Winning the World

Session 5: Patterns of Structure and Religious Authority in Church Planting Movements 89

family life. They gladly suffered persecution, because Christ had revolutionized their lives,” Kreider, p. 81.

2. House churches are real churches , differing from cell based community churches or mega-churches. How?

a. The cell-based community or mega-churches usually have their own headquarters and administrative structure ; house churches require no headquarters , Kreider, p. 82.

(1) They are more flexible and fluid.

(2) They meet in homes or other places (coffee shops, offices, etc.).

(3) No other buildings are required for further church programs.

b. The cell-based community or mega-churches usually do not give cell group leaders complete authority as elders of their group in the way that house churches do.

(1) Cell group leaders are an extension of the elders of the local church.

(2) House churches are self-contained churches in themselves, with each having elders (with one of the leaders assuming the primary leadership role of the group) “who serve as fathers and mothers with a heart’s cry to train and reproduce more leadership within the house church,” Kreider, p. 82-83. c. House churches may include several smaller “cell groups” within the house church (i.e., “satellite groups” which meet at times other than the regular house church meeting time) – how is this different from the cell-based community church ?, Kreider, p. 83.