"Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets in their house." 1 Corinthians 16:19

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 14.

The purpose of this chapter is to explain why and how God wants us to develop small churches and cell groups. "Cell groups" are tiny churches that often are part of a larger church.

Everywhere the apostles made disciples the way Jesus said, small churches multiplied.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 14.

Both house churches and cells tied to a larger body should stay small. Home groups and "cells" should serve as small churches within bigger ones. They are not viable cell churches if their small groups are only "Bible studies", simply "fellowship groups", or merely "ministry teams". To be authentic small churches, both house churches and cells must obey all the commands of Christ and do everything any obedient church would do.

Both house churches and home cell groups must take advantage of the smallness of their group to practice New Testament "one another" body life. Both aim at church or cell reproduction. Both normally train most of their leaders on the job.

The basic difference between house churches and home cell groups lies in how they identify with a larger body. House churches normally identify with a cluster of sister house churches, and have occasional united celebrations. Home groups and cells that are satellites of one larger body, identify mainly with it. They may also hold frequent, united celebrations with the other home cell groups, often weekly, perhaps a traditional Sunday Morning worship.

Christians in a conventional church can also enter into the dynamic church body life of a small group in two ways. One way is by divorce. People grow tired of institutional, impersonal programs and leave to find or to form a house church. Theses often take with them painful feelings and a reactionary spirit. The other way avoids such painful division. A traditional church may honestly face up to its lack of relational, and form many vital groups that are small enough for interactive church body life.

Both cell groups and house churches must partner closely with their sister groups in order to meet New Testament requirements and to stay healthy. Groups that are small enough to practice effective "one-another" ministry are also too small to attain all of the vital spiritual gifts and gift-based ministries. Therefore, they must practice "one-another" interaction between groups.

To fix Bible references about meeting in homes or houses in your mind, find in these verses where you find them mentioned:

Patterson found a culturally relevant way to encourage reluctant pastors to name home group leaders:

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 14.

If you plan to form or lead a small group in which reproductive disciple making takes place, then you must plan activities that enable it. Note the discipling activities listed below that your house church or home cell group might practice:

• Confirm each new believer’s salvation without delay.

• Mobilize fathers to shepherd their families.

• Help mentors and fathers continually to apply the Word of God to their loved ones.

• Help members of the group to obey all the commands of Jesus, including that to celebrate the Lord’s Supper regularly.

• Leaders of the group train apprentices as assistant leaders.

• Arrange for new leaders to gain experience by leading group discussions.

• Form a new group each time an old one grows too big.

• Group leaders meet regularly with a trainer who oversees them, perhaps weekly

• Cultivate loving fellowship within the group.

• Deal with common personal needs and apply the Word of God to specific individual and family problems.

• Help members to discover and practice their various spiritual gifts, such as evangelism, prophecy, mercy, giving, faith, healing and others.

• Pray for one another.

• Give offerings for special projects.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 14.

Give lots of loving help to very young groups or churches. Like newborn infants, they need much tender care.

Neglect of items listed below commonly aborts groups and churches before they can achieve normal birth. Note any to which you plan to give attention:

• Visualize a clear model for the kind of church body you want and what God wants it to do.

• Keep evangelizing after the birth takes place.

• Share pastoral responsibilities and hold volunteer workers accountable to do their jobs.

• Help each leader and his wife to agree on her role in the ministry.
• Avoid discouraging new workers with too many chores.

• Be creative in how you apply the Word to the needs and the spiritual maturity level of small group members.
• Be sensitive to the fears and doubts of new members. Bring assurance of God’s grace and forgiveness.
• Do not simply study the Bible. Apply it also. Let God’s Word guide you as you deal with specific current needs and ministry opportunities.
• Avoid long sermons. Encourage group participation in the studies. Include children and young people if they are present.
• Use other ways of teaching God’s Word than lecture. Encourage spontaneous discussion, telling of stories, simple drama, composing of poems or songs about the topic, and words of exhortation.
• Try interpretive reading; assign the conversation corresponding to different people in passages with dialogue to as many readers.
• Scoggins found a way to teach in small groups, "Lectures are counterproductive to learning. Our people learn far more by interacting with the Word in a discussion. This works especially well when they have followed a reading schedule in their homes during the week. However, a lecture is sometimes called for in larger meetings to instruct more mature believers in matters of general concern."
• If you meet in homes, avoid meeting too often or too long in one home.

• Avoid too many outside speakers

• Prohibit business dealings and political discussions during meetings.
• Impart a vision for reproducing home groups, especially to new believers.
• Imitate the example of the apostolic church in its use of homes.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 14.

A "gathering group" normally has one or two families or a few singles. It is for seekers, not for worship or in-depth Bible studies. Older Christians who know their Bible well and have overcome the problems common to seekers can make seekers feel ill at ease. Christians should not come to a gathering meeting unless they help in some definite way or they bring unsaved friends.

New leaders, even new converts, who are mentored behind the scenes by a more experienced believer, can sometimes lead temporary seeker groups. Simply mobilize converts to witness for Jesus to family and friends, and to follow them up in small gathering groups. We keep holding these informal gatherings until the "vein of gold" runs out. That is, when a convert’s entire network of friends and relatives has heard the Good News and they either respond or reject it.

Sometimes a gathering group is born when an unconverted seeker, who is the head of a household, begins reading Bible stories to members of his family or in some other way teaches the Word or prays with them. Usually this occurs under the guidance of a disciple maker.

Those who receive Christ in a gathering group may form a regular home group or new church, or they may join an existing home group, as circumstances allow. They may merge with other gathering groups to form a home group or new church.

An "outside" church planter may lead gathering meetings at first. But an outsider must turn leadership over to a new local leader as soon as possible. It normally works better if the new leader is the head of a household and receives coaching behind the scenes.

Do not extract converts from their social circle by turning them over to a congregation that fails to relate well to their community. Keep discipling them in gathering groups until they are grounded and can form a group identified with their local neighborhood or social network. This new group might be part of a larger church or become a separate house church, as conditions warrant.

When heads of households come to Christ, Help them to start new gathering meetings for their family and unsaved friends. Do everything in a way that a newer leader can imitate at once, to keep the process flowing. Do not stop holding evangelistic gathering meetings in order to ground or consolidate new believers. They have the best contacts with whom to start new gathering groups.

When you lead a gathering group, serve as a model for servant leadership in a way that new leaders can imitate. Before a convert’s social network becomes "mined out", start another gathering group with those converts who have connections in an entirely new "vein of gold."

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 14.

When would one start a house church with the intention that it remain indefinitely as a house church and not seek to start meeting in a building?

When would one purposefully aim to multiply small churches? A common Western assumption is that not having lot of people in one building means failure. That belief is not from Scripture. The early church in Jerusalem, like that of Ephesus and other cities, was a cluster of many tiny house churches. So, where do those Western assumptions come from, that you must have a building with a large crowd in one place, that you must pay at least one professional pastor full time, and that he must be trained in an institution outside the church? Those are culturally based traditions. The assumption that the Spirit of God needs those things is contrary to faith, often damages the Church, and frequently stifles growth and reproduction in Christ’s body.

Your decision to form a house church, remain as one, or discontinue it, should not come from feelings for or against having a church building. No inherent virtue or evil attaches either to church buildings or to house churches. Scripture mentions that the early Christians met both in houses and in the Jewish temple, in its outer courtyard, as only priests were allowed into the inner holy place. God gives us liberty to meet in either place or both. Your motive should rather be to obey Jesus and allow God to keep the work growing and reproducing, without restricting it in any way.

Under some circumstances, house churches offer more freedom to mobilize new leaders and put into practice spiritual gifts. In other circumstances, church buildings offer an opportunity. In some societies churches reproduce more rapidly when they have buildings. In some third world countries believers build humble chapels at very little cost out of materials available locally, involving no limitations or delay. On some fields when a church outgrows a small chapel, its members build another nearby, often with a style that is more acceptable to the culture than the structures put up at first by foreign missionaries. Churches normally multiply this way more easily where they have a plurality of elders and sister churches remain in close contact with each other. This maintains relationships between brothers in Christ when a new church forms.

Scoggins learned from experience the value of having shepherding elders:

Our goal is to remove all barriers to what the Holy Spirit might desire to do. If He desires to bring explosive growth and reproduction, then we want to use ministry methods that are flexible enough to grow with Him and not restrict His blessing. Such methods need plans for multiplication and not simply for addition. We want to give liberty to the Spirit of God to mobilize workers to evangelize and edify, without restrictions imposed by buildings or by the lack of them. In some cases, a rapidly growing house church may see a building as a detriment to growth; later they might decide that a building would be helpful. Unfortunately, many Western churches seldom consider alternatives to having a building; their cultural inertia moves them towards centralizing rather more than towards decentralizing.

How can one discern the circumstances that favor house churches over erecting, expanding or renting a building? People often overlook objective criteria when they decide to build or to meet indefinitely in homes. Now, the indications of a need for house churches vary from culture to culture. Listed below are some common guidelines to recognize when to opt for house church multiplication. Note items that apply to your church:

• You lack funds for a building.

• Hostile authorities persecute churches.

• You lack funds for full-time pastoral leaders.

• You lack the number of people needed to launch a growing church in a building.

• You have the vision to form a cluster of house churches.

• You have the ability and desire to form an inter-church network, keeping relationships intact as churches multiply.

• You have the ability to keep children actively participating in worship, or to take care of them in some way.

• You can arrange for teenagers from several churches to get together.

• Your leaders can resist opposition to house churches.

• You recognize danger signals that warn when keeping people as one church centered in a building is stifling freedom in the Spirit.

If many of the above danger signals apply to your church, then prayerfully consider and plan to start cells for those who want them. Do not push those who cling to their old ways. Let them lie beside still waters. Work with other sheep that will follow you.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 14.

Be happy with the goal of multiplying a cluster of small churches, and do not to try to act like a big church, or plan secretly to become one big church. A cluster of house churches can rent a building, if God so leads them, and meet as often as they would like in united celebration. They might pay a pastor to help coordinate the entire network of churches and to help train leaders. In the meantime, be content to be a good house church. Act like a small congregation and enjoy the close fellowship of a little community.

House churches are devastated when a leader uses them as a stepping stone to a bigger church. He might secretly aspire to become pastor of a big church that will pay a good salary. Such a pastor would inevitably leads a house church into an impasse: they could not grow big enough in a house to afford a building, but would become too big for the house. This becomes impossibly painful, if their leader discourages the starting of new house churches, fearing that members will leave his congregation to join a new church, leaving him even farther away from his goal of having a traditional church.

Such a leader would try to push a house church into a building before it can afford it, and would fail to use a style of teaching, worship, or organization that fits small churches. He would use a style of leadership that is not appropriate for small churches and that other potential leaders cannot imitate, making it difficult to multiply more churches.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 14.

We prepare new leaders more easily if we enable all heads of families to pastor their spouses and children. This family approach produces new leaders who are overlooked in traditional churches. Many new shepherds emerge, making it possible to multiply churches.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 14.

Some house churches hurt themselves by showing an independent spirit. They assume that not having a building makes them more spiritual. This attitude commits the very same error for which they criticize others. It assumes that a building somehow makes a significant difference in their relationship with God. It does not. Our attitude toward other Christians, however, makes a crucial difference.

Whether one relies on having a building or no not having one, instead of relying on the Holy Spirit for power in ministry, one falls into the same error. Spirituality comes from God alone. He can walk through church walls or break them down as He pleases.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 14.

Here are some ways in which families can worship together in a small group. Note those that apply to your ministry.

• Prepare younger children before worship time to sing, recite poems or Psalms, read or recite verses or act out Bible stories.
• Prepare older children to take part in Bible study discussions. Have them find things ahead of time in the passage to be used.
• Help adults to act out Bible stories; this will have a great impact. Adults can also give testimonies, pray for one another, share experiences, ask and answer questions, exhort and admonish.
• Do not force shy newcomers to participate. If you do, then some will not return. Overly eager leaders will make them participate before they are ready to do so. Spontaneous participation must be learned—often slowly.
• Arrange chairs in a circle or horseshoe. Doing so helps people to sing and discuss the Word of God more freely.
• In new churches or cells, study and practice the biblical "one another" ministries between members and with leaders.

The carnal attitudes, ambitions, power struggles, selfishness and indifference found in larger churches also arise in small churches. In fact, they arise more readily, for the intimate, family atmosphere makes it harder to hide them! The increased opportunities to lead and to serve also bring them out more quickly. Let this happen, because the intimacy and flexibility of the small congregation facilitate correction of problems as they arise.

Much of the Bible teaching done during a church’s first year, and certainly as long as new leaders are developing, should deal frankly with carnal attitudes in a family atmosphere of loving acceptance. New groups may spend weeks applying the New Testament "one another" verses to their group life, especially to relationships between members in preparation for covenanting together as a house church.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 14.

A covenant affirms briefly what the group is and does. Small churches should covenant together to love, forgive, nurture and minister to one another as a family. Scoggins used a covenant to confirm a new church’s birth:

Your group members might enjoy writing a covenant. If not, then provide a model covenant that they only need to study and affirm. Some groups write this agreement as poetry; others have set it to music. Some people consider it legalistic to have to sign pledges; in that case, avoid signing it and simply ask them to join in the discussion to affirm their agreement in any way that they want.

Here is a sample or model covenant. Some churches write it in the form of a poem or song.

The first line of the covenant is, "We join our hearts together to pledge in love to be a spiritual family."

The second line of the covenant is, "We promise our Lord Jesus Christ and each other that we will obey Him."

The third line of the covenant is, "We praise Him because He forgives, heals, unites and uplifts us."

The fourth line of the covenant is, "We pledge to use the spiritual gifts that He has given us to serve each other in love and be served."

The fifth line of the covenant is, "We affirm that we will pass the joyful news to those who still lack faith, so they also will have eternal life."

If you write your covenant, let it contain a pledge to obey Jesus’ commands, and to serve one another with your different God-given gifts. Keep it brief. Go over each part of it as you form the group. When new people join, someone must review it with them. For a new group it might be the basis of Bible studies for the first few weeks.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 14.

Arrange for leaders of the churches in your area to form a regional "oversight board" (call it what you want). It should meet often, to coordinate cooperation between the churches. In some cases a network includes both house churches and conventional churches in a friendly, mutually helpful alliance. Their elders arrange for their churches in their network to meet together regularly at convenient intervals for united worship and celebration, community projects and to serve one another as needs and opportunities arise.

Talk about reproduction from the beginning of a new church’s life, especially with new leaders.

When a house church grows too large for good interaction, usually around four or five families or 14 adults, let those that want to start a new group do so. Pray for them and send them with a serious ceremony. Do not force people to join the new group. The new group should also covenant together to confirm the new house church or cell. Call it multiplication, not division.

Do not simply divide the original group into equal halves. Usually only a small part of the original group will go with a new group. Perhaps only one couple will serve as the nucleus of a new group. Others might help them do evangelism but will remain with the original group. Let everyone pray for the new group. Seek agreement among the members, including the wives of the main leaders.

Sometimes a gifted church planter who is not from the original group comes for a short time to furnish initial leadership.

During the birth stage and maybe for more than a year, the new group will receive intensive, loving nurture from its parent church, which gives this care as long as the new groups needs it. The more experienced members of the mother church may keep mentoring the leaders and workers of the daughter church. Women in the mother church keep discipling women in the daughter church.

For rapid house church reproduction, aim for more than one leader, elder or co-pastor in each church. Normally, a more experienced man will have helpers who are his apprentices. If an experienced church planter leads the group at first, he will turn over leadership to new, local leaders as soon as possible. The longer he waits, the harder it will be to do so. He and every elder he trains should always be training "Timothies" as apprentices. Each trainee should also begin soon to train his own Timothies in the same church or in daughter churches.

Often two or more church planters will work together to start a new church. After the initial gathering stage, sometimes all but one of the original workers will move on to serve in another area. The one who stays will train the first new leaders, and then he also will move on. When leaving a church in the hands of new leaders, a church planter should make a clean break from any public leadership, so that the new leaders will feel free to take full responsibility. He should continue, however, to mentor them behind the scenes as long as the need it.