I first visited this church on a Wednesday night in August 1978, it was my 25th wedding anniversary. I had arranged for a one-hour interview with Pastor Yonggi Cho because he had built the largest church in the world; I was searching for the secret for his church’s growth. We met at 5 pm in his office, and sat at a large table that could seat 50 people, where the church elders met. I did not realize that behind me was a door that opened right on to the platform of the 8,000-seat auditorium. Cho sat across from me.
“What is the best symbol of the church in the New Testament?” Cho asked me.
I was challenged by the question, embarrassed I might give the wrong answer. I momentary prayed and said, “The body . . . the physical body is the best illustration of the church.”
“That is the secret of why my church is so large.” Cho explained, “The body grows by the division of cells.” Then he explained, “When a man’s semen is joined to a woman’s egg, they produce a single cell so small it cannot be seen with the naked eye. But when examined under the microscope, a single healthy egg will be seen dividing into two cells. The process continues from one cell to two cells, then . . . four cells . . . eight cells . . . sixteen . . . thirty-two . . . sixty-four . . . etc.” Cho explained his church grows when the small cells of approximately 12 to 15 people divide. Then both new cells grow.
Cho told me the great secret to great churches was not in the construction of buildings as we did in America. He explained, “If I built my church like the American Baptists, I would have to build a campus as big as UCLA, which was 12 blocks by 15 blocks near Los Angeles, California. He mentioned, “Americans build small Sunday school classes for 10 students each. I could not build a church with 7,000 small Sunday school rooms for all my people. My church building would be as big as UCLA. He said construction would be a financial barrier and “the city fathers in Seoul, Korea, would never give me permission to construct a church building that large.”
“So my cells meet in living rooms, recreational rooms, and laundry rooms to build the largest church in the world.” It is then that he explained to me the secret of the small cells. “Everything the larger church does in ministry, is done in the small cells of approximately 15 people each.
Cho’s thinking began to radically change my mind about church buildings. Why couldn’t we use our church buildings several times on Sunday; we could even have church services on Friday and Saturday nights.
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