Sid: My guest by way of telephone they’re headquarters in Austin, Texas is the heads of “House to House Ministry” Tony and Felicity Dale. We’re featuring their book “An Army of Ordinary People” it is so exciting, it’s 19 stories of ordinary people that have started congregations in such a New Covenant way. But something I have to ask you Tony and Felicity; let’s go back to the group we were talking about yesterday in this low income housing project where you saw so many answers to prayers and miracles, and salvation “What was a typical meeting like, paint me a picture.”
Tony: Well, it’s very difficult to paint a picture of a typical meeting led by the Holy Spirit because there is so much variety, but there are certain things that we encourage folk to try to incorporate as typical parts of a gathering. This would be based from Acts Chapter 2 verse 42 where it says “They devoted themselves to the Apostles doctrine, to fellowship, to sharing meals, and to prayer.” And so we would always typically start with a meal and we do it pot luck so that everybody is taking part it’s real simple it’s not a burden on anybody. Now I have to admit sometimes in a low income housing project it again reminded us again about Luke 10 because it tells you there to eat what is set before you. And sometimes we weren’t naturally choosing shall we say the things sat in front of us. Especially if we saw the things moving over some of the food, but you learn to just accept that, in whatever context you find yourself to be really grateful.
Sid: You know what I want to land here for just a moment, what is it that causes such a release of the Holy Spirit when people share a meal with each `other, but I’ve noticed that.
Tony: You know I don’t know for sure how to answer that but hospitality seems to be so central to the work of God. It fascinates me that in you know in Timothy and Titus where it’s looking at the qualifications for leadership; hospitality is one of those qualifications.
Felicity: It’s also very interesting how much Jesus’ ministry occurred over a meal. You know if you read through the gospels often times the context of what Jesus did during a meal time.
Sid: Okay so you break bread together what might happen next?
Felicity: Often we would move into a time of fellowship, of waiting on the Lord, of worship, of sharing what’s being going on within each other’s lives. Within this context one is looking to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit. You know another verse is very key in our thinking in this is 1 Corinthians 14 verse 26 where it talks about when you come together each one has something. And that there is something about a time together when everybody can share and share what the Holy Spirit if putting on their hearts. And it’s like a little bet of like an orchestra you know you’ve got all the different instruments and with the Holy Spirit as the conductor the instruments don’t very often all play the same melody, they all have their own part to play but the Holy Spirit is able to create something very beautiful His own message for us for during that time together, His own ministry for us.
Sid: Now, do you have one person that acts for a lack of better words, as the Holy Spirit facilitator?
Tony: You know that’s going to vary from group to group we don’t usually designate someone as the facilitator but clearly there are different gifts within the body of Christ and yes someone or ones will probably emerge who are particularly good at helping to steer a meeting to draw everybody in.
Sid: But if someone says something that’s totally umbilical, totally off the wall, what normally happens in a group?
Tony: Well, that’s a great question of course that does happen particularly when we’re are getting into Bible study and getting everybody sharing their thought and ideas around a passage. And one of the things we found is very important is don’t just slap the person down who has brought something that’s right off the wall because if you do that effectively what you’re saying to them is “Your contribution isn’t important, you’ve got it wrong, I’m the one that’s got it right.” Instead we teach those that are facilitating how to gently draw if you like the more accurate Biblical understanding out of the passage by asking others in the group. Sort of like “Wow, that was an interesting comment from John, did any of you know see it that way? Or do you perhaps see something different?” That give an opportunity for others to bring it back to scripture and to make sure that you’re really keeping a focus on what the word of God says.
Sid: Now in recent years because your major expertise was with the house churches but in recent years many of the traditional model churches are reading your materials or really inquiring. Why are they showing such interest and what are they doing with your information?
Tony: This is so encouraging to us in what’s going on and it’s actually one of the things we very specifically prayed for because when you look at the history of moves of the Holy Spirit what so often happens is that what God was doing last becomes a persecutor of what God does next. And we just found ourselves praying over many years and encouraging others to do the same, “Lord it be so great if it was different this time around as this new movement gains momentum if it really be blessed by all of what we call the legacy churches you know the existing traditional structures to which we owe so much. And it is exciting, I mean I’d love to give you two very specific examples within of Felicities book “An Army of Ordinary People” having been published Katrina hit. And the day after Katrina hit we were called by the head of church planting from Saddle-Back Church that we’re told is well known because of Rick Warren and the Purpose Driven Life. And the head of church planting there calls us and says “You’ve just published all this material on church planting, there are now hundreds maybe a thousand plus churches that have literally lost their facilities because of the damage of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. Could we get a hold of those materials and give them to all the pastors who have lost their church facilities?” Well, I mean our hearts just leaped that Saddle-Back would even know what we were up to and that they would want to endorse it enough that they would give it away to those that had been so devastated by Katrina. A second which I think is equally remarkable story; a hug mega church down in Orlando called “North- land, a church distributed. They contacted us out of the blue and said “God has been telling us that we must find a way to bless this emerging house church movement, what can we do to bless you?” Well, we had no idea I mean we don’t have buildings, we don’t have facilities, we really don’t have any paid staff, so you know in the typical way that a church might help financially or something we didn’t have any needs, And so they said “Well, come down and let’s just spend a day with you two and with our church leadership and let’s see what the Lord brings out of it.” Well, what the Lord brought out of it is that they have a fantastic video department and they said “Well, we want to put the video department at your feet, can they do a project for you guys that would help that house church movement?” And out of that they took “The Getting Started Manual” that Felicity’s written and helped us develop the whole “Getting Started Manual” into a course an interactive DVD course that a couple of two or three couples could get together and meet around that course for 6 weeks and at the end of that 6 weeks they would know what a house church is and they would actually be living house church life together. Now what a gift to the Body of Christ for that church to give us.
Sid: You know, both of those are wonderful because the truth of the matter is if we can’t learn to work together, if we can’t appreciate each other’s gifting, even if our style maybe different, or our model maybe different, then what hope is there? I mean if the one thing God blesses is unity. But you said something that sparks something in me and you said “When Katrina hit the only option was house churches.” Well, according to the Bible they’re going to be some tough times ahead between now and the return of the Messiah, according to weather prognosticators there’s going to be some tough times in the United States. I just really believe, no it doesn’t matter what I really believe – you paint a picture of what you see will be happening in the near future in America in reference to house churches.
Tony: Well, we think it’s fascinating the way that particular question has come from you because clearly God is doing something to prepare the American church. You know everybody is familiar with China and the story of what happened under the communist there and how house churches spread all over that country in a time of great persecution. And we find ourselves asking the inevitable question. What is God preparing the America church for that in such a breathtakingly short period of time house church has gone from virtually unknown to rapidly becoming one of the predominate forms of gathering of God’s people here in the United States. So I don’t claim to be any expert on understanding end times or Biblical prophecy, but I think that just a casual understanding Sid is God’s is preparing His people for something and it’s probably not going to be life as normal here in the United States.
Sid: Tell me one quick one minute story from your book.
Felicity: One minute story is not so easy; let me just describe one story to you that we got an email a while ago from a friend who had led somebody to the Lord over the internet. And that person lived in one of the Carolinas’ this person lived here in Austin. Asked if we would follow up and the person came from a very very New Age background. We met with her and her husband and within a few days she had emailed us when we told her what we did about church saying “Could I have church in my house?” And we said “Absolutely and so she invited together, a group of her New Age friends and we had church in her house and over a period of probably 3 months we saw them change from a group of New Ager’s to a group of lovers of Jesus.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth