It is imperative the Senior Pastor follow the model of Jesus and start a prototype Cell. Prototype Cells model humility, self-sacrifice, self-disclosure, service, daily death of the old man in interpersonal relationships, these we must live and model before our future leaders. To not do so will be to cripple the development of our prototype.

There were regular periods of evaluation in the original prototype model. Jesus sends forth the 70 and then evaluates their work in evangelism (Luke 11). Correction is often necessary. Peter is corrected (Matthew 16:13-20), the sons of thunder are corrected (Luke 9:51-56), as well as the two sons of Zebedee (Luke 18:31-34).

Jesus spent the time necessary with His disciples to prepare them. They were not thrust out prematurely. They eventually had their season when they experienced His "benign neglect".

Even from a cursory reading of the gospel records, one cannot but come away with the impression that Jesus’ training of the 12 was very focused and deliberate. His prototype had a definite beginning, a focused purpose, a limited time frame and included regular times of evaluation. It could be argued that Jesus even did Alpha, Beta and Pre-production development before He initiated assembly line production on the day of Pentecost.

Man did not initiate the concept of prototype development - God practiced it first. I have merely supplied some seed thoughts for your consideration. I encourage you to re-think your paradigm and take the time to re-examine the ministry of Jesus and the training of the 12 in the context of a prototype development process. You and your prototype cell will be greatly enriched by such an examination!

The World Uses prototypes:
When the Coca Cola Company ran early prototype tests of its New Coke with customers, the results suggested strong support for the new product. But tests only focused on taste, and the testers never asked:
*How would you feel about this new product if it were to replace Coke? The remarkable protests that took Coca Cola by surprise when it replaced Old Coke with New Coke (and led to the reintroduction of "Classic" Coke) suggests the dangers of ill-conceived early customer involvement in development and prototyping of a new product.

What does all this have to do with the Cell Church? Every church, Cell Church or otherwise, is faced with four basic questions:

• How do we build up Christ’s people?
  
• How do we reach unbelievers?
  
• How can "children" be brought to the maturity of "fathers"?
  
• Where will our future leaders come from?
  
  

This is a radical departure from 20th century small group design. If you intend to deliver the goods, so to speak, if you intend for your small groups to be the hotbed for Edification, Evangelism, Equipping and provide Expansion for your leadership base, you had better do all in your power to make certain those groups succeed. That is one of the purposes for first developing a fully functional prototype cell, before you mess around changing your entire church structure.

PROTOTYPE BASICS

What is a Prototype?

A. Definition:	In general, "An approximation of a product along one or more dimensions of interest". In particular, the approximation of a Basic Christian Community along one or more dimensions of interest. Those dimensions of interest may encompass but not be limited to such things as equipping, edification and evangelism.
B. Prototyping:	The process of developing such an approximation of a product. The process of developing a cell which will approximate each of the dimensions of interest.

What Are prototypes Used For? Four Purposes...

A. Learning Tools

Prototypes often are used to answer two questions. "Will it work?" "How well does it meet the customer’s needs" We contend that the Biblical model of cells functioning as Basic Christian Communities will... Work in a South African context. Meet the pastoral care needs of church members better than the current model. Provide for more effective evangelism than currently experienced by the church at large. A prototype cell will help us learn how to accomplish that in our localised context.

B. Communication

Prototypes enrich communication with leaders, partners and those who will ultimately benefit from the product. This is particularly true of physical prototypes: a visual, functional representation of a product is much easier to understand than a verbal description or even a sketch or diagram. "Look and Feel" prototypes allow for potential customers to give feedback about the features being designed. Innovators and early adopters in our church normally will quickly embrace the new paradigm. They, however, comprise but a small portion of most of our churches. The majority of our congregations desire a physical, visual and functional representation of a cell before they will embrace it. The prototype ensures they will have that desire met. Even those who readily embrace the new paradigm will find it much easier to understand and communicate that vision if they have a visual and functional representation.

C. Integration

Prototypes are used to ensure that components and subsystems of the product work together as expected. Comprehensive physical prototypes are most effective as integration tools in development because they require the assembly and physical interconnection of all the parts and subassemblies that take up the product. In doing so the prototype forces communication between different members of the development team. If the combination of any of the components of the product interferes with the overall function of the product, the problem may be detected through physical integration in a comprehensive prototype. Common names for these physical prototypes are experimental, beta, alpha, pre-production prototypes.

D. Milestones

Particularly in the later stages, prototypes are used to demonstrate that the product has reached the desired level of functionality. Milestone prototypes provide tangible goals, demon-strate progress, and serve to enforce the schedule. Senior pastors and elders often require a prototype to demonstrate certain functions before they allow the transition of a church to proceed. The paradigm shift necessary to understand cells as the Basic Christian Community is revolutionary. The creation of such cells is high risk and carries with it a high cost for failure - "We’ve tried cells before and they don’t work!" A prototype will reduce the risk of having to experience multiple iterations, a process taxing and often destructive for a transitioning church.