ThePhiladelphiaFaith.org is published by The Open
Door Fellowship, a home church in North Central Massachusetts.
We are of little or no consequence among the mega churches in our area. We have no political clout; we command no respect that Christians around us should flock to hear our voice. We consider ourselves a small ark floating precariously among the seas of a dark and troubled world. In many ways God has shut us in that we may wait with reverential fear and calm patience for our deliverance on that glorious day when Jesus shall appear in the clouds to take us home. We wait with patience not fretting whether Christ shall appear in this watch or the next. Some of us have gone home to our reward, the rest of us wait, knowing that we shall all receive our reward and crowns of righteousness together in that glorious moment which is clearly depicted in the pages of Revelation. Then we we shall sing the song of redemption before God's heavenly throne. While we wait, God has been gracious to us, allowing us to publish and preach His prophetic Word to any that have ears to hear. We have published magazines from our home based church, have held meetings, seen souls saved and witnessed the healing touch of the Savior. He has allowed us to practice pure religion helping and visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction. We have praised God publicly among the churches and taught rigorously His prophetic word telling all those who might listen that Jesus is about to return for His Bride. All this and more has been done in the character and reality of being a simple and pure home church. God has given us the faith and blessed us in being able to minister in the most simple of ways, that pure simplicity that is in Christ.
Our roots go back to 1972 and the outpouring of The Holy
Spirit which came as a deluge from heaven upon all the world wide churches in those remarkable years in the 1960s and 70s. In 1972 LeRoy Gardenier received a papal dispensation from his Augustinian vows and together with Eloise, later to be his wife, began a home fellowship/prayer group in Eloise's house in Tewksbury, Ma. This began the road to what has evolved into a functioning body of believers ministering and being ministered to in full scriptural fashion with the offices, functionaries, worship and gifts being ministered by the Holy Ghost in an orderly consistent ministry of Christ. God has gathered together a diversified
group of believers ranging in age from teen-agers to an octogenarian. While we are small we are of a wide mix of nationalities, races, talents, education and skills, ranging in education from public
education to college grads. We are tradesmen, students, journalists, technicians, office workers, janitors, archivalists, artists, farmers, businessmen, teachers, real estate agents and an engineer.
Although we may not look or act like stereotypical church folk let us assure you that we are highly serious about our faith in Jesus Christ and above all we are serious about having a personal relationship with Christ through being born-again. Jesus is the only bonding agent that can bind relationships together with an eternal knot which can never be undone or broken. It is only Jesus Christ’s saving grace and then the desire He put in each individual’s heart to find true spiritual nurture and fellowship that guided each of us to be part of the body of the Open Door Fellowship. We believe in the importance of one finding their place in the body of Christ and then being true to its purpose and the driving force it should exert on our soul. Every brother and sister from the oldest to youngest in the Lord can testify of how God personally brought him or her to this home centered church we have dubbed, The Open Door Fellowship. Each of us personally identify with what we call, 'The Philadelphia Faith'. (See: What is The Philadelphia Faith?)
It may seem to the modern Christian that God has done something very untraditional and unconventional with the Open Door Fellowship, but in fact, home churches were the mainstays of the primitive and early churches of Christ. Take note of the epistles that either address themselves to a church in the home (as with Philemon & and John's elect lady) or make mention of such people like the man Stephanas or the couple Priscilla and Aquila. It was disallowed by Roman Law for unauthorized groups to own property or buildings or to have public gatherings without permission until the third century, or nearly two centuries after the birth of the Church of Jesus Christ at Pentecost. Many churches conducted their services and ministry from the home of a gracious patrician patron. Church fits well, can flourish in the home setting. In our case, God has brought each of us together supernaturally (none of us would be together in fellowship naturally speaking if it were not for God's gathering us together) and has strengthened our bonds through the free-flow of the gifts of the Spirit and the active fruitful production of His Word among and within the entire body of Open Door believers. Everything we enjoy as saints can be attributed directly to gifts from God by way of the Holy Ghost. As promised by Jesus himself, the Holy Ghost has guided us and is always faithful to guide us into all truth. We have only had to be faithful to allow Him to do so. He has opened up the prophetic word to us and revealed to us the importance of the times in which we live. He has instructed us in the faith of the end-times Church. He has personally instructed us in doctrines such as: What is the Church? What is Communion? What is the Rapture and who gets raptured? Not to mention what is the Baptism in the Holy Ghost and why it is so vital. He has given spiritual gifts (dreams, prophecies, instruction, tongues and interpretations etc.) to each and every member. Our whole body seeks to edify one another in love. Are we always successful? Of course not, but we strive to be consistent in striving to love. This is our on-going goal and the purpose for which we gather to praise, to worship and to hear His Word.
The Lord has not made us isolationists in the work that He is doing in this body. We have reached out to many in the church and to individuals not in the church. We have gone to bible studies and prayer meetings in people’s homes when invited. We published from our home a monthly magazine, The Christian Spirit for over 10 years, which presented a forum for any Christian to publish testimonies or other items to edify the brethren (much of ThePhiladelphiaFaith.org website is made up from the archives of The Christian Spirit). This was also a vehicle used to broadcast many of the teachings which the Holy Ghost has blessed us by (and with) for nearly forty years of having church in our home. Through the publication of The Christian Spirit we became involved in the New England Christian Fellowship, a conference of about a dozen (mostly Pentecostal) churches from all over New England seeking to network and edify other Christian brethren and not just those riding out their own personal lives within the confines of their secluded pews. The Open Door Fellowship also occupied a storefront church in Fitchburg, Ma. for a number of years.
From our home based church God has used unconventional means in ministering to individuals which He may have had no other way to reach.
God allowed one of our elders to suffer through cancer so He could reach
a cancer surgeon who might not have heeded the call to salvation any other
way. It seems almost trite to see these things expressed in just a few
sentences here in this introduction but assuredly such things are not small or
trite. Every endeavor has required much prayer and a certain amount of
picking up of the cross to die and deny self.
We believe that our homes ought to be a church first of all, then and only then can we be part of the greater church and body of Christ. Within this outpost God has led us to worship Him, seek Him, pray to Him, be taught by Him, to receive from Him and to serve Him by publishing and broadcasting His Word of salvation. We have baptized many into the faith, have seen healings and wide-ranging gifts performed in our rooms and on our properties. From our homes we have been able to perform pure religion by providing sanctuary for the widows and fatherless so that the Holy Ghost might truly be able to 'visit' them in their affliction. From our homes we have been able to serve Him with all our being and all our substance. This is the beauty and benefit of having a church in the home. All the ingredients for receiving, fellowshipping and serving God are requisite, always at one's fingertips and in the forefront of the spiritual consciousness. We believe that the very definition of church is to be separated from the World, this is the second part of pure religion in the eyes of God. Jesus said, where ever two or three are gathered together in His name that He would be present. Church only exists in truth and power when Jesus is there, present, lively and powerful. Where two or three are gathered in His name there He will be. That is having Church. Two people subservient and submissive to Christ's will, that is the power of His authoritative name and it constitutes 'church'. When two in a household are in this frame of mind and heart, their heart really is in it, then, a church lives in that home. The joint testimony of The Open Door Fellowship is that a home church is not only legitimate, but it is rudimentary to the faith of Jesus Christ and God will provide for it in the full gospel sense "according to His riches in glory".
It is our great
hope that the content of this site will penetrate the hearts and minds of all its readers and that the presentation will fully enhance each brother and sister's walk of faith. We hope that all who visit this site will be edified and above all helped to be made rapture-ready for the time of Christ's appearing in the clouds draws close, very close.