that it could not operate as a group if it were not for the motivated individuals that comprise it. But, again, the concern is not that the church in any place is a group (in some sense of that term), but that the church has been affected adversely by the group psychology that has swept the country. Groups form within the local congregation. Their aims may not always be compatible with the aims of the larger unit. Their methods may not always be in harmony with the scripture. Their teaching may, in fact, contradict the scripture. They may be marching to the beat of a different drummer. When this is the case, division exists within the church. Every cell, every house church, every encounter group, represents a schism in the body of Christ.

Every one of them says, in effect, that the church is not adequate to its tasks, that lasting satisfaction cannot be found within the fellowship of the saints, that something else is needed. This is the point of concern.

It is not difficult to see this very influence in the "cell groups" being formed within the church today. So intent are they on breaking away from tradition they, wittingly or -unwittingly, run straight into the arms of neo-orthodoxy - the new Calvinism - with its grace verses law, faith only religiosity. In many of these groups the Bible is left home on the shelf and feelings become the standard or authority of their lives. This means that truth becomes "subjective"and that being the case the Bible must be rejected as the absolute, inspired, inerrant, authoritative Word of God. Man substitutes his feelings as the only "authority" that he should recognize.

Sad to say, these cell groups serve as the opening wedges for neo- pentecostalism, the social gospel, existentialism and other efforts to plague the church for years to come. I would discourage these so call "cell groups" from even beginning and such folly has no place in the body of Christ.

Why dismiss the evening services of the church and engage in such folly knowing what harm these "cell groups" have caused the church of our Lord all over this nation?

Why would elders permit this division of the evening service? Judge Ye!