The New Testament Church, House Churches and Cell Churches
Do you remember the joke about the wife, who after riding for hours with her husband finally asks, "Dear, do you know where you're going?" And the husband replies, "No, but I think we're making really good time."
One of the fog banks that prevents many people and churches from becoming involved in church planting is that we often don't have a clear idea of the end product. Some people envision a neighborhood style church with a steeple on the roof and brightly dressed, neat parishioners gracing the church doors on Sunday morning. Another person may see a bunch of high energy, sartorially challenged twenty somethings meeting in a coffee house. And still a third person might picture 3 or 4 families meeting in a living room. Are these all valid pictures of churches? They might be. Last week we looked at some of the basic concepts involved in defining a church. In this article we're going to look at different types of churches.
The New Testament Model
One of the most interesting phenomenons in American Christianity is that our churches have typically not looked like the church of the New Testament. In his insightful book on the NT church Robert Banks argues that the meeting groups of the NT ekklesia are best thought of in terms of house-churches. "Whether we are considering the smaller gatherings of only some Christians in a city or the larger meetings involving the whole Christian population, it is in the home of one of the members that ekkesia is held."
We are certainly familiar with the references Banks uses to make this statement. Paul greets Nympha and the church in her house (Col. 4:15). The church in Colossae may be meeting in Philemon's home (Philemon 2). And when Peter is miraculously delivered from prison, the church is praying in the home of Mary, mother of Mark (Acts 12:12). So influential was the household to the early church that the conversion of the household head, the paterfamilias, was crucial to the spread of the early church (Clarke, 1 Cor. 1:16; Acts 10:2; 16:31; 18:8).
The Modern House Church Movement
Today a return to a similar pattern of church is occurring with the house church movement. These churches are really what you would expect, they are small groups of people who meet in homes to share their Christian life together unencumbered with buildings, size or the superstructures of administration characterizing traditional church. Wolfgang Simson is so committed to the
benefits of the house church to Christianity that he speaks of the house church movement as the Third Reformation, a reformation based on structure.
What do house churches do? Simson says they are characterized by 4 activities: 1) eating together, 2) teaching each other how to obey, 3) sharing material and spiritual blessings and 4) praying together. Sounds simple? It is, and that is what is considered the strength of the house church.
There are also some weaknesses with the house church model. One is the weakness of visibility. In Issue 3 of House2House magazine the experience of a house church planter in Austin, Texas records, "I thought I was being creative, dreaming up something new . . . but I certainly didn't know that a global network existed- or that there were at least three home churches within five minutes of my house (p. 6)." The urbanized world of the 21st century provides a distinctly challenging environment to the house church in making an impact that can reach public proportions. A second weakness is that of leadership development. Without broader scale institutions or processes for training leaders biblically and practically many house churches succumb to leader weakness. And finally, house churches lack many of the support systems that large churches provide.
Still, the house church movement has been hugely successful in many parts of the world.
Cell Churches
The most famous cell-based church is probably the Yoiddo Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea, led by Paul Yonggi Cho. This church of over 700,000 members is based on small groups, or cells. Each cell is overseen by a cell leader, who in turn is overseen by a district or regional leader and so on. Cell churches, often called cell-celebration churches, are different from house churches in that they are usually part of a much larger system of cells where specialized ministries, leadership training, etc. are provided from with in the structure of the larger body. Thus they overcome some of the weaknesses of the house church model.
What then makes cell churches different from traditional churches with small groups? The primary difference is one of identity. A church with small groups still uses the traditional Sunday AM service as the defining point of identity for the church. Without that service meeting regularly, there would not be a church. The small groups are peripheral to the core identity. But in cell churches the identity is in the cells themselves. It is in the cells that church happens. Then
periodically, typically once a month, the cells will meet together for a large celebration worship. As Robert Logan and Jeannette Buller say about the cell church, if you're not in a cell, you're not in the church.
The cell church overcomes many of the weaknesses in the house church model while maintaining house church strengths. In addition, the cell-church appears more at home in urban environments where strength of numbers equates to strength of impact and visibility. But, the cell church has weaknesses as well. Simson lists several weaknesses including a strong hierarchical structure and feel to the organization, the need for highly charistmatic and organizationally adept senior pastors (such as Bill Hybels, Paul Cho and Cesar Castellanos), typically high-end church headquarters and susceptibility to corruption in high-level leaders. None of these weaknesses is necessarily fatal; many church organizations share them. But these susceptibilities do require attention.
For the sake of the kingdom,
Stanley Granberg
References
Robert Banks (1980). Paul's Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in Their Historical Setting. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, p. 41.
Cesar Castellano. http://www.mci12.com/english/churchnet/churchnet.htm.
25,000 cells in Bogota, Columbai.
Paul Yonggi Cho. http://english.fgtv.com/.
Andrew D. Clarke (2000). Serve the Community of the Church. Grand Rapids,
MI: Eerdmans, p. 161.
Robert Logan & Jeannette Buller (2001). Cell Church Planter's Guide.
ChurchSmart Resources. www.churchsmart.com .
Wolfgang Simson (1998). Houses that Change the World. Waynesboro, GA:
Paternoster.