When my son was born, his small body fit within the palm of my hand. He had no idea that within him was the skeletal structure and all the essential DNA needed for him to become a thriving reproducing adult. None of us realized that little guy would far outsize his father. Jesus started no churches before he died, but he implanted in a handful of followers the basic structure and all the essential DNA which would be needed for them to initiate and develop the eklesia He envisioned.

The prime quality Seed falling to the ground invested his DNA, and a multi-generational harvest followed in a relatively short period of time, across wide geography and diverse ethnicity. What can we learn about the embryonic stages of eklesia which need to be recaptured by ‘churches’ today? And learned especially by gatherings seeking to not only survive but also thrive in majority cousin contexts? How can this renewed view of eklesia revitalize ‘church’ in more Christianized contexts?

The term eklesia (literally ‘gathering’) was generic, used of secular and religious gathering alike, unlike the terms synagogue or church. Though this generic term allowed renewal groups to keep a lower social profile, those who gathered in Christ enjoyed transformation in their gatherings. In a context of majority religious domination of Judaism in Jerusalem, early stage embryonic eklesia was a renewal minority within the majority religion. The Jesus movement started small, with the dominant role of its home group expression, but it had unusual renewal influence because of the attractional power of transformed hearts of those who gathered. They carried that renewing influence with them as they went out from their gatherings into their social contexts, attracting more and more people to more and more house gatherings.

How does a renewal movement begin?

When we consider how Jesus started sowing the gospel in a virgin area where Jesus had never been recognized as the Messiah, we remember that he worked in a religious center where people were all committed to the majority religion, and who needed to experience true renewal in Christ. A renewal movement was needed which consisted of heart transformation through faith in Christ. It would be spread through pre-existing social units.

Jesus did not start an organization but a movement. The foundation for the movement was laid during his public ministry where it was legitimized by His teachings and demonstrations of Kingdom power. It picked up steam through His followers, even before He died. This movement started not as an organization but as a living, thriving organism, initially an embryo. The eklesia organism pioneered by Jesus was not a simple organism. It should not be misunderstood merely as independent cells. The Jesus movement transformed quickly from a single cell to a complex organism consisting of several interlocking parts.

Many authors view eklesia as being established after Jesus’ death. But what had Jesus implanted in the embryo of eklesia during His lifetime that was foundational to ekklesia? From the Gospels, I identify 9 components established by Jesus which together formed a beautiful multiplying organic system. I will call this first stage embryonic eklesia.

Component 1: Filtering Funnel

A funnel which is wide to receive gasoline at the top increasingly narrows to direct the gasoline into the tank. This illustrates how Jesus arranged public ministries to progressively attract crowds and filter through them towards narrower targeted outcomes. Jesus used a Filtering Funnel mechanism, with the largest part of the funnel consisting of His public ministries of teaching, healings and other compassion ministries, and exorcism of demons. These attracted tens of thousands to Himself represented by the large opening of the funnel. At different points in time, Jesus challenged the crowds in order to select out those of greater commitment. The challenges like a sieve filtered out those whose loyalty to Jesus was insufficient. Dramatic healings touched the hearts and imaginations of power oriented people. Exorcisms of demons attracted fear shackled people. Jesus built the numbers, then reduced them, built and reduced, sorting through the crowds to pick out the few.

Jesus used public ministries to both bless needy individuals, open spiritual minds of the crowds and legitimize his agenda on public stage, and also to form a pool from which to select a smaller number of those who would become committed to His agenda and propagate it. Through this ongoing gathering and narrowing process, a group of disciples formed around Jesus. From these after prayer all night, Jesus picked the 12 he would train and make the core of His Band (Luke 6:12-13). Of these Jesus sometimes permitted only 3 of the 12 (Peter, James and John) to join him during special times.[1] To the 12 he later added 72others whom he trained and sent out as missionaries.[2] From the funneling filter emerged the 3, 12, and 72 who became the three concentric circles of the Jesus’ Band. This choice of a limited number of people into whose lives he would make His greatest investment, enabled them to obtain all the empowerment that was needed to become change agents for His renewal movement.

Component 2: The Jesus Renewal Band

Jesus was and still is the socio-religious Center of His renewal movement. From its beginning, Jesus Followers were not a group bonded to one another. Rather they were a collection of people who had their eyes on Jesus, and were at different places in a process of determining their commitment to Jesus as their Center.

The Jesus Band which emerged from ongoing gathering and narrowing of this Filtering Funnel initially consisted of 12 of which 3 were in the intimate circle. The next broader circle included 72. He included the 72 as part of His Renewal Band, but His investment in their lives was more limited. This broader ring of the Jesus Band received missionary training from Jesus (Luke 10:1-24) just as had the 12 (Luke 9:1-6). These 72 plus others (120 in Acts 1:15) had a commitment to Jesus that outlasted His death, for they like the 12 waited for His appearance after His resurrection.

The 12 were initially committed only to Jesus and a few others in the band with whom they had pre-existing relationship before joining His band. These highly bonded preexisting social segments of Jesus’ Band consisted of pairs of brothers who were devoted to each other exclusively. Other less bonded segments consisted of people of the same profession. The fishermen among them had common bonds. Others like Matthew joined the Band with no connections to others, only loyalty to Jesus. Matthew was slow to be received by others, as a turncoat who sided with the hated Romans. At the other extreme was Simon the Zealot, for the Zealots used violence to overturn Roman rule. Imagine the difficulty of uniting such political opposites Matthew and Simon the Zealot as the Jesus Band.

How would Jesus make them one, when their arguments with each other were frequently colored by competitiveness? This new paradigm had a powerful uniting effect via Jesus’ frequent repetition of ‘Kingdom greatness’. Initially they were merely followers of Jesus, soaking up His teachings, His lifestyle, and His message, and His way of dealing with others. When they went out into witness (Mark 6:7), these itinerant missionarys in His Band would have shared ‘brotherhood’ to some degree with their ministry partner. Jesus’ Renewal Band was sometimes distributed as these Micro Missional Bands. They went out as pairs, which could be viewed as the smallest community possible, supporting each other, and modeling before unbelievers how life was lived together in Jesus’ Renewal Band. These Micro Bands attracted truth seekers, and through this attraction, some seekers attached to Jesus’ Renewal Band. The Jesus Renewal Movement spread in part because of the impact of small traveling segments of His Renewal Band, which were small social segments of the larger Jesus Band. These bands may have formed and reformed with different pairings or foursomes on other occasions, often but not always including Jesus.

Jesus’ first priority in the first stage of His movement was establishing His Band of 3 concentric circles (3,12, 72), and its micro missionary segments, and seeing them renewed. As his disciples were transformed over time, the Jesus Band grasped a model of renewal community by doing life and ministry with Jesus. They later expressed this life in community in their traveling micro bands, and infected those they met with a taste of ‘renewal community’.

Component 3: Missional Micro Bands

Jesus’ first ministry tour was in a part of Galilee with the 4 (Peter, Andrew, James and John) as observers (Luke 5:1-6:11). The 12 observed His second Galilean ministry tour (Luke 6:12-8:56). At that point the time for mere observation was over, and Jesus put His disciples to work. Jesus sent out the 12 in pairs as “missionary micro bands” after instructing them how to find receptive hosts and depend on God for their financial support through receptive hosts (Luke 9:1-6). They were given wings to fly without Jesus there to support them. It is surprising to see how early in their ministry He gave them authority to 1) drive out evil spirits, and to 2) heal diseases and raise people from the dead (Matt. 10:1,7), and to 3) preach the Kingdom of God (Luke 9:2). And it is surprising to see how early they succeeded in those ministries (Mark 6:12-13). Jesus repeated much of the same missionary instruction and similarly sent out the 72 in missional pairs (Luke 10:1-24). Christ gave the 72 the same authority, and they enjoyed the same ministry success in driving out demons (Luke 10:17-20). The reiteration of the same missionary micro band pattern to the 12 that they had observed in Him was reconfirmed an additional time in the instruction to the 72. Thus the principles given, to be carried out by missionary pairs as they interact with receptive households, becomes a clear pattern in the Jesus micro model of embryonic eklesia. But this time the 72 were expressly given the assignment to precede Jesus to prepare the soil, and He would follow to further nurture spiritual renewal (Luke 10:2). In this we are alerted to the strategic element of subsequent waves of missionary pairs going out on successive missionary journeys to the same area, in a sense softening the soil each time.

Component 4: Receptive Hosts

When the members of the Jesus Renewal Band went out in missional pairs, they linked to the dominant social segment in the society, the oikos or extended household. They sought out receptive household hosts, who were the key to an oikos, and worked together with receptive hosts to transform their ordinary households into renewed households. The vision Jesus gave the 12 and the 72 was a broad region. Each pair started with a different village in the region, trying to find which household hosts were receptive. They determined that a village was receptive or not by the presence or absence of a receptive household host. They traveled in 2s and 4s as missional bands with expansion in mind. Receptive hosts with their households were the critical strategic focus. Missionary pairs connected to receptive household heads and then infused true faith into the host’s extended family with its attached kin and friends. The infusion of kingdom message carried by a spiritually healthy missionary pair transformed receptive households into household faith communities.

Component 5: Renewed Constructed Households (Oikos Plus)

Oikos, or nuclear family with its attached kin and friends, was the primary socio-economic unit in both Jewish and Gentile society. Pre-existing social units central to social structure were encountered and enlivened by the lives and message of a missional segment from the Jesus Band. Together the two social units (missionary pair + oikos) combined to birth embryonic eklesia, a renewed extended household. Renewed oikos usually consisted of a nuclear family, other relatives and servants attached to it. Sometimes it included those intermittently attached to it, such as friends from the same profession or neighborhood.

The attachment of other people to the nuclear family is one of the reasons I use the word ‘constructed’ family. The other reason is because when the gospel is infused into oikos via hosting a traveling missional micro band, oikos is reconstructed as spiritually renewed oikos. Segments of Jesus’ traveling Band turned ordinary constructed oikos into renewed constructed families of faith.

In the constructed renewed family of God, God is Father, and Jesus is head of household. All followers of Jesus are members attached to His family/ household (Mat 10:25), and some who are not present are also known as family. Older women of faith are Jesus’ mothers (Mark 3:34). Men of faith should see themselves as Jesus’ brothers, and women his sisters. They are adopted into God’s family, and should see each other as Jesus’ brothers and sisters. “Pointing to his disciples, He said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heven is my brother and sister and mother.’” (Matt. 12:49).

Crucial to the transformation of ordinary oikos into renewed oikos was how the missionary band and the host’s household complemented one another as a matched pair, synergistically supplying something for one another. The traveling missionary band left behind earthly family to join a traveling micro band, de-prioritizing relations with blood relatives and material support in hopes of recovery of these via supportive hosts (Matt. 10:41). Their love for the Father is to exceed their love for their earthly families and dependence on possessions (Matt. 10:37), which leaves them vulnerable to shortage. When they experienced a gap in delivery from hosts, their spiritual resources in Christ and bond with His itinerant Renewal Band strengthened them.

After detaching from their families of origin, they reattached to Jesus’ Missionary Band. But the bond in the itinerant Renewal Band only met part of their needs until they also attached to one or more receptive and generous host families. The hosting family provided for them and their ministry expenses from their own social and financial resources, temporarily adopting the missionary band as family members. Both halves of this complementary pair (missionary band and receptive household host) were challenged to live by faith and calling, since giving from one’s own to missionary pair could leave the host vulnerable to shortage in the same way faced by the travelers.

Traveling micro bands were life giving micro communities, agents from the Jesus Band which spawned household communities of Jesus followers. Renewed social groupings gave birth to renewed social groupings. On the journey of Jesus with his disciples to Capernaum, when Jesus healed a sick child, his father with entire household came to faith (John 4:53). This is an example of a receptive host and a household faith community. Traveling segments of the Jesus Band gave birth to several other renewed household communities of faith.

Component 6: House Mission Centers

Jesus and His Band found some receptive households which not only were transformed into households of faith, but also developed into house mission centers with regional influence. These turned into outreach centers from which the gospel was spread into nearby areas. There are 4 characteristics which we observe in renewed households which became house mission centers.

The first characteristic of Jesus’ model for a mission center is population and transportation hub. Peter’s house was located in a population center, also an economic center and a hub on a trade route, and a transportation center. Mary’s house was near the large population of Jerusalem, making them accessible to missionary band guests.

Secondly, the receptive host houses which became house mission centers were large enough to house 12 disciples. Their hosts were relatively affluent people with social credibility. Hosts with economic status were able to provide food, lodging, and legitimacy traveling missional micro teams. Receptive hosts provided material support for the mission bands and their outreach to multiply households of faith.

Thirdly, these homes were suitable as social gathering points for seekers from the social networks attached to the hosts. Hosts were the social link initially opening up the area to the mission guests. They loaned their wide social networks in the region, allowing mission guests to piggyback on their relational strength for evangelistic opportunities, thus shortening the influence pathway for missionary bands who arrived with no social contacts. Hosts helped provide social legitimacy for the mission bands.

Fourthly, they selected homes at some distance from religious opposition centers, reducing its constraining effect. This combination of hubs, affluent hosts, new community gathering points, and distance from resistance made the homes of Peter and Martha suitable as house mission centers with regional influence.

This sixth component of embryonic eklesia birthed most likely birthed other households of faith in the region. Together with the original Renewal Band of 12, and the faith household whose son had been healed, we have evidence of at least 7 household communities of faith of the first generation after Jesus, that is, birthed by Jesus and his immediate followers. And it seems likely that not only Jesus’ Renewal Band but 5 others also became house mission centers with regional influence.

Component 7: Second Generation Mission Posts

Second generation mission posts were very likely started by the Micro Missional Bands who went out from Peter’s, Martha’s, and the other house mission centers. From the biblical evidence of fruit in the regions around these 5 mission centers, we are reasonably certain that the house mission centers established by the Jesus Band as the first generation groups yielded fruit in the form of constructed households of faith, at least to the second generation. For example, the villagers who knew the women at the well (John 4) came to faith, and we feel it reasonable to assume that at least some of these individuals who came to faith together were from the same households and therefore became second generation house fellowships while Jesus was still living. The evidence that a renewal movement is taking root is its replication into subsequent generations of small groups. If we conjecture that each of the 5 first generation house mission centers gave birth to 2 second generation house fellowships only, then there would have been 1 travelling renewal band and 6 households of faith of the first generation, and 10 households of faith of the second generation, for a total of 17 renewal groups thus far.

Component 8: Mission Team Empowerment

The eighth component of the embryonic eklesia organic system is mission team development. The missionary team sending pattern first demonstrated by Jesus with His traveling renewal band, was secondly confirmed in his sending of the 12 without Him (Luke 9:1), and was thirdly confirmed as a lasting pattern during the missionary training Jesus delivered to the 72 (Luke 10:1) who went out without Him. Where did the 72 come from? Many would have come from the first and second generation household communities of faith already described. During their training of the 72 we gain confirmation through repetition and further clarification about the micro model of embryonic eklesia is establishing. Jesus’ mission team empowerment consisted of training, sending, and debriefing 36 mission pairs as recorded in Luke 10. Some of the 72 had already observed these kinds of mission journeys of Jesus, or had been part of receptive households who received micro missional teams, so perhaps many of the 72 were familiar with Jesus’ model before they received His training. The training of the 72 clarified the Jesus micro model of eklesia, confirmed Jesus’ intentionality in demonstrating it, and further established it as Jesus’ model for thriving embryonic eklesia. Jesus clearly wanted His micro model of eklesia to be reproduced by future generations in the Jesus Renewal Movement.

They rejoiced together before God the Father who had supplied power to master demons (Luke 10:17), and more deeply grasped the grace that had moved their own names from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. Ministry fruit of this kind, of demons driven out, combined with Jesus’ instructions to find receptive hosts and stay with them during ongoing witness, gives us reasonable assurance that these 36 missional pairs gave birth to many renewed households of faith, which were third generation renewed households. If we conservatively conjecture that only half of the 36 missionary pairs birthed only one renewed household of faith, then to our estimate of 7 groups of the 1st generation and 10 groups of the 2nd generation, would be added 18 groups of the 3rd generation, for a total of 35 groups in Jesus’ 3-generation cluster.

Jesus trained the traveling mission micro bands to go out with big expectations. He spoke of a wide ready harvest which He saw, but He wanted them to see it too. Jesus trained them to expect persecution, to not be surprised by hostility, but be ready to address it constructively by faith. They were to view themselves as lambs among wolves, ready to face risk, shrewd while maintaining their innocent integrity. He wanted them to see their role not as a comfortable one but as an influential one living right amongst unbelievers.

Household groups became renewed households is the main means by which the Jesus Movement spread. Conversion of entire households together supports rapid growth. This is more likely in a culture which has strong households, because of greater influence on one another and influence of the household head in a collectivist culture. Some groups in the New Testament period were not household groups, but cross over groupings such as same-profession associations that ultimately reached households in other villages and regions. Establishing believer household groups in the entire village or community was the ultimate end, but the micro mission team’s role was establishing a beachhead in the first receptive household in each village, and then turning some of these first households of faith into regional mission centers.

Component 9: Multi-generational Cluster

From the information we have, there was one renewal band, one converted household and 5 other renewed households which became house mission centers, for a total of at least 7 small faith communities of the 1st generation. The 5 house mission centers about which we have information likely birthed other household communities of faith of the 2nd generation. For illustration purposes, I conjectured that two were renewed by each of the 5 house mission centers, for a total of 10 renewal household communities of faith of the 2nd generation. I conjectured half of the 36 missionary pairs sent out birthed 3rd generation households of faith, or 18 household communities of faith of the 3rd generation. If these assumptions were true, there would have been a total of 35 household communities of faith in the Jesus’ 3-generation cluster of faith communities before He died.

This cluster consisted of Jesus’ spiritual children who became His co-workers, Jesus’ spiritual grandchildren who became the co-workers of their spiritual parents, and Jesus spiritual great-grandchildren formed into several renewed families of faith. We see from subsequent reports in Acts, that to Jesus’ 3-generation cluster of faith communities established by a combination of Jesus 9 components of embryonic eklesia working together was added the Spirit and Resurrection faith. The additional of Spirit and Resurrection to the foundation of perhaps 35 house communities in a 3-generation cluster, made Jesus’ Renewal Movement take off like wildfire. In a virgin area untouched by the gospel, it appears that the establishment of the first 3-generation cluster of Jesus’ renewed households of faith is the first objective to pursue.

Renewal Movement

Jesus’ micro model of eklesia consisting of 9 components in an interconnected organic system became a renewal movement within Judaism. It is probable that it multiplied inito the third generation of renewed households of faith during Jesus’ lifetime, with perhaps 35 households of faith. The start of a movement consisted of 3-generation cluster of house fellowships consisting of people who practiced Judaism more genuinely from the heart, and who bonded with others as brothers and sisters in ‘households of faith’. These renewed households provided material, social and spiritual support for the movement. Believer communities consisted of pre-existing social groupings which were transformed into renewed households after encountering micro mission teams. These renewed households were attractively unique within their nominal religious majority surroundings.

Conclusion

Viewed from a macro perspective, there are 9 interconnected components which emerge as the Jesus model of embryonic eklesia during his three years of public ministry. Rather than describe each free standing local house fellowships as eklesia, the gospels reveal an organic system of 9 components which together form Jesus embryonic eklesia as a micro model many renewed gatherings of people organically connected to one another. The first components together formed multi generational clusters of groups which were relationally connected by Jesus and traveling apostles.

These 9 components can be classified in two sets, that is, embryonic eklesia could be represented as a two winged bird. Apostolic teams as one wing bridge across boundaries to extend eklesia into broader regions which previously had no witness. The local fellowship wing thus birthed takes on the role of deepening and maturing those who came to faith and adding people from their own community, connecting through apostolic teams to other local fellowships, and to further untouched frontiers being opened by those apostolic teams.

This structural architecture for micro model of eklesia which emerged during Jesus’ public ministry is integrated by two transformational paradigms; the renewed constructed family of God, and life-giving house mission centers. The attraction and selection mechanism which I call a filtering funnel integrates ministry efforts, and channels the fruit of public ministries in a purposeful direction towards desired outcomes, small fellowships of believers. The near term result of a renewal movement well begun is 3-generation clusters of multiple house communities of believers in multiple regions. These transform pre-existing social groupings into renewal communities.(AFMI)

Self Assessment

Within which of these 9 components of embryonic ekklesia are you personally active? Your ministry team?
Rate the quality of your ministry effort in those components where you are active. Use a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 indicating highest quality and 1 lowest quality.
What is the quantity and quality of your ministry outcomes in the components where you are active? What progress markers are you using? Which of these 9 components would you like to modify at this time in your ministry?

Endnotes

[1] Luke 8:51, 9:28.
[2] Some early Greek manuscripts have 70 other people and some texts 72 in Luke 10:1. NIV and NET chose 72 and KJV and NAS chose 70. NET Bible notes are extensive on the reason for their choice concluding: “all things considered, "seventy-two" is a much more difficult reading and accounts for the rise of the other.”

‘Net Reinforcement’ Leadership Matrix

Micro-model eklesia expanding multi-generationally gives us joy! But once they expand beyond 25 small believer groups, these systems experience stress and need re-design. In a young expanding system of this size, more than half of the cells are led by insider leaders who are young in faith and ministry. First generation insider leaders as mentorees must quickly become mentors who set the DNA for the 2nd and 3rd generation cell leaders. This development is exciting but challenging. The lead church planter recognizes he has decreasing influence in the 2nd and 3rd generations, and that he only occasionally hears about generations 4 to 6. This dynamic unique to micro-model ministries is a special challenge to its leadership, who have little control but must learn new ways to influence a distributed ‘ant church’ which are quite different than in an ‘elephant church’. The larger organizational mechanisms used in macro-model eklesia ministries for these needs are not useable in severe minority contexts which demand a micro-model of eklesia. So the special challenges of micro-model expansion demands innovation. Studying the way ants work is a good source of wisdom about minimal communication energy needed to coordinate each ant (free cell) to flex its own muscles yet cooperatively. There is a basic model of distributed yet coordinated work in the Jethro Principle of Exodus 18 and in the proto-deacon model of Acts 6. Both were developed when system stress forced them to reorganize to better satisfy demands. Yet these must be applied differently in severe minority contexts where the micro-model of eklesia is used. These contexts demand a low profile approach which releases the best of a thriving organism rather than building an organization.

Innovation will fit better when we really understand the limiting factors. System stress is greater in micro-model ministries in which more of the following factors are present: believers from more than one cousin variant who can not be co-mingled with other variants; cousin variants in which security is of great concern; more than 3 generations of groups reducing the personal authority of the lead planter; widening geographical spread including cross-over jumps to other people groups; and cell group leaders who hold onto false doctrine or poor character.

I underline the number 25 groups as the paradigm breaker, because at that expansion point the lead church planter might be leading 7 cells personally, mentoring approximately 12 insider leaders who are leading 12 second generation groups, and monitoring 6 third generation groups. He is experiencing fatigue, many hours on the road, and wondering how he can survive continued expansion. Lets assume that 12 is the approximate limit of the number of people a person can mentor routinely with effectiveness. To address the expanding need for new leaders, he must decrease the frequency or length of his mentoring with insider leaders, or limit the numbers he mentors to just 12. But whom does he choose? He must prioritize the strongest insider leaders to anchor the core of the movement, taking on leadership over the next generations. Yet because his gifts fuel expansion, he continuously meets new leader candidates who need help to become successful. So he must split his attention between approximately 8 of the strongest insider leaders, plus rotate 4 new insider leaders after they receive 3 month intensive training. An additional problem a lead planter may not recognize is that everything depends too heavily on him. Due to his increasing busyness, people passively wait on him, rather than taking an active role to support one another and reach out. So the skills which drive a lead church planter to 25 groups, can subsequently paralyze valuable one another ministry. If he doesn’t shift gears, he can cripple his small movement such that it stagnates. One solution is to continuously release new groups to others and take no further responsibility for their development. But this approach does not match Paul’s periodic nurture of leaders and house churches at a distance and via periodic personal mentoring.

With these challenges accompanying expansion, the question arises, “In an expanding multi-cell, multi-generation, multi-cluster system, how do we safeguard and solidify the quality of doctrine, mobilize one another ministry to shape character, and build biblical brotherhood between cells …. without draining lead church planters or moving them away from their skills?”

One safeguarding mechanism used by several ministries in our 3 Generational Fruit network is basic level standardized training to facilitate Bible discussion and application in cell groups, using a Bible reader with selected passages as an inexpensive tool that can be widely used. This assures basic Bible knowledge on topics addressed, basic Bible study skills, builds healthy group discussion and dynamics, and establishes a pattern of accountability to cell members for direct application and for mobilized witness. A healthy cell group process is an important safeguard mechanism.

A second safeguarding mechanism is the ‘apostle-like’ lead church planters who connects cells of the distributed ‘ant church’. Their relationships, charisma, and spiritual authority make them human glue which links distributed home groups. They must have time to travel and pick strategic investments of their time as they create solidarity between the parts.

Building beyond these safeguard mechanisms is important after the system expands past 25 cell groups. One ministry which expanded 130 groups to the 4th generation in 3.5 years combines two other elements to solidify and safeguard their movement. I call this combination a Leadership Matrix. Two elements are combined to solidify an expanding cell movement and improve its health, after it multiplies beyond the personal reach of one lead church planter. The Leadership Matrix is designed to not obstruct continued expansion of insider leadership, and to give lead planters a pathway to understand the changes they must make in their own role. These two elements can be compared to reinforcements for a fishing net in both vertical and horizontal directions, which builds the capacity of the net to handle more fish. I term this a ‘Net Reinforcement’ Leadership Matrix. The two elements of this Leadership Matrix are implicit in 2 Timothy 2:2, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”
I will call these two elements Three Generation Empowerment, and Leadership Bands (becoming Leadership Communities).

Three Generation Empowerment

Paul as lead church planter is thinking not only about the 1st generation leader below him, Timothy, but also about 2nd generation leaders Timothy is equipping, and about 3rd generation groups which Paul’s spiritual grandchildren are leading.

Paul as the lead church planter is actively empowering three generations below himself. When he is distant, via letter he focuses his influence upon 3 Generation Movements by empowering 1st generation leaders. At a distance Paul must entrust the equipping of subsequent generation leaders to Timothy the 1st generation leader. But he doesn’t transfer responsibility then wash his hands. He continues to periodically equip Timothy on how to mentor leaders below him. Paul retains a focus on the health of the movement 3 generations below himself, even though his influence from a distance is indirect. Similarly, Paul mentored from a distance another 1st generation leader Epaphras, through him maintaining contact with a 2nd generation house church host named Nympha (Col. 4:15), and a second generation house church in Laodicea (Col 4:15). And Paul instructed Timothy on how to mentor Archippus, the leader of a 3rd generation house fellowships in Colose (Col 4:17). Picture a first generation group as a banana bunch, and an arrangement of 3 or more banana bunches on a stalk as a banana cluster. Paul mentored Timothy the 1st generation leader to become a cluster leader for 2nd and 3rd generation cell group leaders. But when the situation allowed, Paul also personally equipped 2nd and 3rd generation house church leaders who led cells in the wider Ephesian region (Acts 19:20-38). So while Paul entrusted much of the mentoring of 2nd and 3rd generation leaders to 1st generation leaders under him, yet he also strengthened this by personally training 2nd and 3rd generation leaders face to face, periodically.

In Paul’s words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, Paul clarified this model of three generation empowerment. He did this with the intent that Timothy would likewise empower three generations below himself. Each leader must learn to establish 3 Generation Empowerment into the DNA of the part of a movement which reaches 3 generations below himself. Each leader must empower three generations below himself, by supporting his 1st generation leader below himself to equip the next 3 generations. By questioning to find out what challenges a 1st generation leader is encountering while mentoring 2nd generation leaders, these discussion can equip him to effectively equip below himself. Each leader should complement ‘coaching empowerment’ with periodic personal ‘direct empowerment’ of 2nd and 3rd generation leaders. Three generation empowerment strengthens the movement as the vertical ‘net reinforcement’ element of the Leadership Matrix.

In practice, a lead church planter continuously works with 1st generation leaders on how they equip a vertical chain two generations below them. First generation leaders train 2nd generation leaders to equip leaders at the 3rd and 4th generations. When 3rd generation leaders are supported by 2nd generation leaders to train leaders of the 4th and 5th generations, healthy DNA is set. Mentors do this by helping 1st generation leaders become successful in their ministry. So a lead church planter must transform himself from an effective player to an effective coach. But he also must occasionally directly equip leaders of the 2nd and 3rd generations below himself. He does this in small gatherings of approximately 5 people from 3 generations in the same cluster. People who are gathered occasionally for 3 Generation Empowerment in a severe minority context should have prior relationships with each other, so the problems of mutual suspicion and security risk are reduced. The following diagonal arrows show the 1 on 1 mentoring relations, and the set of vertical arrows shows periodic gathering of 3 generations of leaders from the same cluster.

The second element of the leadership matrix is leadership bands. This is a horizontal or same level community of 3 or 4 leaders of the same generation. Notice in 2 Timothy 2:2 that Timothy was equipped “in the presence of many witnesses”. We know some of those witnesses were other leaders at the same level as Timothy, such as Titus and Luke, who were getting inputs from Paul at the same time. They were equipped together in small informal leadership bands, just as the 12 were trained together by Jesus. Leaders in bands are sometimes competitive and in conflict. Training in leader communities influences them to become less egocentric, and give and get support from one another. Eventually Jesus was able to transform his band of 12 into a leadership community. When leadership bands become leader communities, this reduces dependence on the leading church planter, mobilizes their gifts towards one another in community, and releases potential to expand further. Leadership communities prevent individuals from becoming ‘little kings’. Leadership bands provide peer level social correction when individuals wander from sound doctrine or from good character. They build a brotherhood which links together the believer cells they lead. Leadership bands becoming communities are a mechanism which safeguards and solidifies a micro-model eklesia movement.

On a practical level, 4 cell leaders who live near each other, if their groups are of the same cousin variant, can be gathered as a ‘same-level’ leadership band. They discuss issues of similar interest as cell group leaders, and support one another. This is not designed primarily as a training time with their mentor, but as a one another ministry time and brotherhood linking together cell leadership for a small region. A mentor may occasionally attend if by doing so he supports these goals as a group facilitator, stimulating the others to actively support one another as peers. But if he is more hierarchical in style, he will limit his attendance so it one another ministry will increase.

Once the first generation leadership communities becomes numerous, an overall leadership team should be established for the entire system. This band of 4 to 7 leaders with wide oversight should be chosen by cell group leaders, and should include strong teachers and leaders. The following diagram illustrates peer level leadership communities.

Combining 3 Generation Empowerment and Leadership Bands is an art which forms a better Leadership Matrix. Combined these two elements would be pictured as a net reinforced in two directions.

To be successful, three Generation Empowerment in a micro-model of eklesia needs focus training objectives in 4 areas, and allows flexibility of means to achieve them: 1) Spirituality/ Bible, 2) Ethnography/Cousin and cultural knowledge and skill, 3) Ministry skill and strategy, and 4) Community Development/Social Entrepreneurship/Business skills. These training objectives in 4 areas should be identified at the Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced levels.

Training needs to be differentiated for each cousin variant served, which in our setting are of 5 types: 1) Ab, 2) Kj, 3) Snt, 4) Mhd, and 5) Fnd. Good news is presented somewhat differently for each of these variants, and common challenges encountered also differ. Training should be further differentiated between more educated people and common people. Training is adapted further if the objective is people in special settings (example is pnd).

The ‘Reinforced Net’ Leader Matrix demands a lead church planter identify with discipline a group of 4 to 8 people in his inner ring, and with a bit more flexibility select a similar number of people in his second ring, plus a third ring. The inner rings must be given greater attention. (AFMI)