The Early Church

Following Jesus' Ascension, the disciples continued to put into practice what they had learned in their small group with Jesus. Acts 2 describes a two-prong pattern of believers gathering in large group meetings and in small home groups:

Rather than competing, each format provided essential elements to the believers' growth. In addition to the worship and teaching of the central gatherings, the home groups provided nurture, fellowship, prayer, and outreach opportunities. The result? Believers who were devoted to Scripture and its outworking in their lives.

Home gatherings are continually mentioned in the New Testament as settings for God's work. On the Day of Pentecost, the believers were gathered in a home when the Holy Spirit came like the rush of a mighty wind and "filled the whole house where they were sitting" (Acts 2:2). It was in the home of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, where Peter first brought the gospel to the Gentiles.

All of the New Testament churches that are designated as having specific locations were in homes: Priscilla and Aquila (Romans 16), Nympha (Col. 4:15), and Philemon. These home gatherings complemented the meetings held in the temple and the synagogues, providing a dynamic expression of church family life.

The Fourth Century

A significant change took place during the fourth century with the legitimization of Christianity under Constantine. Previously, because Christianity had been an illegal religion, and worship often had to be in secret, the church was largely home-based. But now that the emperor had officially embraced Christianity, church structures replaced house churches. As the authors of Home Cell Groups and House Churches write, "Worship changed from being the united celebration of all the people to a clergy-performed ritual with the laity as spectators."

The Reformation

Historically, a reinstitution of the use of small groups has accompanied almost every recorded revival. The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century again emphasized the priesthood of all believers. With Martin Luther's new translation of the Bible, Scripture was available for personal and group study.

During this era, the house church was associated with the more radical wing of the Reformation, especially the Anabaptists. The Anabaptists had no church buildings but met in homes several times a week for worship and nurture. This may have been partly because of the persecution they experienced. But even when persecution let up, they preferred to meet in homes because this was more faithful to the practice of the early church.

The Post-reformation Period

The Church of the Brethren continued the pattern of house-church worship, inspired by the Anabaptists. The Pietist movement of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries utilized house meetings for prayer, Bible study, and discussion. Each week the parishioners came together to talk about the sermon, asking questions and contributing their own insights. Women were encouraged to participate with questions and insights.

The worldwide missionary movement of the Moravians, founded by Count Zinzendorf, was born in the hearts of a small group of students who joined together to pray for world evangelism. Zinzendorf profoundly influenced John Wesley and William Carey.

Many say that John Wesley's eighteenth-century revival flourished because he organized the converts into groups of ten, each with its own leaders. Neighborhood class meetings held in homes were the cornerstone of Wesley's methodology. These home groups met important needs for people who were experiencing the upheaval of the Industrial Revolution in England. Hundreds of thousands of people participated, and the movement eventually crossed two continents and two cultures.

The famous "haystack prayer meeting" of 1806 grew out of a group who met regularly to pray for the spiritual welfare of their fellow students. The meeting led to the first student missionary society in America, which provided the main impulse for the foreign missionary movement of American churches.

The Modern Period

The major development of the small group movement in the modern period has taken place around the globe in the second half of this century. Great Britain began to experience the "home church movement" toward the end of World War II. In South America, "base communities" have sprung up within the Roman Catholic Church, with over eighty thousand such groups in Brazil alone. Thousands of house churches survived and grew throughout China's Cultural Revolution, in spite of persecution. The growth of the Full Gospel Central Church of Seoul, Korea, with over half-a-million members, has come about largely through the development of home cell groups.

The past three decades have seen a proliferation of all kinds of home-based groups in the United States. Whereas most of the small group movement of the sixties and early seventies took place outside of church structures and even in reaction to the institutional church, today that picture has changed dramatically. Small group ministries are proliferating within the church and as outreaches from the church. Many pastors and congregations are intentionally developing a variety of small group ministries as the core of their church life.