The History of Home Fellowships—Part 2

By Robin G. Jordan

One of the most important figures in the history of home fellowships, house churches, and similar gatherings is the German Lutheran pastor Philip Jacob Spener. He was greatly influenced by The Practice of Piety, a famous book written by Lewis Bayly, one time Bishop of Bangor in North Wales. Spener was a very influential preacher. His preaching attracted a group of young men who approached him about giving them further instruction. Spener began meeting with these men in his own house and then in other houses. He eventually would meet with them in public buildings. Spener called these gatherings, collegia pietatis. He published a very important book, Pia Desideria, which translates “Earnest desires for a reform of the true Evangelical church,” and in which he offers his rationale for such gatherings. Spener moved a number of times in his lifetime and wherever he went, he started collegia pietatis. A contemporary of Spener who also played a significant role in the spread of these gatherings was August Herman Francke.

Spener would influence Count Zinzendorf who started the Moravian Brethren. Count Zinzendorf and the Moravian Brethren would in turn influence John and Charles Wesley and the early Methodists in the eighteen century.

In 1671 Dr. Anthony Horneck became the preacher of Savoy Chapel. In 1678 he launched the first gathering in England like Spener’s collegia pietatis. Dr. Horneck, like Spener, was a very influential preacher. Horneck’s preaching, like Spener’s, attracted a group of young men who asked him to meet with them, and he, like Spener, agreed. Their weekly meetings were solely for "for set prayers, the discussion of religious books and the occasional exchange of spiritual experiences." Theological discussions of controverted issues were strictly prohibited. Others began to follow Horneck’s example and also formed the same kind of societies.

In 1698 Josiah Woodward would write An Account of the Rise and Progress of the Religious Societies in the City of London. The result of the publication of his book was that the idea of these religious societies became extremely popular. Woodward’s book passed very quickly through several editions. The religious societies would spread all over England and to Ireland.

While George Whitfield did not himself start any such societies, he did refer his converts to existing societies. He recognized their value. His hope was that the societies would help his converts and the converts in turn would help the societies. As we shall see, John and Charles Wesley would take a more deliberate approach.

The establishment of religious societies was one of the characteristics of the eighteenth century Evangelical Revival in the Church of England. William Grimshaw of Haworth introduced a religious society in his parish, as did Sam Walker in Truro, Henry Venn in Huddersfield and Charles Simeon in Cambridge. For those readers who are not familiar with the Evangelical Revival, all these men were leading figures in that revival. J. C. Rye tells their stories in Christian Leaders of the Eighteenth Century.

The religious societies were “eclessiola in ecclesia,” or “little churches within the church.” The idea behind these “ecclesioa,” or “little churches” is to call out the most Christian people in a parish church and to form them into a society. The Wesleys and the Countess of Huntingdom went beyond this concept. Their primary concern was the care of their converts. They recognized that their converts could not fit into the churches as they were then and they felt that they should make some kind of provision for them. The gatherings that they started were to meet the needs of the new converts of the revival.

D. M. Lloyd-Jones in his address, “Ecclesiola in Ecclesia,” delivered at the Puritan and Westminster Conference of 1965, suggests that due to John Wesley’s “organizational genius” that “a powerful and prominent sectarian tendency” existed in the Methodist societies from the outset. With the starting of the annual Conference Wesley had crossed the line into sectarianism.

The nineteenth century saw the rise of the Sunday school movement and men and women’s Bible classes. Sunday schools were originally started to educate poor children who worked in the factories during the week. Men and women’s Bible classes met in the church or the minister’s parlor. In some churches these Bible classes became so large that their attendance was greater than that of the church services. People would attend a Bible class but not the church service afterwards. In the nineteenth century the most common form of gatherings that met in private houses was the cottage meeting. These gatherings usually did not meet on a regular basis. They typically met for prayer and sometimes Bible study.

The twentieth century witnessed the beginning of the cell church movement, the home Communion movement, and the house church movement. A cell church is a church composed of cell groups, small groups that meet in private houses and other venues. The center of the life and worship of the cell church is the cell group. All the cell groups of a cell church may meet weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly for a large group gathering for worship and fellowship. Cell churches have played an important role in the spread of Christianity in South Korea and Singapore and South East Asia. In his book, Asian Tigers for Christ, Michael Green describes the dynamic growth of the Church in South East Asia through cell churches.

The home Communion movement was a post-World War II movement that saw benefits in small celebrations of Holy Communion in private houses during the week. It sought to bring communion to the people of a parish in their homes and their neighbors’ homes, as well as to increase the frequency of Holy Communion celebrations in the parish church.

The house church movement sees the house church as the New Testament model of the Church. House churches generally meet in houses of church members although a number of house churches have leased or purchased a house with a “great room” as their meeting place. House churches may use the same house for meetings or rotate the meetings among the houses of the church members. A number of house church clusters have formed micro-denominations, networking together in the service of Christ. House churches have been critical to the spread of the Christian faith in mainland China and Islamic countries.

Another twentieth century movement that initially met in private houses was the charismatic renewal movement. Prayer and praise meetings were commonly held in homes.

In the second half of the twentieth century a growing number of churches came to the realization that small groups, meeting in private houses and other venues, make an indispensable contribution to the life of a church. These churches became more intentional in beginning small groups and steering church members and newcomers into them. Small groups that meet in homes may be variously called home fellowships, home groups, life groups, and in the case of my previous and present churches, family groups and life teams respectively. These groups are vital in providing “safe,” non-threatening entry points for the unchurched into the church, assimilating newcomers into the church, discipling new believers in the Christian faith and life, developing believers fully as mature disciples, and offering support and encouragement to people at all stages of their faith journey. The result of this development is a wealth of resources for small groups and small group ministry.

In the next article in the series “Home Fellowships for Heritage Anglicans” I am going to examine the similarities and differences between two kinds of gatherings that meet in private houses—the home fellowship and the house church.