3

INTRODUCTION
RESEARCH BACKGROUND
According to Ed Stetzer1) Christianity in USA is on decline as about 3,500-4,000

churches closes every year2). It is not a small number of people, it's around a million
Christians who stop attending Sunday services in traditional churches3). Some other
sources suggests a much bigger numbers - 7.9 million people a year!4) But, on the
contrary, the House Church movement in China is developing rapidly and it includes
80 to 100 million Christians, who worship underground in a communist country5).
Early Christianity worshiped at home of believers. This was the time, when
Christianity had it's most vigor and success. It's simple, focused on relationships and it
doesn't require a trained clergy, a building or a budget. How can we utilize this
method? Church is not a building, it is a group of believers. Some Christians,
Buddhists and Korean Shamans worship at home, but academically only Christians tried
1) ED STETZER has planted churches in New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia and transitioned declining
churches in Indiana and Georgia. He has trained pastors and church planters on five continents, holds
two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. Ed served for
three years as seminary professor at the Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky and has taught at
fifteen other seminaries. He is currently the Director of Lifeway Research and Lifeway's Missiologist in
Residence. He has written the following books: - Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age (2003), -
Perimeters of Light: Biblical Boundaries for the Emerging Church (w/ Elmer Towns, 2004), - Strategic
Outreach (w/ Eric Ramsey, 2005), - Breaking the Missional Code (w/ David Putman, 2006), - Planting
Missional Churches (2006), - Comeback Churches (w/ Mike Dodson, 2007), - 11 Innovations in the
Local Church (w/ Elmer Towns and Warren Bird, 2007), - and contributed a chapter in The Mission of
Today's Church (2007). Source: www.edstetzer.com/ed.html
2) Win Arn, The Pastor's Manual for Effective Ministry (Monrovia, Calif.: Church Growth, 1988), 16
3) www.ptmin.org/charisma.htm (accessed September 1, 2010).
4) The US Church is in a general state of decline, with fewer than 20% regularly attending church. That
suggests that 7.9 million people may be leaving churches annual –- that's 150,000 each week! (Thom
Rainer, Sam Rainer, Outreach Magazine, Jan 2007). Source: http://backtochurch.com/resources/statistics
(accessed September 1, 2010).
5) Rad Zdero, NEXUS: The World House Church Movement Reader (Pasadena, California: William Carey
Library, 2007), 294.
- 1 -
to define the House Church Movement. There are many unanswered questions to be
asked and researched.
Some Christians6) are calling House Church Movement a "third reformation", the
Martin Luther being the first and spiritual awakening of XVIII century being the
second. In order to succeed we need to utilize some tools in creating the House
Church Networks. The House Church multiplies, it doesn't grow into a large building
or congregation, it stays small and it can penetrate everywhere, deep into the heart of
local communities, into every family and home.
So, what kind of tools we can use to create the House Church Movement? A
contemporary Christian pastor in America would definitely suggest to use marketing
tools. No wonder - we have big and successful mega-churches in America like the
Willow Creek Church in Chicago (pastor Bill Hybels) and the Saddleback Church in
California (pastor Rick Warren). However, there is an emerging trend of Christians,
who would strongly disagree. As different case studies show House Church can
produce another House Church of the same size in a year, but there is no mega-church
in the world, which could double its membership in a year7). Also, House Church is
so simple, that it can be reproduced in any society.
I have to mention how I came to my thesis topic. I am a Unification Church
member since 1994 and from the very beginning I was deeply involved in missionary
work. In fact, in 1995 I took one year off from my studies in the prestigious
university in Lithuania and I went to USA for one year with a religious visa R-9 in
order to bring students from campuses of Seattle (WA), Boulder (CO) and Chicago
(IL) universities to my church. Later, I used this experience in my home country and
spend 7 years in evangelical efforts in capital city of Lithuania, Vilnius. I even went
to the country where my church was born, South Korea, and spend one year in Sun
Moon university, studying Korean. There I was trying to understand how to grow our
movement. When I came back to Lithuania in 2003, I started my mission by
6) Ed Stetzer, Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age (Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman
Publishers, 2003), 166.
7) www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6IxknQ4BpY (accessed September 2, 2010).
- 2 -
witnessing indirectly – not mentioning religion or God. I founded a children's club,
where I taught character education through martial arts for six years.
During fifteen years, I have tried so many methods and different strategies, but
nothing seemed to work. In my desperate efforts I prayed and researched Reverend
Moon's speeches, where I found out about home church. Reverend Moon started to
speak extensively about it from 1978. That was the strategy I never tried. As I looked
around, I found no person who succeeded in home church effort. All UC members
failed this mission for different reasons. In fact, Unification Church stopped growing
since 1980s and membership was steadily going down8).
My big discovery was the cause why Unification Church stopped growing – the
reason was that we didn't succeed in house church planting. So, I decided to come to
CheongShim Graduate School of Theology and dedicate two years of my life in order
to prepare to build home church in my home town.
My thesis is about House Church not mega-church. I can't repeat what
mega-churches did, because the staff of mega-church is professional and the team is
well funded9). I want to find a successful House Church cases and based on Christian
experience and Reverend Moon's teaching write my thesis. Since, in my opinion, Korea
is the chosen nation, I decided to build the ideal House Church model based on
Korean family and community. In my research I find out that Christian House Church
models seem to be incomplete, lacking long-term strategy and vision. And it will
complete the background of this research.
PURPOSE OF STUDY
I would define three purposes of my research.

First, I will research the Pros and Cons of Christian understanding of House
Church Movement. All Christian literature base House Church model on the New
Testament church model, which lasted 250 years after Jesus10). There are many
8) From Hyung Jin Nim sermons: www.iunificationist.org (speech in Taiwan, accessed February 1, 2010).
9) www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvJR_SIiPl4 (accessed September 2, 2010).
- 3 -
variations and questions in this model. Is it truly universal? Do we need a leader in
House Church? Should it work as a network or be independent? What is the woman's
role in House Church? How would different cultures and societies respond to House
Church planting? These are just a few questions where authors in Christian literature
has no clear answers. Not to mention, that this model is almost two thousand years
old.
Second, I will research all available speeches of Reverend Sun Myung Moon on
House Church. He speaks in Korean and the translation uses the term of "home
church". However, I will use Christian term House Church in order not to confuse my
reader. I will leave "home church" term in the speeches of Reverend Moon. Recently I
heard the new term "Hoon Dok Family Church", but I never saw this term in Rev.
Moon's speeches in English11). Since my Korean is at a beginner's level, I can not
verify it in the original language. I will concentrate my research on a few publications
in English such as Cheon Song Giong; Home Church; The Tribal Messiah; Blessing
and Ideal Family; Unification Thought and Divine Principle. Also, I will quote some
speeches, which are available only on Internet, because they were never published.
Third, I will go through literature on Korean family, clan and society. According
to it I will enrich and clarify Christian model of House Church. In addition, I will
cross-examine House Church model in four general types of society: band, tribe,
peasant, and urban societies. In the end I would like to simply explain Reverend
Moon's teaching in academic terms, using social sciences such as theology (why),
sociology (who), anthropology (what), and management (how).
My main purpose of this study is to show the model for future of humankind,
where no religion is necessary and where all people can share true love in their homes
and families. They would live with God at the center of their family life. That is the
Kingdom of Heaven as prophesied by Reverend Moon. The strategy to do it is the
House Church Movement.
10) Zdero, NEXUS: The World House Church Movement Reader, 49-160.
11) I heard it from Dr. Ohtsuka, former Continental Director of Northeast Continent of Unification Church,
2010, July.
- 4 -
METHODOLOGY
My research methodology will include only qualitative research, I will not use
any quantitative research methods in my thesis. In the beginning I wanted to apply
some marketing tools, but that kind of business approach is widely used in
institutional churches of America12). Those methods are discussed already at the great
length and detail and a lot of high quality material is available. When I delved deeper
into the meaning of House Church, I realized, that the use of marketing tools will only
make matters worse, because House Church must be simple in order for any spirit-led
housewife be able to do it.
Still I wanted something quantitative, that I could count and measure, then I
researched a brand new method called "Social Network Analysis"13). It generates data
using computer software and it's outcome is very scientific and mathematical. It can be
expressed in graphical form as well. It's application is wide. But in order to use this
method, I have to collect personal information from people in some small territory,
village or local community. Frankly speaking, people will not reveal the information I
needed to a complete stranger. I could apply such analysis only with the people who
trusted me. So, I had to move on and look for another way.
Finally, I decided to merge two disciplines: theology and cultural anthropology. I
will focus my attention on the literature, that is available on House Church in
Christianity and Unification Church. Also, I decided to bring House Church on the
ground - by researching traditional Korean culture, since it is very family and
community oriented. There are some anthropological texts on Korea, which give
theoretical foundation for my hypothesis.
But that is only part of my research - literature review and synthesis of two
disciplines, because it is a kind of utopia, only theoretical speculation after all.
12) Just type "books on Church Marketing" in google.com.

13) An association of people drawn together by family, work or hobby. The term was first coined by
professor J. A. Barnes in the 1950s, who defined the size of a social network as a group of about 100
to 150 people. On the Web, social networking sites have millions of members. Source:
www.encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Social+Network+Analysis (accessed September 3, 2010).
- 5 -
I decided to add some practical information by using case study method. It is
accepted in high education institutions of business management. The best example is
Harvard Business School, which studies about 500 cases in two years in its MBA
program, which is considered best in the world.
In two thousand years history of Christianity there are a lot of cases of House
Church planting, which can proof my hypothesis and give it a solid ground. Even
some contemporary examples are very impressive. Actually, as of this day, there are
more Christian believers worshiping in House Churches (mostly in China, India and
Africa) than in the traditional church Sunday Services14). Also, there is a good case of
Korean Christianity. It started as a House Church Movement and grew very fast15).
Biggest church in the world, Yoido Full Gospel Church, with 830,000 members as of
2007 is in Korea16). Mega-churches are a significant part of Protestant Christianity. I
will discuss a relationship of mega-church and House Church as well, because they
stand on the different ends of the scale, but there is no contradiction between them.
They can complement each other. Actually, out of ten largest mega-churches in the
world, five are located in South Korea17). And it is not by accident. I will proof that
Korean social order and culture of society serves best in order to build universal
House Church model, which can be multiplied all over the world.
I will have to clarify family definitions by using sociological terms. I will have
to discuss and compare the development of House Church Networks with
mega-churches in management terms. So, after all I will discuss based on four
disciplines of social sciences: theology (House Church Movement) and cultural
anthropology (traditional Korean culture) as major ones, and sociology (family
definitions) and management (marketing of mega-church) as minor or supportive.
In my thesis on House Church, a very important and key point is social
14) www.pewforum.org/Christian/Faith-and-Conflict-The-Global-Rise-of-Christianity.aspx (accessed September 3,

2010).
15) Wyan Young Park, Training Methods for Home Group Leaders in Small and Medium Size Church
(Tulsa, OK: Oral Roberts University, School of Theology and Missions, 1999), 50.
16) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Yonggi_Cho (accessed September 4, 2010).
17) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megachurch (accessed September 5, 2010).
- 6 -
architecture. I borrowed this definition of social architecture from Jack Welsh, a former
CEO of General Electric and I intend to use it:
"First element of the GE's social architecture is dialogue. The wide-open dialogue on any
subject from anybody. And that came from Work-Out.
Second, is maximizing individual and collective intellect. And that came from
boundary-less behavior.
Third peace of social architecture is about trust and responsibility. Everyone knows that
making a numbers is a ticket to the game, but we have a values card, that talks about trust,
responsibility, individual dignity and people, all about people. And you get promoted on your
values. You get in the game on your numbers, but you get promoted on your values."18)
I would go through similar process in my thesis, building and defining social

architecture of worldwide House Church. I want my thesis to be valuable in its
methodology not only to Unification Church members, but be applicable by all people
of different religions, races and nations. For this reason I will add social and
anthropological research of House Church, tested in four general categories of band,
tribe, peasant, and urban societies.
Reverend Moon's revolutionary teaching on House Church will be presented here
and introduced academically. I do believe his vision is capable to build God's Kingdom
on Earth, but in order to apply it, I need to use hermeneutics. First, I have to
understand the time, place and to whom Reverend Moon spoke. Then I can apply all
the academic principles and make a sound and applicable model of House Church
system. That requires critical and careful exegesis of the speeches of Reverend Moon.
18) Christopher A. Bartlet, Meg Wozny, GE's Two-Decade Transformation: Jack Welch's Leadership (USA:
Harvard Business School, 2005).
- 7 -
CHAPTER I. LITERATURE REVIEW ON HOUSE CHURCH IN
CHRISTIANITY.
I thought for a while how to organize my literature review.

First, should I focus on history of House Church, starting from origins in New
Testament, than go through all 2,000 years of history up to the present and show how
House Church evolved and what problems it faced, what forms it took?
Another way of organizing all literature on House Church is defining topics. In
my opinion there are three topics here: Church Planting, New Testament Church, and
practical issues. When talking about Church Planting I could summarize a segment of
books on this topic, where House Church is one of many methods to start church.
Another part of literature focuses on reviving early Christianity of the New Testament
mostly relying on how did first communities of believers organized themselves, by
deeply studying St. Paul's strategy. There is also a part of literature, where people
discuss more practical issues, mostly in Internet blogs and discussion forums about
what to do, how to do, where to do House Church.
One more way is to organize and present all books based on authors, presenting
major opinions on House Church. There are not that many prominent authors, who
speak on House Church only. I found that Frank Viola19), George Barna20), Neil Col
e21), Rad Zdero22), Wolfgang Simson23), Tony and Felicity Dale24), and Nate Krupp25)
19) Frank Viola is an internationally known speaker, a house church planter, and the author of six highly
acclaimed books on radical church restoration, including "Rethinking the Wineskin", "Who is your
covering?", "Pagan Christianity", and "The Untold Story of the New Testament Chruch". Frank lives in
Gainesville, Florida, USA. You can visit him at www.frankviola.com.
20) Recently, books are beginning to appear by those studying the movement from a more objective view.
Most notable is George Barna's "Revolution". George Barna, perhaps the most influential pollster and
church growth consultant in Evangelical Christianity, says that "revolutionary" expressions such as simple
church will soon account for one third of American spirituality.
21) Neil Cole is the founder of Church Multiplication Associates (www.cmaresources.org), a worldwide
network of 1,000 'organic' churches that meet in homes, offices, and just about anywhere. His several
books include "Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens" (2005) and "Cultivating a Life for
God" (1999). Email: neilcole@aol.com.
22) Rad Zdero earned his Ph.D. degree in mechanical Engineering. He has been active in the House Church
- 8 -
are usually associated with House Church Movement. Actually a selection of articles in
a book "NEXUS: The World House Church Movement Reader" depicts almost 40
authors from all over the world.
Also, in order to touch the topic on House Church deeply, the terminology
should be absolutely clarified. Many people mean different things, when they talk about
House Church. The House Church is a very young topic indeed and needs
clarification for all to agree as it establishes itself in academic circles of Christianity.
I decided to write and combine all of it. First, my topic will define that Crisis
in Christianity today is real. Christianity is weak and for many people it became
irrelevant to their lives. Second, I want to discuss the terminology, which I would
accept into this thesis on the assumption, that it does not contradict itself. Third, I
will talk about Church Planting. I will define the main topics on Church Planting
mostly based on the book "Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age" by Ed
Stetzer and there is plenty of material on Internet sites as well. Fourth, I will talk
about history of House Church, starting from Jesus and New Testament. There are
plenty of books on St. Paul's mission and early Christianity. Fifth, what are the weak
and Small Group Movement since 1985. He is an author of "The Global House Church Movement"
(2004), and most recently "Entopia: Revoliution of the Ants" (2007).
23) Wolfgang Simson travels extensively awakening the House Church Movement. He also functions as a
strategy consultant, researcher, theologian, and journalist within various networks. He earned his M.Th.
degree from Free Evangelical Theological Academy (Basel, Switzerland) and is the author of highly
acclaimed book "Houses that Change the World" (1998). He lives in Germany. Email:
wolfsimson@compuserve.com.
24) Founders, House2House.com, a group that encourages the House Church Movement. Started
House2House magazine with 2 other leaders of home church leaders in Texas (2001). Helped found
Caring Professions Concern, now Christians in the Caring Professions (CiCP), group working w/ doctors
& nurses in UK to daily live in the power of the Holy Spirit. Both are physicians trained at the world
famous Royal and Ancient Hospital of St. Bartholomew (a.k.a Barts) in London, England.
25) Nate Krupp has been calling the church to be all that God would have it be for over 40 years. He
was led to Christ in 1957 by two converted Jews while an engineering student at Purdue University. He
and his wife, Joanne, pioneered Lay Evangelism, Inc., have served with Youth With a Mission
(YWAM), are professors with Christian Leadership University, and oversee the work of Preparing the
Way Publishers. They have had a house-church understanding since 1966. Nate has written over 20
books on evangelism, prayer, Bible study, and the church. Email: kruppnj@open.org.
- 9 -
points of House Church? It's section on practical issues. And finally, there are cases of
House Church Movement around the world.
Section 1. Christianity in Crisis.
"In every town of America there is at least one church with a building worth
hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars. This church meets every Sunday
morning with only eight to ten silver and blue haired women and one or two balding
gentlemen for a "service". Empty parking spaces, silent pulpits and dusty pews cry out
for days of glory gone by. The church has been dead for years, perhaps decades, but
has been kept alive unnaturally by an artificial life support system. The soul is gone,
brain waves have ceased, but mechanization keeps the lungs breathing, the heart
beating, and the door opening every Sunday morning at precisely 10 AM. Why?"26)
Above is the impression of American Christianity by Neil Cole, an author of

books on House Church. Personally, I had many similar encounters with Catholic
Church in Europe. I think every town in Europe has a lot more empty churches than
United States, buildings which can be likened to a museums without any visitors. For
example, France counts only 9,000 priests today, compared with 40,000 in 1940.27)
Nowadays thousands of old church buildings are being demolished or used for a
different purpose in Western Europe and North America.
Ed Stetzer, former seminary professor, reveals some important facts on current
situation of Christianity in United States28): "Eighty to eighty-five percent of American
churches are on the down side of their life cycle. Win Arn reports 3,500 to 4,000
churches close each year." Traditional churches are declining. According to Frank
Viola - "today, one million Christians a year leave it, and the number is increasing".
During the last decade of 20th century number of Christians in America fell from 86%
26) www.cmaresources.org/node/63 (accessed September 5, 2010). It is a short excerpt from his article
"Embracing the Death of the Church", posted on April 11th, 2008.
27) www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/world/europe/05france.html (accessed September 6, 2010).
28) Stetzer, Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age, 10.
- 10 -
to 77%.29) In USA 75% of churches are not growing, 24% grow mostly by migration
(as many Catholics from Latin America come to the States) and only 1% of churches
grows by conversion.30) In the new book "Essential Church?: Reclaiming a Generation
of Dropouts" authors Thom and Sam Rainer give the statistics that more than
two-thirds of young adults between the ages of 18-22 leave the church.31)
In a recent article32) "Christianity Crisis in Europe?" was a quote from pope
Benedict: "A process of secularization has produced a grave crisis of the sense of a
Christian faith and of belonging to the church". But nevertheless, in the end he added:
"Even in the deserts of the secularized world, man's soul thirsts for God."
So, what are the signs of hope? It isn't a rhetorical question, nevertheless, in
order to figure out an answer, let's be patient and bear with me through all of my
research.
Section 2. Terminology of House Church.
According to Miriam- Webster's online dictionary the term "church" is33):

1. a building for public and especially Christian worship.
2. the clergy or officialdom of a religious body.
3. a body or organization of religious believers as:
a) the whole body of Christians;
b) denomination (the Presbyterian church);
c) congregation.
4. a public divine worship (goes to church every Sunday).
In his book Roger Thomas34) defined the new definition of church. He argues
29) www.FoxNews.com (accessed September 6, 2010). The article dated March 9, 2009.
30) Zdero (ed.), Nexus: The World House Church Movement Reader, 457-464.
31) www.sethbarnes.com/?filename=23-of-young-people-are-leaving-the-church (accessed September 6, 2010).
32) www.FoxNews.com (accessed September 7, 2010). Article "Christianity Crisis in Europe?", dated June
29, 2010.
33) www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/church (accessed September 7, 2010).
34) www.simplechurchrevolution.com/download.htm (accessed September 7, 2010).
- 11 -
that it is not what Jesus meant originally. Jesus used word "ekklesia", which simply
describes a group or assembly of people. Their gatherings were simple and informal.
Roger Thomas concludes, that "perhaps the best way to describe the church of the
New Testament is as small, vibrant, caring families of believers who are loving others
and reproducing themselves into every corner of the world." Let's see more definitions
of the church from points of view of Institutional church as opposed to House church.
"Institutional Church - This term refers to a religious system (not a particular

group of people). An institutional church is one that operates primarily as an
organization that exists above, beyond, and independent of the members who populate
it. It is constructed more on programs and rituals than on relationships. It is led by
set-apart professionals ('ministers' or 'clergy') who are aided by volunteers ('laity')."35)
"Organic Church" is the same as "House Church", but instead of location (house),
organic quality is emphasized by Frank Viola, an active promoter of the term:
"The term organic church does not refer to a particular model of church. The
New Testament vision of church is organic. An organic church is a living, breathing,
dynamic, mutually participatory, every-member functioning, Christ-centered, communal
expression of the body of Christ."36)
Red Zdero emphasizes structural characteristics. According to him we have to

distinguish between small groups, cell groups and house churches:
"Many believers today participate in 'small groups', such as Bible study groups,
prayer groups, accountability groups, affinity groups, etc. However, 'small groups' are
often utilized differently in various types of churches, which will be broadly classified
here for the purpose of discussion as traditional churches, cell churches, and house
church networks. Small groups in all three styles of churches usually meet in homes
35) www.ptmin.org/answers.htm (accessed September 8, 2010). According to George Barna and Frank Viola,
co-authors of "Pagan Christianity".
36) www.ptmin.org/answers.htm (accessed September 8, 2010).
- 12 -
and encourage the participation of believers. But, that's where the similarities end..
There are important differences between traditional churches, cell churches, and
house churches that should be understood. On one end of the spectrum, for instance, is
the traditional church that only infrequently uses small groups (often misnamed 'cell
groups') - this can be described as a 'church WITH small groups.' Further along the
spectrum is the cell church that places an equal or greater emphasis on its
mission-minded small groups (properly called 'cell groups') compared to its weekly
large group services - this can be described as a 'church OF small groups.' However,
the house church network sees each house church as a fully fledged, autonomous,
church in itself - this can be explained by the principle that 'church IS small groups'.
"37)
(See diagram above38))
What are the characteristics of House Church?
"Firstly, house churches are an attempt to get back to early grassroots

Christianity by following the New Testament pattern. Secondly, house churches are
fully functioning churches in and of themselves. Thirdly, house churches are
self-governing with regard to their own internal affairs. Fourthly, house church meetings
are open to the leading of the Spirit of God. Fifthly, house churches are formed with
the intention of growth through the multiplication of the new house churches. Sixthly,
house churches form cohesive networks with one another as peers and partners in a
37) Zdero (ed.), NEXUS: The World House Church Movement Reader, 8.
- 13 -
'decentralized' way."39)
Let's clarify differences between 'house churches' and 'institutional churches'. Frank
Viola in his article "Organizational vs. Organic"40) isolated sixteen differences such as:
Organized Churches Organic Churches
The form of the church precedes The form of the church follows
the life of the church. Thus, the the life of the church-just as the
church begins with clergy, staff, form of the human body springs
programs, rituals, etc. out of the life of the human.
Sustained by a professional There's no clergy or professional
clergy or minister. minister.
The clergy seeks to energize the Don't recognize a separate class
laity. (laity).
Limit many spiritual functions to Recognize all members as acting
the ordained. priests.
Congregants are passive during Allow and encourage all
church services. Christians to function in the
meetings of the church.
Members associate church with a People do not go to church; they
building, a denomination, or a (together) are the church. It's
religious service (Sunday morning actual experience of members.
typically).
Unified around a shared set of Unified around Christ alone.
customs or doctrines. There is no other test of
fellowship.
Sustained by programs. Sustained by relationships build
on Jesus Christ.
Need finances to survive-their Are not dependent on building.
40) www.ptmin.org/Neue.pdf (accessed September 9, 2010).
- 14 -
main costs are building overhead There are no clergy salaries.
and clergy/staff salaries. Resources are spent on 'the poor
among you' and extra local work.
Leadership is hierarchical. Leadership comes from the entire
body. Church planters equip the
church in the beginning, elders
(when they emerge) oversee the
church together.
Decisions are made by the clergy Decisions are mode corporately
or a specially elected "board". by consensus.
The pastor is the leader and Shepherds are plural. They are
minister of the church. gifted people who care for the
flock.
There's a strong focus on The focus is on pursuing Jesus
attendance to the services, Christ corporately in face-to-face
maintaining the building, and community. Everything else
increasing the budget. What springs out of that.
Dallas Willard calls the ABCs
(attendance, buildings, cash)
The church does essentially the The church passes through
same thing week after week, seasons. It's not locked into a
month after month, year after ritual.
year. It's locked into a ritual.
Gifts are viewed as offices, and Gifts are not seen as offices, but
people are put into those offices as functions. They emerge
at the very beginning. naturally and organically over
time. They come up out of the
soil, and are typically not titled.
It's typical to members not to There's a close knit community.
know one another very well, Members are like family to one
only seeing each other at weekly another. They live a shared life
- 15 -
church services. in Christ.
Institutional church can be called contemporary church, traditional church,

present-day church, and modern church. In other words it is well organized religion.
On the other hand, house church can be called home church, organic church, simple
church, relational church, open church, even a missional church.
House church is an independent unit, fully autonomous and accountable for its
actions, even though it usually belongs to a larger network. The size of House Church
is small group of no more than 20-25 people41). According to web site house2house
"there is no leadership structure that connects every House Church in the world".42)
They sprang out independently from each other not only in America, but all over the
world. House Churches generally meet in the homes of members, but sometimes
anywhere - work places, coffee shops, parks - anywhere that people naturally gather.
"Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am, in the midst of
them". - Jesus.
Section 3. Church Planting.
Ed Stetzer, a former professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,

while teaching Church Planting, could find only 2 books on the topic, published from
1996 to 2002. However, from 2003 through 2005, at least eight mainstream books have
been published on the subject, and many others are forthcoming.43) In "Church Planting
Resources: A Comprehensive, Annotated Guide, 2005 edition" compiled by Cindi
Haworth44), there are already over sixty books, dedicated to Church Planting issues.
41) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_church (accessed September 9, 2010).

42) www.site.house2house.com/faqs (accessed September 9, 2010).
43) www.newchurches.com/mediafiles/North_American_Church_Planting_Trends_by_Ed_Stetzer.pdf (accessed
September 10, 2010).
44) www.efca.org/files/report/church-planting/leadership-network-resource-guide.pdf (accessed September 10,
2010).
- 16 -
There are many Internet resources45) as well, and they are freely shared among
Protestant Christians. So, what is Church Planting? This definition sums it up:
"Church planting is a process that results in a new (local) Christian church, i.e.
a parish, being established. It should be distinguished from church development, where
a new service, new worship center or fresh expression is created that is integrated into
an already established congregation. For a local church to be planted, it must
eventually have a separate life of its own and be able to function without its parent
body, even if it continues to stay in relationship denomination ally or through being
part of a network."46)
Why do we need Church Planting? Church Planting is essential, without it

Christianity will continue to decline. According to Bill Easum47):
"Studies show that if a denomination wishes to reach more people, the number
of new churches it begins each year must equal at least 3% of the denominations
existing churches. Based on this formula, mainline denominations are failing to plant
enough churches to offset their decline."48)
The Reformed Church in America commissioned a study to find out why some
of the major nine evangelical denominations grew and some not49): the first observation
showed that all denominations put Church Planting as a very important, if not the
number one, strategy for evangelism. According to this study:
"The fact is, starting a new ethnic congregation or focusing on a particular

generation in a new start is much easier than trying to change the culture of an
45) www.newchurches.com (accessed September 11, 2010).

46) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_planting (accessed September 11, 2010).
47) www.easumbandy.com/freeresources (accessed September 12, 2010).
48) www.churchconsultations.com/freeresources/ (accessed September 12, 2010).
49) Ed Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches: Planting a Church that's Biblically Sound and Reaching
People in Culture (Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Publishing Group, 2006), 6.
- 17 -
established congregation".50)
What are objections to Church Planting among Christians? Why most of the
American church has not caught a vision for Church Planting? According to Ed Stetze
r51) there are several powerful ideas that work against such as:
1. Large-church mentality. Many leaders think that the bigger the better and for
them one large church is more attractive than multiple churches. But, as Bruce Mc
Nichol explained the findings of his research in Interest magazine, that the younger the
congregation the more people it reaches.
2. Parish-church mindset. It comes from understanding that one geographical
region is simply one parish. So, there should be only one church there. The problem is
that churches often die because people move out of rural areas. But new churches are
not started in new suburban or urban areas, because the established church of the same
denomination is too close.
3. Professional-church syndrome. One of the greatest hindrances to Church
Planting is the notion that all churches must have seminary-trained pastors to be
legitimate. Those seminary-trained pastors expect full-time salaries provided by the
established churches. Those biases hurt Church Planting.
4. Rescue-the-perishing syndrome. This is the idealistic assumption that
denominations should first rescue dying churches before planting the new ones. Ideally,
it should be done together, but many times the old congregation is almost beyond
repair.
5. Already-reached myth. Among the strongest myths is flawed understanding that
North America is already evangelized. George Hunter52) believes that there are 120
million secular undisciplined people in the United States, which makes them into the
largest mission field of Western Hemisphere or the fifth largest mission field on earth.
50) www.rca.org (accessed September 13, 2010).

51) Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches: Planting a Church that's Biblicaly Sound and Reaching People in
Culture, 7.
52) George Hunter, "The rationale for a Culturally Relevant Worship Service", Journal of American Society
for Church Growth, Worship and Growth 7 (1996): 131.
- 18 -
As I understand, pastors of established churches don't want to see new churches
next to them, since many new churches take Christians out of old churches. Pastors try
to preserve their position and influence.
Before 1980s average size of church congregation was 75 people, but during
1980s some Church Planting pioneers reached the size of membership well over one
thousand53). Two stories of pastors Rick Warren and Bill Hybels inspired many to
reach the mega-church status. The new research by Hartford (Seminary) Institute for
Religion Research uncovered at least twelve thousand Protestant churches in the U.S.
with more than two thousand weekly worship attenders.54) But after ten to fifteen years
of effort by churches to reach a mega-church status, George Barna reported in his
book "The Second Coming of the Church", that within mega-churches, the culture of
people didn't change and remained same as in the secular society55).
Basically, churches focused their attention on two approaches: tradition or
technique. Traditional churches closed themselves from the outside with high walls and
tried to preserve the way of their fathers and grandfathers "did the church". Other
churches became inspired by the new marketing techniques and they tried to imitate
mega-churches of Rick Warren or Bill Hybels, who run church like a business.
According to Ed Stetzer churches should become "missional". Missional church is
the church which plants another church at least once a year. It is estimated that it
takes over two hundred thousand dollars to launch a church in America.56) It becomes
increasingly difficult to plant churches even for big denominations.
Frank Viola in his book "So, you want to start a House Church? First century
planting for today"57) clearly states that restoration of church is not enough, there
53) Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches: Planting a Church that's Biblicaly Sound and Reaching People in
Culture, 16.
54) www.fact.hartsem.edu/megachurchnews.html (accessed September 13, 2010). Article dated May 5, 2005.
55) Stetzer, Ed, Planting Missional Churches: Planting a Church that's Biblicaly Sound and Reaching
People in Culture, 17.
57) Frank Viola, So, you want to start a House Church? First-Century Church Planting for Today (USA:
Present Testimony Ministry, 2003), 125-132.
- 19 -
should be a revolution inside Christianity. Many Christian authors in the latest part of
20th century claimed that 1990s would be "the decade of the apostle" and God will
raise up "thousands of apostles" to the grand scale. But nothing like that happened.
Some claimed that Christianity needs restoration or revival, however, if we look
historically, revivals only resurrect a dying church to the ground zero. Once it restored
and revival ends, the church continues with its practices and traditions. Frank Viola
comes to conclusion, that revivals are merely a temporary solution to a long term
problem. What needed is revolution - a complete and radical change from the bottom
to the top. We have to revolutionize our ideas of Church Planting. Another prominent
speaker Priscilla Shirer58) made this comment:
"In the first century in Palestine Christianity was a community of believers. Then
Christianity moved to Greece and became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome and
became an institution. Then it moved to Europe and became a culture. And then it
moved to America and became a business. We need to get back to being a healthy,
vibrant community of true followers of Jesus."59)
Neil Cole in his book "Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens"
describes House Church pattern as received personally, repeated easily and reproduced
strategically. He gives interesting explanation about DNA of a church60). Church can be
anything as long as it has life within based on DNA, where:
D - Divine Truth,
N - Nurturing Relationships and
A - Apostolic mission.
He explains 3 most important things Jesus taught as DNA:
58) Priscilla Shirer is a Bible teacher. She is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary, with a Master's
Degree in Biblical Studies. She has been a conference speaker for major corporations, organizations, and
Christian audiences across the United States and the world. Priscilla is now in full-time ministry to
women across the country and the world.
60) www.housechurch.ca/resources2/74_DNA_of_a_Healthy_HC_Rad_Zdero.pdf (accessed September 14, 2010).
- 20 -
Divine Truth - "love God with all your heart";
Nurturing relationships - "love one another as yourself";
Apostolic mission - "the Great Commission of Jesus".
As long as church keeps DNA it will be healthy. Surely, in different cultures it
may change its face. Frank Viola gives natural example to this in the end of his
article "Organizational vs Organic":
"In nature, there's flowering shrub called the big leaf hydrangea. If you take the
seed of that shrub and plant it in the soil of Indiana, it will yield pink flowers when
blooms. But if you take that same seed and plant it in the soil of Brazil or Poland, it
will produce blue flowers. Even more interesting, if you take the same seed and plant
it in another type of soil, it will yield purple flowers.
The big leaf hydrangea, however, will never produce thorns. It will never bear
apples. And it will never grow tall like a pine tree. Why? Because these features are
not within the DNA of the seed. In the same way, the church of Jesus Christ - when
planted properly and left on its own, without human control and institutional
interference - will produce certain features by virtue of its DNA. Like the big leaf
hydrangea, the church may look different from culture to culture, but it will have the
same basic expression wherever it 's allowed to flourish."61)
Ed Stetzer, a board member of one of the largest denominations of Southern

Baptists, admits62) that "we can not deny that potential for house churches is great in a
culture that values intimate relationships, shared leadership, transparency, and
teamwork." He says, - "I personally long for this model to become a norm. I pray that
Christians may gather in missional house communities, practicing solid New Testament
church structure, and reaching out to their neighbors." Later Ed Stetzer adds63), - "My
attraction to house church springs from its simplicity and faith./.../In my heart, I often
feel that church planting should be simpler." In the next section let's see the history of
61) www.ptmin.org/Neue.pdf (accessed September 14, 2010).

- 21 -
House Church and how it was done since Jesus time.
Section 4. History of House Church
The fact that the early Christianity can be considered a House Church Movement
has been recognized by scholars for many years64) and echoed by many writers and
practitioners in the field.65) Before we start let's understand a historic environment
before and after Jesus:
"From the time of Exodus to the first century in ancient Israel and early
Judaism the "family household" was the closest thing to a "family unit" of present.
Beyond the household larger extensions of family (clan and tribe) were important, too,
but the household would have been the most intense expression of kinship itself. Yet
these family households were different from the contemporary notion of family units.
As Biblical scholar Leo Perdue explains, these households were "multigenerational (up
to four generations) and included the social arrangement of several families, related by
blood and marriage, who lived in two or three houses, architecturally connected". Such
household typically would have included widows, servants, orphans, sojourners, workers,
and even priests tending the family shrine. And not only people, but the estate itself
was part of the household - the fields, orchards, livestock, or vineyards, for example.
These were critical to the household's survival.
It was arranged so, that it included not only the living, but the dead as well -
"ancestors, who were remembered through story and ritual and, in some sense,
continued to live through their descendants," as Perdue explains. The dead were buried
on the household's land, so they could continue as family members.
64) Roger Gehring (2004), House Church and Mission: The Importance of Household Structures in Early
Christianity, Hendricson Publishers; Robert Banks (1994), Paul's Idea of Community, Hendricson
Publishers; Del Birkey (1988), The House Church: A Model for Renewing the Church, Herald Press;
F.V. Filson (1939), "The Significance of the Early House Churches", J.Biblical Literature, 58:105-112
65) Rad Zdero (2004), The Global House Church Movement, William Carey Library; Steve Atkerson (ed.)
(2003), Ekklesia: To the Roots of Biblical Church Life, New testament Restoration Foundation,
(www.ntrf.org); Robert Fitts (2001), The Church in the House, Preparing the Way Publishers; Wolfgang
Simson (1998), Houses that Change the World, Paternoster Publishing.
- 22 -
In all, the household included the dead ancestors of the past, those living in the
present, and those yet to be born." The ancient household could generate much of its
own work, play, community, shelter, religion, education, affection, and could continue
for generations.
The households of early Christianity also shake our imaginations, compared to
contemporary home life. Houses did not separate public and private life in any manner
even approaching the way we, in American or any Western society, imagine. In a
typical Roman house, as New Testament scholars Carolyn Oseik and David Balch
describe anyone could enter the vestibule or atrium of a household, reserving private
space only for dining rooms, bedrooms, and baths. In other words home life itself was
more public than typical homes today.
There is another factor of the first century that intensifies the importance of
households in relation to religion. Recall that this century witnessed the destruction of
the temple. These made households even more critical. When, during Babylonian exile
in VI BC, the temple was destroyed, the household protected the faith and let Judaism
to survive. In this regard the first century was similar. As the center of worship
collapsed, household worship became crucial. Judaism particularly was persecuted as a
religion, and over and again, the household practice brought hope as well as survival.
In early Christianity (or churches), the household was decisive as well; these
households were the churches. The apostle Paul established these "ekklesia" (Greek
word for assemblies) all over the pagan world, and they met in households for
worship and meals. When groups became too large for the space, another "church" was
founded elsewhere.
Given such domestic origins, it is probably no accident that "family" language
became so important to churches. In his letters Paul repeatedly calls these people
brothers and sisters. For Paul, life in Spirit is life in the family with others as brothers
and sisters. It is life of love and kindness and patience. It is life where the gifts of
each contribute to a common welfare - where money and food are freely distributed to
any who have need, not just to the hardest working family members. In Jesus parables,
God is like the father who runs with open arms to the lost son, like the woman who
seeps the house until she finds the lost coin. Home powerfully shaped the religious
imagination and practice of early Christianity."66)
66) J. Bradley Wigger, The Power of God at Home (Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass, 2003), 117.
- 23 -
An oikos (ancient Greek: οἶκος, plural: οἶκοι, English prefix: Eco for Ecology
and Economics) is the ancient Greek equivalent of a household, house, or family67). As
in ancient society generally, the oikos represented the basic unit for community life of
the early Christian movement.68) Houses were the architectural, social, and economic
foundation of local life. The oikos house consisted of two parts: one dominated by
female and another by male. Woman ruled domestic affairs and rarely left the house.
Man, however, was the head of the household. He was responsible for presenting the
interest of the oikos to the public and to protect his family.
At least in the early days, the triclinium69) (often in conjunction with the
courtyard or atrium) provided an ideal room for teaching and preaching ministries,
baptism, and other missional activities. Because of physical limitations, on average
twenty to forty people could fit in such a house church of ancient Roman empire.
Only from the third century we see a growing tendency in Christianity toward
buildings owned by the congregation and used exclusively for religious purposes. Then
with emperor Constantine we see the beginning of a period characterized by large
basilical church buildings.70)
What was the starting point of House Church? It was the training exercise that
Jesus gave to his first circle of followers which served as the ultimate model for later
imitation71):
"After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two
ahead of him to every town and place where he was to go. He told them, "The
harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to
sent out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you like lambs among
wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.
When you enter the house, first say, 'Peace to this house.' If a man of peace is there,
67) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oikos (accessed September 15, 2010).

69) A couch facing three sides of a rectangular table, used by the ancient Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans
for reclining at meals. Source: www.thefreedictionary.com/triclinia (accessed September 15, 2010).
- 24 -
your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating
and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move
around from house to house. When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is
set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is
near you.' But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and
say, 'Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet
be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.'"72)
Del Birkey calls Jesus' strategy as "household strategy" in five points:73)
"...there are several important insights here regarding Jesus' household strategy.
First, Jesus organized his disciples into small teams, possibly for the sake of mutual
accountability and support during their mission. Second, they were to fully rely on
God's ability to meet all their physical needs, while they stayed focused on looking for
a house of peace. Third, if they did indeed find such a person, they were to enjoy the
hospitality of the host and understand this as God's provision for them. Fourth, they
were to remain in that home and build a base of operations there, reaching out to the
friends, family, and neighbours connected to that household. Fifth, they were never
spend an undue amount of time in an area that resisted their message, but they were
to move on in search of a more receptive audience and household."74)
Rad Zdero defines "verbal proclamation of the message in a public settings" as a

starting point:
"...a very common practice of Jesus (or his apostoles) was that of verbal
proclamation of the message in a public settings. The strategy used was to find an
area in town that acted as a natural gathering place for the citizens, whether it was a
72) Luke 10:1-11; see also Luke 9:1-6.

73) Del Birkey, D.Min., served in pastoral, evangelistic, and teaching ministries in churches and as a
visiting seminary professor. He is the author of the House Church: A Model for Renewing the Church
(1988) and The Fall of Patriarchy: Its Broken Legacy Judged by Jesus and the Apostolic House Church
Communities (2005). Email: delbirkey@birkey.com.
- 25 -
riverbank, a synagogue, the Jerusalem Temple courts, a lecture hall, or a market place.
/.../ anyone, who responded positively to the message of Christ would either be
encouraged to join an existing home church or, if this was a new work in the area,
would be encouraged to open up their own house as the first spiritual house in that
town."75)
Very often Jesus' message raised controversy followed by persecution. Persecution

actually helped to spread Jesus message even faster. As we see from this Bible verse:
"And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem; and
they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the
apostoles. And some devout men burried Stephen, and made loud lamentation over
him. But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house; dragging off men
and women, he put them in prison. Therefore, those who had been scattered went
about preaching the word."76)
How were the early House Churches connected? Theologically apostles promoted
that the church is united as the body of Christ, but apostolic efforts played an
important role in order to connect the scattered House Church in the vast Roman
empire. Again, Rad Zdero distinguishes three key components working toward this end,
namely house-to-house meetings, large group meetings, and traveling apostolic worker
s.77) Since church integrated with oikos structures, as a result, the composition of the
early Christian movement was not limited to specific groups in the population. It also
enabled continuity, duration, and most importantly, tradition.
"With the integration into oikos structures, the Christian church became capable
of long-term survival and was given the potential to transition from one generation to
the next".78)
76) Acts 8:1-4.
- 26 -
Second component of connection of House Church Movement, as the record
shows, was that individual believers and House Churches considered themselves part
of a single citywide church. However, even those occasional and special gatherings on
city level were no competition to the dominant practice of home-based churches.79)
A third key component of relationships among House Church Movement was
travelling apostolic workers (itinerant workers), who had the responsibility of coaching
the growing House Church Movement. They used two ways of training: personal visits
and letters. In modern House Church Movement itinerant workers sometimes are called
the circuit riders.
We can show the early church as an
organized House Church Movement
through this diagram80). Del Birkley
suggests that "the house church positively
influenced the development of the church's
leaders." Rather than inheriting leadership,
the House Church structure imparted,
through the heads of the households,
actual leadership which in turn determined
the form of church's life.81) So, early
Christian strategy (especially Paul's) can be
called a household strategy.82)
The main cultural characteristic of such households was hospitality, an expression
of God's love to others. In "Early Christian Hospitality: A Factor in the Gospel
Transmission," R.W. Riddle points to hospitality:
"These examples of hospitality suggest that the custom may account for a
81) Floyd V. Filson, "The Significance of the Early House Churches", Journal of Biblical Literature 58
(1939), 112; see also 1 Cor 16:16.
- 27 -
notable phenomenom of those days: the acceptance of the traveling preacher's message
by entire households...that the primitive churches were house-churches is a detail of
this, and an aspect of early Christian hospitality...This brings the student directly to the
social processes in Christianity's expansion. One of them was early Christian hospitality.
In it one sees an ultimate medium of Christianity's growth. Observing early Christian
hospitality, venturing to look into the early Christian household, one sees a very
charming, as it was a very effective aspect of early Christian life."83)
What can we find out more about local leadership in the early house churches?
"The New Testament record utilizes several different terms for local leaders,
namely 'presbyter' (Greek=presbuteros, meaning 'elder'), 'bishop' (Greek=episkopos,
meaning 'overseer'), and 'pastor' (Greek=poimen, meaning 'shepherd'). Significantly, from
a cross-comparison of the key scriptures on local leadership it is evident, in effect, that
presbyter=elder=bishop=overseer=pastor=shepherd. These terms refer to one and the
same person, though each highlights a specific role or duty. This demonstrated ably by
New Testament professor Gerald Cowen."84)
Paul wanted elders appointed in each church and town.85) Actually, the
first-century Jewish synagogue system provided the cultural and religious background
for the early Christian house churches. It is significant, that a team of elders was
responsible for each local synagogue.86) The apostles provide guidelines regarding the
qualifications of elders.87) Both character and competence had to be evident in local
church leaders. The household heads provided best material to become such leaders.
They had to have character, basic management skills and ability to teach. What about
83) Donald W. Riddle, "Early Christian Hospitality: A factor in the Gospel Transmission," Journal of
Biblical Literature 57 (1938), 152-154. See also J.B. Jordan, "God's Hospitality and Holistic
Evangelism," The Journal of Christian Reconstruction 17 (1981), 87-113.
84) Gerald Cowen, Who Rules the Church? (Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2003), 5-16.
85) Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5.
86) Richard Ascough, What are they saying about the Formation of Pauline Churches? (Paulist Press,
1998), 13.
87) Acts 20:28-35; 1 Thesis 5:12-13; 1 Tim 3:1-13, 5:17-18; Titus 1:5-16; James 5:14-18; 1 Pet 5:1-3.
- 28 -
the monetary support of local leaders? Unlike travelling leaders who clearly did receive
material assistance88), local house church leaders carried out their ministries on an
unpaid, volunteer basis. Even more, elders were to give and support the church
financially. There were clear differences between missions of Paul and local House
Church leaders such as:
First, Paul's mission was unique. It is itinerant, not local. It is constantly on the
move and focused on evangelism, reaching out. Second, he was clearly purpose
oriented: the preaching of the gospel and establishing of churches. Third, he had an
authority over churches he established as a spiritual founder. Not authoritarian, but
local churches always considered his opinion as coming from authority, given to him
by God. In a sense, he was a professional, by dedicating his life solely to one purpose
of spreading Jesus message to the Gentiles. Through Paul's love all churches were
connected more through personal, than structural links. Paul seeks to develop, not
dominate or regulate local communities.
Talking about leadership Willie Jubert89) suggests so-called five-fold ministry of
apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher in the first century church.90) This
supports the opinion that board of elders should take care of local church, since it's
impossible for one person to have all the gifts. In other words, House Churches started
with the core group, where people with gifts took responsibility for the house church.
Itinerant workers such as Paul always raised leaders from local community to be in
charge. They had to unite and share and not dominate others. Such naked pursuit of
power was severely criticized by Jesus, the apostle Paul, and the apostle Peter.91)
"Actually, the attempts to take over a house church were evident in New
88) Matt 27:55; John 12:4-6, 13:29; Luke 10:1-9; 1 Cor 9:1-18; Philip 4:14-19.
89) Willie Joubert has a Ph.D. degree in theology and Master's degree in Semitic Languages. His ministry
experience includes teaching at university and ministering in denominational and non-denominational
churches. He has written a number of books on house churches. He is currently a house church
practitioner living just outside Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Email: breakthrough_prayer@hotmail.com.
91) Matt 20:25-28, 23:6-12; Acts 20:29-30; 1 Pet 5:3.
- 29 -
Testament. In a well-known case, a local elder named Diotrephes attempted to gain
personal prominence and power, refused to work with travelling Christian workers,
rejected letters to the church from the apostle John, and even expelled believers who
would not abide by his directives."92)
An overview of New Testament church is over. As we move away from it, we

see hierarchical Christianity raising to power, by single individuals dominating the
Christian communities. Most influential in this regard was emperor Constantine's
acceptance of Christianity. Two authors, Nate Krupp with Janice Woodrum93), states:
"Eventually, the Roman emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the fourth

century AD and offered the church power, prestige, and position, which led to the
state-church partnership, special church buildings, a rigid clergy system, and an influx
of formalism and laxity into the churches. /.../ the established Roman Catholic church
introduce special clergy clothing (500), image and relic worship (786), holy water
(850), canonization of dead saints (995), celibacy of the priesthood (1079), religious
crusades and persecution of heretics (1000-1600), the teachings of purgatory (1439),
and the eventual placement of church tradition on an equal footing with the Bible
(1545)."94)
After that, step by step, God was restoring the church to New Testament
Christianity, using house church movements. In the article "The Fall and Rise of the
Church: the Principle of Restoration" Nate Krupp with Janice Woodrum continues to
explain what were those particular movements, that sought to purify Christianity:
"The Monastics (150) reminded the church about the need for the full operation
of the spiritual gifts and disciplined living. The Monastics (300) brought back the idea
of true community and focused devotion to God through prayer and meditation. The
93) Janice Woodrum is preparing a second edition of The Church Triumphant at the End of the Age. With
her husband, Dave, she will be assuming the oversight of Preparing the Way Publishers in 2007.
- 30 -
Priscillianists (350) brought back the importance of small group for discipleship. The
Celtic Missionary Movement (400s-700s) through believers like Patrick and Columba
restored the practice of traveling apostolic teams that would plant churches in
unreached areas. The Waldenses (1100s and 1200s) utilized traveling preachers, home
meetings, and the priesthood of all believers. Through John Wyclife (1350) came wide
distribution of the Bible among the people.
The Reformation brought about rediscovery of justification by faith in Christ
alone (Martin Luther/1520). God used the Anabaptists (1500s) to restore water baptism
for believers only. The Quakers (1600s) put into practice open church meetings where
everyone could participate as the Lord prompted them. The Methodists (1700s)
incorporated small discipleship groups, traveling preachers and teachers, and outdoor
evangelism and helped usher in the Great awakening. A vision to evangelize the world
returned to the church through the Moravians (1700s). William Carey (1800s), and
others. An emphasis on the person and work of the Holy Spirit returned to the church
through the Pentecostals and Charismatics (1900s). In the 20th century, we have seen a
restoration of personal evangelism and discipleship through Navigators, Campus Crusade
for Christ, the cell group movement, and many others."95)
Frank Viola in his book "So You Want to Start a House Church?" explains the
recent history of "house church movement" in two waves:
"In the late 1960s and early 1970s the United States saw its first move of God
outside religious system. Countless converts were made during this time period. Many
of them met in primitive simplicity of homes without a clergy. Most of these budding
"house churches" were populated with young people."96)
Unfortunately, many clerical leaders came and introduced system, based on

legalism and authoritarianism. The movement died down. The Second Wave of House
Church, as explained by Frank Viola, was during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
96) Frank Viola, So, you want to start a House Church? First-Century Church Planting for Today (USA:
Present Testimony Ministry, 2003), 120-122.
- 31 -
"It was at this time that the phrase "house church movement" was born. /.../
Most were Christians who were disaffected with the institutional church. So they left
their sacred buildings. They dumped their pastors. And they began to gather in homes.
"97)
As a reaction to the first wave House Church Movement "failed to receive those
whom God has genuinely sent." Many untested leaders guide those House Churches98).
In my opinion, the movement in China, India and Afrika moves not only outside
organized religion, but outside Western hemisphere as well. I think God is raising an
army of believers, because Western Christians had failed to do so. Next section will
present Pros and Cons of House Churches around the world.
Section 5. Practical Issues.
John Hick99), probably "one of the most – if not simply the most – significant
philosopher of religion in the twentieth century"100), once wrote:
"Religious hierarchy could not stand Jesus' message of the immediate presence of
God as unlimitedly gracious and unlimitedly demanding love. For it spelt the death of
religion, if we mean by religion the human organization of the God-man relationships.
The priestly religion of Jerusalem with which Jesus dashed was a highly developed and
professional organizing of this relationship, channeling it within an elaborate network of
sacred laws and customs. And if those laws really were sacred, then Jesus was
anti-sacred and blasphemous in living and teaching a direct relationship to God with
97) Viola, So, you want to start a House Church? First-Century Church Planting for Today, 120-122.
99) Professor John Harwood Hick (born Yorkshire, England, 1922) is a philosopher of religion and
theologian. In philosophical theology, he has made contributions in the areas of theodicy, eschatology,
and Christology, and in the philosophy of religion he has contributed to the areas of epistemology of
religion and religious pluralism.
100) Robert Smid, John Harwood Hick, Boston Collaborative Encyclopedia of Western Theology, 1998-1999
www.people.bu.edu/wwildman/WeirdWildWeb/courses/mwt/dictionary/mwt_themes_875_hick.htm#John%20Harwo
od%20Hick (accessed September 16, 2010).
- 32 -
practical implications spreading out over the whole of life, far beyond the narrow
ecclesiastical channels."101)
History repeats itself. Same is happening today and in the West Christians are
fleeing institutional church. The very same is true for China, India, Africa and the rest
of the world. What is the best way to be immersed with God's love? We discuss
House Church Movement, because we think it has to be the best way. But what can
be improved in practical sense in order to make it an ideal? What are arguments
against House Churches? What are they lacking? Ed Stetzer states:
"...the claim many have expressed for years that this expression of church
structure (House Church) will be prominent in the future. Observers of church growth
have heard this claim during Jesus movement of the 1960s, the charismatic movement
of the 1980s, and the 'House Church' networks of the 1990s. None provided a
long-term viable model of church structure. When their visionary leaders passed, they
dissolved or reverted to more common models."102)
According to Ed Stetzer House Churches were short-lived, because they lacked "a
long-term model of church structure". Another problem he states is "visionary leaders",
because as soon as they were gone, the House Church Movement passed too. This is
exactly what my thesis' hypothesis is about - strategy and vision of long-term culture
and structure of worldwide House Church network. Since my conclusions will be at the
end of this thesis, I will present some opinions from Christian point of view. George
Barna in his report103) during National House Church Conference listed few problems.
First, lack of great leadership. What is leadership anyway? Barna defined
leadership as "the act of motivating, mobilizing, resourcing and directing people to
pursue and fulfill a vision from God that uniquely, strategically and intentionally
101) John Hick, The Center of Christianity (San Francisco : Harper & Row, 1978), 23.
102) Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches: Planting a Church that's Biblicaly Sound and Reaching People
in Culture, 173.
103) www.h2hfiles.info/MAG_issue_10.pdf (accessed September 16, 2010).
- 33 -
advances His kingdom through life transformation." Everything, such leader does, starts
with the vision. What is the vision? Barna defines vision as "a compelling mental
portrait of a preferable future, communicated by God and His chosen leaders, based
upon an accurate understanding of God, self and circumstances, for the purpose of
advancing God's kingdom." And he continues - "Christian leadership is a revolutionary
undertaking. A revolution is an overthrow of the prevalent way of living and doing.
We need to ask ourselves, "What does it take to sustain a revolution of faith?""
As I previously mentioned, according to Frank Viola104), "the average lifespan of
a house church is 6 months to two years." Why it is so short-lived? Barna insists that
"leaders can not create a revolution; they can foster intense commitment." It seems to
me, that lack of visionary leaders, created a lack of commitment in House Church
participants. I would compare it to a family, where the lack of vision and commitment
ends up in divorce. Church and family works side by side and we can see this parallel
clearly in early Christianity. Modern confusion and corruption of family values created
a culture of selfish individualism, that goes contrary to Christian community values of
service, sacrifice, and hospitality.
On the very practical side, Barna suggests that if we want lasting results than
"children has to be at the heart of the process". I think it is very important practical
issue. In his book "Growing the church from the outside in" he speaks about it:
"A study we conducted recently revealed that if we calculate the probabilities of

people accepting Jesus Christ as their savior, those between the ages of 5 and 13 have
a 32 percent probability; individuals in the 14 to 18 age range have a 4 percent
probability; and people between the ages of 19 and death have a 6 percent chance. In
other words, we have the greatest window of opportunity for reaching people with the
gospel before they reach their teenage years."105)
Another very important group of people to be involved is women. Pastor Yonggi

Cho said about women that "they are born to talk". He also experienced that women

105) George Barna, Grow your church from the outside in (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 2002), 45.
- 34 -
are better workers for the church.106) Most home cell groups are led by women,
because most of them are housewives and have a lot of time. One time pastor Cho
was speaking in Strasbourg, France, to ministers. Most of the ministers had a negative
attitude towards this concept. They said, "It is not in the Bible. We can not use
women." Finally, pastor Cho concluded: "You will never have a growing church if you
neglect to use the women in your church".107)
Here are the reasons why people leave an institutional church and start a House
Church (according to Frank Viola108)): got hurt; looking for relationships; men desire to
minister; bored; looking for an alternative; they were kicked out of their church. It is
often self-centered motivation for joining a church:
"today the gospel is very human centered: 'you are the sinner, so, you need to
be saved. In order to be saved - believe this message and you will go to heaven'.
What is the center of this message (even if it is true)? It's human beings. Or, 'you are
sick, God wants you well', or 'you are in poverty, God wants you to prosper', or 'look
at the earth, it's corrupt, let's make the earth a better place'. All is true. It is correct,
but not complete, because the center of it is you and I, me. But God has an eternal
purpose. Center of this purpose is His son. We have to live up to that. It is totally
different perspective. We need God's vision and purpose."109)
Such "human centered" gospel brings the big problem of fragmentation, - people
compete with each other rather than cooperate. Western activists of House Churches
say that there should be no hierarchy or even no leaders in the House Churches.
However, the early church in Jerusalem was under Peter's guidance, the churches
outside of Israel were led by Paul. Actually, House Churches in China has leaders and
are very organized:
106) Kevin Keating, Church Growth and the Home Cell System (Seoul: Church Growth International, 1995),
92, 120.
107) Keating, Church Growth and the Home Cell System, 123.
108) www.ptmin.podbean.com (accessed September 17, 2010).
109) www.housechurchresource.org/audios.html (accessed September 18, 2010). Audio named From Eternity
to Here 1.
- 35 -
"The top leaders asked their provincial and regional leaders to submit reports.
These people then gathered statistics from grassroots house church leaders, who operate
at the city and county level. The information was then collated by the top leaders,
who were gathered at the special meeting. The combined total membership of the
house church networks present at the meeting came to 58 million people, while the net
growth rate of each church group was reported to be between 12.5% and 17.5% per
year."110)
They have leaders at all levels: top leaders, provincial and regional leaders, also
house church leaders at city and county, and grassroots as well; all in one united
system of House Churches working underground in the Communist country. Western
countries, especially the States, are lacking in this regard. I would mention some
problems of Western Christianity, that prevents them to organize themselves:
1) denominationalism;
2) broken families and immorality;
3) materialism and individualism, lack of ideology.
Another serious issue outside the West is the lack of indigenous church plantin
g111). When missionaries from the West came, they tried to westernize locals of other
cultures, such as Africa, South-East Asia or any other. That created many problems in
the past. Many Christian missionaries were killed, because they didn't study local
culture first. In some cases it led even to wars, such as Crusades in the Dark Ages of
medieval Europe. My country (Lithuania) was the last country in Europe to accept
Christianity, because of bloodshed and slavery brought by Crusades. The wars in the
name of God are sometimes called "wars of civilizations" or "religious wars". Today
Christian and Islam civilizations seem to be heading toward such a war.
The early Christianity showed that House Churches are a very sustainable system.
Based on families and households it spread through out the world and won over the
Roman empire. That is exactly the argument for House Churches - its simplicity and
family-centeredness. The mediators, who would like to control it are removed and
111) www.newchurches.com/mediafiles/Indigenous_Church_Planting.pdf (accessed September 19, 2010).
- 36 -
people can come to God in their homes on their own terms not as individuals, but as
families. Let's look into those cases of House Churches around the world in the next
section.
- 37 -
Section 6. Case Study.
Here is an account on House Church Movement given by Ed Stetzer, who writes

in his recent book:112)
"Up until recently, the concept of House church in North America was relegated
to the back corner in the church world. This continues to be the method God uses in
most parts of the world to rapidly expand his kingdom (China is great example, with
estimates of more than fifty million "underground" Christians meeting in house
churches). /.../But the phenomenom seems to be picking up some steam, and even
caught the attention of the New York Times several years ago: "A growing number of
Christians across a country are choosing a do-it-yourself worship experience in what
they call a "house church." Although numbers for such an intentionally decentralized
religious phenomena are hard to pin down, as many as 1,600 groups in all 50 states
are listed on house church Web sites."113)
There are some statistics about House Church Movement around the world:114)
(See diagram115) with the map in the previous page.) I will go through most
characteristic House Church Movements in U.S.A., China, Latin America, India and
touch the rest of the world. George Barna completed survey "The State of the House
Church Movement in America." where detailed report on US is given:116)
1. Size: Between 5 million and 20 million people each week. Roughly 9-11% of
the adult population is involved. About 5 million view their House Church as a
complete church.
2. Demographics: 5 million participants are young, born again, from the south,
black, they home school and are not registered to vote. About half of them attend
112) Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches: Planting a Church that's Biblicaly Sound and Reaching People
in Culture, 171.
113) www.nytimes.com/2001/04/29/national/29PRAY.html (accessed September 20, 2010).
114) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_church (accessed September 21, 2010).
115) www.housechurch.ca (accessed September 21, 2010).
- 38 -
conventional church as well.
3. Longevity: Only 21% of participants have been attending House Church for 1
year or more - clearly a sign of recent phenomenal growth.
4. Length of Meeting: An average meeting is 90 min. Only 6% meet for 3 hours
or more.
5. Day of meeting: 29% Wednesday, 25% Sunday.
6. Routine: 60% always follow the same routine (reminds conventional church,
only in the house).
7. Average size: 15 people and 5 children. One third have no kids involved.
8. What they do: They serve one another (94%), read the Bible (91%), talk and
eat (88%), pray (87%), share needs (83%), have teaching (80%), and discussion (75%),
prophesy (71%), have music (65%), have communion (53%), take offerings (43%) and
watch videos (41%).
9. 72% are satisfied with the sense of community they have. So much for the
numbers.
What about the culture of house church movement? I mentioned some of it.
Christian researcher Barna recognizes that house church movement in America is
currently under struggle, because people don't know what to do with it. There is a lack
of leadership, because 4 out of 5 are not leaders. Current leaders compete with each
other rather than cooperate. Movement is too fragmented. There is a tension within HC
movement between apostles and prophets on one side, who lead a spiritual revolution
and consultants and staff on the other, who want to turn this movement into another
reorganization campaign without changing much. George Barna wishes to see
revolutionary passion and dedication of leaders, and young people joining in. Many HC
people are negative toward the conventional church.
According to Barna lasting results will come, if children become the heart of the
process. At this moment House Churches do not sufficiently emphasize the importance
of growing children and women-leaders. Barna strongly believes, that the war is won
or lost by the age of 13. Revolution is necessary, not reorganization or simple revival.
Frank Viola distinguishes more than 10 streams inside American House Church
- 39 -
Movement inspired by different personalities such as Gene Edwards, Watchman Nee
and Stephen Kaung, T. Austin Sparks, Witness Lee, Kenneth Hagin, Kennetth
Copeland, Fred Price, Charles Capps, Latter Rain, Sam Fife and George Warnock, Bill
Gothard and others. On the contrary Chinese House Church don't know anything about
them, they are happy, if they have a Bible.
Why American House Church activists call Chinese House Churches "radical"? In
the interview by Denny Kenanston for the Remnant Magazine117) two Americans
(names are hidden) connected with persecuted church in China explains that the leaders
pray three to four hours a day and that is normal. They have many all-night vigils and
by the morning the floor is slippery, because of the tears, that had been shed. There
are two kinds of fasting in China. Many times pastors don't have money to buy food.
Other times they fast in order to solve some spiritual issue. The first time 20 people
were sent out to preach, only one returned, the rest were arrested for 6 months.
Another group of 20 were sent out, same thing happened, in addition one lady came
back on the stretcher. They smashed her skull, she was paralyzed. The Chinese
Christians believe they live in the book of Acts. They are not praying for miracles,
they are living in miracles. There is no emphasis on intellectual and mental aspects of
the Bible, but on preaching and Holy Spirit. The strategy is simple: the leaders instruct
the evangelism teams to go to the new village and inquire about the worst problem in
the village. Then they are to go and minister to that problem and show that Jesus is
all-powerful Savior. With this success they turn people around and preach Jesus to
them.
Paul Hattaway118) gives detailed and historic account on Chinese Christianity.
According to him, there were only 700,000 Protestants and three to four million
Catholics at the time, when communists took power in 1949. At present, between 80
to 100 million Protestants and at least 12 million Catholic believers are meeting in

118) Paul Hattaway is the director of Asia Harvest (www.asiaharvest.org), an inter-denominational ministry
dedicated to evangelism and church planting in the restricted countries of Asia. The ministry works
alongside Asian church leaders, helping and equipping them to reach the lost.
- 40 -
both registered churches and illegal house church gatherings.
"Some experts estimate that 30,000 Chinese are coming to Christ each day,
which works out to more than 10 million new believers annually (in comparison
approximately 55,000 babies are born each day in China)."119)
The most famous Protestant missionary to China was James

Hudson Taylor (1832-1905), the founder of the non-denominational
China Inland Mission. At his time all missionary activity was
concentrated in the hands of Western missionaries. In an ethnocentric
and proud nation like China, people can never accept "foreign
religion". The church with Western trappings in China was growing
slowly during the missionary era. Foreign missionary zeal started to
wane and they announced a failure of mission in China.
On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong climbed a podium and announced the birth of
the People's Republic of China. Communists watched Christians for a while, then, at
once, many pastors were sent for 20 years in prison labor camps. By 1953 almost all
foreign missionaries had been expelled from China. Missionaries thought everything was
lost. Author states that "the brutal persecution resulted in the church being stripped of
all the external things associated with Christianity. Church buildings were destroyed or
confiscated. Bibles and hymn books were burned, while almost entire leadership was
removed. Many renounced Christianity and runaway, only true Christians remained,
standing on Lord Jesus Christ himself."120)
Communists efforts actually paved the way for rapid spread of the gospel. They
removed China's idolatry, which created spiritual void in millions of people. Train lines,
roads and airports were constructed for easy travel. Instead of thousands of dialects
Mandarin was adopted as an official language and is used in all media and education.
120) David H. Adeney, China: The Church's Long March, Regal Books: Ventura, CA, USA, 1985,
146-165.
- 41 -
Large-scale projects to remove illiteracy were undertaken. Control of media resulted in
the hunger for printed word.
What are the strengths of China's House Church Movement? In his book China:
The Church's Long March121), Adeney documented the following:
1. The house churches are indigenous. They developed their own forms.
2. The house churches are rooted in family units.
3. The house churches are stripped of non-essentials. They are extremely flexible.
4. The house churches are praying churches.
5. The house churches depend on lay leadership.
6. The house churches have been purified by suffering.
7. The house churches are zealous in evangelism.
According to most recent BBC news122) Chinese government is investing millions
of dollars for the sake of Christians. State is building a large sanctuary, which could
hold 5,000 people. It looks like the period of persecution is over. But I would not get
to excited about it. During communist rule there always had been state-controlled
Christian church. Actually in a thesis "Development of a Model Curriculum for
Theological Education of the Chinese House Church Leaders" Lan Wang123) clearly
stated that there is a tension between House Churches and state-controlled church. It
seems to me, that government is trying to lure Christians from the underground, but at
the same time keeps control. Since Communist government could not suppress
Christianity, it tries to tempt it with power, glory and riches as did emperor
Constantine many years ago. However, encouraging trend is the fact that 54% of
House Church leaders in China are young people between 20 to 30 years old, because
of the spread of the gospel in the university campuses.124)
Another interesting natural development is taking place in Latin America, and
121) David H. Adeney, China: The Church's Long March, 146-165.

122) www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11020947 (accessed September 23, 2010).
123) Lan Wang, Development of a Model Curriculum for Theological Education of the Chinese House
Church Leaders (Seoul: Torch Trinity Graduate School of Theology, 2008).
Church Leaders, 47.
- 42 -
surprisingly, in a Roman Catholic Context! John Driver's article explains:
"In 1956, the Bishop of Barra do Pirai, in the district of Rio de Janeiro,
initiated a program for evangelization in his diocese. The program was begun after an
old woman complained that no priest would serve their neighbourhood. This challenge
led to serious reflection within the Brazilian church."125)
Local communities, called Basic Ecclesial Communities126) (BECs) were created,

where lay-leaders, mostly primary school teachers, were mobilized. Service projects
were born, 1,410 radio schools were created in remote areas. Those communities of
faith don't depend on ministry of ordained clergy. Communities usually are made of
15-20 low income families. Meetings are spend in Bible reading, reflection and prayer.
The coordinators of those communities are often women. In BECs faith and life are
seen to be one and the same. Members of BECs have sometimes been persecuted,
even killed, but it only strengthened them.
What is the response from Roman Catholic Church's Hierarchy? Some members
of the established church desire to put BECs under firmer control. The Pope stated that
BECs should be officially presided over by a priest. BECs worry, that their vital role
among common people will be severely restricted if the communities are controlled by
church hierarchy. For a number of years, Rome has put pressure on those Catholic
theologians who encourage and defend BECs. The future is uncertain, but hopefull,
since these communities are authentic signs of God's Kingdom in presence.
House church movement in India must be mentioned. The case study was
presented by Victor Choudhrie127). In India 100,000 house churches emerged in a few
short years, from 2001 to 2006. 19th century saw the British missionaries with the
125) Zdero (ed.), NEXUS: The World House Church Movement Reader, 378-381.
126) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_ecclesial_community (accessed September 24, 2010).
127) Victor Choudhrie is a well-respected and accomplished former cancer surgeon. He received his training
in India and is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in the U.K. In 1992, he and his wife Bindu
began a full-time church planting ministry that has resulted in thousands of house churches planted in
India and around the world. He is an author of Greet the Ekklesia in Your House (2005). Email:
vchoudrie@gmail.com.
- 43 -
baggage of Western denominationalism, church buildings, reverends, mission compounds,
theological seminaries, Christmas, Easter, and other traditions. The system would fail to
penetrate even 1% of the population.
According to an author "the family now has to model their homes as the
household of the Heavenly Father and be accountable to each other as much as to
Him." Return to family based, simple, organic and relational church is necessary. Most
of leaders of this house church movement are highly committed nationals-Indians, not
trained in seminaries, they come from a secular professional background and use their
entrepreneurial skills in mission.
What are the weaknesses? Still the leaders are not skilled enough to work in
India's multi-cultural, multi-religious, and multi-linguistic environment. Secondly, an
oligarchy of Western church leadership, that controls, manages, manipulates, and hordes
the international forums with their superior communication and multi-tasking skills,
refuses to hand over responsibility for India's sons. Thirdly, even today, the church
refuses to empower women, who form 70-80% of the congregation. Fourthly, it has
been very difficult for church leaders to accept plurality in five-fold ministry leadership.
Vertical hierarchical leadership is still dominant way. Fifthly, because many villagers in
rural areas are illiterate, the gospel preaching should use story telling, not traditional
theological-intellectual discourses. Finally, the planting of "radio churches" can transform
fast this nation of India. As the author put it: "God struggles with humans on India's
soil in order to build His kingdom."128)
There are other case studies as well. I cannot cover all of them, just most
important. In the end of this section I want to mention one quote from the case of
Great Britain's House Church Movement during late 1960s and early 1970s129):
128) Zdero (ed.), NEXUS: The World House Church Movement Reader, 304-309.
129) John Noble has been involved in the British House Church Movement and charismatic renewal since
coming back to the Lord in the late 1950s. He led network of churches called Team Spirit until it
linked in with the Pioneer network in 1993. He has been Chairman of the National Charismatic Leaders
Conference since 1984 and is an international speaker and author. He and his wife Christine also give
leadership to Spirit connect (www.spiritconnect.org), which is a group of churches within Pioneer
(www.pioneer.co.uk). They have five children and 15 grandchildren and have always lived in community
- 44 -
"While church in the home featured strongly in all that emerged, developing
spiritual communities which could influence the locality was also extremely important.
In the church we planted in 1967 in North East London, around 200 people lived
within 400 meters of one another, sharing their lives and possessions. This greatly
impacted the streets where we lived as well as the banks, schools, and businesses in
the small urban area in which we were located. But what was it that drew people
together in such a strong commitment? At the heart of our vision was a Jesus-centered
kingdom message which brought the natural and spiritual realms together and dealt a
fatal blow to the evil sacred/secular divide. We saw that the kingdom of heaven was
coming to earth..."130)
or extended family situations. Email: john@spiritconnect.org.

- 45 -
CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW ON HOUSE CHURCH IN
UNIFICATION CHURCH.
Section 1. Disclaimer.
"The period of the Second Advent is parallel to the time of Jesus. The situations
unfolding in Christianity today are similar to those which took place in Judaism at
Jesus' time. Let us examine some of these parallels.
Today's Christianity, like the Judaism of Jesus' day, adheres too rigidly to
institutional authority and ceremonies, while internally it is corrupt.
Christian leaders today, like the Jewish leaders of Jesus' day, will probably be
the first to persecute Christ at the Second Advent."131)
The history repeats and today, similarly to Jesus 2,000 years ago, Unification
Church (UC) claims the highest vision in the world. In response it is severely
persecuted. The reason is simple and profound: Sun Myung Moon, the founder of UC,
is the Messiah, the Christ, the Lord of the Second Advent. There is no person in the
history of humankind, who was persecuted more than him. And still, even in his
advanced age (born 1920), he is not recognized yet. So, when I start explaining this
profound truth he taught us, I feel trepidation. It means so much to me, but so little
to others. For this reason, I have to put a disclaimer here:
"Don't judge everything you read from the start. Analyse and reason with it,
wrestle with it, but don't be arrogant with it. The cost of these words were too high
to dismiss them lightly. He maybe isn't an authority to you, but he certainly is a man,
who pushed through all persecution and never gave up. Thanks."
Section 2. History of God's Providence.
God is the Creator and we have to come back to Him, if we want to build an
131) HSA-UWC, Exposition of the Divine Principle (Seoul: Sung Hwa Publishing Co., LTD, 2000), 407.
- 46 -
ideal world, that will endure forever. God created human beings, namely Adam and
Eve, out of love. The most central core of God is heart which is the "emotional
impulse to seek joy through love."132) "Therefore, an irrepressible desire to love means
that an object of love was absolutely necessary."133) In other words, God wanted to
experience love and joy through His children, Adam and Eve; God wanted to have a
family.
What is the most fundamental relationship in the universe? It is a relationship
between parent and child, where God is the parent, Adam is His son, and Eve is His
daughter. "Filial piety" in referring to God is called "faith". Faith is filial duty to God
of all believers, especially Christians, who call God "Heavenly Father". Here, we
should remind ourselves, that Adam and Eve, unfortunately, were unfilial children who
failed miserably. If they were obedient to God, they would have been able to build
God's kingdom, where all descendants of Adam and Eve would have "lived happily
ever after".
In Unification theological view of history (see diagram134) in the following page),
there are two elements, namely "lineal" and "cyclical". Simply put, "lineal" means that
God's ideal of creation never changes, and God's kingdom will be realized in the end.
"Cyclical" means, that in regards to time, if central providential figures called by God
fail, history will be prolonged and certain patterns of history will be repeated.135) Who
were the central providential figures and what patterns were repeated? From the Bible
we know, that Adam's family had eight members136) (Adam and Eve, and sons, Cain,
Abel and Seth, with wives). Also, Noah family consisted of eight members137) (Noah
and his wife, and sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, with wives), when they entered the
ark. If we look farther138), we can find out, that Jacob had 12 sons and 70 family
132) Yoshihiko Masuda, From Dependance and Independance towards Interdependance (Korea: Cheongshim
GST University Press, 2006), 82.
133) Yoshihiko Masuda, From Dependance and Independance towards Interdependance, 83.
134) HSA-UWC, Exposition of the Divine Principle, 311.
135) Masuda, From Dependance and Independance towards Interdependance, 133.
- 47 -
members. Moses led 12 tribes with the help of 70 elders. Jesus had 12 disciples and
70 followers. Their mission was to build family, clan, tribe, and nation as a foundation
for God's kingdom, which also includes certain numbers. The mission of our ancestors
remains unaccomplished and it is passed down to us.
A. Change of Blood Lineage.
Jesus said to the people, "you are of your father the devil"139). Adam and Eve,
instead of bequeathing God's lineage to humanity, passed to us an "original sin". From
138) HSA-UWC, Exposition of the Divine Principle, 228-229.

- 48 -
that time on the history of fallen people had started. In that history we can see God's
efforts to restore people to the position before the fall and most important is to change
the blood lineage of people back to God. The key person is the Messiah, the "second
Adam", who is born without an original sin.
1) Old Testament.
Before Old Testament there were families of Adam and Noah. Their children,
Cain and Ham, were unfilial sons who failed. God chose the third family, Abraham's
family, as their successor. According to Old Testament of the Christian Bible:
"God said to Abraham, "As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your
offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall
keep, between me and you and your offspring after you; Every male among you shall
be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of you foreskins, and it shall be a sign
of the covenant between me and you. Throughout your generations every male among
you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your
house and the one brought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your
offspring."140)
"Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all the slaves born in his house or
brought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he
circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him."141)
Both the Jews and the Muslims keep this tradition to this day. However, they are
totally ignorant of the principled reasons of circumcision, because they don't know
clearly the cause of human fall. On the other hand, the textbook of the Divine
Principle clearly explains the reason and significance of circumcision as follows:
"Let us examine the deeper significance of circumcision. When the first human
140) Genesis 17:9-12, Holy Bible: The New Revised Standart Version.
141) Genesis 17:23, Holy Bible: The New Revised Standart Version.
- 49 -
ancestors fell through a sexual relationship with Satan, they inherited the blood of
death through the male sexual organ. In the course for fallen people to be restored as
God's children, God established the rite of circumcision as a condition of indemnity:
cutting the foreskin of the male sexual organ and letting blood flow from it.
Circumcision signifies removing the blood of death. Circumcision is also a sign of the
restoration of man's right of dominion and sign of promise that God will restore
people as His true children."142)
The purpose of Israelites was to build a foundation for Messiah to come. Three
generations of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were successful and foundation for the
Messiah on family level was build. However, Messiah couldn't come, because on
Satan's side there were powerful nations (for example - Egypt) that could have killed
the Messiah easily by overpowering Jacob's family. Israel developed to tribe, society,
nation and kingdom, and finally, 2,000 years after Abraham, Jesus Christ, the Messiah,
was born.
From the point of view of Israelites, all other nations were Gentiles. How could
other nations join and become part of God's Kingdom? By giving up their gods,
customs, languages and beliefs and joining in marriage ties with Israel's families, clans
and tribes. There is a story in the Bible, which shows how Gentiles could have
inherited the blood lineage of Israelites.143) In the lineage of Jesus was a Gentile
woman, called Ruth; she passed three tests of her mother in law, Naomi and became a
part of Jesus' lineage. If Gentiles passed certain tests of faith, they could have joined
the Kingdom in Jesus time. Jesus didn't came to die, but to engraft all humankind into
God's lineage. Now, why blood lineage is so important? Because, after the fall of
Adam and Eve, we all inherited satan's lineage and became satan's children. Jesus
brought the seed of God's lineage, but was killed before he could plant a seed in a
family.

143) www.unification.net/fcolf/fcolf-19.html (accessed September 25, 2010).
- 50 -
2) New Testament.
Three sons in Adam's and Noah's families represent three major disciples of
Jesus: "To Peter, John and James, Jesus was in the position of their father;
nevertheless, they ran away when their father was on the way to his death. They were
extremely undutiful."144) Because Jesus disciples didn't protect Jesus with their lives, he
had to go the way of the Cross. However, Jesus promised to come back.
What does Jesus and the Holy Spirit represent?145) They represent spiritual Adam
and spiritual Eve, father and mother. There are many Christians, who received the
revelation that the Holy Spirit is feminine. When we believe in Jesus as the Savior
through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we are born again. This is spiritual rebirth,
spiritual children of Jesus and Holy Spirit are called Christians. That's only spiritual
change of blood lineage.
What happened during last 2,000 years in history of Christianity? With the
crucifixion of Jesus, the Jewish nation had fallen to Satan's side. Consequently, God
broke up the society, calling devout believers out of it to establish a Christian clan
society. In the New Testament Age, Jesus' twelve disciples led his seventy followers to
form the Christian clan society. Similarly, in the Old Testament Age, Jacob's twelve
sons led his seventy kinsmen to form Israelite clan society
Despite severe persecution, Christian clan society gradually prospered in the
Roman Empire and developed into a Christian tribal society. Similarly, despite slavery
in Egypt, Moses led twelve tribes with seventy elders in order to settle in Canaan.
With the progress of history, Christian clan society developed into feudalistic society.
Later, the Charlemagne became an emperor crowned by Pope Leo III. Similarly, in the
Old Testament Age, prophet Samuel anointed Saul to be a king of Israel. Had emperor
and pope united and followed God's will, Messiah had come at that time.
Much later democracy changed Europe. Physical kingdoms disappeared and
spiritual kingdom of Catholic church couldn't hold a monopoly of Jesus as democracy
144) www.unification.net/bif/bif-6-3a.html#5 (accessed September 26, 2010).

- 51 -
became a leading power. Protestants took Bible and faith upon themselves. People of
Europe, overthrew the absolute monarchs. All this was done, in order to prepare for
the Second Coming of Christ. Jesus talked about God's kingdom which is to come, but
because popes became secularized, God had to split spiritual kingdom of Catholic
church and leave it to every believer to decide for himself how to follow God's will.
3) Completed Testament
Now the process is repeating: traditional churches are crumbling, and House
Churches around the world are building foundation of faith again. When tribes will
appear, then the nation will come forward as a foundation for Kingdom of Heaven on
earth. This is the mission of Christianity.
To form a nation, there needs to be a territory, a people and sovereignty.
Without the nation, smaller units of family, clan and tribe, no matter how good they
are, can be attacked. When the nation of goodness appears, the national law must be
followed by all citizens. In such a nation every home is the church. Since God's Word
is taught in schools, there is no need for religion. That is the Kingdom Jesus was
talking about. If he was not crucified, Israel would have become such a nation united
around Jesus, the King of Kings. The sole mission of Christianity is to build such a
nation in order to receive the Second Coming of Christ, the Messiah:
"The main distinction between Christianity and other religions is that its purpose
is to receive and honor the True Parents of humanity, through whom all people can be
reborn as good children. In this way, Christianity should renew the world as the one
global family which God purposed from the time of creation. This makes Christianity
the central religion with the mission to fulfill the goal of the providence of
restoration."146)
Similarly to Jews, Koreans value lineage and family as sacred. God prepared
- 52 -
Korea in case Israel would fall. There are many similarities between the two nations.
Koreans and Jews are experts in understanding of family, clan and tribe organization.
Also, teaching about family ethics in both nations is profound.
Centered on Korea, Unification Church was born. What is the mission of
Unification Church? It inherited the mission of Christianity. As I mentioned, it is to
establish a nation. In order to build God's kingdom sincere believers were called out of
Christianity and the rest of society to Unification Church. Who stands as the center of
God's providence today? In 1992 Rev. Sun Myung Moon said:
"I have fulfilled my mission as the Lord of the Second Advent, Savior, and the
True Parent. I am proclaiming this in this place because the time has come to do so.
"147)
B. Short History of Unification Church.
In this short history overview of Unification Church I will present some dates,
numbers, events and titles. They all will be explained in later sections. This overview
is a simple listing of the facts with little explanation.
In 1954, the Unification Church (UC) was formally and legally established in
Seoul, South Korea, as The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World
Christianity (HSA-UWC).148) From the summer 1956 UC started witnessing tradition in
Korea. On July 1st Sun Myung Sun sent his disciples out for 40 days in a very
similar fashion as Jesus did for the first time. And this tradition continues. In late
1960s Unification Church members were sent out to another witnessing campaign - the
goal for each member was to establish church center with 120 households.149)
From the very beginning of the church, every year on New Year's Eve, at
147) Sun Myung Moon, "The Reappearance of the True Parents and the ideal Family," an address
delivered on July 6, 1992 in Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han Moon, True Family and World Peace
(New York: HSA Publications, 2000), 29.
148) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_Church (accessed September 27, 2010).
149) www.unification.net/1976/761201.html (accessed September 28, 2010).
- 53 -
midnight Sun Myung Moon writes a caligraphy, the yearly motto. Church members
memorize it and keep focused on it, because this motto shows where our minds and
activity should be concentrated during the whole year. There were five consecutive
years, when the main topic of the motto was Home Church:
1977 - The Kingdom of God on Earth and the Ideal Family;
1978 - The Basic Formula for the Realization of the Kingdom of God on Earth;
1979 - Home Church and the Completion of the Kingdom of Heaven;
1980 - Home Church is the Base of the Kingdom of Heaven;
1981 - Home Church is My Kingdom of Heaven;
1982 - Victory of Home Church;
1983 - Home Church is Our Land of Settlement;
1984 - The Creation and Building of the Fatherland;
1987 - The Unification of the Fatherland.
Most important events in our church are creation of Central Blessed Families
(CBF)150). For this purpose, home church providence was initiated. Home church
focuses on 360 homes, which makes around 1,000 people. Later, 1984 Tong Bang
Giokpa started. It focused on lowest administrative units such as local community and
home neighborhood. Central Blessed Family had a mission to become chiefs of
villages. In 1989, tribal messiah mission was passed to members of Unification Church.
Main goals are to come back to hometowns, bring together relatives, and establish
clans and tribe of CBFs. Based on this kinship group, build church and school. The
church is not a building, but a tradition in every house. School represents education in
every house. The national messiah providence was initiated in 1996. The national
messiahs was selected by lottery from four nations: Korea, Japan, U.S.A. and one of
Western European countries, representing original family: Adam, Eve, restored elder
son, and younger son respectively. If tribal messiahs unite into network, naturally
national messiah would be elected. From 1997, important practice, called Hoon Dok
150) www.unification.net/bif/bif-6-2.html#2 (accessed September 28, 2010).
- 54 -
Hwe started. It's reading and discussing Holy textbooks every morning for at least one
hour with all family in attendance.
Because of those providential events, the end of religion was declared in 1996.
Main focus of the Unification Church was to establish Central Blessed Families through
Holy Blessing ceremonies. During the ceremony all newlywed couples undergo the
change of blood lineage by eradicating an original sin and join into God's lineage
centered on the True Parents, Rev. Moon and his wife. Slowly, as the number of
families increases, the families build clans, clans build tribes, and tribes are looking for
a nation of peace.
Sun Myung Moon practiced same household strategy as Jesus and early disciples
did. But he moved even further and from 1960, when Reverend Sun Myung Moon and
Hak Ja Han Moon married on April 11, many Central Blessed Families of followers
were created as a result:
1960 - 3 Couples - April 16th;
1961 - 33 Couples - May 15th;151)
1962 - 72 Couples - June 4th;152)
1963 - 124 Couples - July 24th;153)
1968 - 430 Couples - February 22nd;154)
1969 - 43 Couples - February 28th;
1970 - 777 Couples - October 21st;155)
1975 - 1,800 Couples - February 8th;156)
1982 - 2100 (2,075) Couples - July 1st;
1982 - 6000 (5800) Couples - October 14th;157)
1988 - 6,500 Couples - October 30th;

- 55 -
1992 - 30,000 Couples - August 25th;
1995 - 360,000 Couples - August 25th.
From Wikipedia, the free encyklopedia:
"The church expanded rapidly in South Korea and by the end of 1955 had 30
church centers throughout the nation. In 1958, Moon sent missionaries to Japan, and in
1959, to America. Moon himself moved to the United States in 1971. By 1971 the
Unification Church of the United States had about 500 members. By 1973 the church
had some presence in all 50 states and a few thousand members. In other countries
church growth was slower. In the 1990s the Unification Church of the United Kingdom
only had an estimated several hundred members."158)
In 1975, after Blessing of 1,800 couples, missionaries were sent to 120 nations,
covering all members of United Nations. Here I will end my explanation on the history
of God's chosen people.
Section 3. Theological Reasoning behind Home Church.
Reverend Moon said:
"Mark this date, November 12, 1978, because today I am instructing you to go
to your Home Church areas in the role of Messiah."159)
So, what is Home Church? Some UC members think it is just one of many
ways of witnessing to new members. But Reverend Moon answers: "You may think
home church is only a witnessing idea, but this is the formula and law, not something
158) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_Church (accessed September 30, 2010).

159)
www.moonis.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/home-church-as-the-internal-foundation-of-the-providence-trylikta-kny
ga-antras-skyrius/ (accessed October 1, 2010). Sun Myung Moon, Cheon Seong Gyeong, Book 13,
Chapter 2, Section 2 (101-340, 1978.11.12).
- 56 -
that changes."160) He even added: "Jesus said, 'I am the way, the truth, the life, and
no one comes to the Father but through me.' But I am saying, 'I am the way, the
truth, the life and love, and no one comes to the Father without coming through home
church".161) He repeats in other places: "Home church is not a witnessing method."162)
So, "fallen man must walk this road; that is his destiny"163) It is "the real blueprint
from God"164) or "the Lord comes for the second time for the very purpose of home
church."165) Let's take home church and explain it step by step, since it is formula,
law and blueprint from God, it has to have universal pattern to follow.
"In restoration, there are eight vertical as well as eight horizontal steps."166)
Eight vertical stages: servant of servants, servant, adopted son, step son, son,
mother, father, God. It is our distance from God. It is quality of our relationships with
God. Behind each position, there are certain numbers and conditions to be fulfilled.
Eight horizontal stages: individual, family, clan, tribe, society, nation, world, God. It is
the quantity of people we have restored. Behind each level there are certain numbers
as well.
"Without these eight steps, the restoration would not be fulfilled or completed.
"167)
Actually, "there are many steps beyond just home church. After that, there is the
160) Sun Myung Moon, Home Church (USA: The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World
Christianity, 1983), 16 (Eternal Happiness, 2.25.79, Belvedere).
161) Moon, Home Church, 16 (History of the Providence Through Restoration by Indemnity, 2.10.81, World
Mission Center).
162) Moon, Home Church, 153 (Home Church and the Completion of the Kingdom of Heaven, 1.1.79,
World Mission Center).
163) Moon, Home Church, 153.
165) Moon, Home Church, 154 (Our Duty, Our Mission, 10.5.80, Belvedere).
166) www.tparents.org/Moon-Talks/sunmyungmoon90/SM900831.htm (accessed October 1, 2010).
167) www.tparents.org/Moon-Talks/sunmyungmoon90/SM900831.htm (accessed October 1, 2010).
- 57 -
clan church, the tribe church, the nation church, the world church. You have to pass
through all these levels."168)
Before I continue, I have to tell you, that before it was officially announced in
November 12, 1978, nobody could do home church: "In the past, God, Satan and the
responsible person representing history have not approved Home Church activity."169)
How about Jesus? Did he knew about House Church activity?
"Why did Jesus work so hard gathering disciples and giving sermons? It was so
he could eventually sent his disciples to home church."170)
"Jesus gave the key to Peter. Home church is that key. You can use it to open
your way to heaven. That is the vindication of Jesus. Before his crucifixion, Jesus
Christ gave his key to Peter and told him to open it. Whatever you open here on
earth be opened in heaven. 'Whatever open here on earth' means home church.
Actually, when you do home church you are fulfilling Jesus' wish."171)
The reason why he worked so hard for three years was to build home church.
"Jesus was not able to gather certain things in his lifetime. For example, Jesus
did not have three major disciples in his lifetime. /.../ Three is included in the number
12, meaning that the tribe is an expansion of the family. Seventy-two is inclusive of
12 and represents the nation, while 120 represents world restoration. Those were key
numbers Jesus had to obtain."172)
Why he couldn't realize Kingdom of Heaven on earth? Because he couldn't build

home church and was crucified. His disciples weren't ready to die and defend Jesus
168) Moon, Home Church, 122 (Victory of Home Church (Midnight Adress) 1.1.82, World Mission Center).
169) Source:
www.moonis.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/home-church-as-the-internal-foundation-of-the-providence-trylikta-knyga-a
ntras-skyrius/ (accessed October 2, 2010). Cheon Seong Gyeong, Book 13, Chapter 1, Section 1
(100-146, 1978.10.9).
170) Moon, Home Church, 163 (Home Church is My Kingdom of Heaven, 1.1.81, World Mission Center).
171) Moon, Home Church, 164 (Conference, 4.16.80, World Mission Center).
172) Moon, Home Church, 173 (The Completion Period fro the Dispensation, 11.12.78, Belvedere).
- 58 -
with their very lifes during his trial. They all run away. Because of Jesus absolute
faith, he was resurrected. Then he established spiritual realm of Paradise. After his
resurrection he again gathered 12 apostles, 72 disciples and 120 followers and sent
them to plant House Churches to the ends of the world.
This very same mission was fulfilled by Reverend Moon. He went through eight
stages vertically and horizontally. In order to do it he blessed 3 major apostles
(individual), 36 apostles (family), 72 disciples (clan), 124 followers (tribe), 430 couples
(society), 777 couples (nation), 1,800 couples (world) and 6,000 couples (cosmos). In
1982 during ceremony he told all 6,000 couples to go and start House Churches.
Because Reverend Moon fulfilled all eight vertical and horizontal stages by that time,
he could command us and give us authority to do it. He told us to follow him:
"Father's family life and your family life are identical. The tribal life centering
on Father and your tribal life are the same; the ethnic, national, worldwide, and
universal lifestyle has the same formula content even though the scale is different.
That's why I ask you to be the tribal messiah."173)
Unification Church founder is called True Father, or simply Father. And as you
can see, he followed the formula of household strategy, set by Jesus, and completed it.
And we have to do the same:
"We also have a realistic future vision of how to bring down the Kingdom of
Heaven on earth, and we are not just talking about it, but living it. What is it? Home
Church..."174)
What exactly we should do? Just copy what Reverend Moon did:
"Father blessed the 36 Couples (12 Couples for formation, 12 Couples for
growth and 12 Couples for completion), 72 Couples, 120 Couples, 430 Couples, 777
173) www.unification.net/bif/bif-6-3a.html#7 (accessed October 3, 2010).

174) Moon, Home Church, 362 (Record Setter of History, 7.1.79, Belvedere).
- 59 -
Couples and 1800 Couples. The 36 Couples are combined groups of 12 Couples
representing the Old Testament Age, New Testament Age and Completed Testament
Age. The three groups of Couples represent Adam's, Noah's and Jacob's families. Even
if you are not able to arrange marriages according to such a numerical order, at least
you can have the bare form."175)
"Go ahead. Home church is the beginning. After you can do as much as you
like, but home church is the bare minimum."176)
Home church consists of 360 homes. If one home has 3 members, that is around
1,000 people, that we need to take care. I know only one person in Unification
Church, who accomplished House Church mission. His name is Jose Ellias de Almeida.
He is one of 6,000 couples. His House Church has around 500 couples of Central
Blessed Families. His story is a path of blood, sweat and tears.177) Actually, Reverend
Moon spoke to members so much about Home Church, that his words will judge us,
for not fulfilling it, that's why he mentioned that "maybe after 1980 is over I won't
say anything more about home church."178) There is a set time period to complete our
mission in Home Church. It is seven years. We have to restore 84 disciples, twelve
apostles and seventy-two disciples. It means one person a month or 12 X 7 = 84. If
Jesus had been able to accomplish it, he never would have been crucified. Those 84
disciples are not just passers-by:
"These 84 people should not be just anyone, but people who are strong enough
to defend you. When Jesus was persecuted, his 84 people were sleeping, but they
should have risen up and declared, 'You can kill me, but you can not kill my Lord.
'179)
"Our home church system should be stronger than any other Christian movement
in the last 2,000 years."180)
175) www.unification.net/bif/bif-6-3a.html#7 (accessed October 4, 2010).

176) Moon, Home Church, 156 (Liquidation and Blessing, 5.18.80, Belveder).
177) www.tparents.org/Moon-Talks/Moon-Family/JS930700.htm (accessed October 4, 2010).
179) Moon, Home Church, 378 (The Start of the 40-Day Witnessing Condition, 7.4.78, London).
- 60 -
On the contrary, if Unification Church members fail as tribal messiahs:
"...members of other faiths will learn this through revelation and they will begin
doing it. What will you do? Will you lag behind them? If so, the biblical prediction
will come true that 'The first shall be the last, and the last shall be the first.' The
Budhists and Muslims are often so impassioned, they don't even have to listen to my
words like this. They just go, day in and day out. They will do ten, hundred times
more. Would you like to set the standart and convey tradition to them, or do you
want to receive the tradition from them?"
And, we can see it is happening. In next chapter I will focus on family as the
center of House Church.
Section 4. Sociological Reasoning behind Home Church.
Family is the center of Unification Church. People can not enter Kingdom of
Heaven as individuals. According to Reverend Moon, we need to register in the
Kingdom of Heaven as families after we complete our Home Church.181) What kind of
family? Central Blessed Family (CBF). Unification Church individuals receive Blessing
from Reverend Sun Myung Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han Moon (we call them True
Parents). Blessing means forgiveness of original sin; this sin entered the world through
Adam and Eve. The fall consisted of two parts: spiritual fall, where Eve had spiritual
sexual relationships with archangel Lucifer and physical fall, where she had physical
sexual relationships with Adam. When Adam and Eve fell, they were only teenagers.
God started restoration from Cain and Abel, but unfortunately, Cain killed Abel. We,
as Central Blessed Families, should restore positions of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel.
What are the qualifications to receive Blessing and spouse? Before Blessing each
individual should restore three spiritual children (spiritual child in Christian terms is a
180) Moon, Home Church, 248 (True Couple, 5.27.79, World Mission Center).
181) Moon, Home Church, 368 (The Completion of the Providence and Parents' Day, 4.15.80, World
Mission Center).
- 61 -
"disciple", witnessing is an "evangelism"). "What are spiritual children? They represent
three lost archangels."182) In the story of Adam and Eve, there were 3 archangels, who
suppose to take care and protect Adam and Eve until they receive the Blessing
(permission to marry from God). We stand in same position, Jesus also was called
"second Adam" and had to marry "second Eve". Sun Myung Moon married only after
he secured three major disciples and they were blessed 3 days after his ceremony. So,
in Unification Church "it is the fundamental rule that on the foundation of already
prepared spiritual children, you are to receive the Blessing and have children."183)
"Where are you actually going to find your mate, your ideal object? In home
church. You will be blessed with the person you find. That's the ideal situation. The
procedure will be that the entire home church tribe in a general conference will make
a recommendation to True Parents saying, 'This person and this person are just
wonderful and our tribe wants to receive them as true parents. Would you marry them
together?' That kind of recommendation will be given as the counsel of the home
church. In the days to come there will be no such thing as Blessing without having
the home church program completed. It is not my statement, but a statement of the
Principle."184)
If husband has three spiritual sons and wife has three spiritual daughters, they
can receive the Blessing on that foundation.
"When you find three children, you are finding eight family members, including
men and women."185) "Originally, the person who did the witnessing was supposed to
arrange marriage for those spiritual sons and daughters."186) "Marriage is not done
alone. If a couple has three spiritual children, with three sons to whom the man
182) www.unification.net/bif/bif-5-3.html#1 (accessed Ocotber 5, 2010).

183) www.unification.net/bif/bif-5-3.html#1 (accessed Ocotber 5, 2010).
185) www.unification.net/bif/bif-5-3.html#2 (accessed October 6, 2010).
- 62 -
witnessed and three daughters to whom the woman witnessed, they have to marry them
first, second and third, just as they are. In that way they have to find eight family
members. Since Adam lost eight family members, without finding them, a person
cannot enter the road of restoration. At the time of Noah, God sent the flood judgment
when they became eight in number. God could wipe away Satan's world because there
were eight family members. If eight family members are not there, a person cannot do
the work of restoration."187) "Jesus also did his work in order to establish eight family
members. The reason for his setting up three disciples was also that he needed eight
family members in order to fulfill Israel."188)
So, home church work starts with eight family members (or three major
disciples). Home Church has to go through three stages. CBF have to restore Cain type
home church, - they are neighbors, then Abel type home church, - they are relatives,
and only then CBF can settle as a family and take care of our kids.189) Reverend
Moon teaches:
"Be determined to find three families first, then 12, 72 and finally 360.
Everything will revolve around that number. The first three will be the most difficult
to find but once they come you have the foundation for 12, and then getting 72 will
be much easier. Once you meet the requirement of 84 then 360 will quickly come in,
all at one time."190)
When we do home church, we must love spiritual children more then our own:
"When you care so diligently for other people children they will want to bring
gifts to your children, in turn. That must be the way your children receive gifts..."191)
"In the original world it was not supposed to be that way, but since we are

191) Moon, Home Church, 186 (In Search of Our Home, 7.11.82, Belvedere).
- 63 -
restoring the fall we must serve other families before our own."192)
The existing definition of family (sociology) defines it as "a group of blood

relatives, especially parents and their children"193). However, "the term is sometimes
broadened to include related by marriage or those living in the same household, who
are emotionally attached, interact regularly, and share concerns for the growth and
development of the group and its individual members"194). The purpose of the
broadened term "living in the same household" is made in order to include "same-sex
marriages"195), where children can be adopted. In America there is a great confusion in
the families, and we can overcome it in House Church community:
"The relationship of parents and children is confused and the relationship of men
and women here in America is void because tremendous chaos and confusion persist.
The vertical father-son relationship is not clear and the horizontal man-woman
relationships are all confused, so all other relationships are entangled and confused as
well. That is the state of this society at this time. We need a policemen to guide all
this traffic to the one vertical line where it can all be organized...
Love of God is the key: when you have that you have everything and need
nothing else. First there is the vertical relationship of True Parents and true children,
and the horizontal relationships you have with each other./.../
Home church is our system for filling void in society. /.../ This is the one way
we can make unification of the world possible without fighting and killing."196)
Section 5. Leadership Qualification.
What are the qualifications for House Church leadership? Who can be qualified?
192) Moon, Home Church, 186 (In Search of Our Home, 7.11.82, Belvedere).
193) www.medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Family+(sociology) (accessed October 7, 2010).
194) www.medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Family+(sociology) (accessed October 7, 2010).
195) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage (accessed October 7, 2010).
196) Moon, Home Church, 251 (What Kind of Thought Do You Have?, 6.10.79, Belvedere).
- 64 -
"Before we can talk about home church we need to win the individual war. Do
you think the person who is defeated in the individual battle will be very successful in
the home church? The person who is already defeated as an individual is like mortally
wounded soldier. If he gets up and tries to go to home church, you need to have won
your individual battle, to be strong, healthy, disciplined and absolutely determined. That
is the only way you can move on to the home church and bring results.
The person who can say, 'I have disciplined myself, Father. I can control hunger
and sleep and sexual desire' is ready to march to home church. /.../
We must win on the first battleground; then we can move onto the second
battleground: home church. /.../
You know what kind of criteria you must establish. You must love the home
church more than eating and sleeping. You must love you home church more than
loving yourself, your parents or husband. With all your heart and soul and mind love
your home church.
Love God more than anything else. God is the root and home church is the
fruit and harvest of His love."197)
Another important aspect of leadership is prayer:
"Test your own power of prayer; take one person and pray for him fervently,
constantly, without telling him. Pray tearfully for his well-being and then that person
will feel a magnetic attraction to you. He won't know why he feels drawn to you. /.../
There is no limit to the power of prayer."198)
Sun Myung Moon sets personal example for us:
"When I began my ministry, I needed eight hours of prayer in order to work

eight hours. Otherwise, there was no balance and the work was not produced. The
American way of prayer is very easy. You sit comfortably on a chair; but in the
Oriental way you are on your knees with your head down for hours and hours."199)
197) Moon, Home Church, 296 (Home Church and the Battle of Love, 1.7.79, Belvedere).
198) Moon, Home Church, 291 (The Importance of Prayer, 4.15.79, Belvedere).
199) Moon, Home Church, 291 (Home Church and the Battle of Love, 1.7.79, Belvedere).
- 65 -
In Unification Church there are four types of members:
"First, there are those who have already fallen away. Second, there are those
who are in the movement, but who are still really somewhere between the outside
world and the movement, who just go through the everyday routine, taking everything
for granted. The third kind are in the vanguard and struggle hard, but in a
self-centered way; they are always proud of themselves for having accomplished so
much. Finally there is the fourth kind, who struggle harder than anyone else in the
movement, but still feel that their lives fall short of the standard. They repent and
reflect and re-evaluate themselves all the way through. Both God and I would choose
the last type."200)
Important aspect is motivation:
"I don't want you to do home church just out of duty, but because of an urge
that you can not resist. If your beloved parent or child were in jail, you wouldn't go
to see him out of duty. The people in your home church area are like prisoners in
jail, and as God's representative you go there with a parental heart."201)
Living for the sake of others and serving is another important qualification:
"Father does not like to see anyone, leaders especially, thinking that he is Abel
and trying to command other members. Father will never allow that. The typical Abel
is Jesus, who lived to serve Cain. /.../ Jesus spent his whole life serving, even until
his death."202)
"Serve the 360 homes. Go there every day and serve."203)
Leaders have to teach members "by our personality, word and deed."204)
"In order to bring down help from spirit world you must do one thing:
demonstrate a spirit of service and more loyalty and piety than anyone else in history.
200) www.unification.net/1976/761201.html (accessed October 8, 2010).

201) Moon, Home Church, 317 (The Sound of the Bell of the Mind, 1.28.79, Belvedere).
202) Moon, Home Church, 335 (Father Speaks to the Cruasade, 9.5.78, London).
204) Moon, Home Church, 338 (Eternal Happiness, 2.25.79, Belvedere).
- 66 -
"205)
"You must experience having such a deep fellowship that you don't want it to
end, even when it becomes two or three o'clock in the morning. /.../ You are the
powerhouse to generate all that."206)
In the end we must raise leaders to be qualified:
"We don't want 1,000 people who always follow a leader, we want a leader
who can lead 1,000 people."207)
Previously I mentioned eight vertical stages.208) In order to be qualified, we must

pass through them:
"You have inherited the right to do home church. You should not begin with a
high posture. You should start out as a servant of servants. You can elevate yourselves
to the position of servant when there is someone else to take your place. You can be
elevated to the position of adopted son when somebody is willing to take your
servant's role, and so forth. As a messiah of that area you are responsible to restore
everybody. Therefore you have to start out from the lowest possible place and work
yourself up. You do not go as any kind of prince or princess, but rather as servant of
servants.
Jesus was such an obvious example. He washed his disciples' feet, and told
everyone following him that they should do the same."209)
What will happen in your home church, if you do qualify?
205) Moon, Home Church, 286 (Historical View of the Dispensation, 9.18.79, Belvedere).
206) Moon, Home Church, 286 (The Sound of the Bell of the Mind, 1.28.79, Belvedere).
208) Eight vertical stages: servant of servants, servant, adopted son, step son, son, mother, father, God. It is
our distance from God. It is quality of our relationships with God. Behind each position, there are
certain numbers and conditions to be fulfilled.
209) Moon, Home Church, 440 (11.27.78, Boston).
- 67 -
"Love will open their eyes. You link that to your home church and they link it
to another home church, and yet another, and it will be an unbreakable chain of love
which no one, not even God, can cut. This link will be directly sustained by the spirit
world."210)
Section 6. Practical Strategy.
In this section I want to disclose detailed instructions on practical ways to do

House Church. Rev. Moon says that it is the best strategy to win people:
"The strategy to increase the membership is to establish home church. The

reason that ministers could not gain members for their churches, although they
graduated from theological school, is that they did not know the home church system.
But I have discovered it and now you know about it. You must have confidence that
you can establish a church attended by more than 300 members after 3 years."211)
First, you must start from choosing and defining your territory of 360 homes.
"This is the order in which to work:

Go visit each of your 360 homes and pick out which ones are positive (A), not
so bad (B), and negative (C). Then you will have forty to fifty A houses which you
can visit every day. Out of those choose twelve and then the three best to concentrate
on. Concentrate on one house where you can go and live. This will be your home
church. The first three very good homes are difficult to find, but after that reaching
out to twelve is easier. If you faithfully do that with lots of prayer and heart, finding
three families in forty days is not difficult. Within one week you should be able to
find a house in which to live."212)
"Plan ahead and practice what will you say when you bang on the door."213)
210) Moon, Home Church, 287 (25th Anniversary of the Unification Church, 5.1.79, Belvedere).
211) Moon, Home Church, 450 (9.23.78, Tokyo, Japan).
212) Moon, Home Church, 414 (The Start of 40-Day Witnessing Condition, 7.4.78, London).
213) Moon, Home Church, 417 (The Abel's Path from the Providential Point of View, 12.30.79, Belvedere).
- 68 -
"There is no one right way, no requirement for preaching like a minister with a
Bible in your hand."214)
"You should have absolute confidence to proclaim to anyone, "I am proud to be
a Moonie". You should never try to evade the issue..."215)
"Make controversy, go ahead and create a good trouble."216)
"...start out cold and make your home church hot. Cold means controversy and
hot signifies complete welcome."217)
"Go to the famous and well-known people in your area."218)
"I don't want you to ride too much to your area, but walk and sweat more."219)
"God never scolds a person for doing more than he should."220)
What activities should you do in your 360-home area?
"Simple ones. Meet people every day. For the first six months you don't need to
talk about difficult matters nor about Divine Principle. You may just say, "Since
society has become so corrupt, our youth organization has started to research various
Tokyo communities where we can launch service and assistance projects. We want to
help." Say this and practice it."221)
"You can serve the elderly people in your area. Do their laundry, cook for
them, clean their houses for them. I have done such things myself."222)
"In home church one of your important duties will be to teach Korean, at least
a few words."223)
215) Moon, Home Church, 285 (Total Completion of the Ideal, 2.28.82, Belvedere).
217) Moon, Home Church, 97 (Blessed Family, 6.20.82, Belvedere).
218) Moon, Home Church, 311 (Completion of the Providence and Parents' Day, 4.15.80, World Mission
Center).
219) Moon, Home Church, 305 (Total Self Re-Evaluation, 9.14.80, Belvedere).
220) Moon, Home Church, 403 (Unification Church and Heavenly Law, 3.1.79, Belvedere).
222) Moon, Home Church, 254 (Wanting to Live in the Kingdom of Heaven, 12.20.81, Belvedere).
223) Moon, Home Church, 338 (History of the Providence through Restoration By Indemnity, 2.10.81,
- 69 -
"When you know many young people who play instruments they can get
together and form a band."224)
"When you have a place with games like ping-pong and a pool table, it will
become the club for young people in the neighborhood."225)
"You can even do something like open a public bank account to create
scholarships for those who are talented, but poor in your area. You can do anything!
"226)
"You don't need to witness directly; you can advance your foundation step by
step, centered on such social activities."227)
"Before creating the internal heaven centering on people, create the external,
environmental heaven."228)
How about education?
"Serve the 360 homes. Go there every day and serve. Then they will like you.
Soon you can say, "The Unification Church has a very good and important message.
Your son and daughter can learn so much, to help them to become better people.
Would you like to come and listen?" If you have served them and they like you, then
they will listen to you. They will come to trust you, and finally they will say: "All
right, I will come one weekend and listen." Also, they will ask you, "What can I do
in return?" Maybe they are thinking about money, but money is not important, of
course, and they know that. So then you can say, "You can really help me by going
to listen to a two-day workshop. Come for just one weekend, any weekend."229)
"If someone who lives in your area has attended a workshop, you should meet
with him every day. Unification Thought is great, and it is important for him to listen
to it for intellectual content and stimulation. You should talk about the contents of the
Principle which he learned at workshop. It is even just common sense nowadays for
224) Moon, Home Church, 412 (Where God Resides and His Course, 3.19.78, Belvedere).
229) Moon, Home Church, 336 (Father Speaks to the Crusade, 9.5.78, London).
- 70 -
people to know about the Unification Church because it is so controversial."230)
And what about money and job231)?
"In terms of the life of tithing in the church, ten families in the church should
support a church leader. Otherwise, you cannot have a right to become a citizen of the
Heavenly Kingdom. Ten people should support one heavenly person."232)
"When you need money, go ahead and make money; when you need people,
find people. Don't beg anyone for help or money or support."233)
"Don't go empty-handed to visit your area. Get up early in the morning and
raise some money to buy some candy or cookies and give to the small children in
your homes. You can win their hearts that way, and then their parents will like you
better."234)
Here is how House Church multiplication develops:
"Once you become successful with one home in your area you can branch out
and there can be as many home churches in your area as it is practical."235)
"After someone completes 40-day training you can say, 'You don't need to come
to the Church center. Instead, please start home church centering around your own
home. Please work as my representative in your town./.../ Then you can move to a
neighbouring area and expand your territory."236)
"The time will come when we will only need to do broadcasting on television
and radio in order to reach many homes. /.../ You can be your own broadcasting
company."237)
"If you are succesful in home church and the neighborhood churches are empty

231) Actually, that is a very big topic in itself called 'Ocean Church'. I decided not to touch it here.
232) Tyler Hendrics, Family, Church, Community, Kingdom (New York: HSA Publications, 2000), 127.
233) Moon, Home Church, 406 (Mainstream of the Dispensation of God, 11.19.78, Belvedere).
235) Moon, Home Church, 413 (Where God Resides and His Course, 3.19.78, Belvedere).
- 71 -
because people find nothing there, you can preach in those buildings to a jam packed
congregation."238)
Section 7. Home Church - End of religion.
"The home church system is set up to bring all mankind into brotherhood./.../
That is the consummation of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth."239)
"If each member has 360 homes, less than two million members could reach all
mankind."240)
"If you fulfill home church, it will eliminate the necessity of your children
paying this indemnity. Your children will then be free to enter into heaven..."241)
"Once the home church system is completely established, we really don't need
any formal organization. The Divine Principle will be taught in the school system. We
don't need Church leaders anymore."242)
"Also, it (home church) represent your graduation from Unification Church; you
won't need Unification Church any more. You should feel that you don't need to have
someone looking after you. If you know what you should be doing, why do you need
someone giving you direction?"243)
"When the home church system is consummated, no leaders will be necessary in
areas, states, and so forth, because each of you will communicate with God directly.
"244)
"What is the final stage of restoration? Not the coming of the Messiah, but
home church. When you accomplish home church, there will be no need for churches
any more, for every home will be a church. Then Dr. Durst's position, and even HSA
(Unification Church), will no longer be necessary. You won't have to go to church and
pray, but only live by the law of the heavenly country; then you will automatically go
239) Moon, Home Church, 133 (Seeking True Master, 11.29.81, Belvedere).
240) Moon, Home Church, 136 (Core Love and Indemnity, 10.22.81, World Mission Center).
242) Moon, Home Church, 370 (History of the Providence Through Restoration by Indemnity, 2.10.81,
243) Moon, Home Church, 130 (Home Church and Myself, 12.14.80, Belvedere).
244) Moon, Home Church, 371 (Total Self Re-Evaluation, 9.14.80, Belvedere).
- 72 -
to heaven. When we finish home church, God will have His own nation, and people
there will only have to observe its laws, not go to church. When we love everyone as
an extensions of our own families, that in itself will be heaven. If this does not
become reality then Divine Principle is just another ideology that doesn't work."245)
Section 8. Case Study.
One successful story of Jose Ellias de Almeida in Brasil tells how

House Church can be done. Mr. Almeida was born in the north of
Brasil in 1947. He couldn't receive formal education, because in his area
there were no schools. He was thaught how to read by his aunt, a
Catholic nun. Surely, the book he learned to read was the Bible. From
the very young age he dreamed to become a Catholic priest. He moved
to Sao Paolo, where he worked and searched for God by visiting many
Christian groups, spiritual groups until he met the Unification Church in 1978. The
Unification Church in Brasil was still very young. It was established by Japanese
missionary, who arrived in Brasil 1973. Thirty years old Jose Ellias de Almeida
listened to Divine Principle lectures, found the answers and, most importantly, found
the Messiah. He decided to dedicate his life to the Christ and became a full-time
member of the church.
1978 Rev. Moon started Home Church providence. With leader's permission Mr.
Almeida rented small one-room apartment 40 minutes driving distance from the
headquarters of Unification Church in Sao Paolo. He worked in two jobs and witnessed
to people in his area. In the beginning he dragged his guests all the way to
headquarters and asked lecturers from the church HQ to teach them. Slowly, but surely,
he found spiritual children. He was spit at and beaten, but he humbly served and
never gave up. He sold small things to raise money. He was even selling Divine
Principle books door to door. With the help of spiritual children he could buy his flat,
and slowly he bought the whole building. In 1982 he received a spouse from Rev.
- 73 -
Moon and soon had three wonderful children.
And then persecution started with major TV station in Brasil in 1983. The
program was based on lies about Rev. Moon, telling that he was antichrist, a
brainwasher etc. Crowds attacked Unification Church centers throughout Brasil, some
members were killed, many run away, church buildings were ransacked. The only
church in Brasil, which was speared was the House Church of Jose Ellias de Almeida.
Around hundred members gathered in the church and prayed through the night. When
the angry crowd came, they didn't dare to enter and quietly left. In nine years the
church grew to 360 spiritual children.
Mr. Almeida developed many social projects in order to serve the community:
collecting food and giving to homeless, working with local administration on different
projects, providing free medication, cleaning streets, teaching illiterate people. He slowly
bought all the city block, tore down old buildings and build bakery, apartments, library,
classrooms, shops. He established many businesses: carpenters, car mechanics, even fish
market. The church organized radio station, festivals, theater, and music band for local
community. He provided more than a hundred jobs to church community members. By
1995 elementary school was established with 200 kids. Soccer team was started and it
won a lot of victories in the region. Martial arts club for teenagers runs in the church
today. He did home visiting of local community and neighborhood. Not only that, he
visited community leaders, politicians, famous people. He continued to visit some
people for twenty years. He was very heartistic, humble and charizmatic person, who
had no enemies. The only people discontented with him was Unification Church
leaders, who were envious and tried to take away his foundation. In 1993 he became
the vicepresident of Unification Church of Brasil and he couldn't dedicate himself to
his House Church anymore. Brasil is a big country with 200 million people, where our
church foundation is still very small.
In 2008 Jose Ellias de Almeida passed away with the cancer. He did not take
care of his health, even when sick or tired he was working from early morning, never
took a nap during day time. He was very careful with public property. He never took
money from Rev. Moon and Unification Church. All his family and relatives joined.
- 74 -
His parents received the Holy Blessing as previously married couple. He witnessed
everywhere he went. His son remembers, that when father brought him to hospital, he
had Rev. Moon's speeches and distributed to people there. Usually headquarters church
asked money and people from his House Church.
Today, the only active church in Brasil is House Church of Jose Ellias de
Almeida. After he passed away, the church is led by his youngest son and twelve
elders. During Sunday two sermons are preached, each time almost two hundred people
come. Many Central Blessed Families moved away from local community and started
their own mission around the world. Today his church has youth program with 40
young people, 12 of them practices the faith full time. His son Samwon studies in
Cheongshim Graduate School of Theology. I interviewed him and I used facts I found
on the Internet246). To my knowledge Jose Ellias de Almeida is the only successful
case of House Church in UC. Rev. Moon called Mr. Jose Ellias de Almeida the world
champion of Home Church Providence. The words of Rev. Moon below refer to him:
"I am pushing you all out so much to home church that no one can stand it
and most of you want to give up. But there might happen to be one miserable man or
woman who keeps going after home church. That person will become the home church
king or queen and all the blessing of the home church will go to that person. There
God's history will be written. That chapter will say that on such a year on such a day
all the Moonies tried their best but couldn't sustain the pace and gave up. But one
cripple remained until the last, determined to die for the sake of home church. God
will build His eternal home church upon that faith, just as Jesus built his church on
Peter, the rock. The men and women who remain shall be the rock of home church.
That's the way the true man and woman are revealed."247)
246) www.tparents.org/Moon-Talks/Moon-Family/JS930700.htm (accessed October 10, 2010).

247) www.unification.net/homechurch/hc-3-3.htm (accessed October 11, 2010).
- 75 -
CHAPTER III. LITERATURE REVIEW ON KOREAN COMMUNITY
TRADITION AND CULTURE.
Section 1. Introduction to Cultural Anthropology248).
My first section will be build on the book "Incarnational Ministry: Planting

Churches in Band, Tribal, Peasant, and Urban Societes" by two authors, Paul G.
Hiebert249) and Eloise Hiebert Meneses250), written in 1995. Since in my thesis I use
two methods of study, namely, literature review and case study, I decided that it is not
enough proof of universality of House Church if it is only based on Korean family
and rural community life. In order to show that the House Church model works based
on family and village life, I will provide basic framework of society. Based on this
framework the unchanging core elements will be defined, that exist in the ideal model
of House Church.
Authors of the book assume that there is no way to integrate spiritual and
physical realities to the fullest degree. But they mention that "ideally we would like a
grand unifying theory that incorporates all theological and scientific knowledge in one
system of explanation".251) This unifying theory is presented in Unification Church
teachings, namely, in Divine Principle and Unification Thought. One method of reality
testing is comparison, with constant questioning and testing if necessary. So,
248) "Anthropology is a four field discipline that covers culture, biology, language, and archeology, all
relating specifically to humans. Cultural anthropology is often confused with sociology, the study of
society, even though they are different. Society is one part of culture. Society is composed of the
structures of relationships between people and how this is utilized in daily life. Culture is composed not
only of society, but also includes entertainment, food, religion and ritual, kinship, and many other things.
Source: www.wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_relationship_of_anthropology_and_sociology (accessed
October 12, 2010).
249) Paul G. Hiebert is professor of mission and anthropology and chairman of the department of mission
and evangelism at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
250) Eloise Hiebert Meneses is an assistant professor of anthropology at Eastern College, Philadelphia. Her
Ph.D. in anthropology is from the University of California-San Diego, with speciality in India.
251) Paul G. Hiebert, Eloise Hiebert Meneses, Incarnational Ministry: Planting Churches in Band, Tribal,
Peasant, and Urban Societes (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1995), 13.
- 76 -
phenomenological analysis and ontological critique help us to understand reality. We
need to use a standard model of the Kingdom of God, not only in Christian
understanding, but in the understanding of Unification Church as well.
Social sciences developed certain tools to examine human beings. We will use
two concepts of society and culture, that have been developed in sociology and
anthropology.252) Society made of human beings who relate with one another in orderly
ways. That order makes social systems, and they undergo constant change. We can
look at different levels of organization, at the dimensions of social relationships, and,
most importantly, at culture.
A. Social Order.
First, according to authors of the book, there are individuals who has certain
status and role. "Status is socially defined position in society. /.../ Each status is
associated with a role: the patterns of behavior that we expect of those who occupy
that status."253) Using role and status analysis, we can examine the social organization
of a family system. We will do it with Korean family and community in detail.
Next level of social organization is social networks. For example people gather to
gossip. They are important as channels of communication, but also means of control.
Third level are groups. "A group is a set of people who relate to each other
face to face for specific purposes."254) Groups are divided into three basic types:
kinship, geography, and association. Kinship groups are based on the ties of marriage
and descent. Actually, "families are the basic building blocs of all societies."255)
252) Hiebert, Hiebert Meneses, Incarnational Ministry: Planting Churches in Band, Tribal, Peasant, and
Urban Societes, 21-22.
Urban Societes, 23-24.
Urban Societes, 26.
Urban Societes, 27.
- 77 -
Lineage and clan groups are powerful ways to organize societies. The highest level of
kinship organization is a tribe or an ethnic community. Second group is based on
geography, - "The smallest stable geographic group is community."256) They live in a
walking distance as neighbors. A third type group association is made based on
common interest (i.e. clubs), common tasks (i.e. schools or work crews), and common
identity (ethnic and alumni associations). They can be loosely or formally organized,
membership may be voluntary, or coerced like in army. "Associations are extremely
flexible"257), and dominant group in complex societies.
In large society institutions and complex social systems emerge. Above the level
of families, communities and clubs there are large institutions, such as banks, industrial
corporations, governments, armies, universities, denominations, or medical systems.
There are two basic societal categories: ethnicity and class. Ethnicity is kinship
group category. Classes - "groups of people held together primarily by similar
occupations, incomes, and values."258) Largest unit of social organization are whole
society. "In small societies one ethnic group constitutes a whole society, speaks one
language, shares on culture, and occupies the same territory."259) We call them tribes.
Through history, tribes have been the dominant way that humans have organized their
societies. Korea, as a nation made of clans and tribes, serves as a good example.
"All human relationships and social organizations have five dimensions"260):
social, economic, political, legal, and task. Social relationships can be
egalitarian/hierarchical, informal/formal, temporary/lasting.
Economics are defined by nature, distribution, and use of resources. Politics
Urban Societes, 28.
Urban Societes, 29.
Urban Societes, 30.
Urban Societes, 31.
Urban Societes, 31.
- 78 -
involves the nature, distribution, and use of power. Law has to do with the nature,
distribution, and use of legitimacy. "Legitimacy is the people's consent to let certain
persons have and use power."261) Politics and law are closely related to each other. A
final dimension focuses on a task - the purpose of the activity. In the process people
relate using resources, power, and legitimacy. All social dimensions are interdependent.
C. Culture.
A second key concept is culture. By culture we mean "the more or less

integrated systems of beliefs, feelings, values and worldview shared by a group of
people and communicated by means of their systems of symbols."262) Mental images or
symbols differ greatly from culture to culture. The biggest problem to understand each
other is 6,000 languages of the world. On another level, culture consists of systems of
ideas, feelings, and values. Without shared knowledge and belief, communication and
community life are impossible. Beliefs link categories into theories of explanation. All
cultural information is stored in many ways. Aesthetics, beauty, and art deals with the
feelings, emotional dimension. Christians experience it during worship.
"Each culture also has values by which it judges acts and people."263) Value
judgements can be broken into three types: cognitive beliefs (true/false), emotional
expressions (beautiful/ugly, love/hate), and moral code (right/wrong). "All three cultural
dimensions are essential in conversion."264) All three dimensions are important in
church planting. We need sound teaching, deep feelings, and moral responses. People in
a society share symbols, beliefs, feelings, and values. Below these are basic
Urban Societes, 33.
Urban Societes, 37.
Urban Societes, 40.
Urban Societes, 41.
- 79 -
assumptions about the nature of reality, in other words what we call worldview (basic
map of reality). "Even death itself can be endured if it has a meaning."265) Worldview
shifts are at the heart of what we call conversion.
Cultures are integrated. However, when the culture stops making sense and no
longer meets basic people's needs, it starts to disintegrate and is overrun by more
powerful culture. Society and culture cannot exist without each other. They shape each
other. Culture is "shared by a community of people".266) Social isolation is among the
greatest punishments in society.
Anthropologists developed a general taxonomy of societies: bands, tribes, peasants,
and cities. In history we could see a movement from small, simple societies to large,
complex ones. Unification Church (Family Federation) will play central part in society
and culture during 21st century:
"Recently, people have been using the expression "global village" very often,
haven't they? We are actually entering the age of the global family. It is not just a
global village but a global family! /.../ If we take the initiative, as the world comes to
stand on an equal footing with the Family Federation, globalization will happen all at
once. I am not daydreaming when I say this."267)
In order to solve the problems of any society, let's look into Korean traditional
family and community and find the two elements: teachers and elders, as well as
religion. Teachers and elders should be part of society structure, and religion as part of
culture.
"Religion is absolutely necessary because it is a way in which people can reach

out to God and allow Him to intervene in human affairs. Another necessary element
Urban Societes, 42.
Urban Societes, 43.
267) Moon, Cheon Song Gyeong (Seoul: Sunghwa Publishing Company, 2006), 2363-2364.
- 80 -
within society is the teachers and elders who can be trusted to intervene in a good
way within people's lives. The internal intervention for goodness in man's life is
religion, while external intervention comes in the form of teachers and respected elders.
Together, these two elements can work to solve the problems of any society."268)
In order to have united world view, we must start with religious conversion:
"In order to enter the age of the global family, we must quickly make a
foundation in which all families have similar internal understanding."269)
Section 2. Korea is a Chosen Nation.

A. The Mongolian Race.
"Currently, the remaining cultural spheres in the world are four: communist
cultural sphere, Muslim cultural sphere, Christian cultural sphere, and Unification
cultural sphere."270)
However, there is a common archetype within these civilizations. Center of

Eurasia holds the roots of the lineage of the Mongolian peoples. We will discover that
Mongolian peoples have a much longer and more deeply-rooted history than we
thought. Originally, we are all from the same family. We are bound together by blood.
We come from one common ancestor. The Mongolian people were something like
pilgrims. 10,000 years ago, among all races, no race has been dispersed so widely
around this world, reaching to areas such as Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Americas
and even the polar regions.
Father Moon established the Mongolian Peoples' Federation for World Peace in
2004 to provide a framework for people of Mongolian descent to take a central role in

269) Moon, Cheon Song Gyeong, 2364.
270) Sun Myung Moon, The Way of the Spiritual Leader (New York: Family Federation for World Peace
and Unification International, 1998), 173.
- 81 -
serving humanity and contributing to world peace. According to Rev. Moon, people of
Mongolian descent, all of whom bear a unique birthmark, have a significant role to
play in the context of God's providence of salvation and restoration. What are the
unique characteristics of Mongolian race?271)
First, the Mongolian birthmark, the blue spot, is found on the back side of
infants. Genetically it is dominant trait. About seventy-four percent of the world's
population is linked to Mongolian roots. The spot appears not only in persons of the
yellow race but also among many black and white people.
Second, from a biblical perspective, the Mongolian line emerges from Seth, the
third son of Adam and Eve, and from Shem, the eldest son of Noah, who had been
chosen by God to carry on the providence of salvation for humanity. The eldest son,
who is the fruit of his parents' love, is responsible to serve his parents, take care of
his siblings, preserve the family and carry on the lineage.
Third, Noah's son Shem is the ancestor of the Sumerian civilization, which
developed the first writing system, the calendar, mathematics, astrology and geology.
The legacy of this civilization directly and indirectly affected the ancient civilizations in
East Asia, India, the Middle East, Egypt, and Central and South America. These
civilizations had Mongolian roots.
Fourth, within these civilizations we can find certain core values for the
realization of a world of peace: faith in absolute values, an understanding of human
spirituality, belief in the existence of the spiritual world, an emphasis on family
tradition and pure sexual morals, and the importance of lineage.
One core value and trait is filial piety, the proper love, respect and attendance of
a son or daughter toward their parents, grandparents and elders, and ultimately toward
God. A second core value, which derives from the first, is to love and care for one's
younger brothers and sisters in the family. These values are rooted in the principle of
living for the sake of others. This is the key teaching of all great religions. This
principle has its origin in God.
271) UPF, Mongolian Civilization and World Peace: the Core Values of the Mongolian Peoples and Their
Relevance to World Peace (Seoul: Universal Peace Federation, 2007), 81-82.
- 82 -
Fifth, most of the world religions emerged in the areas of the Middle East,
Northeast Asia and India within a few centuries of the birth of Jesus Christ. Teachings
of the major religions are seventy to eighty percent consistent with one another. The
difference pertains to the external expressions that come from the influence of the
natural environment and historical situation; yet the root was essentially the same.
"This cannot be understood by an evolutionary perspective or scientific analysis,

but through clear understanding of history that has been guided by God. The more
traditional paradigms for understanding history include such approaches as a Marxist
materialistic interpretation of history by Marxists; cyclical theories of the raise and fall
of civilizations; an external interpretation of historical facts; and history viewed from
relativistic perspective. Each approach has many shortcomings and limitations."272)
Human beings have fourth power of cognition that goes beyond perception,
understanding and reason. It is spirituality. It does not begin from the physical senses.
People in the East value such concepts as the time of heaven (cheon-shi), the
advantages of the earth (ji-ri), and harmony among people (in-hwa). They believe that
the fates and fortunes of nations, dynasties, groups, families and individuals are affected
by the time of heaven, the advantages of the earth and harmony among people. Based
upon this, the civilizations and cultures of the Middle East, Israel and the West were
developed.
July 14, 2006, Rev. Moon spoke in Geneva, Switzerland to leaders of the
Association of Unified Korean Clans:
"The Mongolian birthmark is not merely a physical mark of the Mongolian

peoples. It is without doubt the mark given by heaven long ago to function as the
sign by which True Parents would rouse and unite all humanity with the arrival of the
revolutionary era after the coming of heaven. Furthermore, the Korean race, standing at
the center of the Mongolian peoples, should be in the forefront of the 6.5 billion
Relevance to World Peace, 65.
- 83 -
people of the world, fulfilling its mission of representing True Parents."273)
B. Uniqueness of Korea.
Why would I choose to speak about Korean tradition and culture in this thesis
on House Church? I will have to bring certain facts and arguments, that go beyond my
own faith as Unification Church member. And I am definitely ready to do so.
Let's start from the very beginning of Korean nation, the Tan-Gun myth. In the
story of Tan-Gun it says that Heavenly King was Tan-Gun's grandfather, who gave
beautiful peninsula of Korea to govern to his son, prince Hwan-Ung. He married a
bear-woman, and the first human king Tan-Gun, the founder of Korea was born at
2,333 B.C274). The story tells that under the mountain Baekdu the bear and tiger
prayed to become human beings. They sincerity of prayers moved the Heavenly Prince.
He gave them the test: live for a hundred days in the cave only eating wormwood and
garlic while avoiding sunlight. The tiger gave up and run away, but the bear stayed
and after passing the test turned into a beautiful woman, a mother of Tan-Gun, and a
wife of prince Hwan-Ung. Actually,
"...bear and tiger were totems, objects of worship, in the ancient times of Korea.
A family name (ssi), meant a household or a group of blood relatives. Hence, Bear-ssi
was a household that worshipped bear..."275)
From the very beginning Korean race was trained to endure many hardships, as
bear in the story, "eating only garlic and wormwood" in order to please God. The
founding father of Korean nation, Tan-Gun, established Hong-Ik ideology, which
Relevance to World Peace, 40-41.
274) Andrew C. Nahm, Introduction to Korean History and Culture (Seoul: Hollym International Corp.,
1997), 139.
275) Duk Whang Kim, Korea: Our Nation, Our History (Seoul: Malgup Sori Publishing Company, 2002),
141.
- 84 -
declared "the equality of human beings, peace and philanthropy." It can be summarized
as "love of mankind" and is mentioned in the Chinese ancient literature276) as
"devotion to the welfare of mankind".
The Korean race has believed in God early. God in Korea had many names:
"Hanulnim", "Hanunim" or "Hananim". All these names mean "the God is the
originator of the universe, the greatest supervisor and is unique."277) As Kim,
Duk-Whang Ph.D. points-out "This is why our race has a piercing eye and is the
chosen people."278) He adds that:
"...in the latter half of 19th century, Dr. James S. Gale, a missionary who
studied Korean culture and was involved in the translation of the Bible, and Dr. C.A.
Clark, a missionary who wrote "Religions in Old Korea", concluded that the Hananim -
the only God, the God of supervision and the Creator - is identical to the God in
Christianity in concept."279)
During religious rituals people worshipped Hananim together with other gods.
"Since Koryo (918-1392) people thought that natural disasters were caused by king's
lack of morals promoting the anger of Hananim and the grudge of the people..."280) If
the king was not virtuous, the people took his crown from him or put him to death
during ancient times.
Korea was often attacked (more than 900 times), but never attacked others.
Korean nation was called "people with white robes" for their peacefulness. Big nations,
like China, Mongols, Japan and Russia tried to suppress Korea, but without success.
Koreans call themselves "people selected by heaven" and it helped them to endure
times of trials. Korean people "have always revered the virtues of loyalty, filial piety
and chastity. Their fondness for folk tales which express these virtues, such as 'The
276) Kim, Korea: Our Nation, Our History, 40.

- 85 -
Tale of Shim-ch'ong' and 'The Tale of Ch'un-hyang', stems from this powerful
underpinning of their culture."281)
The Korean people "have believed in the prophesy that the Righteous King will
appear and found a glorious and everlasting kingdom in their land. /.../ This messianic
idea among Korean people was revealed through Chonggamnok, a book of prophesy
written in the fourteenth century at the beginning of the Yi dynasty."282)
It's not a surprise then, that in a little more than a hundred years Korea became
a Christian nation. Now only United States has higher number of Christian missionaries
in foreign lands than Korea. Actually, Korea was considered a Buddhist nation by
United Nations at first, but in short time after WWII it was not correct anymore. The
largest church in the world is YFGC, led by pastor Choi, and it is located in Seoul.
Even a number of Catholic saints, recognized by Vatican, in Korea is very high (2nd
in the world, after France with it's history of Christianity of almost 2,000 years). These
Catholic saints mostly were martyrs of Japanese annexation (1905-1945). Israelites
suffered a lot, also early Christians went through a lot of persecution, but Koreans
did suffered greatly as well:
"Korean traditional religions and the history of suffering made Korean Christians
people of prayer. Whenever they suffered from foreign countries, they prayed with tears
day and night, and then they got the boldness to overcome the bitter things by those
prayers."283)
In Korea there is a concept of "Han", which means "feeling of unresolved

resentment against injustices suffered, a sense of helplessness because of the
overwhelming odds against one, a feeling of acute pain in one's guts and bowels,
making the whole body writhe and squirm, and an obstinate urge to take revenge and
to right the wrong - all these combined"284), because of the sufferings that Koreans had

283) Tae Hwan Kim, An Empirical Study of the Factors Contributing to Rapid Church Growth in Korea
(Wynnewood, PA: The Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1984), 111.
- 86 -
to endure. I will end this section with the words of Kim, Duk-Whang, an author of
the book "Korea: Our Nation Our History":
"Because of the Korean race selected by God, the Lord will defend our race
forever. By cherishing the spirit of self-admiration called holy race we have to firmly
keep our subject-consciousness in this troubled international situation...in all points
including politics, economy, culture and science technology."285)
In this later sections I will not discuss history of a nation by listing names and
dates, but certain characteristics of Korean culture that affected social life, especially
family and kinship. Since religions stand as the root of any culture, I'll start from
them. (See picture286) below.)
Section 3. Religions in Korea.
"Generally, foreign religions were adopted

by the elite and indigenous religions were
suppressed,"287) as authors of a prominent book
"Korean Traditional Culture" describe. As a result
those native religions, namely animism and
shamanism, went underground and settled in the
family and community life. Without studying
them, we can not understand the group
subconsciousness or history of Koreans. Certainly,
established religions, such as Buddhism,
Confucianism and Christianity played important
284) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_(cultural) (accessed October 14, 2010).

286) Jon Carter Covell, Korea's Cultural Roots, (Seoul: Hollym International, 1982), 18.
287) Kwang Kyu Lee and Sam Gyu Lim, Korean Traditional Culture: Korean Studies Series Nr. 25 (Seoul:
Jipmoondang Publishing, 1999), 215.
- 87 -
part on family as well, especially Confucian teachings. In my thesis I will concentrate
on religious practices reflected on family and community level. Professor of
anthropology, Lee, Kwang-Kyu believes that "the religious concepts and value system
of the Korean people are directly reflected in the worship of household god and
ancestor worship on family level, rather than in the theories and practices of higher
religions such as Buddhism, Confucianism, and Christianity."288) In his article289)
"Family and Religion in Traditional and Contemporary Korea" professor states, "My
purpose in what follows is to elucidate the characteristics of the Korean family
structure, and the value of family, which are reflected in the belief system of
traditional society." My research purpose includes not only family, but community as
well.
In order to understand traditional society, rural community life has to be
observed, since 80% of traditional society lived in villages. Actually, even today "there
is some doubt whether or not Christianity can actually permeate Korean culture to the
village level"290) as many villagers still practice indigenous family rituals. It took
around 200-300 years for Buddhism and Confucianism to truly reach rural communities.
A. Animism and Shamanism.
What is "animism"? As Kim, Duk-Whang, Ph.D. describes:
"Our ancestors believed that all the materials under the sun possess their lives
with spirits. They worshiped all things like trees, grasses, Mountains and streams
including the sun and the moon. These days, we can distinguish organic from
inorganic, and inanimate from animate beings, but in the primitive ages men could not
and worshiped every beings believing that all possess lives. This is the primitive
religion called Animism."291)
288) Kwang Kyu Lee, Korean Family and Kingship (Seoul: Jipmoondang Publishing Company, 1997), 127.
289) Lee, Korean Family and Kingship, 127.
290) Lee and Lim, Korean Traditional Culture: Korean Studies Series Nr. 25, 155.
- 88 -
What is shamanism? Shamanism too, existed in Korea for thousands of years. It
antedates both written history and even oral traditions. It's roots are in remote times,
when people worshiped the forces of nature.
"Legend has it that the name shaman, or "mudang" in Korean, originated among
proto-historic Siberian tribes. Shamans, or mudangs, are always women."292)
Interestingly enough, shamans work in communities and they consult many

families from generation to generation up to the present. Recent study showed, that in
1994 there was one shaman for every 314 people (1:314) in Korea293). That is a kind
of House Church work, which allows them to be influential through difficult times,
when Buddhism (918-1392), Confucianism (1392-1910), or Christianity (from 1945)
reached it's peak.
"The primary role of mudang is to perform a "kut", or magic ritual, to shield

man from the spirits by coming into contact with the mysterious spirit world and
rendering the destructive power of these spirits harmless. The mudang also plays the
role of a prophet or fortuneteller by conveying the will of the divine spirit to the
faithful. Still another important function of the mudang is to cure disease and
afflictions."294)
Shamanism is an emotional religion. It's expressions can be found in the Korean

art, literature, music, and dance. "The impact of Shamanism on the arts is, in fact,
comparable to that of Christianity on the art and culture of the West."295) Housewives
always has been "home-made" shamans themselves. They worship house gods for the
292) Young Sook Lee; Jae Talk Yoo; Jacquelyn Johnson, Teaching about Korea: elementary and secondary
activities, (Seoul: KEDI, 1986), 109.
293) Statistics are taken from slide presentation "Shamanism in Korea" by prof. D. Carlson of Cheongshim
Graduate School of Theology on the subject of "Religions".
294) Lee; Yoo; Johnson, Teaching about Korea: elementary and secondary activities, 109.
- 89 -
promotion of family health and wealth.
"Ritual services for house gods as well as ancestor worship reflect the sexual
role segregation between husband and wife: the house gods are worshiped by the
housewife and the husband engages in ancestor worship. Ancestor worship also
becomes the main task of the eldest son."296)
Anthropologist Lee, Kwang-Kyu explains that "the gods worshiped at home also
include ancestor spirits. Ancestor worship is regarded as most important aspect of
religion at the family level. It is fundamental basis of kinship organization and kinship
activities in Korea."297) But religious activities in rural areas are not limited to the
household gods and ancestor worship. The village gods or certain nature objects, such
as an old tree, a rock are objects of worship for the health, wealth, and welfare of the
village. Village gods are worshiped by all villagers during festivals.
All established religions was received in the context of shamanism. Shamanism
adapted some aspects of Buddhism and Confucianism. It is religion of a housewife: "if
the housewife is ardently religious and the family has economical means, the housewife
may sponsor a ritual service by shaman."298) Through its long history, shamanism has
not developed any organization.
B. Buddhism.
Buddhism was introduced in Korea in 372 from China. It held strong positions
for 1,000 years and even was a state religion during Goryeo period (918-1392).
Buddhism itself has merged with shamanism and became known as Korean Buddhism,
even though the fundamental teachings remained. Korean Buddhism stressed the
salvation or enlightenment of all living beings, not just one's self. This embodied the
Mahayana ideal of Bodhisattva - literally one who puts off his own salvation until all

298) Lee, Korean Family and Kingship, 128-137.
- 90 -
beings are liberated. Already in the 7th century, Wonhyo (the most influential monk in
Korean history) worked to make the religion popular and applicable to the daily lives
of the people. Another important component was practice of meditation. The
communities of monks spent each day in a period of silent meditation as well as
scripture study and physical labor.299)
On the practical side, religious events in Buddhism falls into three categories.
The main events are ritual services for the Buddha and Buddhist mass. There are four
important holidays in Buddhism: the birthday of Buddha, the day of outgoing, the day
of enlightenment, and the day of Buddha's death. On these holidays believers visit
temples. The second category of events are the ritual services for dead spirits. The
49th day and 100th after the death are considered to be important days for the dead
spirit. In addition to these two times, descendants may have ritual services performed
for their ancestors at any time. The third category of events are prayers for different
purposes. The most popular prayers are for child-bearing (for male offspring), for the
development of the family, and for expelling bad spirits and illness.
C. Confucianism.
"Buddhism in Korea suffered extreme repression during the Joseon dynasty300),

which lasted for several hundred years."301) For over five centuries, Korea's official
state religion was Neo-Confucianism, a 12th-century reform of 6th-century B.C.
doctrines developed in China. This official creed was designed to produce an ideal
society ruled by a sage-king. Relationships within the family and the country were of
paramount importance. The key social relationships were the following: father/son, the
older/the younger, ruler/subject, husband/wife, and friend/friend.
The major social unit was the family. Three or four generations living under one
300) In 1392 AD, the general Yi Seong-gye established the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910 AD) named in
honor of the ancient kingdom Gojoseon and its idealistic Confucianism-based politics.
301) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Buddhism (accessed October 15, 2010).
- 91 -
roof was considered ideal. Filial piety (obedience and honor of children for their
parents) was considered to be life's greatest virtue. Ancestor worship was especially
important. There was a three-year mourning period upon the death of one's parents.
Respect for the dead included ceremonies that involved keeping elaborate records of
past generations. Confucianism, more than anything else, was a way of ordering the
social system so everyone knew their place. Harmony and order would prevail. In this
way, it was reasoned, an ideal society could be created and maintained forever.302)
"Confucianism is dedicated more to practical ethics than it is to philosophy and
religion."303) The practical ethics essentially can be explained as three bonds, such as
loyalty, filial piety and virtue. "The loyalty of subordinates, the filial piety of offspring,
and the virtue of women were not only moral ethics, but they were also codified in
law and violators"304) were subject to punishment by the state.
Ritual performances were considered to be practical aspects of moral ethics for
the sake of education of the people. Ritual performances involved the four rites,
namely initiation, marriage, funerals and ancestor rites. Those rites were performed in
the family and were called karye, family rites.305) Initiation or the coming-of-age
ceremony for young men and women was held between the ages of 15 and 20.
Weddings were complex and done according to a ritual guideline. There were
four wedding procedures: first, marriage negotiations between two families; second,
sending the prospective groom's year, month, day and hour of birth to the bride's
household; third, the delivery of the box, containing bridal gifts; and fourth, wedding
ceremony itself. Weddings were performed at the home of bride's family.
Funeral rites are as complex as traditional weddings. Children are morally obliged
to be present at their parent's death bed. There are more steps that involve special
mourning cloths in accordance of relationship to the deceased; pallbearers, who sing
and dance the next day; then coffin leaves home. Grave diggers prepare the site before
305) Korean Cultural Heritage: Traditional Lifestyles (Seoul: Yeong&Yeong Book Company, 1997), 27-29.
- 92 -
arrival. There are more rites performed by the eldest son at the grave site. Finally, the
mourners return home and set up a table with a portrait or picture of the deceased.
Again, the ancestor worship performed by family head is regarded as the most
important aspect of religion at the family level. As prof. Lee, Kwang-Kyu describes
"from early childhood a first-born male learns that he is responsible for taking care of
his parents while they are alive and later, for performing ritual services for them after
they die. These acts serve as repayment for parental love and affection. In this manner,
ancestors and offspring are considered mutually dependant."306) Actually, even there are
many descendants and families, who are economically and socially independent,
ancestor worship ceremony makes them morally dependant on the direct lineal
descendant through ancestor worship ceremony. Funeral practices and shamanistic rituals
for the spirits of the dead both are important in order to understand relationships
among living and the dead, as well as social order among the living, namely family,
clan, lineage. Ancestor worship is rooted in the belief of eternal life or life after death.
Children serve the retired man three meals a day, during mourning period he receives
one meal a day, during four generations he is served four times a year, and after that
he receives it one time a year. So, death is only a stage in life. This concept let
Koreans develop ancestor worship to an extreme degree.307)
This is also a part that makes Confucianism a religion - ancestor rituals turns a
deceased parent into ancestor god. Ancestors take care of their descendants from the
"other world" and living descendants in return show their respect and obedience. In
some cases, those ancestor gods expand spatially and historically, and they are
embraced as familial founding gods or regional guardian deities. For example,
"Tan-gun, the legendary founder of Korea, is Korea's most exalted deity."308) Founding
gods and regional guardian deities developed into the village gods and are honored in
folk religion. Community rites involving entire villages may honor common ancestors or
forces of nature. These rites begin with shamanistic ceremony (kut) or a
308) Korean Cultural Heritage: Traditional Lifestyles (Seoul: Yeong&Yeong Book Company, 1997), 42.
- 93 -
Confucian-style chesa, followed by the sharing of food and wine, and the festival with
dancing and singing.
"The shamanic ceremony and Confucian ritual coexist because the latter is a
relative newcomer that was incorporated into an indigenous folk religion."309)
Historical records indicate that rites venerating heavens have been performed in
Korea for more than 2,000 years. Early Koreans did not make a clear distinction
between village rites and ancestor rites. The emphasis and importance of ancestor rites
centered on family came with Confucianism.
The ritual services for ancestors are classified into three: kije, a ritual service at
home on commemoration day; ch'arye, a ritual service at home on a holiday; and sije,
a ritual service at the grave. The ritual service on commemoration day is the most
important ceremony. These rites are performed at the family shrine where ancestor's
portraits or spirit tablets are kept. Family shrines originated in Confucianism and were
first introduced to Korea during Koryo dynasty. They house the portraits and tablets of
ancestors. Spirit tablets are made of chesnut wood. The ancestor's name is carved or
written on the tablet. After ancestor worship, the participants gather to share the wine
and food from the ceremonial table, reminisce about the ancestor and take pride in
their family's illustrious past. In this way, it reflects a strong filial consciousness among
the descendants. Actually, "the Korean clan system was created to perform
commemorative rites for paternal ancestors."310)
What happened with religions on family and community level?
"Syncretism of native and foreign beliefs has been frequent occurrence. Folk
beliefs, shamanism, Buddhism and Confucianism remain intertwined today."311)
309) Korean Cultural Heritage: Traditional Lifestyles, 44.

- 94 -
D. Tonghak.
In the early 1860s, as an opposition to Catholicism (Western Learning), the new

popular religion called Tonghak (Eastern Learning), took root in rural communities. The
founder Ch'oe Cheu (1824-1864) was approached by the Lord of Heaven, who
commanded him to teach the Way. He suffered martyrdom and was executed in 1864.
Ch'oe Sihyong (1827-1898) succeeded him as the leader of Tonghak. I will quote his
teachings on practicing truth at home, as they are very relevant to my research object -
House Church:
"Treat all persons at home as God. Do filial duty to your parents with all your
strength, respect your husbands wholly, and love your children and daughters-in-law.
/.../ Do not strike your children, and do not let them cry. ...striking them is like
striking God... When you go to bed and rise from the bed, meditate and pray. /.../ Be
thankful when you eat. /.../ When you leave home and when you return and when you
receive gifts from someone, act as if you were reporting to God.
If you do not forget these items and report to God in all your actions, you shall
be free from illness and evil. Have sincerity, reverence, and faith. Then you shall
experience healing and have speedy understanding of the real truth."
E. Christianity.
There are interesting phenomena of Korean Christianity as well. In Korea,

Christian prayer meetings held at sunrise (4-5 AM) draw larger crowds than in other
countries. These early morning gatherings are comparable to the folk practice of
"pison" in which old women rise at dawn to pray before a bowl of freshly drawn well
water, and to dawn chanting sessions held in Buddhist temples. Researches have also
pointed to the shamanistic fervor of Korean Christians. In traditional Korean society,
the most important human relationship was between father and son. All other
relationships grew from it. In these relationships, filial piety is the guiding principle.
- 95 -
"A recent study shows that Confucian values occupy the depths of Korean
Christians consciousness. On the surface, Christianity, introduced from abroad, may
dominate, but deep in the Christians' psyche, the ethic of filial piety remains central.
"312)
I will give in depth explanation of Korean Christianity at the last section. Above
I slightly touched the basic religious concepts and practices of different religions in
traditional Korean family and community. Next I will explain history of Korean family
tradition.
Section 4. Main Characteristics of Korean Family based on Confucian Values.

A. Family.
1) World View.
The Greeks considered man to be unique in that he can think and make
decisions for himself freely, while lesser creatures only follow their instincts. In the
Judaic and Christian traditions it is emphasized that man is a child of God, made in
God's own image; each human being has personal relationship with God and dignity
which sets him apart from other creatures.
We call it Western view of man: freedom, equality, and individualism sprang
from it. The Confucian view is quite different.
"It is expressed clearly in the very first lines of the Tongmong sonsup (First
Exercises for Youth), a primer often used during the Yi dynasty for beginning students:
"Of all creatures between Heaven and Earth, man alone is the most noble, and what is
noble in man is that he possesses the Five Relationships."313)
This doctrine of Five Relationships is the cornerstone of all Confucian moral and
social teaching. Except the fifth relationship, the relationship between friends, all are

313) Song, Introduction to the law and legal system of Korea, 23.
- 96 -
conceived of as unequal, one person being in a superior position over the other. It is
plain fact that people are unequal in talents, age, moral qualities, wealth, education, and
opportunity. It doesn't mean to put the other person down or become an arrogant, but
the real emphasis is on giving proper deference to those to whom it is due. In Korean
society "haughtiness and arrogance in particular would rank very high on a Korean list
of negative values" and the rules of proper and polite behavior, decorum, are very
important.314)
"In the Confucian tradition, self-centeredness or selfishness is viewed as the

primary root of evil and disorder..."315)
In the West role distinction between male and female is essentially sexual as it
appeals to "nature". But what does "nature" tells us about sex roles is relatively
arbitrary and changeable. In contrast to this the East Asian view rests on two features:
first, the um316)-yang317) (Chinese yin-yang) view of the universe; and the second, the
Confucian ideal of proper distinction between husband and wife.
The traditional East Asian view of the universe divides the fundamental forces of
nature into two complementary and opposite forces, um (yin) and yang.318) So, roles
of male and female were considered to reflect the fundamental nature and structure of
the universe. In this regard, they are perfectly equal; mutual necessity and
complementarity means only together they are complete; strictly interdependant; together
they form a single, complex unity.
In the description of roles, however, the priority of yang is beyond question. In
the Book of Changes, the Confucian classic, the first hexogram is pure yang,
representing Heaven; its role is to initiate all activity. The second hexogram is pure
um, representing Earth; its role is to follow the activity initiated by yang and bring it
316) With um is associated quiescence, darkness, softness, the Earth, and all that is feminine.
317) With yang is associated activity, brightness, hardness, Heaven and all that is masculine.
- 97 -
to completion.
"The male initiates the generation of a new life, but only in female is that life
nurtured and brought to completeness. The male is active in the affairs of society and
government, but only with the nurturing and fostering role of the woman in the home
are the affairs of life rounded out and brought to completeness."319)
So, this distinction of roles is predetermined and fixed in the organization of the
universe. Even woman is more talented and has more forceful personality than her
husband, she should never take over the role of decision-maker. This was fixed in the
ancient Confucian doctrine of the "Three-Followings": "When she is young, a woman
should follow her father; when she marries, she should follow her husband; when he is
dead, she should follow her eldest son."
These two features (the um-yang view of the universe and the Confucian
doctrine) affected all relations between the sexes, leading to an almost complete
distinction between male and female activities in Korean society.
2) Social Order.
Ideologically the Confucian family system based on clan rules is a patriarchal

family system. It refers to a system, where permanence of the family head based on
the worship of ancestors is respected. Second, under this system the powerful
patriarchal head represents the family and also exercises control within the family.
Third, under this system there is a hierarchical order of control and obedience centering
on the patriarchical head which discriminates between high and low, elder and younger,
and male and female. This system is supported and approved as an institution by the
society as a whole. The family property is handed down from patriarch to patriarch as
the material basis for augmentation and maintenance of his authority. When the eldest
son of the senior lineage monopolizes or inherits the majority of this property, the
- 98 -
patriarch's authoritative control becomes all the more powerful.320)
The most important principle of Confucianism is filial piety which governs the
father-son relationship. The relationships among the other family members are
modifications on the basic father-son relationship. Therefore, the first rule of traditional
family was the relation between the elder and the younger family members. The
younger members were obligated to obey and behave respectfully toward the elders.
And they had to use honorific language in addressing the elder. The father usually
occupies the family headship and elder son inherits it.321)
Another important rule of the patriarchal family was the separation of family
members according to sex. Women occupy subordinate positions in the patriarchal
family, but have an independent and separate space for role performance. This is
symbolized by the space usage at home. A typical traditional Korean house had two
separate buildings, one at the center was occupied by the housewife, and one at the
outside, was where the family head lived.
"The segregation by sex and the hierarchy of the elders over the younger
members were the basic principles of social order in the traditional family, as well as
in the larger society."322)
In upper class households, there was an

ancestral shrine behind the main building.
Ancestor tablets of four generations were kept
by the direct descendant. The poor people kept
their ancestor tables on a shelf in a room.
Ancestors were family gods who promised
prosperity and the continuity of the family.323)
In this diagram324) the developmental cycle
- 99 -
of the Korean family is shown. The Korean family goes through several different
stages. After marriage and the establishment of branch family, it is conjugal family,
where parents have an offspring. Then the eldest son marries and stem family of three
generations comes into existence. After second and third sons marry, they establish
their own branch families. Actually, it is customary in Korea, that before moving out
younger son and his wife stays in parents home for a few years and it is called
semi-extended family. The last stage is stem family of four generations.
3) Culture.
Let's come back to the family and look at family roles in depth.
In theory woman was to be subordinate to the male and follow him as Earth
follows Heaven. But in practice women enjoyed autonomy running the household,
finances, for men didn't concern themselves with women's affairs. Social interactions in
Korea is done in separate groups of men and women; almost like two societies - the
world of men and the world of women. Really deep affectionate and intimate
relationships between the husband and wife traditionally has not been considered the
essence of marriage. Marriage was a family matter, it was arranged between families.
In marriage the girl was taken into a family as a wife for a son and bearer of
children to continue the family line.
"If a wife fitted well into her new family, caused no disharmony and served her
in-laws dutifully, and finally bore a son, the marriage was a success whether or not a
really deep affectionate relationships developed between the spouses - as often it did.
"325)
The division of roles led to great value and importance of a woman; that
childbearing, and caring for the family and home is something that only women can

- 100 -
do. In order to understand stages of family life
and roles of family members, as well as raising
children, it is important to look into a typical
Korean house (see plan326)). A Korean house has
two separate buildings: an "inside" and an
"outside" building. There are two rooms in the
inside building: an "inner" room (1) and an "other
side" room (3). A room has an under-the-floor
heating system (ondol) and is used for sleeping.
Between the inner room and other side room there is a large, wooden-floored space
(2). The kitchen (4) is always located next to inner room.
The outside building has the guest room (7), the storage room (5), and the main
gate (6). There are other parts as well: small room (8), storage room (9), toilet (10),
well (11), and jar platform (12).
The guest room in the outside building is occupied be the family head, the
father, since he represents the family to the outside. He attends community meetings as
the spokesman of the family and he participates in the ritual ceremonies of the lineage.
The inner room in the inside building is occupied by the wife, the mother. She
is in charge of household management and daily life of family members (food, clothing
and sleeping). The inner room is the living room of all family members except the
head. He stays in guest room and sleeps there. During summer wooden-floor room in
used for eating, but in winter inner room is used. The "other side" room is occupied
by the eldest son, and his wife. The youngest offspring of this couple sleeps together.
When this young child has a younger sibling, he moves into the inner room and sleeps
with his grandmother. A boy, who is more than 7 years old, and has another younger
sibling, moves into the guest room and sleeps with his grandfather. In traditional
society it is not customary for a girl to have her own room before marriage.327)
The married woman is referred by the term "inner master", the opposite concept

- 101 -
of the "outer master", the husband. The husband should use honorific language with his
wife. The life cycle of a married woman passes three phases: the phase of
daughter-in-law, the housewife's phase, and the phase of mother-in-law. In the early
stage following the marriage a woman has only her duties and can claim no rights in
her husband's family. After she bears one or more children and becomes acquainted
with the family customs and the mother-in-law has grown old, she can take over the
position of a housewife and manage the household. In the later period a woman enjoys
more freedom from work when she hands her position to her daughter-in-law, but she
never loses her prestige as an old woman. That's the phase of mother-in-law.
In family father-son relationship is an authority structure, the mother-centered
relationship is an affectionate structure. The father possesses every possible right of
authority, he protects family members. A son gets social security from father, but
emotional security from mother. This creates harmony in the family.
The position of woman in patriarchal family is an achieved status, while man has
an ascribed one. A woman works for the family, but her most important achievement
is the bearing of a son. She become member of the kinship group of a husband's
family only after her death so that she may be honored as an ancestor of the son. In
East Asian society the woman is the real center of gravity in the family.328)
The inheritance of family property is non-equal. Daughter leaves home after she
marries and she gets dowry. Only sons can inherit family's property. Eldest son inherits
biggest share, because he has to take care of parents until they die and he is
responsible for ancestor worship as well. Younger son marries and may stay for a
while, sometimes up to 10 years. He receives the inheritance when he leaves home,
and decides to establish his own household. The oldest son's family is main family and
younger son's family is branch family, because eldest son possesses the ancestor tablets
and becomes spiritual center for all branch families.329)
Usually, when father becomes sixty years old, his eldest son inherits all rights

329) Kwang Kyu Lee and Sam Gyu Lim, Korean Traditional Culture: Korean Studies Series Nr. 25 (Seoul:
Jipmoondang Publishing, 1999), 116-118.
- 102 -
and duties of family head. At that time, eldest son moves into the guest room and his
wife moves into the inner room. Old parents start to live together in the outer room.
The patrilineal family must continue indefinitely, but if son is not produced, it is
considered a crime against ancestors. It is believed that such ancestors become bad
ghosts. Son-in-law can not become an adopted son, because he has his own family
obligations. An adoption is based on rule "no adoption outside of lineage". So, if
family head doesn't have a son, he goes to his brothers or cousins and adopts their
son.330)
In the past, the child was nursed until the next sibling was born, or about two
years. The youngest child may be breast fed up to the age of six or seven years in
rural areas. A baby sleeps with his mother, also, she caries him on her back during
the day. With time the child extends his relationships to other persons from mother to
grandmother, elder sibling, father and grandfather. Because of sleeping arrangements,
there are no private lives in rural areas, and mutual dependancy and attachment of
family members enforce the configuration of the family.
The age between 3 to 5 years old is called knee school. A child is moved from
mother to grandmother at this stage. From grandmother, the child learns wisdom of
life. Grandmother is the best friend of the child in play. The child has a lot of
freedom at this stage. The child, who has no grandparents, is raised by his elder
siblings. The elder children of the neighborhood function as the elder siblings in rural
areas. In the same way the grandparents of a village are the grandparents of the whole
village too.
When the boy is 7 years old and if he is the first son of direct lineal
descendant, he eats in the outside room with his father or grandfather, while other
family members eat in inner room. It is honorific treatment - to share meal and room
with the head of the family as well as training for the future. From that age the child
is disciplined strictly. The age is also characterized by physical punishment. Seven
years old must master honorific language as well. He should learn how to take care of
younger siblings. This applies to both boys and girls. The boys and girls do not play
330) Lee and Lim, Korean Traditional Culture: Korean Studies Series Nr. 25, 119-120.
- 103 -
together from this age. Separation by sex from the age of seven is proverbial in
Korea. Children start to attend primary school as well. But most important is home
education, where boy imitates father or grandfather at work, and girl follows her
mother and grandmother.
The most important home education is learning about ancestors. All males must
participate in their ancestor worship ritual. Even a poor farmer is proud of his
ancestors. It is practical religion in Korea, where after the ritual father or grandfather
teaches about the behavior and achievements of the ancestor to their offspring. One of
the most important values is loyalty toward the family and kinship.331)
B. Social Order of Blood Lineage.
Relatives in Korea are usually grouped into three categories: the paternal, the
maternal, and the affinal (related by marriage). The paternal group of relatives includes
the women who marry in and excludes that marry out. So, a married woman is
included only in her husband's group. Paternal relatives form the mainstream and the
base for a kinship.
Maternal relatives form a secondary kin group. A third group is composed of
affinal relatives. It only refers to wife's patrilineal relatives, since a woman, upon
marriage, automatically becomes a member of the kin group of her husband. and
addresses them as though they are related to her same way as they are to her husband.
Within a given kin group relatives are reckoned
according to the degree of relatedness, which is calculated
on the basis of ch'on (see diagram332)), an abstract concept
which measures kinship space between two individuals.
Theoretically, an infinite network of kinsmen could be
calculated in this way.
In order to easily understand this method of relatedness, we can say, that it

- 104 -
shows how male seed travelled from generation to generation and expanded
horizontally. Horizontally, only 8 ch'on cousins (third cousins) are involved. This
represents a kinship group registered in family head system or Hojuje. Hojuje is a
family registry system that assigns the status of each family member in relation to
Hoju, or the head of the household. When the couple marries, wife is removed from
father's registry and is placed under husband's registry, thus husband becomes new
household's head. The wife, however, keeps her father's family name. If husband dies
early, a male child, not the wife, becomes a new family head.333)
To Koreans the family genealogy, as recorded in the family register (Hojuje), is
almost a sacred object. The Koreans take many pains and pride in maintaining family
and clan genealogies, with collateral ties intact up to the eighth ch'on and vertical ties
extending over many generations and covering a span of several centuries.334)
Since Koreans consider it extremely bad form to address or refer to adults by
personal names, they require some other means for the precise designation of
individuals. The Korean kinship terminology, the way how person addresses his
relatives is most complex system. All positions in clan have their specific names.
Kinship terms of female relatives and relatives on female side are less refined.
Extensive study of Korean Kinship Terminology was done by prof. of anthropology
Lee, Kwang-Kyu.335)
Age and sex are most important in kinship terminology. First, paternal group of
relatives has most extensive kinship terms, each position is clearly defined. Maternal
and especially affinal groups don't have all positions covered. In order to avoid usage
of personal names, teknonymy336) and geononymy337) are frequently used not only
between relatives, but non-relatives as well. In Korea to use personal names when
333) Jae Won Kim, "The Confucian Tradition and Its Impact on Family Law Reform in South Korea",
Dong-A Law Review (2004/35): 83-114.
336) Teknonymy, an ethnological term, is the practice of refering to parents by the names of their children.
It is used in Korean language.
337) Geonomy is the practice of qualifying kinship terms with the place names.
- 105 -
referring to adults is taboo or an insulting and rude, because personal names is used
talking only to children. The practice of kinship terms of address shows us that people
in Korea always put themselves in a context of a larger group, namely kinship or
place. In Korea, kinship is limited to four generations vertically, either up or down
from the individual, and to third cousins horizontally. Kinship terminology and
obligations are limited to this boundary. However, second group of relatives from
mother's side is considered less important and the boundary ends with second cousins.
Third group of wife's patrilineal realtives is least important and is limited to first
cousins. There is a proverb "Toilets and in-laws should be far away from the house"
which shows greater distance.338)
So, all descendants of great-great-grandfather belongs to kinship group, which is
called "dangnae" meaning 'under the same roof' or "jiban" meaning 'inside house'.
When members of the same kinship group live in the same village, they cooperate
with each other more intimately than they do with people outside the group, even if
they belong to the same lineage.339) Ancestor worship up to great-great-grandfather is
performed at home, so the boundary of ritual group is the same as kinship group of
descendants.
Ritual services for ancestors older than great-great-grandfather are performed at
their grave once a year by members of lineage group. After the ritual, all the members
of a group, young and old, male and female, come together to have a meal. Through
this they ties are strengthened and vertical hierarchical order of kinship reconfirmed and
an authority of elder brother, the direct lineal descendant, is established.340)
The most important obligation of the descendants is to mourn. There are five
different kinds of mourning according to the kinship distance. First degree mourns for
3 years for parent or spouse. Second degree is one year mourning for grandparents,
siblings and sons. Then each mourning period decreases by 3 months. Maternal and
affinal relatives mourns even less, and there are clear instructions on it.
- 106 -
There are 258 family names in Korea, but in reality it has nothing to do with
lineage.341) For the identification of the lineage there are origin names in addition to
the family names. If they have same family and origin name, they are members of the
same lineage. The origin name is usually the name of the place, where the founder of
the lineage was born or where he lived for a long time. Usually, there are 10 origin
names for a family name. People of the same lineage can not marry each other.342)
Lineage has several hundreds of thousands people, scattered through a country
and it is a unit for determining exogamy. However, there a many branches of lineage
with certain functions. There are two basic rules for the formation of branches. One is
based upon well-known ancestor. The branch takes the name of ancestor. The other
rule is based on location. It happens when many descendants of one person live in the
same place. They use local name.343)
A large and important branch with many members and a prominent founder is
likely to have a lineage organization (Munjung). Every branch is connected to the same
lineage organization and branches may have smaller lineage groups in them.
Each lineage group has certain elements. Most important is general assembly of
all direct descendants of the branch ancestor. The most important figure is the head of
the lineage group (Munjung). He is usually the oldest and most educated person elected
in general assembly. There is also another important person, who's position is inherited,
a direct lineal descendant. Two main purposes of Munjung is maintaining common
property and performing ancestor rituals. General assembly meets once a year for a
ritual, after they share a meal together. Munjung has to review genealogy books once
in 30 years, publish and distribute them among all descendants.
In rural areas Munjung members live in one village and have several hundreds of
members. Sometimes lineage groups form associations with offices. They even may
collect money for scholarships in order to support poor students of the same lineage.
341) Lineage is a unit of descendants from a common ancestor and those related through exogamy.
Exogamy is marriage to a person, who belongs to different tribe or group other than your own as
required by custom or law.
- 107 -
Every lineage group tries to create harmonious order among the members and
compete with other groups for reputation and prosperity. The direct lineal descendant
represents vertical structure, while the head of lineage group a horizontal. This balance
of vertical and horizontal principles is characteristic mechanism of social groups in
Korea. They balance power and competition.344)
Section 5. Main Characteristics of Korean Rural Community.

A. Administrative Structure.
Before I start to give an explicit account on Korean rural community, I will

present an a Korean Administrative District System (see diagram345) in the following
page):
"During most of the Joseon Dynasty, Korea was divided into eight provinces
(do; ). The eight provinces' boundaries remained unchanged for almost five
centuries from 1413 to 1895, and formed a geographic paradigm that is still reflected
today in the Korean Peninsula's administrative divisions, dialects, and regional
distinctions. The names of all eight provinces are still preserved today, in one form or
another."346)
"South Korea in 1990 was divided into six provincial-level cities - the special
city (t'ukpyolsi) of Seoul (Soul t'ukpyolsi to Koreans) and the five cities directly
governed (chikhalsi) by the central government, Pusan, Taegu, Inch'on, Taejon, and
Kwangju - and nine provinces, or "Do" including Cheju Island. Major cities were
divided into wards (Gu) and precincts (Dong). A province was composed of counties
(Kun) and cities (Si) with a population of more than 50,000. A county consisted of
towns (Eup) with a population of 20,000 and more each, townships (Myun), and
villages (Ri). Both cities and towns had further subdivisions designed to facilitate
communication between government and people on local community matters."347)
345) www.asiaeuropesurvey.org/fwreport.pdf (accessed October 16, 2010).
346) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseon_Dynasty#Administrative_divisions (accessed October 16, 2010).
347) www.countrystudies.us/south-korea/65.htm (accessed October 16, 2010).
- 108 -
Urban area was divided into four types: Large City, City, Eup and Myun. Dong,
Eup and Myun are first stage administrative units, the sub-county in the past. Kun are
counties, in reference to rural areas and there are around 2,000-3,000 villages in the
county. Township, the administration center of villages in rural areas is located in Ri
or Myun. Tong and Ban are the lowest administrative units and can be translated as
local community and home neighbourhood respectively.
B. Community Compounds.
In Joseon Dynasty social classes of aristocrats (yangban), peasants and slaves

were the main ones, each having 30% of population. The remaining 10% were
merchants, traders, craftsmen, labourers, textile workers and local government officials.
Some anthropologists348) suggested that rural villagers can be divided into two
348) This report is prepared based on the book of Shima, Mutsuhiko, Janelli, Roger L., The Anthropology
- 109 -
classes, yangban (aristocracy) and sangmin (commoners). Anthropologist Vincent Brandt
(1971) provided a new perspective, that ordinary village life is based on equality rather
than hierarchy. Aristocracy relied on Confucianism in their everyday life, and
commoners managed their religious life through shamanism.
While Korean anthropologists focused on shamanism as the basic element of
Korean society and culture, most Japanese anthropologists have concentrated on clan
and lineage organization in their pursuit of Korean social structure, based on Confucian
ancestor worship. East Asian specialists have stressed the importance of "blood" ties in
contrast to common residence and locality. However, for Koreans their social world is
not limited by "blood" (lineage boundaries) and "soil" (village boundaries). People in
Korea are closely bound together by informal and formal interlineage and intervillage
activities centered on local schools and Confucian academies and involving various
formal associations (e.g., kye) that are organized for the purpose of promoting amity
and unity among their members. People identify themselves as members of "local
community", which is larger in scope than villages and do not correspond to lineage
categories. People establish networks in local community to elevate their social status.
In principle, even in present days, each county (Kun) has one local Confucian
temple (hyanggyo) and one local Confucian association (yodohoe), the basic formal
institutions of Confucianism with Songgyun'gwan in Seoul as their national
headquarters. These temples are sacred places, as Confucius and his disciples are
enshrined there for annual commemoration rituals. Confucian association is a voluntary
association, open to everyone. In reality, however, most of the members were of the
yangban class. A local Confucian academy (sowon) is under supervision of a local
Confucian temple. It consists of two parts: a shrine and educational facilities (a lecture
hall, study rooms, a library, and a dormitory).
All three organizations (temple, association, and academy) were formal
organizations, focused on Confucian education and practice. State's administration system
collected taxes and maintained order (see Provincial institutional structure in late
Choson in 113 page). However, local people maintained community compounds
of Korea: East Asian Perspectives (Japan, Kyoto: the National Museum of Ethnology, 1998), 65-93.
- 110 -
(hyangyak, literary meaning "contracts among local people"349)), a civic institution,
under the leadership of Confucian scholars. It was a powerful and authoritative
institution for educating and controling people with Confucian ideology beyond any
social class. Since House Church is not just one family, but a community not
necessarily limited by kinship ties or village boundaries, I will present here an
overview of the local community in Korea. I will start from the peace of history350):
"The Neo-Confucian scholar-officials of the Choson Dynasty saw in the

community compact (hyangyak) a convenient instrument for the realization of the ideal
rural community, where people would encourage each other to practice virtue and help
each other in times of need and disaster."351)
"The compacts originated in China in the Song Dynasty, in the eleventh century.
"352) The compacts were originally designed as substitutes for the feudalism that was
disappearing. Are those compacts universal, can they be applied anywhere? They were
corporations, not directly controlled by the state and they remind of modern labor
unions or NGO's. The original Chinese Lu Family compact was translated into the
Korean vernacular in 1517. The Korean scholar-official, a magistrate of a county, Yi I
(1536-1584) prepared the by-laws for two community compacts. One envisions an
extended organization encompassing many aspects of rural life, including education and
a community granary. Another is a revised version of Chinese "Lu Family Community
Compact" adopted to Korean rural conditions. Yi I writes: "...I can not claim that my
version is perfect, but it includes almost all the elements that encourage good deeds
and discourage evil acts."353)
349) Shima and Janelli, The Anthropology of Korea: East Asian Perspectives, 85.
350) This second part of report is prepared based on Lee, Peter H., Sourcebook of Korean Civilization:
From the seventeenth century to the modern period (USA: Columbia University Press, 1996), 144-157.
351) Peter H. Lee, Sourcebook of Korean Civilization: From the seventeenth century to the modern period
(USA: Columbia University Press, 1996), 162.
352) Alexander Woodside, Lost Modernities: China, Vietnam, Korea, and the hazards of world history
(USA: Harvard University Press, 2006), 71.
353) Yongho Ch'oe, Peter H. Lee, and Wm. Theodore de Bary, Sources of Korean Tradition: Volume II
- 111 -
The community compact is a voluntary organization, and men of upper-class and
peasants of good conduct could freely join. The director was selected, by his seniority,
virtue and scholarship. They held general meeting every second month. Important
decisions are made by unanimous consent. The good and evil deeds of every member
of the compact is recorded. If person doesn't repent after committing an evil act, he is
expelled from the compact. All members help each other in times of need or celebrate
together in times of joy. The revised Lu Family Community Compact has four major
aims:
"first, mutual encouragement of virtue and virtues acts; second, mutual correction
of wrongful conduct; third, fellowship with one another according to the rules of
decorum and customs; and fourth, mutual aid in case of illness and disaster."354)
There was a list of wrongful conducts related with the morality and ethics. Also,
violations of rules are listed, and qualities of a cultivated man. I found a very
interesting article about decorum:
"...the five grades in order of seniority: the first grade is to respect elders, those
twenty or more years older than oneself. They are to be ranked with one's father. In
the relationship between the teacher and a student, the teacher should be ranked as a
respected elder even if his age is not so advanced. The second grade is seniors, those
ten or more years older than oneself. They rank with one's elder brother. ... The third
grade is peers, those less than ten years in age. ... The fourth grade is juniors, those
who are ten or more years younger. The fifth grade is youths, those twenty or more
years younger."355)
But if someone has excellent virtue and social position, he must be treated as an
elder. There were rules of decorum in bowing, paying respect on certain occasions,
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 146.

354) Ch'oe, Lee, and de Bary, Sources of Korean Tradition: Volume II, 149-150.
355) Ch'oe, Lee, and de Bary, Sources of Korean Tradition: Volume II, 153.
- 112 -
about inviting, receiving, sending off and greeting a guest, rules governing celebrations,
mourning, and gift-giving. And more customs related with disasters (death, fire, and
flood), sickness, funerals etc. Community compact was also an economic entity, not
just concerned with morality and good conduct, or mutual aid. The community granary
acted as a credit bank in those days and it was well managed.
C. Social Unrest.
Korean social structure balanced between inheritance along hereditary lines and
principle of meritocracy. As I mentioned previously, this balance of vertical and
horizontal principles is characteristic mechanism of social groups in Korea. They
balance power and competition. When this balance was broken, it resulted in social
unrest.
- 113 -
19th century Korea experienced frequent and at times violent conflicts between
central power and rural society (see diagram356) in the previous page). Powerful
yangban families controlled central government and gave magistrate positions to their
own kin, and positions of county magistrates were sold. Since Andong Kim descent
group centered around royal family dominated political power, they accumulated wealth,
and greedy magistrates and local officials took advantage of disorder and exploited the
populace.357) It coincided with natural disasters and accompanying famine. That led to
rebellion and the target was county magistrate offices.
"...Community compacts were influential in this area, and the organizational

foundations of the riots were village meetings (hyanghoe) held just before the violence
erupted. These village meetings played an important role in the administrative structure
of local society. /.../ These community meetings were thus located precisely at the
point of conflict between central power and local society"358)
Local landed elite, who were leaders of community compounds and villages, were
leading force of the community meetings. Related with the means of mobilization were
local community work groups of peasants. Their leader was at the bottom of the
administrative and political structure of local society. In conclusion it can be said, that
"the riots involved people with different backgrounds, corroborating the picture that the
organizational base was the community of local society, and not any specific social
group." It involved the inhabitants of the county as a whole, but not any specific
social group. Individual riots never transcended the county level. As central government
tried to get control on local resources and raised taxes, and county magistrate became
corrupt, in addition with harsh natural conditions, it evolved into rebellion of local
communities. It did not indicate the collapse of traditional Korean social order.359)
I found an opinion contrary to an explanation above. The violent "Tonghak
356) www.sjeas.skku.edu/upload/200701/207-238.PDF (accessed October 17, 2010).

- 114 -
uprising" of 1894 criticized the existing traditional Korean social order. Yong Choon
Kim describes:
"Even the system of the "Five Human Relationships" was taught in an extreme
form and direction to mean that father is the master and son is the servant, and
husband is the master and wife is the servant, and king is the master and the people
or the minister is the servant, and the old man is the master and the young one is the
servant. /.../ The shame of being a mere people and the shame of being women had to
vanish, for no longer could the plain and common people and women bear the burden
of the tragedy that had fallen upon them. No longer could the plain people accept the
idea that the aristocrats (yangban) continue to treat them as slaves."360)
D. Case Study of Korean Village.
Here I will present summary on rural community life based on research

conducted in 1980s and presented in the book "Korean Traditional Culture: Korean
Studies Series Nr. 25" by Lee, Kwang-Kyu and Lim Sam-Gyu. In rural communities
life didn't change much, villages kept old structure and culture for many centuries.
In Korea there are 50,000 villages. There are suburban villages, mountain
villages, fishing villages and farming villages in regards to their location and
occupation. In regards to size, there are 3 categories of villages: a large village has
more than 150 homes; a medium-sized villages 60-150 homes; small village less than
60 homes. If a village is too small it can not exist as an independent community.
Villages are named according to place, dominating lineage, special characteristics,
occupation, or according to moral values, that villagers try to abide (those names are
based on Chinese characters). Animals and plants can be names for villages as well.
There are market villages, that serve 4-5 villages, which are located 4-5 km
away. It will open every 5 days. Inside there are many restaurants and bars, where
people like to meet. There are special villages as well, such as miners, hot spring,
360) David A. Carlson, The Dawning of a New Culture: The Advent of a God-Centered World (Korea:
Cheongshim GST University Press, 2008), 365.
- 115 -
horse stations, military, or temple villages.
One important characteristic of majority of villages is lineage. Typical lineage
village is normally dominated by two lineages to maintain a balance, keep each other
in check. Commoner villages has no dominant lineage, however, vertical order is
maintained through elder and younger age division. Lineage village has black tile
buildings, - ritual halls, the house of direct lineal descendant, the ancestor hall, and
smaller buildings with memorial stones for prominent ancestors. They all belong to
lineage organization (Munjung).
Hierarchical order of the lineage is the order of the village life. Young men of
the lineage are educated to act well for the good name of lineage. Lineage villagers
are honest, hard working and well-mannered people. Most villages are about 400 years
old. Since 16th century was marked by massive Japanese invasion, villages were
established after the invasion. Usually the history of the founder of the village is
known. In the center of the village an old tree or stone is standing. An interesting
aspect is settlement of the second lineage (through son-in-law or a grandson of a
daughter). Because matrilineal marriage and inheritance by daughters were common in
the past, the second lineage could develop.
Administrative center or township was in a village, where registration of
marriages, births and deaths, sale or purchase of land, taxation, military, other matters
related with family were conducted. Near township a health center, office of farmer's
cooperative, fire station and police station are normally present. Township is about 4-10
km away, 40 km at the very most from local communities. Village as township always
has a primary school. It serves 4-5 villages, children walk 4-5 km to school. High
schools are located in county centers (magistrates of the past).
On market day all get dressed well in order to meet friends and relatives.
Middle-aged women visit Buddhist temples, men meet in Confucian academy (in the
past), and Christian churches serve children (in the present). There are doubts if
Christianity can permeate Korean culture to the village level, because it took 200-300
years for Buddhism and Confucianism.
Age groups make a shallow pyramid, where most people are under 10 years old.
- 116 -
Many older men studied Chinese characters and Confucian ethics. Occupation of family
head is most important criteria determining the character of the village. There are no
villages with one family name. In lineage village there are two dominant family names.
In 'commoners' or 'mixed' village can be more than 10 family names. Statistical data
can not reveal real situation, because 10% of villagers of yangban class may dominate
the village, because the rest were servants a long time ago.
Instead of statistics, we need to understand the mechanisms of a rural community.
In the most widespread case of lineage village with two dominant lineages, they tend
to compete with each other in some areas, for example: a lot of wealth/large number
of offspring; high officials/superior education etc. They check one another in the village
life. All villagers, regardless of lineage could be rich, middle income or poor.
In a village, a local unit of administration (Ri may be one village or contain
several of them, called Tong), there are several buildings, that belong to the rural
community. In recent times, communal buildings serve for meetings. The most
expensive equipment is a loud speaker for an announcement to the entire village.
Communal hall serves as an office for the village head and meeting place. Storage can
be attached to it. In traditional villages they also may possess a sedan-chair for
weddings, a bier for funerals, and music instruments for farmers music band. Rich
villages may have dishes, spoons, tables to accommodate all village (several hundred
people). They might own straw mats and big tent for wedding and funerals. All things
are kept in storage.
Large tree is worshipped as village god. People gather around the tree in
summer, where they rest, gossip, play games in summer houses. Village also owns a
forest, where people gather branches and pine needles for heating and cooking.
Recently villages established credit banks, they can lend money with interest.
Where Confucian education continued to be influential, there existed a post for a
community compound leader (tongjang). Tongjang served as a guardian of Confucian
morals. He led an informal committee of elders when moral issues arose, especially
issues of filial piety.361) However, the most important figure in the community is the
- 117 -
village head, or "ijang". Ijang, the village head, is nominated by chiefs of townships,
but only from 2-3 people selected by village. In the past village head was elected
directly in a general meeting of villagers. Candidates would compete based on
leadership, education and family background. Good family background had nothing to
do with wealth, it meant good ancestors, a happy family life, and a good sense of
filial piety. Education determines one's social status. Good leadership means experience
in society. Generally, 30-40 years old man is elected (modern education, modern
agricultural techniques and sense for innovation is important nowadays). The village
head, as the representative of the village, is the lowest on administrative ladder.
What are the functions of village head? First, it is important duty as a mediator
between villagers and the chief of township. The heads of villages meet in township
every week. They convey opinions as well as statistics for police, health center or tax
bureau. Ijang helps villagers to fill up applications. Most important function of a
village head is to keep village in order. With the support of elder generation he takes
control in times of trouble. He takes care of community finances. For his effort village
head receives 18 liters of rice from every household twice a year. Also, government
pays him a low salary. He can nominate several (5-9) section chiefs (banjang), each of
them is responsible for 10-15 households (Ban - home neighborhood). Usually, instead
of general meeting, only section chiefs meet centered on village head. It happens
regularly. Section chiefs receive no salary.
Government initiated few organizations in the village, such as the "New
Community Movement", women association, youth association with volunteers aged 20
to 40 years. Young people are the dynamic core of village life.
What is the full picture of village structure? Natural village works as a unit in
several areas. In traditional society, every household is expected to participate in
communal works by family head or representative, at least with payment or tribute.
Communal works - economic activities, such as repairing roads, water canals, damage,
cleaning communal well etc. When private home needs help, community will mobilize.
The host provides meals and wine for the workers. Village is organized as large labour
cooperative. Within village small groups of people (3-4 families) labor on certain tasks
- 118 -
(planting rice, organize weddings, funerals, harvesting etc.). A labor exchange is
organized only for one task and it dissolves once the task is over. Labor exchange
becomes a habitual group, no wages are paid and people enjoy working together. It's
emotional dependance that builds among the people.
Mutual finance associations (kye) are most active organizations in community
based on egalitarian principles regardless of age and social status. The kye association
was organized by two or three individuals who were close friends. These core members
recruited other members using personal friendship ties. They were strictly egalitarian.362)
They gather rice or money for funerals, for trips, recreation, for practical purposes, for
education of children. They are organized along age and sex divisions. For example,
there can be a funeral assistance group of 10-20 people to help with aged parents.
Sometimes they are more intimate than cousins of different villages. They are not so
much about money, but to give emotional and social support. Associations meet once a
month rotating members homes, where they have dinner and drink together. They bring
same amount of money to each meeting (membership fee). Kye can be organized for
every practical purpose in rural community. Husbands and wives belong to different
associations. One man can belong to different associations at the same time. And there
can be several associations with the same purpose for different age and sex groups.
Most importantly, they provide emotional bounds within community. They don't extend
membership beyond village.
Gossip gatherings are most disorganized activity. Groups of 4-5 people talk 1-2
hours before bed. During winter groups meet according to age and sex (old men, old
women, young men, young women) in defined rooms in the village. They are informal,
centered on exchange of information. Children of hamlet or village play together (boys
and girls stop playing together from 7 years).
On sad and joyful occasions people gather and help each other in communal
works. Korean proverb says: "A neighbor is better than having far-off cousin".
Birthdays are not celebrated just by family. 60th birthday is celebrated by whole
village community, weddings and funerals as well. Each natural village has its own
- 119 -
village god, who protects the village. Ritual services once a year turns into festival
day. All villagers feel strong sense of solidarity together.
Community ideology - covert social structure, attitudes and behaviors of
inhabitants. Villagers form a very open community, where individuals and families have
no privacy. Welfare of each family depends on community. Rural community is typical
unit of "gemeinschaft"363). Harmony and solidarity are based on egalitarian principle.
Hospitality, generosity and helping neighbors are encouraged.
Even in non-lineage village, there is a hierarchical order based on age. If one
lineage, organized vertically, dominates the community, it is feared that it will sacrifice
egalitarian principles. Two lineages keep balance and harmony. Two lineages in one
community make a balance between two principles: the principle of egalitarianism and
the principle of vertical order.364)
"In a Korean Village: between Farm and Sea (1971), for example, Vincent
Brandt distinguishes between two separate normative systems inherent in Korean
culture, a kinship or lineage orientation and a community orientation, finding the
former to be formal, hierarchical, and Confucian. The community-oriented ethic, on the
other hand, is informal, egalitarian, and reciprocal."365)
Section 6. Case Study of Korean Christianity.
The object of this study is House Church. But I specifically must touch on
Korean Christianity since my hypothesis is that House Church can be significantly
improved if it is based on Korean family and community. A lot of answers can be
found, when the context of Korean Christianity is brought to the light. Here, in this
363) "Gemeinschaft" is a German word, which means a spontaneously arising organic social relationship
characterized by strong reciprocal bonds of sentiment and kinship within a common tradition.
364) The summary about Korean rural community is based on three books: Lee and Lim, Korean
Traditional Culture: Korean Studies Series Nr. 25, 144-171; Lee, Korean Family and Kingship, 171-219;
Roger L. Janelli and Dawnhee-Yim Janelli, Ancestor Worship and Korean Society (Stanford, California:
Stanford University Press, 1982).
- 120 -
section, I will disclose the unique character of Korean Christianity.
Although Catholics came to Korea earlier, but they attempts failed and real start
of Christianity was in April 5, 1885 with the arrival of Protestant missionaries from
America, Horace G. Underwood, a Presbyterian missionary, and H.G. Appenzeller , a
Methodist missionary and his wife. However, Americans were allowed only deliver
educational and medical services, but not to introduce any other religions. They had to
preach the gospel in secret, privately, house to house.
Korean church started in the form of House Church. Then, the growth of House
church led to church growth. All beginnings of the Methodist church was based on
small services in the house. Small class meetings as well as cell groups continued to
be a main vehicle for church's growth during more than a hundred years long period,
especially starting in late 1960's all through 1970s and 1980s.
"Korean Church History"366) explains that Presbyterian church adapted Nevius367)
Mission Policy. First policy was that each missionary was to do an extensive mission
tour. Second, each convert was to become a teacher of the Word. Third, was self
supporting management. In other words, foreign missionary helped local believers to
administer their church and missions without a salary. So, Korean believers became
self-supporting from the start of small meetings. Foreign missionary, when on extensive
mission tour, often in rural areas met with Koreans in "sarang pang", so called "love
room", where on heated floor in the middle of the village many villagers liked to
gather, gossip and chat. Sometimes missionary would spent two or three hours talking
about Jesus.368)
"Another good example of house church was Pyong-Yang. Since the start of
Pyong-Yang Nuldari Church on February 20, 1898, a women's fellowship began, and it
was developed into home groups. Then, they held group services once a week. After
the Korean Civil War, home groups again flourished."369)
366) Kyung Bae Min, Korean Church History (Seoul: Korean Christian Press, 1993), 156.
367) Dr. John Nevius was working missionary in China.
368) Tae-Hwan Kim, An Empirical Study of the Factors Contributing to Rapid Church Growth in Korea
(Wynnewood, PA: The Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1984), 117.
- 121 -
Specifically, I have to introduce Home Cell System of Yoido Full Gospel Church
(YFGC) led by David Yonggi Cho. On May 15, 1958, first worship service was held
in the home of Choi Ja-shil. Later, when number of believers reached fifty (too many
for a house) they used tent until 1961, when membership reached 1,000.370) By 1964,
pastor was managing 2,500 members by himself. Once he passed out during service
and while recovering in the hospital he read the Bible. There he discovered, that
especially in the New Testament church Christians gathered in houses. This inspired
him to delegate responsibility to laymen and to organize cell groups, mostly led by
women (men were reluctant and actually rebelled at the start).
What are the functions and roles of cell groups? First, cell groups are the
training ground for new believers. Second, cell groups play an important role as
community of love. Third, cell groups are essential for preaching the gospel. The role
of leaders of cell groups is very critical, because they take care of the daily needs and
problems of local community. Fourth, cell groups energize general operations of the
church. All cell members have great fellowship together, and as they problems are
being solved, in gratitude they voluntarily join church through many departments and
ministries bringing vitality to congregation. Fifth, cell groups are able to present
Christian culture. Cell group is the most suitable organization for it. Cell groups are
spiritual families and homes for new believers, providing an excellent follow-up in
family-centered environment.371)
YFGC with about 1,000,000 members (2007), is the largest Protestant Christian
congregation in South Korea, and the world.372) It took twelve years, since Home Cell
System was introduced in 1964, to reach the ratio of one cell group for every twenty
members of the congregation.373) YFGC inspired many other churches to follow this
Church Leaders, (Seoul: Torch Trinity Graduate School of Theology, 2008), 55.
370) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoido_Full_Gospel_Church (accessed October 17, 2010).
371) Wang, Development of a Model Curriculum for Theological Education of the Chinese House Church
Leaders, 59-60.
372) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoido_Full_Gospel_Church (accessed October 17, 2010).
373) Kevin Keating, Church Growth and the Home Cell System (Seoul: Church Growth International, 1995),
- 122 -
example, especially in USA. I want to introduce three kinds of cell group systems,
used in modern churches around the world:374)
First, the Appendage system, where less than 20% of congregation participates in
small groups. These churches comprises around 10% of churches with small groups.
One lay-coordinator takes care of cell groups, without strong support from senior
pastor. As soon as coordinator leaves or resigns, the system quickly dissolves.
Second, the Incorporated System, the most common among cell churches, and is
present in an estimated 80-90% of the churches with small groups. It involves from 20
to 50% of the congregation. It has moderate impact, since it is only one of many
activities of the church.
Third, the Integrated System, where participation in cell groups is recognized as
essential to the church life. These churches are present in fewer than 1% of all
churches with small groups, but they are most effective, because 80 to 90% of their
congregation is involved in cell groups. Those churches are the ones that continue to
grow. There are two basic models of the Integrated System. In the "adapted model"
the church allows some traditional patterns and programs coexist. However, best results
come from the "refined model", when an ideal 80% of pastoral staff focus on Home
Cell Groups.
For example, in Yoido Full Gospel Church more than 80% of pastoral staff and
the majority of its nearly seventy thousand lay-leaders are involved with Home Cell
Groups. The staff's daily job is Home Visitation and training of Cell group leaders and
participants. In return, Home Cell Group lay-leaders and participants do evangelical
Home Visitations of non-believers in their neighborhood, which grows congregation
greatly. In general, prayer is especially emphasized and members pray 1-3 hours daily,
while pastoral staff prays minimum 3 hours a day. Home Visitation of non-believers is
the key strategy to multiply Home Cells. They are closely related and can not function
without each other.375) 10% of cells meet in offices and businesses, the rest 90% meet
204.
374) Keating, Church Growth and the Home Cell System, 199-205.
- 123 -
at homes.376)
There are four types of groups: men, women, youth and children.377) Children
groups started to meet Friday or Saturday after school since 1978. It's the most
evangelistic outreach of the church, because children bring their friends (70% of kids
parents are non-believers!).378)
Another very important group is women. 70% of all women in Korea are
housewives and stay at home. They meet during the day, when husbands are at work
and children at school. Practice showed that "the secret to winning a family to Jesus is
to start with a wife".379) Home cell divides in less than a year if it grows fast, and in
three years if slow.380)
There are two basic approaches in starting a cell group: aggressive and
non-aggressive.381) In aggressive approach an evangelically minded lay person visits
homes of non-believers in his neighborhood, and finds receptive people. His outreach
can be expressed in words:
"Find a need and meet it. Find a problem and solve it. Find a sick person and
pray in faith for his healing."382)
In non-aggressive approach, a lay-person is given two Christians from the same

church. He takes care of them and they slowly grow by using their natural social
networks. As soon as cell reaches 20-30 people it has to be divided. As one pastor
explained:
"As much as possible we divide cell groups based on natural networks. If no

natural networks we divide based on geographic area."383)
380) Karen Hurston, Growing the World's Largest Church (Springfield, MO: Chrism Books, 1994), 135.
- 124 -
The normal goal for each believer is to find one person every 6 months.384)
Every cell member visits neighborhood at least one day a week, most two days a
week, but there are some who does evangelize 5 days a week. Home visiting where
people live and work is best. It is top priority in Yoido Full Gospel Church along
with Home Cell System.385) As pastor Cho says:
"Our cell group system is a net for our Christians to cast. Instead of a pastor
fishing for one fish at a time, organized believers form nets to gather hundreds and
thousands of fish. A pastor should never try to fish with a single rod, but should
organize believers into the 'nets' of a cell system."386)
In Home Cell System groups have mixed purposes, often with high value placed
on worship, thus leading some to call them house churches. Some pastors fear that
such groups will split off from the mother church; however, close supervision and
relationships with pastoral staff prevents it.387)
Why did I decided to explain Home Cell System, practiced in Korea? Simply,
because it is so effective. The main difference from the House Churches is that cell
groups belong to the "mother" church and are not completely autonomous, full churches
in itself, even though some people may stay in cell group without ever visiting the
"mother" church during Sunday service. Phenomena of Yoido Full Gospel Church is
possible, because of filial piety and dedication of Home Cell Groups, which are
organized according to family and community pattern.
Anthropologist Hidemura Kenji considers urbanization as a major cause of the
rapid rise of membership in Christian churches, where women, who are alienated by
male-oriented Confucianism, find Christianity as a modern substitute for shamanism and
a means of constructing new social networks in an unfamiliar environment.388) In
- 125 -
Korea, most of the congregation lives within walking distance of the church. Churches
will often organize worshipers into groups (district organizations) led by women of ten
households each, where families live in home neighborhood. Urbanization and
industralization started in 1960s, so most church members came from rural areas. For
new residents of cities, Christian churches offer substitute contexts in which to build
new social networks. Urban churches replace and cement the social and cultural ties
cut off when families moved to cities. According to Hidemura, 1992:
"Family life is most important thing for traditional Korean women. While men
can make friends in the workplace, women, whose lives are more restricted to the
domestic realm, often face greater difficulties making friends soon after they move into
a new neighborhood. Many Christian women, particularly young brides who may live
far from their closest friends, find district organizations of the church to be an ideal
places to make friends."389)
During 1970s and 1980s the New Community Movement, supported by

government, promoted the modernization of lifestyles and customs. Shamans and their
rituals were discouraged and regulated. Village festivals and rites for village deities
were discontinued. There are two interesting shamanistic phenomena of Korean
Christianity, such as prayer (Korean pastors do pray more than any other ministers390))
and spiritual powers (I found two dissertations on this topic391)392)). Accordingly, it
comes as no surprise to learn that two-thirds of Korea's Christians are women. Many
women bring their whole family to the church:
"The same family pattern was discovered in Acts/.../ K. Syuk Kim, in a Korean
391) Jong-Dae Seo, A Study of the Dynamics of Spiritual Power in Mission with Special Reference to the
Korean Shamanistic Culture (Pasadena, CA: Fuller Theological Seminary, 2002).
392) Man Seok Han, The Question of the Cessation/Continuation of Signs and Wonders in the Korean
Church Mission, Pasadena (CA: Fuller Theological Seminary, 2004).
- 126 -
Research Report, indicated the percentage of Korean clergy and laymen becoming
Christian because of their family: this was the motive for 66.1% of the clergy and
47.9% of the laymen (K. Syuk Kim, 1982, p. 40). This means that the family style of
evangelism is very important."393)
393) Tae-Hwan Kim, An Empirical Study of the Factors Contributing to Rapid Church Growth in Korea
(Wynnewood, PA: The Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1984), 84-85.
- 127 -
CHAPTER IV. HYPOTHESIS "KOREAN FAMILY AND COMMUNITY IS A
BASIS OF WORLDWIDE HOUSE CHURCH NETWORK".
Here, before I start going into details I want to give brief summary of my
hypothesis content. In the first section I want all of us to return to the basics and find
out, what is God's eternal purpose, essential qualities of God's Kingdom and duties of
its citizens.
In the second section I will introduce main concepts of family based on
Confucian principles. It is vertical, horizontal and spherical flow of God's love in the
family. Finally, I will introduce family as direct heir and owner of God's Providence.
In the third section I will introduce same principles of vertical, horizontal and
spherical love in terms of community. But there will be new added, such as religion,
economy and politics. At the end I will introduce social architecture of House Church
community.
The fourth section is comparison of Korean rural community in anthropological
models of band, tribe, peasant and urban societies. This section is more an imaginary
case study of House Church application in different settings.
All sections will be a brief and concise explanation, since all examples were
given in literature reviews on Christian concepts of House Church, on Unification
Church views on Home Church, and on traditions of Korean family and community.
They will serve similarly as three primary colors of red-yellow-blue in order to
produce all available mix of colors of nature.394)
Section 1. Terminology of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Cheon Il Guk is "a Korean expression meaning the original ideal of the universal
sovereignty of God's true love on earth and in the spirit world; a world of peace and
harmony among all peoples"395). In other words it is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth,
394) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RYB_color_model (accessed October 18, 2010).

395) Sun-Myung Moon, (Messages of peace) God's Ideal Family and the Kingdom of the Peaceful, Ideal
- 128 -
which was started by Rev. Moon at the Coronation Ceremony of God at January 13,
2001. I want to give a short explanation of God's Kingdom (Cheon Il Guk - CIG), as
well as giving the list of duties of citizens of God's Kingdom as thaught by Rev.
Moon in the "Messages of Peace"396).
Since, the literature overview of Korean social order and culture was given, we
can see how well it aligns with the CIG's social order and culture. In the "Messages
of Peace" textbook I could define twelve unifying themes such as God's ideal (1), the
fall (2), True Parents (3), spiritual and physical bodies (4), True Love (5), the family
of three generations (6), the marriage (7), the lineage (8), the Universal Peace
Federation (9), the spirit world and the physical world (10), the Kingdom of Peace
(11), and the sense of mission (12).
(1) God's ideal. God's idea is "to experience joy through the perfection of ideal
families filled with true love"397). The "ideal family" means "the model of absoluteness
and peace, wherein its members have secured a parent-child relationship with God and
can live in attendance to God as their parent"398).
(2) The fall. According to glossary in "Messages of peace" "the fall - our
original ancestors lost their relationship with God through premature love relationship
that violated God's ideal of true love"399). The consequences of the fall were God's
heartfelt sorrow, false lineage, and selfishness (false love).
(3) True Parents. The glossary says, that "True Parent(s) - the first person/couple
to actualize God's ideal of true love, that is, to reach spiritual maturity, as it is the
potential of each of us to do"400).
(4) Spiritual and physical bodies. From the "Messages of peace" we can
understand that our mind and body unity is very important - "whether you are bound
World (Seoul: Sung Hwa Publishing Co., 2007), 188.

396) The main textbook talking about the age after coming of Heaven (Cheon Il Guk - CIG) is "Messages
of Peace: God's Ideal Family and the Kingdom of the Peaceful, Ideal World".
397) Moon, (Messages of peace) God's Ideal Family and the Kingdom of the Peaceful, Ideal World, 174.
- 129 -
for heaven of for hell is determined by your thoughts, speech and behavior at each
moment"401).
(5) True Love. "True Love is the spirit of public service. It brings the peace that
is root of happiness."402)
(6) Family of three generations. "God will dwell in such family, where three
generations - grandparents, parents and children - live in harmony."403) Rev. Moon
continues "the family sets the pattern for all people to live together in harmony."404)
He later goes on and explains that such families, "where parents and children love and
respect each other, where husband and wife are grounded in mutual trust and love, and
brothers and sisters trust and rely on each other, and live together as one, is the model
and the ideal."405) In such a world, made of ideal families, God can dwell and
Kingdom of Heaven on earth can take root.
(7) Marriage. In order to build family, marriage is necessary. What is the
foundation of marriage according to CIG teaching? "The first stage is maintaining
absolute sexual purity prior to getting married."406) "Second is the model of
absoluteness in the love of husband and wife. More precious than life itself, this is the
heavenly law of absolute fidelity."407) In CIG husband and wife are representatives of
heaven and earth. The CIG marriage is called Holy Blessing Ceremony or International
and Cross-cultural Marriage Blessing. It "is the ultimate means and method to establish
a peaceful, ideal world here on earth."408) After joining Holy Blessing Ceremony
husband and wife must abide not by their own cultural norms, but must follow the
norms of True Parents, the norms of CIG:
405) Moon, (Messages of peace) God's Ideal Family and the Kingdom of the Peaceful, Ideal World, 55-56.
408) Moon, (Messages of peace) God's Ideal Family and the Kingdom of the Peaceful, Ideal World, 179,
- 130 -
"Even if a new bride was indescribably beautiful, if she was married into a
renowned noble family, she would have to follow the rules of her new family. If she
failed to comply with those rules, she would be banished. Can you imagine how hard
that would be? It would be all the more difficult if the lifestyle, habits, and customs
of the two families were very different. Keeping in time with a life filled with rules
and regulations, and maintaining love, would not be easy. It would be very difficult. If
you failed to live according to them, you would be banished."409)
(8) Lineage. "Then, what defines the parent-child relationship? Three things define
this relationship: love, life and lineage."410) Conjugal love gives birth to the new life,
and eventually the lineage is passed down from generation to generation. The Holy
Blessing Ceremony not only bridges two families, lineages, but also different
backgrounds, cultures, nations, races, and religions. However, most important is to leave
Satan's lineage as a consequence of the fall, and join God's lineage through True
Parents.
(9) Universal Peace Federation. Actually, it's connected with the Mongolian
People's Federation for World Peace, where "the Korean race, standing at the center of
the Mongolian peoples, should be in the forefront of the 6.5 billion people of the
world, fulfilling its mission of representing True Parents."411) The Universal Peace
Federation should stand in the Abel position to the existing UN. Instead of
competition, it has to carry the historic revolution for the peace and welfare of
humanity on universal level. Two organizations play important part in the UPF412):
global "peace kingdom police force" and the global "peace kingdom corps". "These two
organizations will play the same role as the red blood cells and white blood cells of
our bodies" in order to protect the blessed families and Heaven. Based on Mongolian
race, and especially on Korean people, as the lineage of Heaven, representing the

412) Moon, (Messages of peace) God's Ideal Family and the Kingdom of the Peaceful, Ideal World, 66-67.
- 131 -
vertical order, and based on egalitarian principles of UN, Kingdom of Heaven on earth
will be established.
(10) Spirit world and physical world. Here, it is important to understand that "the
spirit world does actually exist"413). If we realize it deeply, than everything we do is
the preparation to enter and live in the eternal and unchanging spiritual world. We
need to align our conscience to an eternal and unchanging law of God.
(11) Kingdom of Peace. When the Kingdom of Peace is mentioned in the
messages of peace, other two things are mentioned as well, the family of three
generations living in harmony, and the Utopia where God is sovereign. So, humankind
has to become one great family with God at the center. The kingdom of peace is the
nation without any barriers and walls, which starts in the family.
(12) Sense of mission. True Parents conveyed the message of Heaven for all
humanity. This message "is both blessing and a warning to this generation."414) We
have to create blessed families in the Heavenly lineage and build true clans, true
tribes, true societies, true nations and true kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world. All
previously mentioned terms are important and integral parts of it.
Besides twelve major concepts of CIG, I will present seven "fundamental duties
and mission that every citizen of Cheon Il Guk should understand and live by as they
walk the way of Heaven"415) given by Rev. Moon on June 13, 2006:
First, establish three generations in your family, perfect the Four Great Realms of
Heart, and attend God and True Parents by living for the sake of others and protecting
God's lineage. Second, no matter what the situation, live with your mind and body
united as one. For God has given you a conscience as your guide in accomplishing
this objective. Third, educate 6.5 billion people, who struggle in agony in the midst of
sin and suffering, yet they are our brothers and sisters. Bring them into God's lineage
through Holy Marriage Blessing. Fourth, be always mindful of spiritual world, become
perfected in your spirit self while you are living on earth. Fifth, cast off selfish
415) www.unification.net/peace_msgs/Peace_Message_05.pdf (accessed October 19, 2010).
- 132 -
individualism and offer your talents and abilities for the management and governance
of CIG. Provide funds as voluntary contributions by offering the first three tenths of
income for public purposes. Sixth, protect and love nature, stop polluting the
environment. Seventh, nurture and protect blessed families under the banner of the
Universal Peace Federation by fulfilling the dual missions of the "peace kingdom police
force" and "peace kingdom corps".
In this short introductory section I wanted to show certain characteristics of
Cheon Il Guk, as discussed in the Messages of Peace, in comparison to Korean
traditional culture. Most important of them are family, lineage, ideal, kingdom, peace,
and True Parents. We can find them in both areas of CIG and Korean culture. Korean
Confucian scholars were sincerely trying to deliver an ideal nation based on family.
They were missing God's lineage through Holy Blessing Ceremony which was brought
to our generation by True Parents, Rev. Moon and his wife. Koreans were the best,
prepared to follow the Messiah without looking back.
Section 2. House Church Analysis based on Korean Family Structure and Culture.
"Americans hold equality to be an ideal, and thus find it difficult to understand

an openly hierarchical society"416) like Korea. In many ways Korea and U.S.A. are
opposite cultures. And most valued in America is individualism. Let's look at it:
"What kind of nation is America today? It has become a nation of extreme

individualism, a nation whose people are pursuing private interests, over indulging
themselves, gluttonous, practicing free sex. Does God favor those things? What is the
goal of such extreme individualists? They abandon Heaven and Earth, the world, the
nation, society, their extended family, and even their grandparents. Beyond that, they
lose their parents, and brothers and sisters. Therefore they live as gypsies and wander
around as hippies, having no place to go when it rains and snows. So, they are driven
to end their lives by suicide. That is the result of individualism.
- 133 -
The original mind does not want to protect this extreme individualism and
ridiculous exaltation of privacy. The original mind wants to live receiving love from
the universe, the nation, our village and our parents."417)
The American way of privacy and individualism can not lead to an ideal family,
to the Kingdom of Heaven. What is the solution? Rev. Moon speaks on America
again:
"The relationship of parents and children is confused and the relationship of men
and women here in America is void because tremendous chaos and confusion persist.
The vertical father-son relationship is not clear and the horizontal man-woman
relationships are all confused, so all other relationships are entangled and confused as
well. That is the state of this society at this time. We need a policemen to guide all
this traffic to the one vertical line where it can all be organized..."418)
What is this vertical line? How can we establish it in House Church?
"There are three levels vertically, and also three levels horizontally. Vertically
speaking you have yourself, your father, grandfather and great-grandfather, or at least
four generations. Horizontally, there are brothers, cousins, second cousins and distant
cousins. That's the makeup of the tribe. You must try to restore this system
symbolically; that is the ideal of home church."419)
That is a very important reason why we need to study Korean family structure
and culture, which is based on Confucian values. And in this section I will show how
House Church should reflect Korean family in vertical and horizontal relationships.
Does that mean that all in Korean Confucian family was well? Actually, not 100%.
Confucianism in Korea became very ritualized and formal tradition, and lost heart,
417) Sun-Myung Moon, True Love and True Family (New York: Family Federation for World Peace and
Unification, 1997), 30-31.
418) Moon, Home Church, 251 (What Kind of Thought Do You Have?, 6.10.79, Belvedere).
- 134 -
where some men abused their power. For this reason, I will bring some improvements,
advocated by Rev. Moon, such as the role of children:
"You have to serve your children as if they were kings. Such children will
never become delinquent. Then in turn, if people serve a king as the center of the
nation, as if they were serving their own children, that nation will prosper.
Confucianism teaches that people should serve a king, but not their children. However,
the Unification Church looks at the future."420)
First, let's investigate vertical relationship as a model for House Church.
A. Father-son Vertical Relationship is a Model for Nation.
In Roman empire, as well as in Israel, the family household 2,000 years ago was
multigenerational (up to four generations). It was arranged in such a way, that it
included not only living, but the dead as well. In all, the household included the dead
ancestors of the past, those living in the present, and those yet to be born. How were
past, present and future connected in a family? It is through blood lineage, as
"patrilineal groups are made of men linked by male descent to a common ancestor."421)
This diagram422) describes anthropological
model of extended family in the tribe. Korean
extended family is exactly such a model. What
was the starting point of organization in such
extended family? It was ancestor worship.
Actually, "the Korean clan system was created to
perform commemorative rites for paternal

421) Hiebert and Hiebert Meneses, Incarnational Ministry: Planting Churches in Band, Tribal, Peasant, and
Urban Societes, 92.
Urban Societes, 92.
- 135 -
ancestors."423) Should House Church community practice ancestor worship?
"There is some element of truth in Christianity's ban on the performance of

ancestor rites to this present day. This rite should be offered to God and the True
Parent of all humankind."424)
But, "the Unification Church allows the honoring of ancestors."425) Rev. Moon
says even more: "Korean laws on honoring ancestors are the heavenly law. Koreans are
unique race in the world. Only Korea is practicing this way."426) If you look at the
history of Unification Church you will see how the tribe of True Parents427) was
created. From providential point of view True Parents are the original ancestors of
humankind. I already explained, that human beings belong to Satan's lineage. We must
change it and receive the Blessing of God, "thereby forming the tribe of God"428):
"In the past, at the time of Abraham, one had to be circumcised to become a
citizen of Israel; and in the time of Jesus, one had to be baptized. It is the same
today. In the Unification Church, one cannot become a citizen of the third Israel
without receiving the Blessing."429)
And again, let's look at the tradition of loyalty and filial piety of Korea:
"As Koreans are still a people practising loyalty and filial piety toward God, the
spirit of loyalty and filial piety has become the central thought of the nation. The
classic stories of Shim Chung's filial piety to her father, Chung-hyang's fidelity to her
husband, Jeong Mong-ju's loyalty to his king, and Yu Kwan-soon's spirit of patriotic
423) Korean Cultural Heritage: Traditional Lifestyles, 27. (I wrote about it in my thesis, in Chapter III,
Section 2. Religions in Korea (native and established religions), 86.)
427) By "True Parents" I mean Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his wife Hak Ja Han Moon.
- 136 -
martyrdom exemplify Korean faithfulness to the principles of loyalty and filial piety to
a degree unparalleled in history. Such spirit of loyalty, filial piety, and unchanging
fidelity that is like pine and bamboo constitute the central thought and spirit for the
realization of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth that will be established in the future.
As the Kingdom of Heaven is God's nation, you must be forever loyal to that nation,
and, as God is the Father of all humankind, you must show eternal filial piety to Him.
When God tested the many peoples of the world, He could not find a people of virtue
and fidelity with a spirit of loyalty and filial piety as high as the Koreans. Therefore,
He chose Korea and is intently watching the nation."430)
Rev. Moon adds while talking to members:
"In the future, there will be a time when we revere our parents more than those
who belong to Confucianism."431)
Let's look at Five Relationships of Confucianism. All of them, except

"friend-friend" are considered vertical relationships. Even "husband-wife" relationship is
that of wife being subordinate to the husband, where the model still reflects father-son
relationship with addition of chastity. However, Unification Thought (UT) promotes six
directions of love:
"A person is related with other people in

the six directions of above and below, front and
back, and right and left (see diagram432) in the
following page). Taking oneself as the center, one
is related above with one's parents, superiors, and
elder persons; below with children, subordinates,
and younger persons; to the front, with teachers,

432) HSA-UWC, New Essentials of Unification Thought: Head Wing Thought (Tokyo: Kogensha, 2006),
121.
- 137 -
senior colleagues, and leaders; to the back, with students, junior colleagues, and
followers; to the right, with brothers and sisters, intimate friends, and intimate
colleagues; to the left, with competitors, strangers, and opponents. True love covers all
these persons in all six directions."433)
All directions are based on family relationships. The vertical relationships are
directions of "above" and "below". This vertical relationship expands and reaches
ancestors of the past and God "above", and children and descendants "below" in the
future. That is central and core relationship in the universe, between God and person,
as "parent-child" vertical axis which permeates all creation. In anthropological studies:
"Marshall D. Sahlins points out (1968, 15) that

when you live in a tribe, the tribe looks like a series of
concentric circles (see diagram434)). Around you are
immediate and extended families. Beyond that are circles
of your lineage and clan. Finally there is the circle of
your tribe (those who are truly human), and then the
ancestors and the gods."435)
If "Ego" in the center is the eldest son, and he is direct lineal descendant of the
whole tribe, then his relationship through blood lineage goes back to the progenitor of
the tribe. Since genetic inheritance travels with the male's seed, it is the shortest
distance that it takes.436) This is vertical line on which the whole tribe is build. If this
would be God's lineage, and Adam and Eve would have never fallen, then that
structure would constitute the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. It would constitute one
433) HSA-UWC, New Essentials of Unification Thought: Head Wing Thought, 525.
Urban Societes, 98.
Urban Societes, 97.
436) Within a given kin group relatives are reckoned according to the degree of relatedness, which is
calculated on the basis of ch'on, an abstract concept which measures kinship space between two
individuals.
- 138 -
homogeneous race, one culture, on language. Today "Korea is the only ethnically
homogeneous country in the world. Though they may have many different names, they
are all brothers and sisters."437) Let's look at it from the Korean perspective:
"No matter how many children Adam has, the nation is centered on his first
son. Then, with the first son at the head, his brothers spread out on both sides to
become a tribe and nation. The first son succeeds to the throne. In Korea, this pertains
to the firstborn son of the eldest son. This is truly amazing. What is great about
Korea is that it could receive Blessings from God because it has been protecting the
tradition of the eldest son.
When the oldest grandson of the grandfather holds a memorial service, then the
grand uncles - those who are younger brothers of the grandfather - must attend that
son as the center when performing the ancestral rites. It is remarkable that they have
been attending the eldest son. They must be absolutely obedient."438)
Purpose of Confucianism is to bring order in society. Scientists of anthropology

agrees, that patrilineal kinship system is "an efficient way of organizing a society."439)
According to anthropology it is possible "to build large, stable groups that endure over
time."440) So, the tradition of eldest son, as well as ancestor worship, is Heavenly
tradition.
"When this tradition of eldest son relates to higher standart of lineage, life, and
love, then God can take it as the highest standart of His desire. /.../ Consequently, it
is possible for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth to develop in this way. This is all
logical."441)
437) Kim, An Empirical Study of the Factors Contributing to Rapid Church Growth in Korea, 69.
Urban Societes, 93.
Urban Societes, 93.
- 139 -
"An understanding of the family offers the key to that core of Korean values
which is in direct opposition to Western individualism, and the key to that
understanding is filial piety, the virtue most prized by Confucians."442) So, here
anthropologists, Confucians and Unification Church are in agreement on vertical
structure and culture of family, clan, tribe and society based on patrilineal blood
lineage.
The key to integrate House Church and this understanding of vertical relationship
will be developed later in my thesis. As I mentioned Munjung (lineage organization)
in Korea has such a model, where vertical structure is represented permanently by
firstborn son, a direct lineal descendant, and horizontal structure by an elected capable
leader, who serves for a limited amount of time, because he can be reelected in
general assembly of Munjung, which meets once a year.
From here I must move to the next topic in order to explain horizontal
relationships of husband and wife, because they are of no less importance as father-son
relationship, even though they are secondary and horizontal.
B. Man-woman Relationship is Model of Heaven and Earth.
"In blessed families, the man represents the substantial Jesus and the woman
represents the substantial Holy Spirit. /.../ Therefore, blessed families can start as the
tribal messiahs."443)
I already wrote about Confucian understanding of man and woman, in the roles
of um (yin) and yang. Actually, Unification Church understanding is very similar.
However, there are some differences. It is horizontal relationship, but not vertical (as
between superior and subordinate) as taught in Confucianism. This relationship is
universal as well:
443) Sun-Myung Moon, Blessing and Ideal Family (USA: Family Federation for World Peace and
Unification International, 1998), 441.
- 140 -
"Let us begin by pointing out the common elements which possesses dual
characteristics of yang (masculinity) and yin (femininity) and comes into existence only
when these characteristics have formed reciprocal relationships, both within the entity
and between it and other entities."444)
Divine Principle, the main textbook of Unification Church, explains that particles,
atoms, molecules, plants, and animals are made of pairs. According to the Bible, God
created Adam and his female counterpart Eve, which was "very good"445). All those
levels make up relationships between entities. However, each yang entity has something
feminine in him, and each yin entity has some masculine aspect as well. Divine
Principle puts it in this way:
"Moreover, every creation exists with correlative aspects: inside and outside,
internal and external, front and rear, right and left, up and down, high and low, strong
and weak, rising and falling, long and short, wide and narrow, east and west, north
and south, etc."446)
Since all creation is made in this way, God as

Creator must have the dual characteristics of yang and
yin as well. We can say, that God is Heavenly Parent,
both Father and Mother in Itself. So, roles of man and
woman are predetermined. God's love is starting point,
it's the foundation of Heavenly ethics, the Way of
Heaven.447)
"The second foundational point is the family four
position foundation (4PF)"448) (see diagram449). Here,

445) Gen. 1:31.
- 141 -
there are four positions, namely God (purpose), father, mother and children. God's love
is manifested in 4PF divisionally, as parent's love, husband and wife's love, and
children's love. They are His object partners of love.
"The third foundational point is the three object purpose".450) If we put
grandparents in God's position, then each person in the 4PF has three object partners.
If each person lives for the sake of his three object partners of love, God's love is
realized. Unification Thought gives further explanation:
"Parent's love is a downward love, from parents to children; conjugal love is a

horizontal love between husband and wife; and children's love is an upward love, from
children to parents. In this way, divisional love is love with directional nature. More
precisely, love has twelve directions, because the person in each of the four positions
has a different kind of love for each of the three object partners, respectively.
Consequently, various kinds of love, with different nuances, come to appear. In order
to realize these various kinds of love, various kinds of virtue are required, since with
each kind of love there is a corresponding virtue."451)
Previously, I mentioned six directions of love, but they describe person with no
regard to his gender, but here husband and wife relationship is discussed, and then
twelve directions are being found in the family of 3 generations.
Important to note, that ethics can not be established apart from order. Since
every person has clear position and his love has directional nature, order is necessary.
Since family, as "the very foundation of social order"452), is threatened by "extreme
individualism"453), it "has become instead the starting point of the collapse of social
order"454). According to UT "order in love is closely related to order in sexual
expression. /.../ The order in sexual expression refers to the order in the sexual
451) HSA-UWC, New Essentials of Unification Thought: Head Wing Thought, 281-282.
453) Sun-Myung Moon, True Love and True Family, New York: Family Federation for World Peace and
Unification, 1997, 30-31.
- 142 -
relationship between a man and woman."455) Korean values of chastity and fidelity are
Heavenly values, because they protect order in the family. Sexual purity before
marriage and fidelity in marriage are the most important virtues for both man and
woman in order to protect God's lineage.
"Today, the sense of the sacredness of sex has almost been lost, and sex has
become degraded nearly beyond recognition. This situation is not at all different from
the situation in the Garden of Eden, where Eve, tempted by the Archangel, had an
illicit sexual relationship with him, and as a result, the order of love and sex was
shattered."456)
Today, we clearly need a new of value in order to re-establish the proper order
of love and sex. So, are men and women equal?
"Basically, there can not be a perfect equality between men and women as far
as rights are concerned. One's rights is a prerequisite for accomplishing one's life's
task. Psychologically men and women have different roles in life. The fact that men
has a well-developed musculature, narrow hips, and broad shoulders indicates that man's
task lies in strength as it is related to external activities. On the other hand, a woman
has a weaker musculature, broad, well-developed hips and breasts, and narrow
shoulders, indicating that a woman's task is to give birth to children and raise a
family."457)
But God loves men and women equally, without any discrimination.
"A woman can possess or occupy the same social status or position as a man.
/.../ Particularly, in order to realize world peace it is highly desirable for women to
take the lead, since the primary force for peace in a family is the mother."458)
- 143 -
There is one important point in relationship between husband and wife. Husband
can be compared to a seed, and wife to a field. Any seed husband will plant, the field
will bear fruit. So, from the perspective of love, life and lineage, husband stands in
the position of subject or giver, and wife is in the object position or receiver. Rev.
Moon said: "The field does not exist before the seed. When we look centering on the
seed, the field is the object."459)
Actually, as I already mentioned, in House Church should be two types of
leaders, husband and wife (as vertical and horizontal), not only that, it should be true
in any organization:
"From now, families are at the center. You cannot work alone as an individual.
In the future, even personnel changes will be made for husbands and wives. If a man
is the head of department, his wife should be the second person in charge. If their
children have special abilities, they should be put in important positions within that
department. The entire clan should be organized to work together in this way."460)
"We should treat church leaders like a father. In the church, one should be
taking the mission of a father, and the other, that of mother. The person in the role of
a mother should raise up family members, thus establishing a system in the form of
one family."461)
In Korea father is called "solemn parent" and mother is called "benevolent

parent"462). "In other words, the social security from the father and the emotional
security from the mother create a harmony within the family structure in East Asian
societies."463) I explained the roles of father and mother earlier in my thesis. Korean
459) Moon, Blessing and Ideal Family, 41.

461) Sun-Myung Moon, The Way of the Spiritual Leader (New York: Family Federation for World Peace
and Unification International, 1998), 167.
462) Solemn fathers and benevolent mothers constitute the traditional image of ideal Korean parents (Han,
1997; Park & Cho, 1995).
www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-165167554/changing-social-expectations-work.html (accessed October 20,
2010).
- 144 -
point of view on their roles is principled, however, it's lacking, because husbands and
wives in traditional Korean society never show affection to each other in public. In
opinion of Rev. Moon (his personal example too) there is nothing wrong holding hands
or kissing in public:
"Usually in Korea, the husband keeps walking on and on ahead of his wife,
who walks behind him. /.../ Rev. Moon, however, walks hand in hand with his wif
e.464)
I spoke extensively about Christian understanding of House Church as "family

unit" or "household strategy". Nevertheless, Christians don't see Jesus and Holy Spirit
in the roles of father and mother. But Holy Spirit is "doing the mother's mission -
going into our heart, giving an emotional stimulation and cleansing sin - doing this
work is to be as mother raising a baby, receiving the father's (Jesus') protection."465)
Through Jesus and Holy Spirit as spiritual parents, Christians were able to be born
again as their spiritual children. In order to be born again not only in spirit, but in
flesh too, the Messiah, True Parents, must come again and restore us into God's
lineage. Without it, all Christian efforts are lost and no matter how wonderful House
Churches may look like, they will continue to multiply Satan's lineage.
"In the past, Jesus was sent to this world through a vertical course from the
spirit world. Today, True Father is in the position of God and, as a representative of
Heaven, is sending out thousands of messianic families who can represent their tribes
to the world. Now we cannot perish. I proclaimed tribal messiahship at 2:30 pm on
January 3, 1989."466)
464) Sun-Myung Moon, "A speech delivered at the Dedication Ceremony of the Headquarters of the
FFWPU", translated by prof. Yoshihiko Masuda in his book The 20 Daily-Life Habits That Make a
Supremely Happy Couple (Korea: Cheongshim GST University Press, 2010), 15.
465) Sun-Myung Moon, Blessing and Ideal Family (USA: Family Federation for World Peace and
Unification International, 1998), 192.
- 145 -
C. Four Great Realms of Heart.
I explained two aspects of family relationships, vertical and horizontal. But we

have to understand the direction of love correctly. "Vertical love refers to a
downward-oriented love, one that flows from above downwards, such as God's love for
human beings, and parents' love to their children, and to upward-oriented love, one that
flows from bellow upwards, such as human beings love to God, and children's love to
parents. Horizontal love, on the other hand, refers to the love that flows horizontally,
such as brothers and sisters' love and husband and wife's love."467)
I put this diagram468) in order to
show that Four Great Realms of Heart,
vertical and horizontal relationships in the
family, originates from the order of the
universe and they are, accordingly,
spherical in nature.
As UT explains, "from the aspect of
order, the family is a miniature of the
universe, and the universe is an expanded
image of the family."469) The law that
governs the universe is called "the Way of Heaven"470). All universe, consists of
heavenly bodies, that coexists in harmony through give and receive action between
subject and object. Planet Earth (child) has a satellite Moon (grandchild), however, it
all revolves around Sun (parent) and makes up the solar system, which in turn together
with other planetary 200 billion stars (parents), goes around center of the Milky Way
galaxy (grandparent), and 200 billion galaxies (grandparents) makes up the universe,
where all revolve around one center (great grandparents). From that we can conclude,
- 146 -
that the norm of the family corresponds to the Way of Heaven.
Another important
concept is inclusiveness of
love (see diagram471)). When
baby grows, first he learns
children's love in relationship
with his parents, then the
child has a sibling and learns about brothers and sisters' love, next the adult marries
and experience and perfect conjugal love, and finally, as he becomes a parent, he/she
reaches highest realm of love, where all previous loves are included.
And yet one more concept has to be introduced. In previous topic I explained
husband and wife relationship as model of heaven and earth. This Confucian idea
cannot be fully understood without new perspective from Four Great Realms of Heart.
In family, husband is representative of all men, half of humankind, and his wife is the
representative of all women, the other half.472) Husband represents yang aspect and
spirit world (heaven) and wife represents the yin aspect and physical world (earth).
More than that, this love is center of the cosmos, where all Four Great Realms of
Heart are fulfilled. Out of this love children are
born and lineage continues (love, life and lineage).
This concept can be understood practically, if we
say, that husband can be like a son to his wife at
times, like a brother or friend at other times, or
even like a father, when wife needs guidance and
support. And vice versa, wife acts like a mother,
sister or daughter if necessary to create harmony
between the two. In this diagram473) you can see
illustrated God's vision for Adam and Eve.
- 147 -
Conjugal love is called representative love.
Understanding of Unification Church doesn't contradict Confucian concepts, but
puts them in order and clarity.474) The task of Confucianism was preparation for an
ideal family and kingdom to come.
D. Family is the Owner of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Let's look at the History of God's Providence. How human beings were raised to
the level of true devoted believers, who can take responsibility for God's Providence?
"During the two-thousand-year period from Adam to Abraham, /.../ a providence

which was to be fulfilled by God shouldering responsibility. /.../
During the two-thousand-year period from Abraham to Jesus, /.../ God worked
with prophets ("in the Old Testament Age, angels worked on behalf of God"475)) and
personally shouldered the first responsibility to defeat Satan. /.../
During the two-thousand-year period from Jesus to the Second Advent, Jesus and
Holy Spirit, who assumed the missions of Adam and Eve, /.../ have shouldered the
second responsibility to defeat Satan as they work to restore fallen people. /.../
During the period when the providence of restoration is to be completed after
the Second Coming of Christ, the people of faith on earth and in heaven are to bear
third responsibility to defeat Satan, the fallen archangel, and complete the providence
of restoration. They are to achieve this in accordance with the Principle of Creation,
which lays out the way for human beings to gain the qualification to rule the angels.
"476)
In this light we can better understand "Family Pledge", where each statement
474) Confucians tried to do it to a certain degree. For example, they explained woman's role in the ancient
Confucian doctrine of the "Three-Followings". Anthropologists tried to bring clarity and divided life-cycle
of a married woman into three phases. Raising children has an element of inclusiveness as well, because
with age the child was introduced to more people and broadened his relationships starting from mother,
grandmother, sibling, grandfather, father to the neighbors and relatives.
- 148 -
starts with "our family, as the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges..."477). Incredible, but
each blessed family is fully responsible for the fulfillment of God's Providence as the
owner of the Kingdom of Heaven. "Family Pledge", which CBF reads every morning,
reminds us of our responsibility to "build the Kingdom of God on earth and in
heaven". Before "Family Pledge" UC members used to read "My Pledge" as individual
believers. However, two milestones in Unification Church can explain it: first, Home
Church Providence, when in 1978 individual believers were sent in order to accomplish
Home Church Providence; and second, when in 1989 families were sent out in order
to accomplish Tribal Messiahship. In 1981 Rev. Moon said: "I am declaring a new
beginning: the leader-centered movement is over, and the member-centered movement is
going to begin."478) He explained it in comparison with Israel entering Canaan under
the leadership of Moses: "While we marching toward Canaan, our supreme duty is to
follow orders, but once we enter Canaan we don't live by commands, but by love.
This is that time."479) Basically those, who didn't start House Church, stayed in the
wilderness or if they settled without House Church, they were overcome by surrounding
fallen world and lost their children to it. Only one Unification Church member from
Brasil, Jose Ellias de Almeida, was victorious in Home Church Providence (he was
brave enough to enter Canaan), and later, in Tribal Messiahship (he settled as a
family). To my knowledge, there are no others, no individuals, no families, who took
this responsibility to the completion. In 1980 Rev. Moon said: "When home church is
done in a country and it is restored, those who have done home church there will be
privileged to become citizens."480) However, even in 1969 Rev. Moon said "There is a
reason why I have not been building churches until now. It is because we do not need
many people in the church. God's Kingdom is realized not from the church but from
the family; that is to say, it starts from bride and groom."481) From "Terminology of
the Kingdom of Heaven" it becomes clear, that the Kingdom is still empty, because
477) www.unification.net/misc/fampledge.html (accessed October 21, 2010).

- 149 -
there is no restored nation: "Home church members have to restore all nations; home
church is the device for doing that"482). And to enter this restored nation we can only
as families, not individuals: "The Kingdom of Heaven accepts only families, not just
individuals. A family of three generations..."483) Now we are spiritual kingdom, similar
to Christianity. But the responsibility remains in front of all people - Home Church for
individuals, and Tribal Messiahship for families. And those who does it don't need any
leaders, because this mission is given to us directly as we recite it in "Family Pledge"
every morning. Each family is the basic building block of the Kingdom of Heaven.
This very family has responsibility in front of God in order to become true parents
and build ideal family through tradition and education in House Church: "A society is
the extension of family /.../ and the most urgent task, which should be pursued before
anything else, is to re-establish ethical laws."484) Let's move to another section and
apply the Way of Heaven to community based on the case study of Korean village.
Section 3. House Church Analysis based on Korean Village Structure and Culture.
As we looked previously, in the natural world "the law that governs the universe
is called the Way of Heaven."485) The same law governs the society. If applied to
human world, "a society is the extension of family. Accordingly, social ethics is to be
established, in correspondence to the Way of Heaven."486) As Frank Viola and Neil
Cole promotes, we should create an Organic church487), where the form follows the life
- "just as the form of the human body springs out of the life of the human".488) Some
Christian theologians support this idea. Bushnell489), who "emphasized the importance of

487) They both are the most active promoters of the term "organic church". Neil Cole even wrote a book,
called "Organic church".
488) www.ptmin.org/Neue.pdf (accessed October 21, 2010). (It is explained in my thesis as well, 18-20).
489) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Bushnell (accessed October 21, 2010).
- 150 -
family more than any other Christian leader in American history"490), said that "all
society is organic, - the church, the state, the school, the family..."491) In order to
explain the organic nature of society Divine Principle offers an analogy of human
body:
"By analogy with the human body, whose organs function in accordance with
the subtle commands of the brain, all the institutions of the ideal global society are to
abide by the desires of God. Just as the commands of the brain are transmitted to
every part of the body through the peripheral nervous system branching out from the
spinal cord, in the ideal world God's guidance is conveyed to the entire society
through Christ, who corresponds to the spinal cord, and God-loving leaders, who
correspond to the peripheral nervous system. The peripheral nervous system branching
out from the spinal cord corresponds to a nation's political parties. Thus, in the ideal
world, people of God led by Christ will form organizations analogous to today's
political parties.
In the human body, the longs, heart and stomach maintain harmonious interaction
in accord with the directions of the brain, transmitted through the spinal cord and the
peripheral nervous system. By analogy, the three branches of government in the ideal
world - the legislative, judicial and executive branches - will interact in harmonious
and principled relationships when they follow God's guidance as conveyed through
Christ and people of God. Just as the four limbs of the body move according to the
commands of the brain for the welfare of the individual as a whole, the economic
institutions of the ideal world, corresponding to the limbs, will uphold the desire of
God and promote the welfare of the entire world. Just as the liver stores nourishment
for the entire body, in the ideal world there will always be a certain reserve to be
tapped as needed for the public good. /.../
Since constitutions are not written in accordance with the Word of God, the
three branches of government currently function like internal organs which cannot sense
or respond to the commands of the brain because the peripheral nerves have been
severed. They lack order and harmony, and suffer continual conflicts among
490) Yoshihiko Masuda, From Dependance and Independance towards Interdependance (Korea: Cheongshim
GST University Press, 2006), 213.
- 151 -
themselves."492)
Where can we find a model of society, that is close to an ideal? The answer lies
in Korea:
"The essence of Korean culture is harmony with order, contrasted with American
mainstream culture that stresses individualism. Influenced by Confucianism, Koreans
value harmony within family, community and society as a whole."493).
Order and harmony is the important reason for my thesis focus on the Korean
family and village. In Divine Principle the ideal society is sometimes called "socialistic
society on Heaven's side"494). Is it same as "scientific socialism" based on the theories
of dialectical and historical materialism and communism? What is the difference among
the two? Professor Yoshihiko Masuda in his book "From Dependance and Independance
towards Interdependance" clearly states the difference: "What is an antonym of
"socialism" in the Marxist sense? There is no question that it is "capitalism."
Capitalism is the main target of critique by Marxism and the archrival of the Marxist
idea of socialism."495) However, the antonym of "socialistic society on Heaven's side"
is "extreme individualism" as stated in the speeches of Rev. Moon:
"America has been drifting, and its ideals are reduced to individualism.
Individualism without relationships with others is hell. America has exemplified Satan's
ideal instead of God's ideal."496)
From this we can make conclusion, that communism is pseudo-society, build on

493) www.ntac.hawaii.edu/downloads/products/briefs/culture/pdf/ACB-Vol2-Iss1-Korea.pdf (accessed October
22, 2010).
496) Sun-Myung Moon, "The New Family Pledge", (delivered on May 8, 1994) Today's World (May/June
1994): 11.
- 152 -
ideals, that mimics God's divine plan.497) "Scientific socialism" focuses on economy, but
"socialistic society on Heaven's side" focuses on relationships. If vertical relationship
with God is restored, horizontal relationships among people will be restored
automatically. In order to build such society, we need to remedy economic, political
and ethical aspects. In Divine Principle those aspects of socialistic society on Heaven's
side are called "the ideals of interdependance, mutual prosperity and universally shared
values"498).
The House Church, object of my study, can be understood better in the
perspective of economy, politics and ethics of Korean village community. I will start
with economy.
A. Coexistence of House Church Community.
"According to God's ideal of creation, God confers upon each individual the
same original value. Just as parents love all their children equally, God desires to
provide pleasant environments and living conditions equally to all His children. ...
Early Christians lived according to this ideal in some respects by sharing all
their goods in common.499) Thomas More's Utopia, written in sixteen-century England,
and Robert Owen's humanistic socialism during Industrial Revolution in England each
expressed a vision of the socialist ideal. Catholic and Protestant socialist movements
have also shared this vision..."500)
The first characteristic of the ideal society refers to the economic dimension.
Korean word for "coexistence" gongsaeng ( ) can be translated as "co-living",
"living together", "interdependance", "commensalism"501), or "symbiosis"502). It is

499) Acts 4:32-35
501) Commensalism derives from the English word commensal, meaning "sharing of food" in human social
interaction, which in turn derives from the Latin "cum mensa", meaning "sharing a table". Source:
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commensalism (accessed October 23, 2010).
- 153 -
sometimes translated not only as "coexistence", but also as "mutual existence" and
"ideals of interdependance".503)
If we look back in my thesis, where I discussed main characteristics of Korean
rural community, there I have mentioned community compact (hyangyak). One of four
major aims of the revised Lu Family Community Compact spoke of "mutual aid in
case of illness and disaster"504). More than that, community compact had a granary,
which acted as a charity foundation and a credit bank, where instead of money the
grain was kept and managed. Each member of Community Granary Compact had to
"offer one peck of hulled rice during the tenth month every year"505). Article XII of
the compact stated: "The collected rice shall be used as a fund for emergency relief.
"506) Seven articles spoke of assistance in case of flood, fire, burglary or theft, illness,
death, orphans, slander, or poverty. I want to present just one article from the rules for
mutual aid in illness and disaster, where compact members took upon themselves the
family duties towards orphans:
"Fifth is the case of young orphans, children who are left alone with no one to
depend on after the death of a member. /.../ If the family is destitude and unable to
support itself, the members should work together to provide assistance so that the
family will not lose the means of survival. ... As the son of the bereaved family
grows older, an appropriate person should be selected to teach him and suitable spouse
should also be found for him. ..."507)
502) Symbiosis (from the Greek: σύνsyn "with"; and βίωσιςbiosis "living") is close and often long-term
interactions between different biological species. Source: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiosis (accessed
October 23, 2010).
503) Masuda, From Dependance and Independance towards Interdependance, 193-196.
504) "first, mutual encouragement of virtue and virtues acts; second, mutual correction of wrongful conduct;
third, fellowship with one another according to the rules of decorum and customs; and fourth, mutual
aid in case of illness and disaster." Source: Ch'oe, Lee and de Bary, Sources of Korean Tradition:
Volume II, 149-150.
505) Ch'oe, Lee and de Bary, Sources of Korean Tradition: Volume II, 155.
507) Ch'oe, Lee and de Bary, Sources of Korean Tradition: Volume II, 154-155.
- 154 -
The article V (regulations of the Community Granary) stated that if member of
Community Granary Compact wanted to borrow the rice, he could do so, if the unit of
ten households (in other words - his neighbors) was willing to be responsible and pay
back in case the borrower couldn't.508) You could say, that in modern society we have
welfare or social security system, which replaces the function of mutual aid in Korean
community. However, it does not work:
"Society will be destroyed by the welfare, or social security system, in America

and in Europe. I cannot agree with it. New York has deteriorated; thieves are
increasing in number day by day: welfare causes the increase of a "ghost" population.
Norway is a difficult situation: nobody will work. If someone has a company, he
might even close it down because he can get more money through welfare than
through his salary. Such a trend may even begin in Japan. If a people has a surplus
money, it is better for them to make plains out of mountains, taking responsibility to
work for even the lowest wages, than to be idle; a people which works hard in this
way will have a bright future."509)
Let's look into UT explanation on ownership:
"In terms of ownership, in capitalist economy there is private (individual)

ownership, while in socialist economy there is social (national) ownership. Yet, in both
economies the element of love is totally excluded. That is to say, whether private or
socialist (public), economy is simply materialistic ownership, without regard to the
mental aspect."510)
Unification Thought goes on to explain, that in the principle of mutual existence,

there is joint ownership based on God's love. If we look at cases of Community
Granary Compact, Korean village or lineage association Munjung, we can see, that all
- 155 -
of them have joint property, managed mutually by general assembly as highest decision
maker, but in reality, the trusted and capable person is selected and he takes care of
property for the sake of the whole. In Korean rural community the mental aspect
always present in economic activity. For example, members of Community Compact
should show concern and compassion first, not just distribute the aid to the needy. In
village too, all kinds of mutual finance associations meet together once a month
rotating members homes, where they have dinner and drink together. As I wrote
"sometimes they are more intimate than cousins of different villages. Associations are
not so much about money, but to give emotional and social support."511) More than
that, in Korean rural community welfare of each family depends on community, where
hospitality, generosity and helping neighbors are encouraged. Early Christians were very
generous with the strong sense of hospitality as well.512) Rev. Moon taught to Central
Blessed Families in the book "Home Church":
"In the future, if you welcome the guests and pay their expenses willingly, no
matter how many of them you may have, God will bless you all the more. ..."513)
What is the antonym of hospitality? It is the "false sense of possession":
"There are three levels of ownership in the world. One is public ownership;
second is private ownership; and third is heavenly ownership. We should put all we
have, both private and public things, under heavenly ownership. A false sense of
possession is the worst enemy of man. In conclusion, we must put everything under
511) There are communal works, small groups of labor exchange on certain tasks, made of 3-4 families for
mutual help, mutual finance associations of all kinds within village. Beyond that each village has joint
property, managed by the village chief. In lineage villages, lineage organization Munjung owns property
dedicated to ancestor worship.
512) Hospitality was "an ultimate medium of Christianity's growth". Source: Donald W. Riddle (1938),
"Early Christian Hospitality: A factor in the Gospel Transmission," Journal of Biblical Literature 57,
152-154. See also J.B. Jordan (1981), "God's Hospitality and Holistic Evangelism," The Journal of
Christian Reconstruction 17, pp. 87-113.
- 156 -
heavenly ownership. Wipe away all past concepts. We have to live according to such a
new concept."514)
Similarly as each nation has sovereignty, people and territory, - each family has
family head, members of family and goods or property in respective roles. In ideal
world the relationship between God and human beings is that of parent and children,
in other words it is realized in the family. In family, all property belongs to the
parents, and at the same time to the children. Even if the property is legally owned by
parents, because of parents love, it is, in fact, jointly possessed by both. In ideal
family all three generations own property together.
So, is there any private property in the ideal world? Yes, because each person
has two purposes: one is for the whole, and another is for an individual. Those two
purposes must be in harmony, guided by love for one another. So, both community or
family property as well as personal property will exist in the ideal world.
In this way, the principle of mutual existence is the theory of joint economy
based on joint ownership centered on God's true love. However, how about social
classes, that exist in every society? Korean local communities rebelled in 19th century
because of division between rich and poor. Even in rural community there are three
social classes, such as rich, middle-income, and poor. In this regard Rev. Moon spoke
of the human society as follows:
"A central medium which enables the upper and the lower classes to unite in
the middle is necessary. This is none other than religion. ...
Then what is the Unification Church? It is the new religion destined to carry
out this historical mission."515)
Here comes the importance of mission of House Church community, which

should bring equality between social classes. Next, let's look into the political aspect of
ideal society.
514) Moon, Home Church, 428 (Instructions to International and United States Leaders, 11.26.78, Boston).
515) Sun Myung Moon, Science and Absolute Values (New York: ICF Press, 1982), 97-99.
- 157 -
B. Co-prosperity of House Church Community.
"Religion and economy are integrated with our life in society through politics.
"516)
Korean word gongjon ( ) for co-prosperity is usually translated as

"coexistence". According to prof. Masuda, the word "coexistence" contains a
connotation that various self-sufficient beings live together without hostility or conflict
despite differences among them. DP and UT make it clear, that we all interrelated
organically with each other, and there is no independent self-sufficient being. We all
belong and are connected with dual purposes: for the sake of the whole and for the
sake of the individual.517)
Through politics we have to arrange ways of obtaining or getting what we need.
Nowadays democracy is considered as a superior form of state government. However,
an alternative of co-prosperity is proposed here. Why?
"Essentially, democracy is an ideology seeking to realize freedom and equality for
all people."518) Democratic principles such as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness" in the Declaration of Independence of America; and the "freedom, equality,
and fraternity" derived from French Revolution was proclaimed more than two hundred
years ago, but they haven't been realized until today. Democracy, which is the political
philosophy of capitalism, separated state and religion, and lost its direction. As a result,
without Christianity and Christian values, individual freedom was misused and
degenerated into egoism.
Democracy as ("The government of the people, by the people, and for the
people"519)) ideology could not be realized, because "people" in reality refers to the

519) This is well expressed in his famous Gettysburg Adress by Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President
of the United States, as the "government of the people, by the people, and for the people". Source:
HSA-UWC, New Essentials of Unification Thought: Head Wing Thought, 513.
- 158 -
masses, but actual power and influence is in the hands of politicians and capitalists,
who seek power and maximization of profit for their own sake. It's the result of
separation of church and state, because Christian values were replaced with egoistic
individualism. Actually, as long as politicians and capitalists live up to Christian ideals,
democracy can realize ideal society to a certain degree. When kingdoms failed, God
demolished and replaced them with democracy, in order to restore everything from the
bottom. In democracy religions can flourish and Messiah cannot be killed, but accepted
by free will of all people.
How does Korean rural community model helps to understand application of
mutual prosperity principle? The principle of mutual prosperity is a theory concerning
joint government. How Korean village is organized? Each household is represented by
family head, who participates in general assembly of the village community. General
assembly selects 2-3 people, and chief of township nominates one of them as the head
of a village (ijang). His first and most important duty is to mediate between township
and village. In other words, ijang keeps village in order. He is selected based on
leadership, education and family background. We have to remember, that in village
there are two lineages, which bring the balance of power. Hierarchical order of lineage
is the order of village life. The village head is selected based on his capacity, but in
times of crisis he receives a support of older generation. As I understood, ethical and
religious issues are dominated by elders (vertical/long-term strategy), and economic
issues are dominated by their eldest sons (horizontal/short-term strategy), who received
better education than parents. Two principles, one of vertical social order based on
lineage, another egalitarian (horizontal) social order based on meritocracy brings
harmony and order. In Korean village, there is no separation of religion and politics.
Moral values and decorum guides political decisions and behavior of village head.
Similarly in lineage organization Munjung, there is always direct lineal
descendant, that cannot be changed or reelected. However, all male members of same
lineage organization directly selects lineage head, who leads lineage association based
on his ability until the next meeting. Lineage association has to perform religious
rituals and it is responsibility of direct lineal descendant. However, the head of
- 159 -
Munjung performs other tasks, more external, even economic activity, for example
collects new information for next genealogy book or establishes scholarship for young
students from the same lineage. We can therefore conclude, that in Korean society
there is always vertical social order when it is dealt with kinship and religion, and
horizontal social order, when economical or practical issues are at hand.
How about an early Christianity? Paul appointed team of elders in each church
based on character, basic management skills and ability to teach. Household heads
provided best material to become such leaders.520) Frank Viola confirms that elders
should grow up naturally and organically based on ability not an office or title. Rev.
Moon says that the one who gives and serves most, will become the center of the
family regardless of his position.
"Who becomes the owner? It is the person who serves others the most. The
person who serves others the most can govern and take command. Also, it is natural
law, that an inheritance will come to the person who lives for the sake of others. In
love can be found the right of mutual participation, which means that both can freely
participate in each other's lives any place, day or night."521)
However, in family eldest son inherits family lineage, even though he is not as
capable as somebody else in the family. When the proper decorum and position is
kept, these two principles serve as vertical and horizontal order, and harmony is
maintained. Similarly, in Korean family, mother works hardest and has emotional
influence over other family members, however, because stability and social security has
to be maintained, father is respected, and mother follows him in major decisions while
keeping day-to-day management of family in her hands. So, father is vertical parent,
and mother is horizontal. Similarly, in lineage association, there is vertical leader and
horizontal leader. As well as in the village (elders and village head). How could
elections be conducted in the ideal society?
520) I explained it in my thesis, Chapter I, Section 4. History of House Church, 33.

- 160 -
"A joint government under the principle of mutual prosperity would have
following characteristics. First, the relationship among the candidates would not be that
of rivalry, but that of brothers and sisters attending the Messiah, the representative of
God, as True Parents of humankind. Second, the candidates would run for election not
by their own will, but rather with the recommendation of many neighbors (brothers and
sisters), namely, by the will of others, since those who are in the relationship of
brothers and sisters centered on true love will make mutual recommendations. Third, an
election would not take place in a way that would require an enormous expenditure of
money, with all the accompanying side effects. After a preliminary election in the first
stage, an election by lottery would be made in the second stage, accompanied by
solemn prayer and appropriate formality. With the assurance and confidence that the
outcome was in accord with God's will, those elected, those not elected, and, in fact,
all the people, would be thankful to God, and would accept the result happily and
sincerely."522)
So, we can conclude that with prayer and recommendation of people, brothers
and sisters, would select most capable leader. However, those who are direct lineal
descendants and oldest will be respected in such society as it would happen in family
based on kinship ties for a lifetime.
C. Co-righteousness of House Church Community.
"The family is the model for forming a nation."523)

"In order for a nation to be formed, there must be sovereignty, citizenry and
territory; the same is true of God's kingdom. In the place of its sovereignty are the
parents, in the place of its citizenry the children, and in the place of the territory the
nation. Of these, none can be left out. This is an iron rule."524)
"Who would be the sovereign? Without a doubt, God would be the sovereign.
Who would be the citizens? The citizens would include all people of the world. Then
- 161 -
where would the territory of the nation be? It would be the earth."525)
Last word for co-righteousness in Korean is gongeui ( ) is translated as

"common cause". However, there three principles "co-existence, co-prosperity and
co-righteousness" implies the order of cause and effect. In other words, symbiotic
relations (co-existence) results in co-prosperity, and it in turn, results in
co-righteousness. So, better translation would be co-righteousness, which is literal
translation. There are other variations as well, such as "universally shared values", or
"mutual righteousness".526)
If we look for one word that is common to all three principles, that would be
"mutual" in opposition to "individualism". Individual cannot be happy, if others are
destined to ruin. If individual possesses the heart of God, who cares for all of His
children, he will definitely look for the way to help others, until all are safe, every
single individual should be happy and not left out. The new society, that is to come
after capitalist and communist societies, is ideal society based on "joint property", "joint
government" and "joint ethics". UT explains:
"In the future ideal society, religion will not be necessary, since the purpose of
religion will have been completely realized. The purpose of Christian teaching is to
empower an individual to firmly maintain faith until he or she receives the Second
Advent of the Messiah. The purpose of Confucianism is to empower people to practice
virtue until the ideal world of true brotherhood arrives. The purpose of Buddhism is to
empower people to train themselves and observe the law (Dharma) until the ideal
world /.../ - arrives. Islam seeks a theocracy centering on the sovereignty of Allah. /.../
The world in which the purpose of all religions has been accomplished is the
society of mutual existence, mutual prosperity and mutual righteousness, namely, the
society centered on the Second Advent of the Messiah."527)

- 162 -
First, such society of "joint ethics" will be reinforced by the true love of the
three great subjects, namely, parent, teacher and leader. Parent is the center of family,
teacher is the center of school, and leader is the center of workplace (dominion). Look
back to previous explanation of six directions of love, all three great subjects will be
those who love the most. Any of them will share what they have with others: parents
will care for children, teachers will share knowledge with students, and managers and
leaders will provide the way to make a living for subordinates. Both school and
workplace will resemble the model of extended family, where "father" and "mother"
together are center of each institution.
Second, basic unit of economical, political and ethical society is the family. In
the family there are four generations: grandparents, parents (husband and wife), children
(brothers and sisters), and grandchildren. All these positions are realized in the family
and extended to the society. When love is realized and established in such a family,
family law and order will be present and ideal society will emerge. How does Korea
fit in the context of such an ideal society?
"Filial piety was the behavioral norm of traditional Korean life and has remained
at the foundation of Korean consciousness throughout the transformation from agrarian
to industrial society and from rural to urban life. Even today, Koreans address
strangers in the street as grandfather, grandmother, uncle or aunt, depending on their
age. They are treated as family members, though they are not blood relations. Major
conglomerates refer to their employees as "family". In the workplace, filial piety is
expressed as loyalty to the head of the company or union boss. While loyalty to
nation (chung) and filial piety (hyo) are different concepts, in action they are quite
similar."528)
Rev. Moon teaches about positions in the family:
"The grandfather symbolizes the spirit world, the heavenly world. Therefore, you
should attend him like God. ... Since the father and mother symbolize present, they are
- 163 -
king and queen representing all the families of humanity in this world. ... The sons
and daughters represent the future."529)
What are characteristics of traditional Korean life, that corresponds to the values
of co-righteousness (joint ethics)?
"First, individual cannot exist as a separate being. All Koreans are identified as
a member of a group. ...
Second is the hierarchical order of human relations. The fundamental patrilineal
relations develops along the generational lines according to which the leaders rule and
the younger generation obeys. ...
Lastly, throughout history, Koreans have placed the highest value on community
cooperation and harmony, just as we have valued harmony with nature. In a society
where an individual could not survive alone and individual existence was not
recognized, community-centered life may have required loyalty and filial piety within a
strict hierarchy."530)
Korean village has gossip meetings, according to age and sex divisions. All kinds
of associations based on economy provide social and emotional support. Kinship
relationships are central to joint ethics in Korean society.
Christianity in the beginning chose to integrate into oikos structures and became
capable of long-term survival and could pass its tradition from generation to generation.
In similar fashion, Christians in Korea used to evangelize family head first, because
then all household members joined naturally.531)
What can we conclude? Democracy and communism can be united in the ideal
society of co-existence, co-prosperity and co-righteousness. Interestingly, but our lifestyle
in the future society will become much more socialistic. Communism promoted
communal living. Rev. Moon suggested that Central Blessed Families should live in

531) Kim, An Empirical Study of the Factors Contributing to Rapid Church Growth in Korea, 84.
- 164 -
trinities of different nationalities. 3-4 families living together, sharing property, sharing
guidance, and sharing faith should be a training ground to unify the world. It sounds
quite similar to what communists proposed as an ideal society of all nations united.
Rev. Moon explained:
"...the Blessed families from four different nations will live together in a
condominium in the future. By living in such a way, the Blessed families are to
educate their children not as their own children but as the children of the whole
world. /.../ If we do not acquire such a heart as to take good care of children of other
families as if they were our own, the world will not be unified. If we discriminate
children of the next-door families from our own children, such an attitude will cause a
problem when different families live together in the same housing complex."532)
D. Social Architecture of House Church Community.
In Old Testament Age people led a simple life under a social system in which
religion played central part of their daily lives. The progress of science was extremely
slow, and economic life didn't develop. Political system was based on master-servant
relationships and the strict code of Mosaic Law, they had to obey in both political and
religious matters. In that age, religion, politics and economy did not progress
separately.533) However, in the history of Western Europe the three aspects of religion,
politics and economy have progressed separately through their own path of
development. The fundamental cause of it was divergence (disagreement) of religion
and science, based on spiritual and physical ignorance. So, in order to unite and realize
God's ideal, the new expression of truth must come with the Second Advent of
Messiah. It will lead humanity to become one with God in heart. Such people will
build economy according with God's ideal and new political order will emerge as the
messianic kingdom built on principles of "interdependance, mutual prosperity and
universally shared values".534) You can see detailed chart535) in the next page on the
532) Masuda, From Dependance and Independance towards Interdependance, 199-200.

- 165 -
history of economy, politics and religion.
In the beginning of this section I mentioned that "since constitutions are not
written in accordance with the Word of God, the three branches of government
currently function like internal organs which cannot sense or respond to the commands
of the brain because the peripheral nerves have been severed"536). Of course, this
analogy with human body must be applicable on all levels: family, village, society and
nation. However, since this section deals with the Korean village, and my hypothesis
claims that Korean village serves as basis for House Church's social order and culture,
I will try to derive the natural model of social architecture from it. According to DP,
"brain" is God and "spinal cord" is the Messiah. However, in Korean village God is
Hananim or Heaven, and Messiah is Tangun (first shaman, founder of Korean nation),
Buddha or Confucius. In Korean village there is a shaman, Buddhist monk, and
Confucian scholar. Shaman has no formal organization. Buddhism has temples.

- 166 -
Confucianism has three local organizations: temple, association and school. In House
Church tribal messiah is high priest and founding ancestor of the community. Tribal
messiah is a couple, where husband holds masculine point of view, and wife holds
feminine point of view. Associations of husbands and wives make up political parties
of House Church community. Similarly, in Korean village Confucianism promoted men's
point of view and Shamanism promoted women's point of view.
According to DP "lungs" is legislative branch of government, the parliament. In
Korean village it is general assembly of all family heads. House Church assembly of
all members has same function. According to Rev. Moon "they will kick you out and
get a messiah who practices what I am teaching"537), which means that assembly has
the highest authority in House Church. General assembly elects government and
appoints officials, creates laws to enforce tradition and education.
According to DP "heart" is judicial branch of government, the court, the police.
In Korean village it is village elders. They can have formal organization - community
compound (hyangyak). They look at the moral state of the community. In House
Church there should be elder CBFs, who act like judges of the community.
Grandfathers are best suited for it. And young people, "the dynamic force", should be
like a police.
According to DP "stomach" is executive branch of government, the prime
minister with the cabinet. In Korean village it is the village head and section chiefs
(ijang and banjang's). They take care of the order in the village, especially finances. In
House Church also should be managers and administrators, who can be elected to
organize the community according to their abilities and tasks.
There are three parts in the economic structure in DP - production, distribution
and consumption that corresponds to digestive, circulatory and metabolic systems.
Oxygen is most important for human body, next is water, and last is dry food.
Sunlight and air correspond to God's love and truth. Water and food are the material
things we need. Village head with section chiefs and mutual-aid associations (kye) can
take care of production, distribution and consumption.
- 167 -
Masculine is represented by bone structure, men hold authority and power, they
work outside the home, in the society. Feminine is represented by muscles and tissues
that holds bones together, women express emotion and care, they take care of daily
needs of family members at home. Organs are all kinds of mutual-aid associations (as
in Korean village - kye). "Four limbs" are economic institutions, such as communal
works and labour exchange groups in Korean village. "Liver" works as granary of
Community Compound, and House Church should have credit bank for emergencies.
After tribal messiah couple dies, they become a deity, a founder of the tribe, true
parents, local saints. Eldest son of tribal messiah and his wife inherit the mission of
tribal messiah. Each House Church community should build a shrine, where God, True
Parents and tribal messiah are celebrated and worshipped. In general sense the structure
of society will be made of families, extended families, tribes as Rev. Moon said:
"There are three levels vertically and also three levels horizontally. Vertically
speaking you have yourself, your father, grandfather and great grandfather, or at least
four generations. Horizontally, there are brothers, cousins, second cousins and distant
cousins. That's the makeup of the tribe. You must try to restore this system
symbolically; that is the ideal of home church."538)
How does House Church community connects with other communities?

Confucianism had national temple in Seoul, also local temple and association at Gun
level (region with 2,000-3,000 villages), also multiple Confucian schools were
established in many villages. Rev. Moon suggested that temple should be build at
Myun level (Myun is township with population below 20,000) by association of House
Churches. So, in order to connect, three types of organizations are necessary - temple
(for worship), association (for fellowship), and school (for education). However, primary
tradition and education is the responsibility of each CBF. This should be initiated by
tribal messiah and slowly, step by step, as conversion advances, the division between
secular and sacred will cease to exist, as a result the church and state will become
- 168 -
one. Then organized religion is not necessary anymore, because national law will be
based on God's Word taught in public schools and universities, and CBF will
communicate with God and spirit world directly without any mediators.
Section 4. Application based on Anthropological Society Models.
In fourth section, I will speak about anthropological models of band, tribe,

peasant and urban societies. My goal is to show the universality of House Church as
the model of extended family and tribe based on principles of co-existence,
co-prosperity, and co-righteousness. Surely enough, we will recognize Korean family
and community model in this last section as well, when it is applied in those four
anthropological models of society.
A. Band Society.
In the past, bands occupied much of the earth. They lived by hunting and
gathering food. Since food is seasonal and limited, band groups are small and nomadic,
but when food and water are plentiful, people joint together in larger groups for
celebrations, religious rites, visiting, and gossip. Today only very few bands are
autonomous. They live with surrounding societies in symbiotic relationships. Despite
dependancy on trade and government efforts to settle them, they resisted assimilation
into agricultural communities, because they prize their freedom and community life.
Social order. "The social organization of bands is simple. It consists of an
association of kin-related people numbering between twenty and five hundred,
depending upon the availability of food."539) Interpersonal relationships and small groups
are primary characteristics of band society. Their everyday lives are close to nature and
its cycles. Bands are face-to-face communities where everyone knows everyone
intimately. The only privacy is found in small shelters, and they hide little. Formal
Urban Societes, 52.
- 169 -
status is based on sex, age, and kinship. All work together. Kinship roles are limited
to the nuclear family. The only leaders are band headman and shaman or healer. They
must work as everybody else, because their position is only part-time job.
Most bands are individualistic and egalitarian. There is little social hierarchy.
"Social ties are based less on coercion and more on choice and the need for one
another."540) Family ties and voluntary association are the glue that holds a band
together. Marriage is usually based on love and negotiation. The band itself is a
voluntary association. People gather together for fellowship, mutual assistance, and
protection, because to live alone is to die.
People live on human and natural resources. They work less than four hours a
day. Men hunt animals and women gather plants. They cannot accumulate wealth,
because when they move, they should carry everything. However, "economic goods are
important in social relationships."541) They are shared or used as gifts to build
relations. There is little private ownership in band societies. People are expected to
share what they own. All goods are continually shared in order to renew ties of good
will and as a form of insurance against hard times.
In band societies there are no councils, courts, police, armies, or jails, and no
written laws. If crime is committed, the whole community decides what to do.
Community uses persuasion, gossip, loud accusations, boycotts, and crying. Such
discipline is very effective. There are no officially chosen leaders, only those who are
respected because of their knowledge, charisma, and ability to lead. The leader is first
among equals. There are no formal laws. They decide based on tradition, on stories.
Decisions are reached by consensus, so there is no alienated minority. Since there is
no social organization higher than the band, social pressure is used to get band
members to fit into the group and its values. Since they share same knowledge and
work, there is much time spend talking. Life is not easy, but bands managed to live in
Urban Societes, 54.
Urban Societes, 56.
- 170 -
stable communities for centuries.
Cultural order. Traditions are handed down from generation to generation with
minimal change. Their primary means of communication is spoken word. They store
knowledge in stories, proverbs, riddles, and songs told by the evening fires, and
children soon learn them by heart. Myths are important, since they describe the
worldview of the band. Rituals and dances are of fundamental importance in band life.
They reach feelings of ecstasy and trance while expressing their harmony with nature.
They have rites such as birth, adulthood, marriage and death. They have group rites
that celebrate communal life as well. In case of disaster, people turn to religious
solutions. In contrast to modern society, in bands religion plays central role in their
lives. Economic, social, political, and religious spheres are one.
They know what is needed for their survival very well. With no central authority
to maintain order, band members must have intimate knowledge of people in order to
avoid violence. There is no sharp distinction between natural and supernatural worlds.
People believe in Sky and Earth spirits who are responsible for different areas of life.
However, belief in High God is widespread. He is good, the Creator of all things. He
causes natural disasters, and maintains the moral order of the universe. People believe
in ghosts of those who have died unusual deaths. "People try to maintain good
relations with the spirits by placating them with offerings of food and water."542)
People use sacrifices, turn to magic or amulets for power and protection. Shamans in
band societies are identical to Korean shamans.
Humans see themselves as part of nature, which goes in cycles. People are
focused on present, and don't think about distant past or future. Culture is one whole
with religious beliefs at the center. All skills are taught by parents to children. There
are no formal schools. With no social classes, band society has a strong ethic of
humility. "A leader is not the one who demands honor, but one who leads while
making others feel great."543)
Urban Societes, 65.
- 171 -
Modern problems. Modern problems include encroachment upon ecological niches,
market expansion, and culture loss. People from band societies that have been
destroyed end up as poor laborers on peasant farms or in urban slums. Christianity in
modern times has joined with governments in order to settle them down.
"Consequently, band people equated the gospel with oppression."544) Actually, this
generation of band society might be the last one. Missionaries can help with those
problems in order to show love and concern for bands.
Conclusion.
"In many ways the loose, egalitarian nature of band society is more compatible
with Christian teaching than the western Christian bureaucratic, pragmatic, and
management-by-objective type of leadership that we have borrowed from the world."545)
Good relationships are dominant value in band society, and maintaining harmony,
peace, sharing, and humility is stressed. Sin understood as broken relationships and
forgiveness as reconciliation and restoration of fellowship. Most effective ministries in
band society have been those that combine preaching with praying for the sick and
ministering to people in their needs. Similarly was done in Korea, and China.
As entire social structure rests on gift giving, market exchange comes as a polar
opposite. However, principle of co-existence is very similar to "gift giving" in band
society, because it is based on love. Co-prosperity could be realized through elders and
religion without destroying band society. Actually, the best way to introduce
co-righteousness is through intermarriage with members of surrounding societies. Three
elements make House Church possible in band society, namely, families, teachers -
elders, and religion. In band society there is only one type of education by parents.
Actually, in ideal society education by parents is more important than education in
Urban Societes, 68.

Urban Societes, 75.
Urban Societes, 78.
- 172 -
formal school:
"You should lead an exemplary public life, to show your children the tradition
and to educate them to inherit it. Human beings are originally to be educated by their
parents. They are not to receive education just from the school. Especially the
inheritance of the tradition cannot be taught in school. Children should offer all the
education that they receive in school to their parents."546)
Another feature of ideal society similar to band society is the law practice, in
other words, the absence of courts, police or prisons:
"In the ideal times of the future, there will be no need for courts of justice."547)
"In the future you will not need the police. You will not need prisons. Those
responsible for the tribe will gather and pass judgement on the family on behalf of the
police and judge. They should not go against the laws of the village, otherwise
problems will arise."548)
It's interesting to note, that Israel was band society during 40 years of Exodus in
the desert. They lived as a band society with Moses in the desert before they arrived
to Canaan.
"We must understand that when the Israelites went into Canaan, almost four
thousand years ago, they were more like beggars. They had been out in the wilderness
for forty years. Compared to the Canaanites, they were beggars. The Canaanite seven
tribes were rich, they had cattle, homesteads, pretty daughters and good sons,
everything."549)

- 173 -
Unification Church passed through 43 years of wilderness course. We used to
live in centers, travel in vans, spend times on the street fundraising and witnessing.
Our lifestyle was that of a band society. The one who wants to join such lifestyle,
must be ready to cast off all of his possessions and show high level of commitment.
In conclusion it can be said, that band society is suitable for Tent (House)
Church planting, because it has some of the important characteristics of ideal society,
such as families, headmen and shamans as elders-teachers, and religion, all based on
co-existence, co-prosperity, and co-righteousness to certain degree. Next is tribal society,
let's study it based on social sciences of anthropology and sociology.
B. Tribal Society.
Band societies were common in early human history, but over time many became
tribes. What is definition of a tribe?
"A confederation of groups who recognize a relationship with one another,

usually in the form of common ethnic origin, common language, or strong pattern of
interaction based on intermarriage or presumed kinship."550)
Tribal societies are a particularly successful form of human organization.

However, today modern nation builders consider tribalism a constant threat to their
efforts.
Social order. Social relations are the heart of a tribe. A person exists for the
group, and the group, not the individual, is the primary building block of tribal
societies. Tribes are more complex than bands as it lead to emergence of some
full-time jobs, such as chiefs. Nevertheless, there are no specialized institutions, such as
schools, hospitals, banks, shops, or restaurants. "Kinship ties remain the center of life
and are used to perform the major functions of social life."551) Families and
Urban Societes, 85.
- 174 -
communities are linked together in higher-level social systems that can include millions
of people and cover large territories. Tribes exploit the power of kinship ties to the
maximum. Ethnicity, the ties of blood, holds tribe together. All tribe members are
related by marriage and descent. Families, kinship ties, ancestors, and offspring are
main topics in tribal societies.
Sex roles in tribes are highly differentiated which leads to hierarchy. Most tribes
are strongly patriarchal, where men dominate. Marriage serves important social functions
such as provides offspring, divides labor between men and women, builds long-distance
kinship ties, provides people with prestige and power. Sexual pleasures are secondary.
If husband dies, other man, usually a brother of a deceased, inherits widow and
children. Social substitution is a good solution. It was practised in the Old Testament
and in Korea as well. Husbands may have several wives, but still most families are
monogamous. Jealousy and quarreling among co-wives is common. Family life centers
on the mother-child bond. Extended families made up of several generations are
common. Marriages are generally arranged, because they represent socioeconomic
alliance between two kinship groups. In patrilineal societies a man's first loyalty is to
his father. The extended family provides more security than does the nuclear family of
the west.
Bands and urban societies use bilateral kinship systems.552) Tribal societies,
however, use unilineal kinship systems. Patrilineal and matrilineal systems trace lineage
either through male descent or female descent accordingly. Lineage is the basic social
unit larger than the extended family. It is centered on common ancestor. Unilineal
systems are an efficient way of organizing a society. Position in lineage or clan is
more important than personal uniqueness and skills. To prevent splits and feuds a
strong leader is selected. Another way to keep harmony is marriage between conflicting
clans. A third way is a belief that bodies come from mother and spirit come from
father. Tribe members cannot marry outside the tribe which leads to war among tribes.
Urban Societes, 86.
552) It means that both parents contribute equally to the life of the child.
- 175 -
Intertribal wars lead to conquest and assimilation, where defeated become slaves.
However, because of intermarriage in a generation or two there are no more slaves.
Tribal beliefs about ancestors and the cosmos are same as in Korean society, so I will
not explain it here.
Second principle of tribal organization after kinship is geography. The household
is the basic social and geographical unit, very much like in Korea. There are also
associations, based on sex or age, as in Korean village. Third type is secret societies,
based on esoteric knowledge.
In respect to economy there are horticultural tribes (plants) and pastoral tribes
(animals). The family unit is the unit of production and consumption. Land belong to
the lineage and cannot be sold. Tribes has markets, where social relationships are at
the center not economy. Gift giving is important to reinforce social relationships. There
are no police, no jails, and no army. Power and authority in local communities are
vested in household head, or the leader of dominant lineage. In respect to power and
authority there are two types of tribes: segmentary stateless societies (see diagram553))
and chiefdoms. In chiefdoms power and authority
is concentrated in a central legal structure. In
stateless societies they are decentralized, and the
small, local communities carry the main burden.
They consist of a few hundred people.
Since there is no overarching structure between tribes, it leads to wars. In
stateless societies relationships are most important, more than tasks and beliefs. Those
tribes are essentially egalitarian. Chiefdoms solve divisions by holding socially
recognized chiefs based on office rather than own skills and abilities. It comes with
taxes, misuse of power, and greater specialization of labor.
Cultural order. Tribes are oral societies. Two forms of communication are most
important, namely, myths and rituals. Myths speak using words, rituals use actions.
They both hold to ideals that make human society possible. Rituals are similar as in
Urban Societes, 107.
- 176 -
Korea: they maintain relationships between living, dead, spirits and gods. They mark
important stages of life (birth, adulthood, marriage, death). Cultural knowledge is
wholistic, and deals mainly with people, nature, spirits and magic. Religion plays
central role in culture as a whole. Where scientific knowledge fails, people turn to
magic, witchcraft, and religion.
"There is widespread belief, found in about
two-thirds of tribal societies, that there is one
supreme creator or High God."554) Spirits play a
very important role in most tribal religions, similar
to Korea. People don't think of themselves as
individuals as you can see in the diagram555).
There is no need for jails, because offender is
ostracized. Ancestor worship reinforces social
traditions, and ancestors become the foundation for law. They provide people with
cosmic view of reality. Totemism in tribes, in a sense, is a religious ecology, because
it compels to love nature.
Since religion is at the heart of all life, if person converts to new religion, it
affects everything else. All world is understood as organic and relational. Human life
finds its ultimate expression in the community, not the individual. Cooperation is
valued more than competition in a group. Harmony is essential to a group life. It is
given by God and the ancestors. There is no universal law, all important norms are
group norms. Shame is important in social relationships. Shame is tied to success,
honor, and saving face. For tribals the earth is the place, where the living, the
ancestors, and God meet. Land is sacred. It cannot be bought or sold. Land and space
are more important than time and history. People are concerned about life here and
now.
554)Hiebert and Hiebert Meneses, Incarnational Ministry: Planting Churches in Band, Tribal, Peasant, and
- 177 -
Modern problems. Two hundred years ago, bands and tribes occupied half of the
earth and constituted 20 percent of the earth's population, or fifty million people.
Tribes are currently found in Central Asia, North Africa, Pacific Islands, in rain forests
of South America, Melanesia, and Central Africa. They occupy vast territory valued by
others. Tribes are far more warlike than bands. Even today, tribes disrupt government
plans of nations, such as Afghanistan.
"Tribal people are caught between two worlds. One part of them belongs to the
tribal world with its traditions, group identity, and meaningful worldview. Another part
belongs to the modern world with its rapid, uncontrolled change, glamorous technology,
lonely individualism, and secularization."556)
Conclusion. Both bands and tribes are face-to-face communities. Tribal churches
are planted when missionaries settle among people, learn their language and culture,
and present the gospel in ways that people understand. In tribal societies there is little
privacy, since a home is part of the hamlet. There is nothing worse in tribal society as
inhospitality. Since all roles in tribes are build on kinship ties, in order to evangelize,
we need to build them through marriage. Or give control to locals and work through
them as local church leaders. More important is love people than to live as they do.
Relationships should be at the heart of House Church and it fits tribal culture perfectly.
Since tribal society don't separate religion from economic, social and political
dimensions of life, future ideal society of co-existence, co-prosperity, and
co-righteousness can be planted within tribe through religion and elders. This new
religion should occupy whole family life of tribals with meaningful and religious
consciousness. New rituals should be introduced. Understanding of village structure can
greatly help to spread the gospel. Elders and chiefs decide all village matters, and we
must work with them. In tribal society, people join religion in groups. How should
tribal churches be organized?
- 178 -
"Unfortunately, the coming of Christianity and modernity have often led to the
breakdown of extended family and kinship systems that were the moral foundations of
a society. The result has been rise in prostitution, divorce, and broken homes."557)
"Churches are also discovering the urgent need for education in sex, morality,
family relations, and other aspects of adult living to replace those lost when the
traditional initiation rites were dropped."558)
The result of modernity in tribes created profound spiritual crisis. If left to

themselves, people organize their churches like families and clans. Western style of
church organization goes contrary to tribal structure. Best way is to introduce House
Church based on the model of Korean lineage village and community. When building
House Church, central theme should be education of second generation, the children of
new converts. Most important education is preparation for marriage:
"The schools of the society don't teach "marriage" even though it is a very
significant matter. A man doesn't know of a woman and a woman doesn't know of a
man; but today's education doesn't give much weight to the problem. We lack
education concerning problems which arise after getting married. How to create a
happy married life and how to educate children are not being taken care of. The
problem of science and mathematics gets more attention and density of focus. This is
one of the malformed phenomena."559)
What are the roles of Unification Church members, the Central Blessed Families
in tribal conversion?
"Blessed families today are important because they are the ancestors of tradition.
You should become a messianic family to your tribe and establish a tradition."560)
- 179 -
"The churches from now on will be centered upon the elder of the tribe. All
Blessed families are the elders of their tribes."561)
Let's look at the historical example of Israel, the time when they turned from
band society to tribal society:
"The reason that the Israelites perished after fulfilling the restoration of Canaan,
was that they were accustomed to and assimilated into their environment. They put all
the effort into living well, eating well and acquiring luxuries that led to their downfall.
They intermarried with wealthy non-Israelites."562)
It serves as a good example for CBF. If we are to establish House Churches and
convert tribal people through tradition and education, we must follow the formula
course of home church teaching of Unification Church based on case study of Korean
family and community. First step, finding three spiritual children. After eight family
members are established and spiritual children are Blessed into God's lineage, the
foundation for tribe has begun. It should spread to 12, 72 and 120 families. In this
way all tribe should be reorganized based on CBF and be engrafted in God's lineage
through Blessing. Instead of tribal laws, we, Blessed families, should establish the
family tradition and heavenly laws. In addition, we must establish a standart of
education and family regulations for children of the tribe. There should be a standart
of accountability, in case parents make a mistake.563) Rev. Moon concludes:
"Even in the ideal world of God, what does an individual seek after his or her
perfection? He or she must attain the perfection of a family. What is to be done after
the perfection of family? We are not promoting families as the most important final
unit. The perfection of the tribe must also be undertaken. God said to become fruitful

- 180 -
and then multiply, right? You must possess a clan. A family has to establish the
tradition of a tribe. A tribe must establish the tradition of a people. (1989.2.5.
Headquarters Church)"564)
C. Peasant Society.
"Today, more than two billion peasants live in more than a million villages."565)
They care most about their families, fields and villages. Their community life
reflects this inward looking orientation. Tribal societies are more independent and
economically autonomous and share resources among their members. Peasants are
subject to outside rulers who tax them to maintain courts, cities, armies, and a ruling
elite. They must also sell their products to survive. Peasants differ from city folks,
however, because they are tied to the land and produce their own food.
Social order. Still, compared to cities, peasant villages are relatively autonomous
communities. They provide bare necessities for the community to survive. Most tribes
are homogeneous groups. Peasant societies are often heterogeneous. Internally, they act
like a homogeneous groups. Externally, these groups are held together not by blood,
but by social, economic, and political systems, that regulate relationships. Two types of
groups appear in peasant societies: ethnic groups and classes. Tribalism continues in
many peasant societies in the form of ethnicity. In order to maintain social order
between different ethnic groups, higher level of organization is necessary. A higher
form of a social system could be a simple caste system, organized along a hierarchy
of status and power. Castes are integrated into a system through hereditary ties.
Boundaries of ethnic groups are maintained by endogamy566). Racial pride maintain the
walls to keep ethnic groups apart.
Social class is a stratum of people who share a common culture and rank in a
564) www.unification.net/trmes/trmes-6.html (accessed October 25, 2010).

566) Endogamy is a marriage within a particular group in accordance with custom or law.
- 181 -
social hierarchy based on wealth, power, and social prestige. The ties in social group
are not as strong as the blood ties. Unlike tribal societies, which are essentially
classless, most peasant societes have at least a two-class system: a dominant elite and
the commoners. Hierarchy in class societies depends on personal achievement. It is
determined by wealth, occupation, and education. In peasant societies, people focus on
survival and on maintaining relationships. In regards to survival it is important to
understand the use of the land:
"One of the results of new technologies is sedentary living and larger and denser
populations. Hunting and gathering food can sustain little more than one or two
persons per square mile of land. Horticultural methods can raise this to five to ten.
Dry farming can maintain from twenty-five to one hundred persons or more per square
mile of land (Barth 1963). Advanced methods such as irrigation, fertilization, crop
rotation, and weeding have led to 1,980 persons per square mile in the Yangste Valley
in China (compared to 254 for China as a whole) and to 5,000 per square mile in
north-central Java, compared to the Indonesian average of 155 (Geertz 1963, 13, 33).
"567)
From this we can understand that whole population of the earth has to be
reorganized even if only for the purpose of survival. It means, that ineffective ways of
livelihood will have to change. The rulers tax the farmers and in return maintain
armies for their protection and police for internal order. Peasants keep traditional way
of life, because they are proven ways to maintain life. The fundamental characteristic
of peasant agriculture is that of family economy. In China, Korea, India, and parts of
Europe, extended families are held up as an ideal. Some people become full-time
specialists and live by the fees peasants pay them for their services. The first to
emerge were political leaders such as chiefs and religious leaders such as priests. The
technical occupations include blacksmiths, carpenters, weavers, potters, shopkeepers, and
barbers. They form guilds for mutual assistance. Institutions such as temples, local
567) Hieber and Hiebert Meneses, Incarnational Ministry: Planting Churches in Band, Tribal, Peasant, and
- 182 -
palaces, and markets emerged.
Land, wealth, and power are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few.
Peasants raise crops to feed their families, pay taxes, and conduct festivals. In smaller
villages markets are held every five days. The focus, however, is social. Shops and
daily markets appear in larger towns. There traders and middlemen arise between
distant markets. Markets and money leads to individualism, and peasants today are left
at the mercy of world markets.
The state replaces the tribe as the ultimate authority. With the rise of states the
basis of political organization shifts from kinship to geography. The state is sovereign
over the lives of individuals. Power and authority are institutionalized. Laws too. State
laws are often codified in systems of written law. In small states, political leaders are
recruited based on birth and kinship. As state grows it changes to expertise,
performance, and seniority.
Culture order. Social changes from tribe to peasant society lead to cultural
changes. Peasant society doesn't have a single culture anymore. Most peasants are oral
people. Literature introduces new ways of thinking. Without writing it is impossible for
rulers to rule large kingdoms. So, literacy is power. Another means of power is money
and mathematics. Specialization makes people highly interdependent. Personal
relationships became limited to family and friends. Other relationships often seem
impersonal.
Community ceremonies, festivals, and fairs play an important role in peasant life.
Village leaders show themselves by organizing the events. Myths let people dream of
the perfect, ideal world, a golden age of justice and equality. Marxism was received as
such a myth in peasant societies. Religion plays central role in the life of peasants,
just as it does for tribal people. Two levels of religious explanation developed: formal,
institutionalized religions with explicit theological systems; and animistic practices such
as magic, divination, witchcraft, and spirit worship. The centers of formal religion are
found in the cities and capitals of the state. Priests and prophets keep the religious
tradition there. Festivals, religious fairs, and pilgrimages play part in peasant religion of
animism and folk religion. I explained the case of Korean community and family
- 183 -
religious practices, that illustrates it.
In most tribes, land belongs to God and is given to clans, lineages, and families
for use. The opposite is true in peasant societies: land belongs to the state. Land is
economic commodity and army must be maintained to protect it. For peasant to lose
land means literal death. In peasant society religion becomes one segment of life
alongside political and economic realities. Instead of sharing as in tribes and bands,
peasants accumulate wealth. The difference among rich and poor escalates hostility and
resentment of the commoners. If someone gets rich, he becomes a target of gossip,
hatred, and ostracism. Village life is public. There is little formal education.
Modern problems. Hierarchy in peasant society is often justified by religion. The
greatest sin is treason - to reject the authority of the state and its rulers. Dominance
leads to injustice. Colonialism and power structures that distribute the food caused
hunger in peasant societies. The global market economy has concentrated power in the
hands of a few wealthy nations. The result is poverty, not due to lack of resources,
but due to the hoarding of wealth and technology.
Conclusion. Most peasants live all their lives in the same community. The result
is enduring, stable relationships, a strong sense of community, and a loyalty to
traditions. Peasants has developed community life to high degree, and Korean rural
community life is best example. Church community should be build along existing
community structure, as early Christians did. It should be based on extended family
tradition of Korea. Elders of the village make all the decisions without police or jails.
Punishment is social criticism and ultimately ostracism. Local church should be
integrated and indigenous ministry, that has wholistic approach to all areas of life.
Peasant society in many ways acts as a tribe, so, family and lineage hierarchy is of
utmost importance. Marriage can bridge divisions in any society, so, Holy Marriage
Ceremony of Unification Church is the shortest way to build new race based on
second generation of converts (children).
"What is clear is that the church in much of the world will need to depend on
lay leaders, simple organization, and flexible evangelistic strategies if it is to grow."568)
- 184 -
Since 1984 Unification Church started tong ban breakthrough activity in local
community and home neighborhood. Rev. Moon especially is concerned about
unification of Koreas through this activity of Central Blessed Families. He explained:
"The way to be influential is not through ruling the government. It starts from
inside your home. The providence of salvation doesn't begin from the top. It begins
in the family. ... That's why we have to breakthrough at the tong ban level. The
district and town need to come down to the local communities and villages, and the
local communities and villages need to come down to the home neighborhoods. For
this reason, the base of all the Unification Church activities is each individual home.
"569)
Husband and wife "take care of 720 homes"570) and become the ancestors of
their tribe, called tribal messiah. In Korea one tribal society had from 600-700 to
5,000-6,000 households.571) In American Protestant Christian community "when the
average church grew to more that 1,000 people, the leadership demands required to
successfully manage a larger, more complex organization outgrew the capacity of most
of the preachers."572) The church up to 1,000 is sometimes called "mama & papa"
church, where personal relationships still could be maintained. When it outgrows 1,000
members it becomes an institution called mega-church, and it is not community
anymore, because it specializes and relationships become impersonal. Many church
planters agree, that in the whole world there should be local church in every
community of 500-1,000 people. "Tribal and peasant communities are small, usually
less then two or three thousand in population."573) According the new field of social
568) Hieber and Hiebert Meneses, Incarnational Ministry: Planting Churches in Band, Tribal, Peasant, and
571) Kim, Korea: Our Nation, Our History, 43-44.
572) James Mellado, Willow Creek Community Church (USA: the President and Fellows of Harvard
College, 1999). Harvard Business School prepared this study case.
- 185 -
science "Social Network Theory" groups can be divided in small groups (1-15),
medium and large groups (16-1,000), and populations (1,001 - ). Since most important
quality of groups that affects social relationships is size, researchers came to conclusion
that beyond large group of 1,000 people effective leadership even by most capable
leader is rather impossible. Rev. Moon agrees that in this way we can reach six billion
people in the world through three million House Churches. So, a Blessed couple can
effectively guide 720 families or around 2,000 people. The structure of such church
should reflect typical tribe structure of Korea. For this reason, Unification Church
families are given mission of tribal messiahs. Next, I will discuss House Church model
in urban society which is a most complex and predominant way of life in today's
world.
D. Urban Society.
Many of us live in cities, but know little how they operate. Ur, the birthplace of
Abraham, had a population of about 24,000 in 2,000 B.C. and Athens about 180,000
in 300 B.C. Rome had a million in New Testament times. Ancient cities were political
and religious centers. Cities depend on surplus food for their existence. Today, in many
countries, less than 10 percent of the people produce the food that feeds them all.
Modern cities emerged after 1,000 A.D. and business, not government or religion, was
their driving force. The massive flow of people from the country side to cities
continues. Today more than 48 percent live in cities of more than 100,000 people.
Social order. How can we understand the city? The city does not exist in
opposition to the countryside. It is linked with surrounding peasant communities by
complex social, economical, and political systems. We can call city urban social
organization, which is not single, uniform organization, but has many levels. Urban
Americans belong to families, associations, and neighborhoods. Neighborhoods are
served by city-wide organizations of transportation, electricity, gas, garbage removal,
hospitals, schools, parks, police, courts, and central government. The city, in turn,
- 186 -
belong to large state and national structures.
Today, cities are part of a growing global order. One word to characterize the
city would be "center". Cities dominate the countryside around them. City people earn
twice as much as their rural neighbors. Governments spend most of their income on
cities. It attracts both rich and poor. The important characteristic of cities is diversity.
Distinct communities based on ethnic, class, cultural, and residential differences, exist in
the city. The enjoyment of diversity is the urban mindset.
Centralization of power give rise to internal hierarchy. Hierarchy dominates most
public urban relationships. Middle and bottom of society promote individualism and
freedom. They belief that they too, can move up the ladder. Final characteristic of
cities is change. Urban mentality sees it as good and values highly what is new.
However, people in cities often feel alone and alienated. Their relationships are
superficial and functional and they do not feel that others see them as real persons. In
western cities, a split between private and public spheres of life occurs. Public life is
the world of government, business, politics, and work. Private life is found in homes,
neighborhoods, and churches. Nuclear rather than extended families is emphasized.
Urban mobility, individualism, and freedom are acids that erode family. However,
families still dominate in the private sector of life. Networks are major form of
middle-level social organization in cities. Public life is dominated by associations
(informal) and institutions (formal). Webs of institutions keeps the city going.
Institutionalization has certain characteristics. First, informal, personal relationships give
way to formal social roles. Second, all spoken arrangements are replaced by written
rules, manuals, by-laws, constitutions, and standarts of activities. Third, charismatic
leadership give way to administration. Institutions are developed into bureaucracies,
where humans are treated as parts of machine. Institutions often become rigid,
non-flexible and self-serving.
Ethnicity and class define most of city folks. Immigrants may come from tribes
and villages, or from foreign countries. The city influences them and creates great
family tensions between first and second generation. In medieval cites of Europe were
three classes: rulers, priests and common folk. In U.S. cities upper, middle, and lower.
- 187 -
Four symbols of class in U.S. are occupation, income, house, and location of the
house. Central to class is the notion of hierarchy. In fact, economics and politics are
the glue that holds city subcultures together. The city is the center of commerce.
Exchange of goods and services can be defined as reciprocity (exchange of gifts),
redistribution (gathering and then disbursing to the community), and market (supply and
demand). Urban life is settled by contracts. Cities are part of global market, but they
are not concerned about the well-being of others. The city is about money and power.
Political and religious power developed nation states based on geography, not kinship.
Government controls education in order to develop national consciousness among its
people. There are four major levels of government organization: national, regional
(state, province, district), city, and neighborhood. Social control in peasant society is
based on moral order that appeals to tradition. Urban life is based on formal political
structures (laws, police, courts, prisons, administrations).
Cultural order. Nature surrounds tribesmen and peasants, but humans surround city
folks. In city we can find symbols of economic wealth, legal power, religious authority,
culture, and mass media. In one sense the city is secular and existential. However,
sports became important ritual and mythological functions for the people. It functions
as secular religion. Another urban myth is "civil religion". The nation demands the
ultimate allegiance of its citizens. The city is creation of technology and science.
Organization is possible only through rational planning.
Urban people are raised in the midst of cultural and religious pluralism. In
western cities religion is reduced to feelings and private belief. It leads to religious
relativism and secularization. Individualism and anonymity appeared because of the size
of the city. The autonomous individual is the center of urban life based on
achievement, freedom and mobility. In the end, extreme individualism leads to
loneliness and alienation. Consumption becomes their religion and worldview. It stresses
the now and everything is a commodity. People in city often feel lost, without history
and tradition.
Modern problems. Money become god. People don't have any ethical regulation
for one's personal moral life. The moral checks of traditional society are gone and
- 188 -
people are free to sin openly. The hierarchical structure of the city allows ill treatment
of others.
Conclusion. House church based on family model can serve the spiritual needs of
all people. Communities will be unified into clans, tribes of God's lineage made of
Central Blessed Families centered on True Parents. Best strategy is to build House
Church within walking distance. CBF should employ home visitation as main strategy
of House Church in the city. The best example is YFGC in Seoul, that grew to
congregation of a million people. Later, mega-church can design different ministries
based on three kinds of networks: those based on kinship, on geography, and on
vocation. In the city, church can be build on the networks of friends and associates.
Why mega-church is a good church model for a city? Only because of density
and mere size of population. Membership should be divided into small groups of 3-4
families, based on fellowship. Church activity should be centered on home and family.
Rick Warren wrote that "the average church member knows 67 people in the
congregation, whether the church has 200 or 2,000 attending."574) According to Rick
Warren there are four benefits of using homes575): First, they are infinitely expandable
(homes are everywhere). Second, they are unlimited geographically (you can minister to
wider area). Third, they are demonstrations of good stewardship (you use homes,
instead of church buildings, releasing more money for ministry). Fourth, they facilitate
closer relationships (people are relaxed in home setting). Three most famous
mega-churches are Saddleback church (California), Willow Creek Community church
(Chicago), and YFGC (Seoul). They all use small home meetings of few families in
mega-church structure. Otherwise they could not grow as big as an ancient tribe.
What is the relationship between House Church and mega-church? Simply put I
can answer in Rick Warren's words: "Large group celebrations and small-group cells.
Both are important to the health of the church."576) David Yonggi Cho, pastor of
574) Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church: growth without compromising your purpose & mission
(USA: International Trade Paper Edition, 1995), 324.
575) Warren, The Purpose Driven Church: growth without compromising your purpose & mission, 326.
576) Warren, The Purpose Driven Church: growth without compromising your purpose & mission, 326.
- 189 -
YFGC, calls the structure of his church as "decentralized authority", where church
serves home cell system, made of cells of 5-10 families.577). As a conclusion I will
quote Rev. Moon on home meetings:
"You must go through a group-type of family life at some place like an

apartment building. I recommend that you hold home meetings of the trinity unit
alternately at the home of each family."578)
"Have home meetings by local unit. If this is expanded to 12 people, it should
be again divided."579)
"Henceforth, our worship service should proceed not in the format of a sermon,
but rather report. That report should contain something families can be proud of. Thus,
entire families should worship together, and families who are performing well should
serve as examples to guide those who are not. Let us therefore build a family
Kingdom of Heaven. We should clearly know that until this is done, God's Kingdom
on earth will not be realized."580)
578) Tyler Hendrics, Family, Church, Community, Kingdom (New York: HSA Publications, 2000), 81.
579) Hendrics, Family, Church, Community, Kingdom, 82.
- 190 -
CONCLUSION
SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS.
My summary of research findings would be four points, and I can't possibly

reduce it any shorter:
1. Family is the model of ideal society.
2. Purpose and end of religion is to establish a nation, the Kingdom of Heaven
on earth.
3. The nation will consist of families, clans and tribes led by Central Blessed
Families as tribal messiahs.
4. In this nation economy, politics, and religion are unified.
Since this vision looks far too high to obtain, the long-term strategy to do it (as
presented in my hypothesis in detail) is House Church model based on Korean family
and community tradition. Such universal church community model can be at the heart
of any community in band, tribal, peasant, and urban societies. Ideal family is extended
family of three generations, where vertical and horizontal harmony is in place, through
establishment of vertical relationship of father-son, and horizontal relationship of
man-woman. The root of this family is God's lineage, which is obtained through Holy
Blessing Ceremony under True Parents. A couple married by True Parents is called
Central Blessed Family (CBF). Such families are called tribal messiahs, stand as the
ancestors of their House Church communities organized as families, clans, tribes, where
God's lineage is the core structure.
144,000 House Church communities are enough foundation to establish a nation,
the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. In such a nation no religion is necessary, since
direct relationship with God will be established. Such a nation won't be achieved in
violent revolution, but through God's love. Building such nation starts from the bottom,
from each and every home and family, slowly growing and building House Church
communities, it will affect all levels of society. In such a nation there will be no
prisons, no police, no courts, because each community, based on kinship and
- 191 -
geography, will take care of harmony and order within based on the Law of Heaven.
In such a nation, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, there will be no separation
between areas of economy, politics, and ethics. Family ethics and family structure will
be a social architecture for any economical and political organization. Such nation is a
nation of "joint economy", "joint government", and "joint ethics", where mental and
spiritual aspect of God's love will be the central point. Around God's love, which is
vertical, the horizontal principles of co-existence, co-prosperity, and co-righteousness
will revolve. Ideal society will be made in the model of perfect person.
If we look at God, we will discover, that He created human beings as His
children out of irrepressible desire of heart, which needed an object of love in order to
feel joy. All humankind supposed to be one family under God. However, unfilial and
undutiful children, Adam and Eve, committed an adulterous act of love which involved
three beings, namely, one female (Eve) and two males (archangel Lucifer, and Adam).
Since people inherited Satan's lineage instead of God's, as they multiplied all over the
earth, it was filled with violence, immorality, and greed. God, out of passionate love,
immediately started His providence based on two principles, namely, recreation and
restoration. The principle of "recreation" is an original principle, according to which
Adam and Eve, when they reached maturity at certain age would have received God's
permission to marry each other. From there God's lineage, namely family, clan, tribe
and nation would be build on earth. In such a nation, one race, one culture, one
language, one lineage would be present. The tradition of such a nation would be based
on Adam's family tradition. Similarly happened to Israel, the nation build on Abraham's
family tradition.
Another principle of "restoration" is still original, but it's a reverse process of the
fall of human beings. God started this providence through religions and wars. The main
objective is to separate fallen human beings from Satan, and bring them back to God.
For this purpose, the foundation should be build in order for Messiah to come. As I
previously stated, Messiah comes as a male in order to find a female, and plant a seed
of God's lineage. From this point on, people can be engrafted to the Messiah, True
Parents, perfected Adam and Eve, and become true parents themselves.
- 192 -
Because of this reason, we can see in God's history that central person-male was
to be established first, who then supposed to pass God's tradition in his family, to his
son (Adam - Abel, Noah - Ham, Abraham - Isaac - Jacob, Moses - Israelites, Jesus
and Holy Spirit - Christians). However, until now, we have only spiritual family of
Christians, who are adopted children of God. They are adopted, because they still have
original sin, that is passed down from generation to generation. Actually, if you look at
Bible history from this point of view, you'll understand, that all of God's work was in
order to find true man and woman, true family, true lineage without original sin.
Tradition of such true family will be passed down to next generation through education
at home. Christian theology teaches the salvation of individuals, while Unification
theology speaks about saving whole families, not individuals. In the end, one family
under God, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth will be established with God's
sovereignty, humankind as people, and Earth as territory.
If we follow the universal pattern of restoration and recreation, then God starts
with one individual, the Messiah. Before he creates his family, he must find 3 major
disciples. Eight family members are necessary, because three spiritual children
symbolise three archangels, the spiritual realm (principle of recreation); or symbolise
Cain581). Man should restore three spiritual sons, and woman - three spiritual daughters.
Then an original family can start. This was the point Jesus struggled with, since he
couldn't find 3 major disciples, ready to defend him and his future family. When
spiritual children are restored, that means restoration of spiritual realm (three
archangels), or restoration of children (Cain and Abel relationships). After that, Adam
and Eve can create family, true parents appear, start God-centered lineage, and children
are born without Satan's accusation.
Eight family members create trinity system in House Church community that
connects all levels into complete whole. CBFs must repeat Messiah's course, - have
three families under them, and those families have do the same, and this model
581) Cain as eldest son inherited satan's lineage after the fall. This relationship between elder brother
(representing satan) and younger brother (representing God) has to be reversed. Successful example in
the Bible is the relationship between Esau and Jacob.
- 193 -
repeats. So, in five generations there will be 121 families. That is "bare minimum" of
home church, that Rev. Moon teaches since 1978. It is established in the neighborhood
of 360 homes. 120 families is enough foundation for Central Blessed Family to register
in the Kingdom of God on earth, when the time comes. Surely, with time, those 120
families should continue to multiply.
Another important issue here, is to understand, that spiritual children has
responsibility to raise and educate physical children of their spiritual parents. Spiritual
parents must love spiritual children more then their own children. In this way, spiritual
children can be engrafted into God's lineage. Spiritual children should take care of
physical children of their spiritual parents until physical children marry and create
Central Blessed Families. In this way, spiritual children fulfill the responsibility of three
archangels, who supposed to raise and protect Adam and Eve until they marry. Since
the time when archangel Lucifer seduced Eve, this responsibility remains to be
accomplished.
Of course, spiritual children must find three disciples each in order for them to
start a family. And relationship between them and their disciples is the same formula.
Second generation of 121 families, centered on tribal messiah, the head couple of the
community, must intermarry each other. In this case, spiritual church community will
become relatives, related by marriage. All 121 families will be relatives, one clan,
tribe, where the third generation will become blood relatives. Here comes the real
importance of Korean family, clan, lineage, and tradition, where ancestor worship, filial
piety, and the tradition of eldest son is vital. Eldest son of tribal messiah couple
inherits leadership of the community. It represents vertical structure. The general
assembly of the tribe may select most exemplary and capable couple and they will be
managing horizontal, day-to-day activities. However, the tribe must protect the firstborn
of eldest son, in order to establish the tradition of God's lineage. Tribal community
festivals should be conducted by direct lineal descendant of the tribal messiah, who is
the ancestor of the tribe. In this way, religion becomes central part of each household
and family, and church becomes unnecessary.
The home church, taught by Rev. Moon since 1978, was to be done by
- 194 -
individual. Spouse should be local, and come forward with the recommendation of sp.
children. Next stage was Tong Ban Gyokpa (breakthrough in local community and
home neighborhood) started in 1984. The purpose of it was unification of North and
South Korea. It is same as home church, but the vision includes politics. In other
words, once home church is established, the leader should run for elections and
become the head of local administration. Raising step by step, he and/or she should go
all the way through the ladder in political world. Actually, today on this foundation,
Family party is established in South Korea. Family party teaches principles of "joint
ethics", in order to reach "joint government", and "joint economy". Tribal Messiah
initiative started in 1989. Rev. Moon said on this occasion:
"When we talk about our tribe, how many couples have I blessed so far? It's
about 21,000 families. Dispatching the 21,000 families into the world is done from the
position that represents the one Jesus would have had if he had attained unity with
Judaism and the nation of Israel and thus had stood on a foundation to win victory.
Do you understand what I am saying?"582)
This initiative included everything the previous initiatives had, but CBFs, not
individuals, had to return to their hometowns, where husband was born. Upon return,
they should hold big revival festivals for their relatives, and proclaim True Parents as
the Messiah. Later, together with the help of other tribal messiahs, they should build
church and school at the Myun level (population below 20,000, see Korean
Administrative District System). We should understand, that the best strategy is to use
an existing buildings, where the only change is conversion of people in local
communities. When tradition and education is established through church and school,
second generation of converts is protected. What is the scope of tribal messiah
activities, how many families they should restore? Rev. Moon said: "Tribal Messiahs
accomplish 120 families and 360 families and if you multiply that by two, 720
families."583) Actually, since Eve, a female, was at the center of the fall, in order to
- 195 -
indemnify that, women should be the first to respond to the Messiah, and become the
leading power of peace.
George Barna said: "Children must be at the heart of this process". Rev. Moon
says same thing, that "in order to set firmly your children's faith, you should connect
them strongly to the church before they reach twenty. If you don't let them set up
their faith between middle school and the second year of highschool, they will slide
into the fallen society. This is based upon statistics from our church. It is a very
serious problem."584) Since 1997 Rev. Moon introduced new family tradition, called
Hoon Dok Hae in Korean. Every day, for at least an hour, whole family in attendance
read and discuss Rev. Moon's speeches. It is very similar to Bible study at home in
Christian circles. Tribal messiahs should follow the pattern established by Pilgrim
Fathers of America:
"Didn't the Pilgrim Fathers build churches and schools better than the European
ones, and then build their own houses? You must do likewise. After this, you must do
more than establish an independent country. By all means you must distribute my plan.
By distributing the design and making effort, our tribe and nation can have the best
church. Shouldn't we have this? That is the only way to receive the blessing. I
proclaim this today, and carry it out exactly." (1988.6.15. East Garden; 1988.7.22.
Hannam-dongHouse; 1989.2.5. Hannam-dong House; 1989.2.5. Headquarters Church)585)
Tribal messiahs must be connected into network based on national messiah.

Three important elements of this network are home meetings, community festivals, and
itinerary workers. Actually, Rev. Moon once mentioned, that "communism advanced
through demonstrations, but we will advance through festivals". Itinerary workers in this
case are apostolic workers, who were successful House Church builders and teachers.
The home church system can be called "decentralized authority". Rev. Moon explained
it as "member-centered movement", where each CBF is the owner of God's vision:

- 196 -
"Today I am declaring a new beginning: the leader-centered movement is over,
and the member-centered movement is going to begin. Why should it be like that? If
the head of the family thinks only about himself, the family is unhappy. ... The
Unification Church is one family. Our ultimate goal is Canaan. While we marching
toward Canaan, our supreme duty is to follow orders, but once we enter Canaan we
don't live by commands, but by love. This is that time." (1981.10.28 Children's Da
y)586)
When tribal union is established it becomes similar to mega-church in size and

structure. After kinship and geography, association are most important social
organization. Mega-church size tribal union can organize large events, such as sports
and culture festivals, mass weddings in stadiums, conferences etc. The tribal union can
even establish mass media (TV, radio, newspaper). It can establish many different
ministries such as this:
"As long as you can fix a car, you can be very successful in doing witnessing
in America. If you help people to fix their cars... You should rush to help as soon as
you hear that someone's car is broken. If you do that, you can build a good
relationship."587)
However, single home church community should be established within walking

distance. It is face-to-face community. Such local home church community meetings are
crucial for world peace. The dream has to have realistic foundation.
If Judaism and Israel have united centered on Jesus, the Kingdom of Heaven on
earth would have been established 2,000 years ago. We would all speak Jewish by
now. Similarly, today, Christianity and Korea must unite centered on Sun Myung
Moon. In the future we will speak Korean, the language of True Parents.
However, after 1945 Korean Christians rejected very passionate and young
Messiah (born 1920) and start spreading wild rumours about him. Because of this, the

- 197 -
nation of Korea was divided and communism rose to power. It took 43 years to build
Unification Church, and finally, in 1989 Church could dispatch tribal messiahs to all
corners of the world.
RESEARCH LIMITATIONS.
Research limitations of different nature didn't allow me to make this thesis more
concrete. I would say I had three limitations:
1. There are very few books on Korean family and community in English. If
compared with China and Japan, Korea is very much neglected and still not known to
the West. The "hermit kingdom" still has to be found by the rest of the world.
2. I did not conduct any researches on the field. I was limited to literature
review and case study methods. However, it was the only choice, because to conduct
such specific research would be beyond my limited resources. Certainly, it would have
made my research more credible and practical.
3. This limitation is very much connected to previous one. I wanted to give
many examples of existing home churches in the Unification Church community.
However, there is only one such example in Sao Paulo, Brasil. After 1970s many CBF
became complacent and secular.
FUTURE RESEARCH ORIENTATION.
Christianity and all religions are in crisis. Spiritual crisis sweeps the land and
creates external crisis. It could be solved, if we follow central figure sent by God to
the present age. Such central figures knew the answer to contemporary problems,
nevertheless, people very often failed to recognize them. Human history is full of such
stories. Since there is a chance that Unification Church members may fail, Rev. Moon
said:
"...members of other faiths will learn this through revelation and they will begin
- 198 -
doing it. What will you do? Will you lag behind them? If so, the biblical prediction
will come true that 'The first shall be the last, and the last shall be the first.' The
Buddhists and Muslims are often so impassioned, they don't even have to listen to my
words like this. They just go, day in and day out. They will do ten, hundred times
more. Would you like to set the standard and convey tradition to them, or do you
want to receive the tradition from them?"588)
When I find out about House Church Movement in Christianity, I realized, that
this prediction came true. Christians are receiving revelations and turning their homes
into churches. However, "as scholar of religion Martin Marty says that the American
religious landscape today is five miles wide and two inches deep. Applying that image,
our church is five miles deep and two inches wide. We need to balance this with
horizontal expansion."589) Christianity is full of all kinds of House Church models. But
none of them has the seed of God's lineage. All of them must be engrafted into True
Parents through the Blessing. There is only one model of building Kingdom of Heaven,
the ultimate starting point. It's True Parents, perfected man and woman, sinless couple.
We have to model ourselves after them. We actually need only three million Blessed
couples to cover the six billion people of the world through House Church strategy.
Big obstacle to it is a vague expectation that Kingdom of Heaven on earth will come
in some miraculous way. This "miraculous" expectation is inherent to both Christians
and Unification Church members. According to Rev. Moon, January 13, 2013 is the
D-Day, a certain deadline. Unification Church members act mostly as observers, when
they should be busy working as tribal messiahs in the House Church Movement.
Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and others must join in House Church
efforts and build true communities of love.
In the future I would like to see researches done on existing House Church
communities of CBFs. I would like to suggest deeper study of Korean culture and
Unification Church, which hides many treasures of heavenly wisdom. I would like to

- 199 -
see more utopian and futuristic visions, strategies and structures of God's Kingdom on
earth. Similarly like the Founding Fathers of United States of America, around 250
individuals, envisioned and established a new country based on Bible, we, as CBFs,
should do the same based on True Parents through House Church strategy. The West
is secular - it has all the external fruits of science. But today Oriental culture, Korea
especially, inherited all the material benefits, and it is becoming the leading power of
the world. Western Christianity may find out that it lost the ability to provide a way
of life that makes sense to its people and no longer meets their basic needs. It will
disintegrate and it may be overrun by other, more powerful cultures. We see culture
wars such as Christian - Muslim, democracy - communism, individualism - collectivism,
materialism - spiritualism, atheism - theism etc. When Jesus was abandoned by
Judaism, Israel's foundation was lost and Satan took over. During past 2,000 years
Jews paid very high price for this fatal mistake of killing the Messiah. Today, as
history repeats, many human deaths may be required in order to change and be humble
enough to receive the Messiah, born in Korea. House Church strategy is the way to
build the ideal society. It is strategy based on the Law of Heaven. It is universal and
valid as long as there are people not connected to God's lineage. I hope and pray that
God will raise parents, teachers and leaders as tribal messiahs, who will bring human
history to happy ending, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
- 200 -
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PUBLICATIONS:
Adeney, David H.. China: The Church's Long March. USA, CA, Ventura: Regal
Books, 1985.
Andreasen, Alan R. and Kotler, Philip. Strategic Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations.
USA, New Jersey, Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, Inc., 2003.
Anthony, Michael J. and Estep, James Jr.. Management Essentials for Christian
Ministries. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005.
Arn, Win. The Pastor's Manual for Effective Ministry. USA, CA, Monrovia: Church
Growth, 1988.
Ascough, Richard. What are they saying about the Formation of Pauline Churches?
USA: Paulist Press, 1998.
Atkerson, Steve (ed.). Ekklesia: To the Roots of Biblical Church Life. USA: New
testament Restoration Foundation, 2003.
Banks, Robert J.. Paul's Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in Their
Cultural Setting. USA, Massachusetts, Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994.
Barna, George. Grow your church from the outside in. USA, CA, Ventura: Regal
Books, 2002.
Bartlet, Christopher A., Wozny, Meg. GE's Two-Decade Transformation: Jack Welch's
Leadership. USA, Boston: Harvard Business School, 2005.
Birkey, Del. The House Church: A Model for Renewing the Church. USA, PA,
Scottdale: Herald Press, 1988.
Brinckerhoff, Peter C.. Faith-Based Management: Leading Organizations that are Based
on more than just Mission. USA, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999.
Carlson, David A.. The Dawning of a New Culture: The Advent of a God-Centered
World. Korea: Cheongshim GST University Press, 2008.
Ch'oe, Yongho, Lee, Peter H. and Theodore de Bary, Wm.. Sources of Korean
- 201 -
Tradition: Volume II. USA, New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
Cho, Dae-Young. An Effective Small Group Evangelism and House Church Planting for
World Evangelization (Praying Evangelistic Trio, PET). Seoul: Chongshin
University, The Graduate School of Missions, 2000.
Choi, Jung-Chang. A Study of Models for Family Ministry in the Korean Context.
Florida State Christian University, 1990.
Choi, Sinsung. Christian Education for Young Children at both Home and Local
Church. 2005.
Covell, Jon Carter. Korea's Cultural Roots. Seoul: Hollym International, 1986.
Cowen, Gerald. "Who Rules the Church?. USA, Nashville: Broadman and Holman
Publishers, 2003.
Filson, Floyd V.. The Significance of the Early House Churches. USA: Journal of
Biblical Literature, 1939.
Fitts , Robert. The Church in the House. USA, OR, Salem: Preparing the Way
Publishers, 2001.
Gehring, Roger. House Church and Mission: The Importance of Household Structures
in Early Christianity. USA, MA, Peabody: Hendricson Publishers, 2004.
Gould, Meredith. The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions for Holidays, Feast
Days, and Every Day. New York: Doubleday, 2004.
Han, Man Seok. The Question of the Cessation/Continuation of Signs and Wonders in
the Korean Church Mission. Pasadena, CA: Fuller Theological Seminary, 2004.
Hendrics, Tyler. Family, Church, Community, Kingdom. New York: HSA Publications,
2000.
Hick, John. The Center of Christianity. San Francisco : Harper & Row, 1978.
Hiebert, Paul G. and Hiebert Meneses, Eloise. Incarnational Ministry: Planting
Churches in Band, Tribal, Peasant, and Urban Societes. Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Baker Books, 1995.
HSA-UWC. Exposition of the Divine Principle. Seoul: Sung Hwa Publishing Co., LTD,
2000.
_______. New Essentials of Unification Thought: Head Wing Thought. Tokyo:
- 202 -
Kogensha, 2006.
_______. The Tradition. USA: The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of
World Christianity, 1993.
Hunter, George. The rationale for a Culturally Relevant Worship Service. USA: Journal
of American Society for Church Growth, Worship and Growth 7, 1996.
Hurston, Karen. Growing the World's Largest Church. Springfield, MO: Chrism Books,
1994.
Janelli, Roger L. and Janelli, Dawnhee-Yim. Ancestor Worship and Korean Society.
Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1982.
Jordan, J.B.. God's Hospitality and Holistic Evangelism. USA: The Journal of Christian
Reconstruction 17, 1981.
Keating, Kevin. Church Growth and the Home Cell System. Seoul: Church Growth
International, 1995.
Kendall, Laurel. Shamans, Housewives and Other Restless Spirits. Honolulu: University
of Hawaii Press, 1988.
Kim, Duk-Whang. Korea: Our Nation, Our History. Seoul: Malgup Sori Publishing
Company, 2002.
Kim, Jae-Won. The Confucian Tradition and Its Impact on Family Law Reform in
South Korea. Dong-A Law Review, 2004/35, 83-114.
Kim, Tae-Hwan. An Empirical Study of the Factors Contributing to Rapid Church
Growth in Korea. Wynnewood, PA: The Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary,
1984.
Ko, Dorothy, Kim Haboush, Ja-Hyun and Piggott, Joan R.. Women and Confucian
Cultures. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, Ltd.,
2003.
Korean Cultural Heritage: Traditional Lifestyles. Seoul: Yeong&Yeong Book Company,
1997.
Lee, Kwang-Kyu and Lim Sam-Gyu. Korean Traditional Culture: Korean Studies Series
Nr. 25. Seoul: Jipmoondang Publishing, 1999.
Lee, Kwang-Kyu. Korean Family and Kingship. Seoul: Jipmoondang Publishing
- 203 -
Company, 1997.
Lee, Kyung-Ja-Chung. Space Use for Family Activities in Traditional Dwellings and
Modern Single and Multiple Dwelling Units in Seoul, Korea. London: University
Microfilms International, 1976.
Lee, Peter H. and Theodore de Bary, Wm.. Sources of Korean Tradition: Volume I.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
_______. Sourcebook of Korean Civilization: From the seventeenth century to the
modern period. USA: Columbia University Press, 1996.
Lee, Sang-Oak and Park Duk-Soo. Perspectives on Korea. Sydney: University of
Sydney, 1996.
Masuda, Yoshihiko. From Dependance and Independance towards Interdependance.
Korea: Cheongshim GST University Press, 2006.
_______. True Love, Sex and Health. Korea: Cheongshim GST University Press, 2009.
_______. The 20 Daily-Life Habits That Make a Supremely Happy Couple. Korea:
Cheongshim GST University Press, 2010.
Mellado, James. Willow Creek Community Church. USA: the President and Fellows of
Harvard College, 1999.
Min, Kyung Bae. Korean Church History. Seoul: Korean Christian Press, 1993.
Moon, Mi-Sun. A Pastoral Theology of Caring in Korea: Contributions from Marriage
and Family Therapy. Louisville, Kentucky: The Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary, 2000.
Moon, Sun Myung. A speech delivered at the Dedication Ceremony of the
Headquarters of the FFWPU, translated by prof. Yoshihiko Masuda in his book
The 20 Daily-LIfe Habits That Make a Supremely Happy Couple. Korea:
Cheongshim GST University Press, 2010.
_______. The New Family Pledge, (delivered on May 8, 1994) Today's World
(May/June 1994): 11.
_______. The Reappearance of the True Parents and the ideal Family, an address
delivered on July 6, 1992 in Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han Moon, True
- 204 -
Family and World Peace. New York: HSA Publications, 2000.
_______. Science and Absolute Values. New York: ICF Press, 1982.
_______. True Love and True Family. New York: Family Federation for World Peace
and Unification, 1997.
_______. The Reappearance of the True Parents and the ideal Family, an address
delivered on July 6, 1992 in Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han Moon, True
Family and World Peace. New York: HSA Publications, 2000.
_______. (Messages of peace) God's Ideal Family and the Kingdom of the Peaceful,
Ideal World. Seoul: Sung Hwa Publishing Co., 2007.
_______. Blessing and Ideal Family. USA: Family Federation for World Peace and
Unification International, 1998.
_______. Cheon Song Gyeong. Seoul: Sunghwa Publishing Company, 2006.
_______. Home Church. USA: The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of
World Christianity, 1983.
_______. The Tribal Messiah. USA: Family Federation for World Peace and Unification
International, 1998.
_______. The Way of the Spiritual Leader. New York: Family Federation for World
Peace and Unification International, 1998.
Moore, Ralph. Starting a New Church. Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 2002.
Nahm, Andrew C.. Introduction to Korean History and Culture. Seoul: Hollym
International Corp., 1997.
Park, Wyan-Young. Training Methods for Home Group Leaders in Small and Medium
Size Church. Tulsa, OK: Oral Roberts University, School of Theology and
Missions, 1999.
Riddle, Donald W.. Early Christian Hospitality: A factor in the Gospel Transmission.
USA: Journal of Biblical Literature 57, 1938.
Rutt, Richard and Kim, Chong-Un. Virtuous Women: Three Classic Korean Novels.
Seoul: Kwang Myong Printing Co. LTD, 1983.
Seo, Jong-Dae. A Study of the Dynamics of Spiritual Power in Mission with Special
- 205 -
Reference to the Korean Shamanistic Culture. Pasadena, CA: Fuller Theological
Seminary, 2002.
Seong, Sohn. Family in Modern Korean Society. Seoul: International Division Yonsei
University, 1986.
Shima, Mutsuhiko, Janelli, Roger L.. The Anthropology of Korea: East Asian
Perspectives. Japan, Kyoto: the National Museum of Ethnology, 1998.
Shook, Jill Suzanne. Making Housing Happen: Faith-based Affordable Housing Models.
Saint Lewis, MO: Chalice Press, 2006.
Shrout, Rick. New Culture, New Church, Chapter 54, in Nexus: The World House
Church Movement Reader.
Simson, Wolfgang. Houses that Change the World. USA: Paternoster Publishing, 1998.
Smid, Robert. John Harwood Hick. USA: Boston Collaborative Encyclopedia of
Western Theology, 1998-1999.
Song, Sang-Hyun. Introduction to the law and legal system of Korea. Seoul: Seoul
National Library, 1983.
Stetzer, Ed and Putman, David. Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can
Become a Missionary in Your Community. Nashville, Tennessee: B&H Publishing
Group, 2006.
Stetzer, Ed. Planting Missional Churches: Planting a Church that's Biblicaly Sound and
Reaching People in Culture. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman
Publishing Group, 2006.
_______. Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age. Nashville, Tennessee:
Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003.
UPF. Mongolian Civilization and World Peace: the Core Values of the Mongolian
Peoples and Their Relevance to World Peace. Seoul: Universal Peace Federation,
2007.
Viola, Frank, Barna, George. Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of Our Church
Practices. USA, IL, Carol Stream, 2008.
Viola, Frank. So, you want to start a House Church? First-Century Church Planting
- 206 -
for Today. USA: Present Testimony Ministry, 2003.
Wang, Lan. Development of a Model Curriculum for Theological Education of the
Chinese House Church Leaders. Seoul: Torch Trinity Graduate School of
Theology, 2008.
Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Church: growth without compromising your purpose
& mission. USA: International Trade Paper Edition, 1995.
Webb, Heather and Peterson, Eugene H.. Small Group Leadership as Spiritual
Direction: Practical Ways to Blend an Ancient Art into Your Contemporary
Community. El Cajon, CA: Youth Specialties, 2005.
Wigger, J. Bradley. The Power of God at Home. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass, 2003.
Woodside, Alexander. Lost Modernities: China, Vietnam, Korea, and the hazards of
world history. USA: Harvard University Press, 2006.
Zdero, Rad. The Global House Church Movement. Pasadena, California: William Carey
Library, 2004.
_______. NEXUS: The World House Church Movement Reader. Pasadena, California:
William Carey Library, 2007.
Zhang, Yu-Jin. A Study of Confucian Aspects in Korean Family. Asan, Korea:
Soonchunhyang University, The Graduate School of Industrial Information, 2009.
INTERNET RESOURCES:
http://backtochurch.com/resources/statistics/
http://churchconsultations.com/freeresources/
http://countrystudies.us/south-korea/65.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_ecclesial_community
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_planting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commensalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Yonggi_Cho
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_(cultural)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Bushnell
- 207 -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_church
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseon_Dynasty#Administrative_divisions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Buddhism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megachurch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oikos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RYB_color_model
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_church
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiosis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_Church
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoido_Full_Gospel_Church
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Social+Network+Analysis
http://iunificationist.org
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Family+(sociology)
http://moonis.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/home-church-as-the-internal-foundation-of-the-provi
dence-trylikta-knyga-http://nytimes.com/2001/04/29/national/29PRAY.html
http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/WeirdWildWeb/courses/mwt/dictionary/mwt_themes_875_hic
k.htm#John%20Harwood%
http://pewforum.org/Christian/Faith-and-Conflict-The-Global-Rise-of-Christianity.aspx
http://ptmin.podbean.com/
http://sjeas.skku.edu/upload/200701/207-238.PDF
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_relationship_of_anthropology_and_sociology
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-165167554/changing-social-expectations-work.ht
ml
http://www.asiaeuropesurvey.org/fwreport.pdf
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11020947
http://www.cmaresources.org/node/63
http://www.easumbandy.com/freeresources
http://www.edstetzer.com/ed.html
http://www.efca.org/files/report/church-planting/leadership-network-resource-guide.pdf
- 208 -
http://www.fact.hartsem.edu/megachurchnews.html
http://www.FoxNews.com
http://www.h2hfiles.info/MAG_issue_10.pdf
http://www.housechurch.ca/resources2/74_DNA_of_a_Healthy_HC_Rad_Zdero.pdf
http://www.housechurchresource.org/audios.html (From Eternity to Here 1)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/church
http://www.newchurches.com
http://www.newchurches.com/mediafiles/Indigenous_Church_Planting.pdf
http://www.newchurches.com/mediafiles/North_American_Church_Planting_Trends_by_Ed_S
tetzer.pdf
http://www.ntac.hawaii.edu/downloads/products/briefs/culture/pdf/ACB-Vol2-Iss1-Korea.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/world/europe/05france.html
http://www.ptmin.org/answers.htm
http://www.ptmin.org/charisma.htm
http://www.ptmin.org/Neue.pdf
http://www.rca.org
http://www.sethbarnes.com/?filename=23-of-young-people-are-leaving-the-church
http://www.simplechurchrevolution.com/download.htm
http://www.site.house2house.com/faqs
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/triclinia.
http://www.tparents.org/Moon-Talks/Moon-Family/JS930700.htm
http://www.tparents.org/Moon-Talks/sunmyungmoon90/SM900831.htm
http://www.unification.net/1976/761201.html
http://www.unification.net/bif/bif-5-3.html#1
- 209 -
http://www.unification.net/bif/bif-6-3a.html#5
http://www.unification.net/fcolf/fcolf-19.html
http://www.unification.net/trmes/trmes-6.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvJR_SIiPl4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6IxknQ4Bp
- 210 -

3

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originalbeschreibung:

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

3

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

INTRODUCTION

According to Ed Stetzer1) Christianity in USA is on decline as about 3,500-4,000

I would define three purposes of my research.

12) Just type "books on Church Marketing" in google.com.

14) www.pewforum.org/Christian/Faith-and-Conflict-The-Global-Rise-of-Christianity.aspx (accessed September 3,

I would go through similar process in my thesis, building and defining social

I thought for a while how to organize my literature review.

Section 1. Christianity in Crisis.

Above is the impression of American Christianity by Neil Cole, an author of

Section 2. Terminology of House Church.

According to Miriam- Webster's online dictionary the term "church" is33):

"Institutional Church - This term refers to a religious system (not a particular

Red Zdero emphasizes structural characteristics. According to him we have to

(See diagram above38))

What are the characteristics of House Church?

"Firstly, house churches are an attempt to get back to early grassroots

Organized Churches Organic Churches

Institutional church can be called contemporary church, traditional church,

Section 3. Church Planting.

Ed Stetzer, a former professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,

41) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_church (accessed September 9, 2010).

Why do we need Church Planting? Church Planting is essential, without it

"The fact is, starting a new ethnic congregation or focusing on a particular

45) www.newchurches.com (accessed September 11, 2010).

50) www.rca.org (accessed September 13, 2010).

Ed Stetzer, a board member of one of the largest denominations of Southern

61) www.ptmin.org/Neue.pdf (accessed September 14, 2010).

Section 4. History of House Church

67) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oikos (accessed September 15, 2010).

Del Birkey calls Jesus' strategy as "household strategy" in five points:73)

Rad Zdero defines "verbal proclamation of the message in a public settings" as a

72) Luke 10:1-11; see also Luke 9:1-6.

Very often Jesus' message raised controversy followed by persecution. Persecution

An overview of New Testament church is over. As we move away from it, we

"Eventually, the Roman emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the fourth

Unfortunately, many clerical leaders came and introduced system, based on

Section 5. Practical Issues.

"A study we conducted recently revealed that if we calculate the probabilities of

Another very important group of people to be involved is women. Pastor Yonggi

104) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_church (accessed September 17, 2010).

Here is an account on House Church Movement given by Ed Stetzer, who writes

117) www.h2hfiles.info/MAG_issue_10.pdf (accessed September 22, 2010).

The most famous Protestant missionary to China was James

121) David H. Adeney, China: The Church's Long March, 146-165.

Local communities, called Basic Ecclesial Communities126) (BECs) were created,

or extended family situations. Email: john@spiritconnect.org.

Section 2. History of God's Providence.

A. Change of Blood Lineage.

138) HSA-UWC, Exposition of the Divine Principle, 228-229.

142) HSA-UWC, Exposition of the Divine Principle, 240.

144) www.unification.net/bif/bif-6-3a.html#5 (accessed September 26, 2010).

146) HSA-UWC, Exposition of the Divine Principle, 99.

B. Short History of Unification Church.

150) www.unification.net/bif/bif-6-2.html#2 (accessed September 28, 2010).

151) www.unification.net/bif/bif-6-2.html#3 (accessed September 29, 2010).

Section 3. Theological Reasoning behind Home Church.

Reverend Moon said:

158) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_Church (accessed September 30, 2010).

Why he couldn't realize Kingdom of Heaven on earth? Because he couldn't build

173) www.unification.net/bif/bif-6-3a.html#7 (accessed October 3, 2010).

175) www.unification.net/bif/bif-6-3a.html#7 (accessed October 4, 2010).

Section 4. Sociological Reasoning behind Home Church.

182) www.unification.net/bif/bif-5-3.html#1 (accessed Ocotber 5, 2010).