Home Guide: Steps for developing a small group, home fellowship, cell or house church.

Home Fellowship Guide
"A Practical Guide for a Home Fellowship Leader"

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The steps of development

I. You are host and/or hostess

You start as a born again Christian (accept Christ as your Savior.)

Become a disciple of Christ.

You hear God's call to start a prayer and Bible discussion group (as Host and/or Hostess).

Send your testimony to HFLI and use the “Home Fellowship Guide” booklet on how to start a group. Also start using the New Christian set of lessons for Bible discussion – all free.

Study the book “Home Fellowship Guide” that would instruct you on how to lead the group.

Start the group by inviting people who are interested in Bible study and prayer for weekly meetings at set time. You will meet in your or somebody’s home with you acting as Host and/or Hostess.

As Host and/or Hostess pray and trust Jesus for your weekly meetings. Look for leadership qualities among the group members. After each meeting fill out the “Leader’s Report” form for your records and at the end of each month fill out the quarterly form and send it to us.

II. You are a spiritual father and/or mother

After 12 meetings (about 3months) prayerfully consider if it’s time for your group to start becoming a spiritual family. That would mean more accountability, transparency and closer relationship between the members. Ask them what do they think about it. Nobody should be compelled to do that. “Thou shall not push" should be the “eleventh commandment” of the leader. If you have the agreement of the majority of the group you can become spiritual father and/or mother and the members brothers and sisters.

Use the weekly lessons that will be posted to our web site. Send your reports about the meetings to HFLI. Please tell us if your group decided to become a spiritual family. Pray and consider as a group to start taking offerings. The offerings are not for the leaders, but to take care of the needs among the group members and to be involved into missionary work. Ask the Lord if He is directing you to send offerings to HFLI and become partners with us in our work in the US, Russia and other countries.

III. You are a spiritual “grandfather” and/or “grandmother”

Prepare new leadership within the group by training your volunteer apprentice. When he/she is ready send him/her out to start a group of their own. They can take 1-2 people from your group. Pray for them. Counsel and support the new leadership if they want it (they are not your disciples, but Jesus’). You will not have authority over the new group, but will continue with your original group.

In the natural your grown-up children would have their own family, but also still be a part of your family. The same in the spiritual: your apprentice, your spiritual “child” starts his/her own family, but doesn’t stop being a part of your original group. This way he/she never loses the benefit of being under your pastoral care. Your group and the new group can meet on different days of the week. First the new leader meets with his/her group original group and discusses a particular lesson, then meets with his/her own group to discuss the same lesson. This way he/she will be confident about what he/she is doing in the new group.

Continue to grow and multiply, trust the Lord for the increase. Keep your original group and continue training new leaders within it. By sending them out to start new groups you become a spiritual “grandfather” and/or “grandmother”. You can also have a circuit ministry. The person you send out would go from village to village and house to house teaching and evangelizing. They would bring people to Christ. They would develop new leaders to take on the responsibilities of Host and Hostess. And the cycle described above repeats from there. This is a mighty working of the Holy Spirit