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 heart ought to be a church in and of itself. Then our home, then and only then could we ever be part of church and part of the ‘body’ of Christ.

Within this realization God has led us to worship Him, seek Him, pray to Him, be taught by Him, to receive from Him and to serve Him. It all begins in a single heart.

By publishing and broadcasting this doctrine we have baptized some into this simple basic Christian faith. We have ministered both spiritual and physical healings, have seen healings and wide-ranging gifts given by the Spirit to those who asked in faith. We did not believe that only public church-grounds could be the place that God’s hand would be permitted to move. 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. With this it has always been the individual who decided whether they would adhere to God’s Will.

Where has this primarily taken place, but from within people’s homes, in their personal lives and in their hearts. 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.

Our Relationship With Church

We are of little or no consequence among the mega churches in our area. We have no political clout; we command no respect that would cause Christians to 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 and we are adrift. We 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 shall sing the song of the redeemed 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 and all with ears to hear. We have published magazines from our home 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 engaged in prison ministry. We have praised God publicly among the churches and taught rigorously His prophetic word telling all those who might listen: 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 of Christ.

Our first pastor, LeRoy, left the Roman Catholic Church and received a papal dispensation from his Augustinian Roman Catholic vows; together with Eloise, later to be his wife, they began a home fellowship/prayer group in Eloise’s home 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 octogenarians. 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, archivists, artists, farmers, businessmen, teachers, real estate agents and engineers. Over time it is out of this eclectic mix that Elisha’s Band of Outcast Eagles has been formed.

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’ as mentioned in Revelation 3: 6-13.

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 mainstay of the primitive and early churches of Christ. Take note of the epistles in the bible that address themselves to a church in the home, as with Philemon and the letter to ‘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 groups to own property or buildings or to have public gatherings without permission of the emperor into the third century AD. Many churches conducted their services and ministry from the home of a gracious patrician patron, even a few of the emperor’s relatives were known to have held church in their home.

Church fits well, can even flourish in the home setting. Granted, a church in the home is under scrutiny by the truth. In the home setting there is no way to hide from the truth of living the gospel, clichés find no way of covering over the facts.

God 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? He gives spiritual gifts – dreams, prophecies, instruction, tongues and interpretations to the individual.

The Lord has not made us isolationists. We have reached out to many in the church, as well as individuals outside the churches. 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 ten years, which presented a forum for any Christian to publish testimonies or other items to edify the brethren.

That publication served as a vehicle to broadcast many of the teachings which the Holy Ghost has blessed us by (and with) for over thirty years of having a church in our home. Through the publication of The Christian Spirit we became involved in the New England Christian Fellowship, a conference of more than a dozen (mostly Pentecostal) churches from Northern New England seeking to network and edify other Christian brethren, not just riding out our own personal lives within the confines of secluded pews. The Open Door Fellowship also occupied a storefront church in Fitchburg, MA for three years. In that time we sought to have mutual fellowship with local churches – without response.

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. Through that experience, all in the fellowship shared a cancer support group, held in our church home for better than three years.

It seems almost trite to see these things expressed in just a few sentences. But assuredly, such things are not small or trite, especially when conducted in day to day living quarters of a personal home. Every endeavor has required faith, as one can imagine, as well as much prayer and trust that God is the one sponsoring the entire conduct of the home minister.

We have baptized many into the faith, have seen healings and wide-ranging gifts performed in our rooms and on our properties. People have been set free from fears and neurosis. Some have heeded the call and then turned away. Everyone has free will in Christ. From our home 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 home 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 part of pure religion as the bible describes it. Jesus told us that 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; healing, enlightening and teaching. Where two or three are gathered together in His name – there He will be. That is having Church, not just sitting in pews and listening to the same canned threadbare mantra week in and week out. Church is ‘being with Him’. When two in a household are in this frame of mind and heart, and their hearts really in it, then there is a church thing happening; this is what makes a home a church because there is church happening and living in that home. Church could happen in a bus station, at a ballgame, in prison. It is like gold: church is where you find it. Church is the assembling of ‘called out ones’ – those called out from the world’s desperation of the vain, of hopelessness of death, to life and the knowledge of eternal things.

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. It starts and ends, in a way, with having church in your heart. Then you can have church in your home when another heart joins in, then you may have church outside.

It is our great hope that this site and its contents will help the lonely and converted heart enjoy a greater personal relationship with Christ, especially those who have been outcasts and castaways of the churches, so that they may have the theatre of their heart turned into a lively church that communes with the living God day and night, night and day wherever they may be. Amen.