October 05, 2008
Dr.Paul Yonggi Cho, pastor of the largest church in the world, the Full Gospel Central ChurchSeoul, Korea has made famous the house church or cell groups as a means of establishing, nurturing and growing the church. Some of the practices include prophesying and healing. The church has 500 000 and says that it gains 17 000 members monthly. This is simply amazing. in
The Moravian Church has lost so much of what made it the dynamic church it is. Among the surprisingly modern ideas developed by the Moravian Church in the middle of the 18th century was the Choir system or cell group, as a means of nurturing and growing the church. The word Choir comes from a Greek word meaning group, but it was not necessarily a singing group. The idea then of the shakers and movers of the Moravian Church was evangelistic in outlook. The Church as a living organism has to grow or it is going to die.
With a very modern idea of the value of group activities and group interest, the Moravian Church divided their congregations into Choirs or groups, which were naturally drawn together by sex, age and condition. They had groups like Single sisters, single brothers, Widows, Widowers, Married peoples groups, little girls and little boys groups and the like. It is said that like attracts like, and so the strategy was for these groups or Choirs to attract people of like interest and standing who share their common concerns and needs. It was a situation where Choirs bonded and they looked out for each other. The Choirs operated like House Churches. On any given day or night there could have been as much as 50 or 70 meetings in a community where they worshipped and strengthened each other. At the centre of all of this was Prayer and Fellowship. As a result, they became a very caring community and so touched the lives of others that they were drawn into the particular group or Choir.
It was through the Choir system that the 100 year unbroken prayer meeting got its fuel. It meant that someone was awake and available to pray every hour of the day and night. What a wonderful, heavenly experience that must have been, when each Choir took the tempo to another level. Over the years the Choir system disappeared and is still practiced only in the graveyard or God’s acre, where individuals are still buried with their Choir in some parts of the Moravian world.
Why did the Moravian Church abandoned this strategy of evangelism? What was wrong with this method of evangelization? Paul Yonggi Cho has shown that it is still the most effective evangelistic tool. Look at the size of his church. Look at the rapid growth in membership of approximately 17 000 members per month. Can this be done again in the Moravian Church?
