“Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
(Acts 2:46-47)
Many churches only have their church ministry, but have forgotten the ministry in homes, which was central to the establishment of the early church.
Paul greets house churches and this is a clear example of cell groups in the first century church.
“Greet also the church that meets at their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.”
(Romans 16:5)
Jesus also gives us an example by ministering from a house, to which many people came and received a solution to their problems.
“A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.”
(Mark 2:1-2)
Paul mentions in several of his letters the churches that developed in houses. For example in Romans 16:5, 1 Corinthians 16:19, Philemon 2 and Colossians 4:15. In all these passages the Apostle greets people who had opened their houses to do a cell group and later became churches.
The church in a natural way began to meet in houses and this is evidenced in the following passages: Acts 2:42, Acts 8:3 and Acts 20:20. These houses were a fundamental part in the establishment of the early church. Ignoring this God-given strategy is missing out on one of the best ways to bring church growth as well as blessing to the homes.