For the church in Corinth, the Christian life was built around small cell groups that met regularly in homes. A church that exists online must begin with small cell communities that meet regularly for fellowship and spiritual growth.

The culture we have described as the ideal for these cells is dramatically different than what we see happening online right now, and members entering an online church for the first time will bring that old paradigm of social media with them into this new context.

How might a digital church work to develop this posture of cruciformity and reconciliation within its new members, when that posture is so foreign to today’s online experience?

Establishing Expectations for Participants

Because the dangers of social media are such a ubiquitous part of our digital world, an online church needs a process to teach new members about the church’s standards of behavior.

In the web industry, this is referred to as an “onboarding process”—an introduction to the key features and capabilities of a new web interface. For the church, this onboarding process is not simply an overview of the technical components of the platform, but also a system for developing the posture of a disciple of Christ within this online context.

The goal of this onboarding is to help the person to see themselves as a part of this digital community and to foster their growth into Christian maturity, not to indoctrinate them into any particular dogmatic positions, but to lead them into a Spirit-powered place of self-giving love.

Growing as Disciples into Leaders

This may be accomplished by creating an introductory group led by a seasoned member of the church; the class should meet for a fixed amount of time and, as it models the format of a standard group, should cover a variety of topics, including:

  • How to use the technology
  • The basic tenets of the Christian faith
  • The ways in which this digital community is different from typical social media platforms
  • The expectations the church has for its members

In addition, this introductory group should explore the particular gifts of each individual to better understand how the people might fit together. Upon completing the introductory group, the group members may be placed into existing cell groups or may form a new group of their own.

Once a new group has formed, care should be taken to avoid creating a hierarchy within the group. Although individuals will necessarily have different roles in the group—one of which should be a group facilitator or moderator to serve as a point of contact for communication with the greater church body—leadership should be understood, as in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, as a position of humility and service to the body.

The purpose of the group, after all, is the same as the mission of the church: the cruciformity of the community as a mission of reconciliation within the body and to the whole world.

To that end, Letty M. Russell details an ecclesiastical structure that she calls “church in the round” wherein each person has equal voice and the church is continually attuned to the voices on the margins of society. In her model, “there are never too many leaders, for... power and leadership gifts multiply as they are shared and more and more persons become partners in communities of faith and struggle.” Russell’s model of developing the gifts of the entire body fits well with Paul’s description of gifts in 1 Cor 12 and ought to be embraced within our construction of a cell group.

A digital ecclesiology cannot begin and end with cell groups, though. It must also include a form of corporate worship.