The Parking Lot
When planters start house churches or cell churches, they often forget to ask one important question: What if it works? Often much of the vision rests on smallness, on close relationships, on neighborhoods, on natural points of connection. But what if the house church grows and more people start coming? What will we do then?

Most house churches decide to start multiplying to meet in more houses. Each house unit then operates individually in some ways, yet important connections still exist between them. A common DNA and personal relationships bind them together. They are beginning to move from a one-house-church to a network of house churches. And how will you oversee and resource a network of house churches?

First you’ll need ownership and buy-in from key leaders within the house churches regarding vision. What do we want this thing to look like, anyway? What is success? What are we trying to move toward? Once agreement exists on these questions, then you can move to the trailhead for some planning and clarification of structure.

The Trailhead
Sometimes terms like planning and structure can be heard as negative in house church contexts. Often people who are drawn to house churches have been seeking alternatives to the over-structuring and over-programming that exists in many traditional churches. They are seeking something organic, natural, and relational. However, all three of those terms, if pursued to their natural ends, imply growth. And some structure is necessary for continued growth. It doesn’t have to be artificial structure and it doesn’t have to be traditional structure. Consider farming and fruit trees for some useful parallels and metaphors.

The planter/pastor must cast a clear vision at the trailhead for how the house church can look as it grows. Who will interact with who? Where are the lines of support? Of accountability? Who will provide coaching for the house church leaders? Where will new leaders come from when the need arises for another house group to be started? Whatever it may look like, be sure you’re clear on expectations at this stage.

The Trail
Say the original house church has multiplied into three. The planter moves from leading the one house church group to coaching and developing three new leaders. Group facilitation skills can be modeled and learned through show-how training. Individual assessment of a given leader’s strengths and needs will be important to take into consideration. Other leadership skills will be developed as situations arise within the church.

You’ll now have established regular coaching of the leaders. During this season, one of the likely goals will be to multiply the group and raise up additional leaders. Help them think through needs, strategies, and approaches. Relational support plays a significant role, as the new leaders may be feeling the loss of the planter’s presence in the group or the loss of others who have begun attending different house church units. Find creative ways to be supportive: notes, cards, gifts, words of encouragement. And find resources specifically geared toward the ways in which the particular leader needs to grow.

The Campfire
One extremely important resource for house church leaders is each other. They will likely have very similar concerns and challenges and will find great encouragement in gathering to talk through those issues. Be certain that a generous segment of each meeting time is devoted to prayer. As the house church units continue to grow and multiply, you’ll need to continue setting up more campfire groups. Once they grow beyond seven participants, they will begin to lose effectiveness. Especially in house church networks, campfire gatherings fulfill an important function of reminding leaders that they are a part of something bigger than themselves, bigger than their group—they share a common vision.

End of the Trail
With house church networks, the end of one trail means the beginning of another. It means the groups are thriving, growing, and multiplying so that more coaches are needed to coach the group leaders. You’ll need to ensure that not only are more house church leaders being developed, but more coaches are being developed. Some house church leaders may become coaches. You may also need multiple overseers for the coaches as the network continues to grow and multiply.

Yet even though house churches often have more continuity between paths than many other types of ministries, it’s important to create times to celebrate, to reflect, and to take stock of what’s working and what’s not. Learning from experience can strengthen the generations of churches going forward.