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Survey: The Powers and Pitfalls of Small Group Models

Feeling he had clear direction from God, Cho preceded to implement a system of home groups for the purpose of study, pastoral care and evangelism. He faced incredible obstacles. His deacons resisted the plan and offered to replace him as pastor. They refused to get involved in leading groups themselves. When the male leaders of the church resisted Cho’s new plan, the women offered to help. It ran against the church’s theology and the Korean culture to use women as leaders, but they were the ones willing to move ahead with what Cho felt God was calling them to. The first groups didn’t go too well, but Cho persisted and continually refined their methodology. In time, the number of groups grew from dozens to hundreds to thousands. Today, Yoido Full Gospel Church has over 20,000 home groups, and it is actively planting churches throughout Korea and around the world.

There are several important things to understand about Cho’s small group model:

• Small groups exist for the dual purposes of edification and evangelism. Cho emphasizes that groups can fulfill and must fulfill these two objectives simultaneously.

• Groups meetings include Bible Study but are more than just Bible Study groups. In fact, Lydia Swain, Cho’s longtime personal secretary, told a friend of mine that the group meetings were initially 2/3 Bible Study and 1/3 prayer, and that they did not work very well. When the reversed the format to be 1/3 Bible Study and 2/3 prayer, the group ministry’s growth took off.

• There is an emphasis on relational evangelism, serving the needs of unbelievers in practical ways. The church tells its members to show Jesus’ love to those around them by saying, “Find a need and fill it.”

• The church established what has come to be known as the 5×5 oversight model. Every five groups or so are overseen by a “section leader.” Over every five or so section leaders are pastors. This pattern of oversight is apportioned according to geographic areas.

Cho also teaches us the importance of persistence. If at first you don’t succeed with small groups, try, try again. Cho says that you should plan to fail twice. Expect initial failure. It’s like riding a bike or learning to ice skate. You are mastering new skills and new ways of doing things.

For many years, Cho’s church and its methods were unknown to the broader church until it was discovered by Donald McGavran—the founder of the modern church growth movement. Encouraged by McGavran, in 1976 Cho launched Church Growth International to share his principles and insights with churches around the world through conferences and publications. In 1981, Cho released his book Successful Home Cell Groups. One leader deeply influenced by Cho was Ralph Neighbour, Jr.

Neighbour further refined and promoted Cho’s principles. Particularly in the 1990s, the flame of the worldwide cell movement was fanned by Neighbour’s books, conferences and his Cell Church magazine. (I worked for Dr. Neighbour myself from 1994-2000.) He accelerated the cause of the small group movement by providing application in many places where Cho had offered mostly inspiration. Helpful emphases of Neighbour have been:

• The centrality of evangelism to cell life and growth.

• The necessity of a clear discipleship path to enable continual leadership and group multiplication.

• The centrality of home groups to New Testament Christianity.

What’s Wrong with the Cell Model?

Tens of thousands of churches were influenced by Cho and Neighbour. At the same time, in the last half of the 1990s, a variety of leaders began to rethink how small groups are done. In effect, they were asking, “What’s wrong with the cell model?” Their questions and answers diverged in interesting ways.