HOUSE CHURCHES UNLIMITED

I. G. Spong was born in Australia, has a graduate degree in theology and has been in Christian ministry almost 30 years. He served as a pastor of churches in Germany, Australia and the USA. The author has planted several house churches, organized in-home fellowship groups, cell groups and been engaged in other varieties of church in the home. I. G. Spong also wrote the Preaching Manual.

Home groups can be marvelous. There are also many varieties of this ancient form of church meeting and several key dangers which are easily avoided. This book is a discussion of many people's experience and some relevant biblical principles. It is also the advice of those who have been there and done that.

• "Planting new churches is the most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven." C. Peter Wagner. 
• "churches successfully reaching the lost focus on the basics: biblical preaching, prayer, intentional witnessing, missions, and comprehensive biblical training in small groups" Thom Rainer. 
• "There can be no two things more different than the celebration of the Lord's Supper in a Christian home in the first century and in a cathedral in the twentieth century." William Barclay. 

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

Introduction 

Some people in the house church movement claim that a house church format is the only legitimate system. In this book we want to avoid making more man-made rules that neither Jesus nor the Apostles commanded or create another form of self-righteous legalism. Many in the mainstream churches dismiss house churches as being the domain of misfits, heretics and rebels. Yet, many of today’s largest churches and denominations began as collections of house churches. Others see the house church format as only being useful in countries where Christians are persecuted. But, there are many wonderful uses in countries that have religious freedom.

The house church format has been used for many years in small groups and cell churches. It forms the basis of the small group meeting which we refer to as Sunday School. It is being used by the emerging church movement. Some are concerned about house church movements such as the emerging church network, because there is also heresy associated with it. Yet, that is not true in every case. Some well trained people who are capable of rightly dividing the Word of truth are also using the house church format or are involved in emerging church. It can be a legitimate way for those who teach orthodox Christianity to bring new generations to Christ.

We ought to not limit the head of the Church, Jesus, in doing what he wants to do with his Church. The house church format has many purposes. From a small grain of mustard seed, a very large tree can grow. Some research predicts that the number of Christians attending house churches will multiply exponentially over the coming decades, while attendance at larger churches will decline dramatically. This is the essence of the emerging church movement.

It is false to say that the house church was the only format used by the early Christian church. The New Testament also records the occasional mega-church sized assembly, such as at Pentecost. However the common size of congregations in the early church seems to have been smaller home-sized gatherings. Perhaps the principle reason was that the Christian Church was sometimes severely persecuted for several hundred years before Constantine.

It has often been said that most Christian leaders come from small churches. Why? Leadership is developed in small churches. In a large church, young people are told just to get on the bus for the youth activity. In a small church, the few young people may be gathered together by a mentor who may say something like, “We are going to have a youth activity, and you are going to plan it.” God seems to have used the natural leadership developed in these small groups to create the explosive growth of the early Church? Certainly, small assemblies foster leadership, while large ones tend to create more followers than leaders.

There is no command that Christians must meet in house churches. What is commanded is for us to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matt 28:19-20). This is God's big vision for the church. You may suppose that the house church is small thinking. However, house churches have been involved in some of the greatest disciple-making in history. The home church is one of the oldest of Christian churches, and existed at a time when Christianity experienced remarkable growth. For this and other reasons many people today are reexamining idea of the house church.

For instance, some church planters in the Southern Baptist Church have reconsidered the house church as a method of planting new congregations because it proved so successful in building this, America's largest denomination. In 1997 I met a gentleman from Kazakhstan, who had planted over 40 house churches in central Asia. Chinese Christians often belong to churches not recognized by the state and can be persecuted. They are often forced to meet underground in house churches, but may have the largest national church in the world, with 25 to 50 million believers.

The house church is also growing in other countries where Christians are oppressed, like Iran and North Korea. House church movements are also growing rapidly throughout the free world in English speaking countries like Australia, Britain and the USA. In Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries throughout Latin America the house church movement is spreading swiftly. In continental Europe, where Christianity was comatose for much of the twentieth century, the flames of regeneration are being fanned in part by a house church movement. For instance, in Germany, the Hauskreis or Hauskirche is popular among young Christians.

Pondering small house churches is not small-mindedness. It is a basic building block with large potential. House churches and the emerging church are really nothing new. It was the way church was most often done in the beginning. It was the way that John Wesley’s movement grew so rapidly. It is also becoming recognized as one of the major movements for growth through the next century, and it is rapidly becoming a phenomenon in wealthy countries with religious freedom too.

God’s Vision or Ours

Preachers who are not educated in Bible languages sometimes quote Proverbs 29:18 thinking it supports their own personal vision, their dreams and hopes for the church. Big vision is important, but that is not what the verse is saying. The word vision is ambiguous in modern English but not in the original Hebrew. In English the word vision could mean big-mindedness or it could mean a vision from God, so some modern translations will render it in this verse with the word revelation, because that is really what it is talking about. Without a revelation from God, any vision of ours is merely human and subject to failure. So, before we start limiting Jesus Christ to our ideas of congregation size and our direction for his church, let’s make sure that we are following God’s vision, God’s revelation, not our fallible human plans and egotistical ambitions.

A good place to start seeking God's vision for the church spending time alone with God. Pray and ask for direction from heaven. It may mean that we need to wait patiently upon God, sometimes even for years before he is ready to act on our part in his overall plans. Abraham had to wait until he was a very old man. Moses had to wait 40 years. Paul waited 14 years. Many people make mistakes by acting too hastily, thinking that their emotional impulses must be from God.

For example, a married couple once spent their last dollar on plane tickets to Africa, believing that they had been assigned by God to a certain mission field. Missionaries who were already there were not asked if these people were needed or wanted. When they got to know the couple they soon discovered that they were totally unsuited, that this was not of God at all. After many months, the missionaries finally came up with enough money to send them back home again. What an embarrassment! What a foolish gamble! It would have been better to ask advice from wise counselors first.

Let’s not make claims or plans unless we are sure it is God’s vision, God's revelation, rather than ours. When it is truly God’s vision, that is, his divine revelation, we can be certain that he will provide us will all the assistance of heaven.

Making Disciples

Today, too many churches are on the contraceptive pill, reluctant to have offspring. It ought to be the goal of every church to become a mother of at least one daughter congregation. Sometimes a church dies. What a tragedy to expire without having multiplied! I once heard talk about the demise of a local church in a positive way. It was being given a decent burial and there was a celebration. Why? That particular church had finished its cycle of birth, growth, reproduction, and death. The festivity was because that particular congregation had given birth to so many healthy daughter churches. These offspring were alive and well, and becoming mother churches themselves. So, in a sense, the deceased mother church lived on in her many progeny.

One means of church reproduction is called "lambing." In sheep farming, this is a time of year when a flock of sheep have their lambs. In a church, this is spiritual reproduction within a congregation - growth. In the northern hemisphere it seems that the best times for spiritual lambing are about a month before Easter, and a month after school starts. People are more ready to accept an invitation to a new church at those times. Occasionally a December lambing also works well. Like regular sheep farmers who may experiment from time to time, so too a local church may wish to try different times of year for organized outreach opportunities.

Gestation is that time of preparation for lambing. Some churches have been led by God to conceive the idea for a super-Wednesday-night or super-Sunday. A steering committee or core group begins planning for "lambing season" months in advance. This means that they must produce a detailed time-line so as not to miss printing, mailing schedules, etc. Let’s discuss more on that later. There are always lambs born out of season, but that should not prevent us from using a systematic approach to church growth. However, don’t just clone what God led someone else to do. Ask him in prayer what he would like for you to do in your situation. It may be something not even mentioned in this book.

One of the most important things we need to reproduce in the church is leadership. All ministries need leaders, whether it is children's ministry, music ministry or pastoral ministry. The multiplication of ministries can be done very effectively by training apprentices through the process of discipleship. Another word for discipleship is mentoring. Discipling disciple-makers or mentoring mentors and mentoring mentors of mentors is how the church has grown since the beginning. It has been a long historic timeline of disciples who in turn disciple others, students who in turn become teachers, apprentices who in turn take on apprentices of their own. Each and every Christian should desire to grow in his or her ministry, and many will also have opportunity to multiply that their ministry by teaching a few who have graduated from disciple to mentor to grow into mentoring other mentors, thus multiplying the Kingdom of God thousands of fold. This is how the Christian Church has grown for 2,000 years.

You may not have an immediate need in your particular area of ministry, but perhaps you can train someone who has different gifts, for a different ministry. You don't have to be an expert violinist to teach violin. You don't have to be a star football player to coach a football team. Coaching and playing are two different skills. So, it is in the church. The person you mentor today may be your pastor when you are old. You may think you are training a greeter today, but the example of faith that you set may inspire a future Billy Graham or J. I. Packer. If we take this approach, we will be more likely to produce outstanding leaders in the church tomorrow.

The Early Church

We often refer to the first church as being that body of believers after Pentecost in Acts 2. In one sense that is true, but in another sense, Christ led the first Christian church - the twelve disciples and their family members. They were small enough for a house. After the death of their founder, they waited in the upper room of a private home (Acts 1:4, 13).

After that first New Testament Pentecost, they met most often in private homes. This wonderful experience is being relived by house churches around the world today. Basically, except for occasional larger meetings like at Pentecost, the early church was a collection of house churches (Acts 8:3; Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; 1 Corinthians 16:15; Philippians 4:22; 1 Timothy 3:15; Philemon 2) and other kinds of smaller meetings. Whether we call it the emerging church, a cell group or simply Sunday school, it operates in an endless variety of ways. It also has common ingredients.

The Christianity that conquered the Roman Empire was basically a cell based movement. Sometimes though, the church is mentioned as being a congregation based in a certain town or city and it is not certain if they always met exclusively in a home (1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:1). At least once they met outdoors by a river (Acts 16:13). Some of these groups may have met in the large homes of wealthy people, or even larger places of assembly. The brethren in Jerusalem often met in the temple courts (Acts 2:46-47).

The Old Testament church too seems to have elements of a house church movement. Ancient Israelites met privately in their homes on the Sabbath day and in the Temple for some of the annual Holy Days. One annual festival, Passover, was a home-centered occasion where the whole family took part.

An Example of Big Thinking

One thing all of us have to learn is that God's vision often involves BIG THINKING. A pastor friend planted a new house church recently. They planned an Acts 2 style launch in 8 months, and listen to this!?! He had 500 lay volunteers from across the country lined up to make 100 long-distance phone calls each to that suburb. The money for the phone calls was donated by each volunteer. There were also 9 pastors and their wives coming in for the summer to help start the church, and he had dozens of volunteer lay missionaries coming in from all over to do door-to-door surveys. No hiding his light under a bushel basket at all. This kind of planning is sometimes called a "big day." The Acts 2 experience was a big day. An event like this can produce a multitude of house churches or a larger church depending on what God inspires for your local area.

Plan of this Book

This book will examine the emerging church, the cell church and other forms of small group ministry. It will examine the good that has come from the house church movement, and attempt to avoid much of the bigotry related to it. Of course, in attempting to avoid bigotry, we are in a sense bigoted against bigotry, and indeed may introduce some other bias of our own. We are all mere weak humans. The author of this book seeks to make it an unbiased and comprehensive guide for those wishing to set up a house church, whether they are independent Christians or those wishing to cooperate with a denomination.

As you may have noticed, this book uses the terms house church, home church, cell group and small group interchangeably. This is done on purpose, to encourage an inclusive and flexible approach to home groups rather than a narrow, inflexible new form of man-made legalism. We will cover how the house church can operate within the fellowship of a larger denomination or as an unassociated and independent entity. Some of what applies may be culturally and denominationally biased. It may not apply in other churches or other parts of the world, but perhaps some of the principles will be helpful.

I wish to thank my faithful friends of northwestern Pennsylvania, western New York State, and northeastern Ohio for their patience and flexibility in working through the baby steps of setting up community house churches. We made many mistakes, and suffered much together because at the same time a denominational reformation was taking place. Yet, God was merciful to us throughout, and the bonds of friendship forged will last a lifetime.

Table of Contents  

CHAPTER 7 Why the Church 

CHAPTER 8 House Church Worship Formats 

CHAPTER 9 Sacraments and Other Ceremonies 

CHAPTER 10 What to Do with Children and Teens 

CHAPTER 11 Conflict Resolution 

CHAPTER 12 Leading a Discussion Group 

CHAPTER 13 The Importance of Preaching 

CHAPTER 14 Starting a House Church 

CHAPTER 15 The Other Pentecost Experience, Growth 

Conclusion to House Churches Unlimited