QUOTE
Lecture: Fourfold Ministry and Micro Differences[1]
In 1976, Yongii Cho established Church Growth International for foreign visitors to learn the cell system at a training center at Yoido Church and called upon his old companion, John Hurston, to return to Korea as its director.[2] Western interest in Yoido’s growth had increased. Certain innovations were identified and spread world wide; they are the topic of Unit 3: The First Wave Interpreted Worldwide. What is interesting is what is normal at Yoido and is not perceived, accepted and promoted in the west. That is the topic of this lecture. When what Westerners adapt and adopt fails to work in the west, it is likely that a key, necessary element has been left behind at Yoido. Systems resist innovation and change; systems are not threatened by innovations that will not work because some essential component or step has been ignored.
The primary pattern of ministry in the early years included
worship, prayer in the tent, ministry visitation in homes by both clergy and
laity, and later, gathering seekers into cells.[3]
This fourfold ministry pattern remains true today as the church now serves over
700,000 members. The primary element in the fourfold ministry pattern ignored
in the west is the role of house to house visitation by clergy and laity.
[1]These paragraphs are on the Yoido discipleship system are extracted and revised from Chapter Two: Discipleship Systems, www.disciplewalk.com/resources. The original should be consulted for the full footnotes to all sources; links to some of the online resources cited are provided in the workshop materials section for Unit 2.
[2]David Yongii Cho, Successful Home Cell Groups (Gainesville, FL: Bridge-Logos, 1981), 93-101. The website URL is http://churchgrowthint.homestead.com/home.html.
[3]Hurston, Growing the World’s Largest Church, 28-29.
NOTE (my response)
DISCERNMENT QUESTIONS
RESOURCES
Footnotes:
The quote is from Major League Disciple Making: An Overview of the Best Research on the Cell Church, an online course developed for the Institute for Discipleship at www.BeADisciple.com in 2009. Course materials, including these lectures, can be downloaded here: http://www.disciplewalk.com/IFD_MLD_Class_Links.html
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