About CCCN
We are a church that is committed to equipping believers and reaching the unchurched through small home based churches. Home churches meet weekly, with corporate celebrations on an average of once a month.A team of equipping leaders also work to train and release believers into their full potential through our School of Ministry. A home church consists of small groups of 8-12 Christians who meet for the purpose of edification, evangelism and pastoral care. The principle of the home church is as old as the Bible itself. It was in homes that the early Christians met to worship. (Rom. 16:5, 1 Cor. 16:19, Col. 4:15, Philemon 2). The temple courts provided believers with a public witness but the love and care for each other was worked out in the home. John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church, used meetings of twelve to disciple. “No circuit,” he said “ever did or ever will flourish unless there are small groups in the large society.” Martin Luther said, “Those who want to be Christians in earnest and who profess the gospel with hand and mouth, should sign their names and meet alone in a house somewhere, to pray, to baptize, to receive the sacrament and to do other Christian works." WHERE IS “CHURCH”? Some people ask the question “Is the meeting in the home the church, or is it when they congregate together”? Many people have become aware that “the church” is not the building,but rather the people of God gathered together.However,some have yet to realize that the “church” is not restricted to a particular style or number of people. Howard Snyder in his book “The Problem of Wine Skins” says the term church refers to “the people of God whenever, however or wherever they meet together.” The Bible shows us that groupings of “the people of God” occurred in numbers large and small.Moses appointed rulers over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Families, clans and tribes were the basic social structure. The instruction of the commandments would have been carried out in the family.Great gatherings of all “the people of God” were carried out a few times a year at their feasts. Jesus taught thousands at a time but His optimum number for His equipping ministry was twelve.Within His small group He had a closer association with three. We are told; “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18:20). This is obviously one form of the “people of God” or “church” gathering together. Next,we can then have a few families of the church gathering together in a neighbourhood home. Hundreds of “the people of God” or “church” of a suburb or district may meet together in a hall. Following on, we can identify “the church” of a city or town, such as Brisbane or Tamworth, as each grouping is a part of the church of Australia. Finally of course, these are part of the entire church or people of God worldwide. We can see that the term “church” cannot exclusively be used for the name of a local congregation but, as Howard Snyder puts it, they are “the people of God, whenever, however or wherever they meet together.” THE PURPOSE OF “CHURCH” GATHERINGS. Why do we need all these different gatherings of the church? The purpose of the gatherings will determine the number of people meeting. Where intimacy, personal sharing and support are the primary focus, the numbers need to be small. Where teaching, proclamation, preaching and public expression of worship are the focus, the numbers will be larger and could range up to thousands. PERSONAL 2-3 Intimate personal sharing. Can be the family or bonded friends. NEIGHBORHOOD Open sharing of life’s challenges and successes. Mutual care and personal support. Practice of gifts of ministry. Spontaneity. Preferably all ages. Praise, Communion. Evangelism. Equipping. CONGREGATION & COMMUNITY.
Public declaration and celebration.
Teaching.
Hundreds.
Provides local identity.
Allows cell churches to see themselves as part of greater group.
Greater exposure to body ministries.
REGIONAL.
Thousands.
Campaigns; Rallies for the
denominational groups and entire body of Christ in a large city or region.
NATIONAL.
Public declaration of unity and solidarity.
We can see that each type of meeting of the people of God or church, has a specific purpose in their life, growth and unity. We cannot therefore say that one type of meeting is “the way” to the exclusion of others.
HOW OFTEN SHOULD WE MEET?
Jesus said He came to give us life and life more abundantly. We certainly need to meet and be equipped but not to the point where we are over burdened by programmes.
The Bible indicates that, generally, the larger the gathering, the less frequently they met and conversely, the smaller the group, the more frequently.
In the Old Testament,the entire people of God gathered only a few times a year.The tribes and clans would have met more frequently and,of course, the family met every day.
With busyness of life and the need to allow people time to minister in outreach,the following basis which we have found fulfil the various grouping needs without wearing people out.
Family or close friends Daily to a few times a week.
Neighbourhood Home Church Weekly.
Congregation Celebration Once a month.
Regional or City Rallies Two to three times a year.
Home churches in different parts of the world have adopted a similar pattern. In Chile,one church of over 10,000 meet in homes weekly and come together once a month in a football stadium.The Korean church building of Yongii Cho could not possibly hold a congregation of over 750,000 on a Sunday even with multiple services.An average attendance of the corporate meeting is once a month with the home meeting held weekly.
SCHOOL OF MINISTRY.
The Bible teaches that all Christians have a ministry to each other as well as to unbelievers.(1 Peter 4:10, 2 Cor. 5:19).However, this does not happen automatically.Everyone needs to be equipped.
In our school system,we have both primary and secondary levels.
In secondary school there are specialist teachers for particular subjects. The English teacher is not expected to know everything about chemistry and the Chemistry teacher would probably not teach art with excellence.
In the ‘spiritual’ school, members are assisted in their primary subjects by leaders and other group members.
For ‘secondary subjects’, the Bible tells us that apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (known as the five-fold ministry) are needed to equip each Christian. (Eph. 4:11-13).
Obviously all are essential to develop you and are needed to bring Christians to their greatest potential. We have these ministries functioning and as well as visiting homes and teaching at our Celebrations, they conduct courses midweek and on occasional weekends.
Listed below is a brief overview of the various levels of equipping.
SCHOOL OF MINISTRY COURSES.
Level One: For new Christians.
Level Two: Equipping for “every believer” ministry.
Level Three: For training Home Church Leaders.
Level Four: Specialist courses to bring Christians to the fullness
of their particular gifting and ministry.
Level Five: Church planting – local and overseas.
OUR STRUCTURE
Home Cell Church.
Eight-twelve adults plus children.
Meets weekly.
5-10 or more home churches form a congregation
Congregation.
Served by a five fold ministry (either full or part time.)
Meets on average once a month for Celebration
Community.
Five or more Congregations for a Community.
The five ministers form the eldership.
Provide the School of Ministry.
Collection and distribution of finance.
Operate Community Care Network for those in need.
Meets twice a year for Celebration.
Conduct Missions outside of their area.
Apostolic Eldership.
The Communities are served and supported by an apostolic eldership of church fathers.
They assist in the growth of Communities and establish new ones. They assist other churches in transitioning to home church model.
Christian Community Care Network Inc. is a registered body which enables us to operate legally in many capacities.
Community Care Network is a department of the church which is used to help the disadvantaged through physical aid and support groups. The department has a tax deductibility status with the Taxation Department.
TEN REASONS FOR CHURCH IN THE HOME.
1. Ease of Meeting.
The early Christians incorporated “church” as part of their lifestyles. Home church was based around a meal, so many of life’s issues and problems would have been discussed around the table. True fellowship and communion would have evolved in a natural and relaxed manner. (Acts 2:46).
They wouldn’t have had to get dressed up to go to a special event and, being in the neighborhood, travelling time was not an issue. Can you picture in the future every street in your area having a home church in it?
2. Ministry to “One another”.
The Bible gives many categories involving relationships with “one another”. Some of these instructions are: …accept, welcome, comfort, instruct, live in harmony, pray for, submit to, be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving, serve, hospitable and the most common of all.….
“They will know you are my disciples because of your love for one another”.
This depth of care and concern is vastly more practical in our home meetings and so they, non-Christian visitors, are able to witness this love we are supposed to exhibit.
3. Close Friends.
“Before I became a Christian most of my mates were guys I played football with,” one man commented. When attending large church meetings only, I found really good friends hard to find. People were nice and kind to me but I really haven’t replaced what I had.” Meeting in small groups especially with meals gives great opportunities for meaningful relationships to develop and an easier way to bring old “mates” to Christ as well. (See next point).
4. User Friendly Evangelism.
“I’m not going to church, it’s boring and irrelevant!” is the perception that many unchurched people have. Church in the home provides a user-friendly atmosphere. B-B-Q’s and meals also provide an inviting environment for those who have problems with churches.
Unchurched people also need to see we are not religious but “for real.” When they see the care and the desire to be together, they’ll know we are His disciples.
5. Releasing your Gifting.
“When you come together, each one contributes his part, a song, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, an interpretation of it’. (1 Cor. 14:26 Berkley).
Every Christian needs to be taught how to release their potential, God-given talents and giftings. Apart from ministering to each other, each member needs also to learn how to reach out to others through their relationships and how to share their faith.
Jesus showed us the most effective way was to equip just twelve.
Attending large meetings exclusively tends to keep us spectators.
Smaller numbers allow for individual encouragement and are ideal for people to develop their gifting.
This enables us not just to go to church but to be the church.
6. Value Changes.
Our desire for each Christian is to release them to do the works that Jesus did. (John 14:12).
Because of the emphasis on being doers of the Word and not just hearers, with accountability to leaders and other group members, value changes are part and parcel of home church life.
7. Release Leaders.
With small groups, obviously more spiritual parents need to be trained. This not only releases many as role models but the home church also provides a “hands on” equipping school for those growing from spiritual little children into spiritual mothers and fathers.
8. Adaptable and Mobile.
Small numbers allow more spontaneity compared to the programmed celebration meeting.This gives us flexibility to handle any immediate needs of members.
Church is also mobile and can be held at the beach or park at a moments’ notice.
9. Enough Buildings for Revival.
We believe with many others that a revival in this nation is imminent, and a cost effective system to cope with a huge influx of new believers is needed.
What would we do, if like the early church, 5000 in a day gave their lives to the Lord?
Churches in the home provide an endless and cost free number of places where people can meet.
10. Finance for Revival.
Essentially the home church is based on a “tent making” model and so the shared ministry of many means a minimum of full and part time salaries.
Many school assembly or local halls are available for our monthly celebration of up to one thousand people. Therefore there should be no need to build our own assembly halls.
Our desire is to build the church, not large church buildings.
As each community grows, the only building requirement may be a resource centre for co-ordination and training.
The minimum building and ‘no debt’ policy will free up more finances for sending out church planting teams.
WHAT ABOUT UNITY?
We believe that churches in homes are the best expression of “church” but they are certainly not the only way.
Therefore we are committed to fostering good relationships with the entire Body of Christ and working with others to extend God’s Kingdom.
Eventually, as God restores unity across the body, we look forward to the time when our communities will join together with other parts of the body of Christ across a city or region for gatherings of Christian witness and solidarity.
THE BACKGROUND
At the beginning of his ministry, preaching on streets of India in 1979, thefounder of Christian Community Care Network Inc., Stuart Gramenz, quickly realised that with the billions of unsaved “the harvest was truly plenteous but the laborers few”.
He formed a missionary organization, International Outreach, which conducted large evangelistic crusades and equipped and released Christians to outreach to third world countries. As a result missions were preached to and over two thousand part time missionaries returned home with a new confidence to reach the unsaved.
Realizing in the longer term that the Indian nationals had to be trained, a church planting college was opened in Hyderabad in 1983. This resulted in hundreds of churches being planted by its graduates.
In the mid 1980’s while in Brisbane, Stuart received a vision from the Lord. In it he saw hundreds of small groups of Christians meeting in homes and coming together for huge celebration meetings.
At the time, it didn’t mean much to him as his heart and mind were still in the third world.
The China Experience.
In 1989 on a missionary trip to China, teaching the underground church leaders, he experienced what these home meetings were all about. Of the many stories, two greatly impacted him.
One young lady, with very little theological training, told him to his amazement, that she was the pastor of so many home churches, she couldn’t count them.
He saw a picture of the words “UNUSED POTENTIAL” and it reminded him of those in Australia who had so much knowledge and nowhere to release it.
Another Chinese leader shared how, whilst he was on the ground being kicked and hit with rifle butts by the Red Guards, his home church members threw themselves over him to take the blows.
“Would it be possible to raise that level of commitment to each other in the Australian church?” he asked himself.
The Lord then showed him that a new breed of home churches would start in Australia.
The unchurched were going to know that Jesus was “for real” because of their love for one another.
In late 1994 the Lord revealed to Stuart that his work in India was complete and he was to hand over International Outreach to the national leaders and commence work on the Australian vision.
Desiring initially to work within the existing church, he tried unsuccessfully to impart the vision to three different denominational groups.
The Lord then told him to start on his own home.
A second vision was given to him of what he could only describe as a huge golden highway, 20-30 kms. wide and stretching from the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane.
The Lord showed him He wanted to do something across that whole area, not just raising one church who could demonstrate this model but many community churches of around 1000 members each, networking, sharing ministries, but, most importantly, seeing themselves as one church in the area, not as competitors.
He believes the Lord wants, initially, to establish fifty of these community churches.
This will mean many, many leaders of all levels will need to be trained and it’s Stuart’s desire to see a repeat of the releasing process he experienced with the church in India.
Many men and women with the same heart and mind have joined with Stuart to pioneer this new way of doing church.
BODY NETWORKING.
Presently we are networking with home churches, both in and out of Australia, as well as giving both advice and resources to those establishing new churches.
We are part of Ministers Fellowship International which was initiated by Pastor Dick Iverson in the U.S.A. and then started by Rev. Kevin Connor in Australia. We are also part of the Australian Cell Church Network.
WHAT WE BELIEVE.
This statement of faith seeks only to provide the basic foundations of what we in Christian Community Care Network affirm to be true. It does not attempt to be a total definition of Christian faith and doctrine.
We also appreciate that people join CCCN with a great diversity of theological backgrounds.We encourage this but do ask for theological agreement in the essentials of the Christian Faith.
1. We believe in the eternal God head who has revealed Himself as one God existing in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, distinguishable but indivisible. (Matt. 28:19, 2 Cor. 13:14).
2. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of men, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, truly God and truly man. (Luke 1:26-35, John 1:18, Isaiah 7:14, 9:16, Col. 1:15-17.)
3. We believe Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day, and personally appeared to His disciples. (1 Cor. 15:1-5, Rom. 4:25).
4. We believe in the bodily ascension of Jesus to Heaven, His exaltation and Personal, literal and bodily coming again the second time for His Church. (Acts 1:11, John 14:23, 1 Thess. 4:13-18).
5. We believe in the full, verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. (2 Tim. 3:16, 1 Cor. 2:13).
6. We believe in the creation, test and fall of man as recorded in the book of Genesis, His total spiritual depravity and inability to attain to divine righteousness
by his own works or effort. (Rom. 5:12,18).
7. We believe in the salvation of sinners by grace,through repentance and faith in the perfect and sufficient work of the cross of Calvary by which we obtain remission of sins. (Eph. 2:8-9, Heb. 9:12, Rom. 5:11).
8. We believe the sufferings and death of Christ purchased healing and wholeness for the complete person – spirit, soul and body. (Is. 53:4-5, Matt. 87:16-17, Jam.5:14-16, 1 Thess. 5:23).
9. We believe in water baptism in the name of the Triune God in order to fulfil the command of Christ. (Matt. 28:19, Acts 2:36-39, 19:16).
10. We believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a subsequent experience to salvation, the purpose of which is to empower Christians and which is evidenced by their ability to operate in the gifts of the Spirit. (Acts 1:8, 2:4, 8:15-17, 10:44-47, 19:5-6, 1 Cor. 12,14).
11. We believe in the Spirit-filled life as evidenced in the fruit of the Spirit and a life of separation from the world as an expression of Christian faith. (Gal. 5:22-25,Eph. 5:18, 2 Cor. 6:14-15).
12. We believe in the reality and personality of Satan and the eternal judgement of Satan and his angels. (Matt. 25:41, Rev. 20:10-15).
13. We believe that the commission which Jesus gave to His disciples, to proclaim the Kingdom, to heal the sick and to drive out all demons, was never rescinded and was re-iterated as a command to be obeyed. (Luke 9:1-2, Matt. 28:18-20).
14. We believe in the meal of remembrance commonly called Communion or the Lord’s Supper open to all believers. (1 Cor. 11:28-32).
15. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church and that all Christian believers are members of the Body of Christ – His Bride.
16. We believe in the priesthood of all believers. (1 Peter 2:5-9).
We believe that the people of God are to nurture, support and build one another up, working together in love and unity. (1 Cor. 14-16, 26, Col. 2-3, Eph. 4:3).
