‘Treasure hunting’ helps to plant house churches
Graziano Crepaldi is a house church planter from Switzerland who works in various nations in Europe. After starting and developing a house church network in Switzerland in 2003, he felt God’s call to also invest in his homeland Italy and in Balkan nations like Serbia. In Italy he found a few people whom he trained and coached, and today there are 12 house churches in various localities (of which 8 in Turin) that are part of the Filadelfia Network. Most of these new churches were started by ordinary people who pray and move in the gifts of the Spirit (prophecy, healing, deliverance). Graziano calls this activity ‘treasure hunting’.
“Italians are open to spiritual things,” says Graziano. “So we teach our people to hear from God, prophesy and pray for healing. Before we go on an outreach, we ask the Lord to show us a ‘treasure’. This can be a word of knowledge for someone or a description of a specific person. Then we ask Him to lead us to that person, so we can share what we saw, pray for healing or deliver a word of knowledge. In this way many people have a genuine encounter with the Lord and are healed or delivered. Our focus is to bring the Kingdom of God.”
Could you share a few examples of how this ‘treasure hunting’ works in practice?
“Of course! We were on an outreach in Serbia. During our prayer time the Lord told us to go to a specific road where we would meet a woman in need. On that road we met a woman with several visible tumors on her arms and her back. We laid hands on her and the tumors disappeared! The love of God entered her life. My friends were invited into her house and preached the gospel to her family. The next day they baptized four people. A new house church was started.”
“On another occasion, one of my friends saw in a vision a man on a specific square in town. When he went there and approached him, the man turned around and suddenly splashed my friend with a bottle of water. My friend asked: ‘Why do you do that?’ ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I had the impression that someone would come to me and that I needed to splash this person.’ My friend shared his testimony with him and the man responded: ‘Your testimony describes my life!’ He gave his life to the Lord and is now attending one of our house churches.”
“Another time, when we were on the street, we met a man who was very depressed. We laid hands on him and the joy and peace of God entered his life. He had never felt anything like that in his whole life. He burst into tears. A woman who is now part of one of our house churches was involved in a satanic cult. One day she heard a voice: ‘This is not the place for you.’ She had an encounter with Jesus and is now following Him.”
How do you multiply house church groups?
“The multiplication of house church groups is taking place through ‘friendship evangelism’ and ‘power encounters’ [like the treasure hunting]. We encourage our people to pray for their neighbourhood, but also to pray for healing when they meet people who are sick. We emphasize that everyone is an evangelist. Everyone is capable of sharing the good news of the Kingdom within his or her specific gifting and context. Out of this evangelism, new groups are started in homes.”
“Two of our friends visited a restaurant near the university in Turin. They got to know the family who owned the place. These people felt a spiritual emptiness and were not satisfied with their life; they wanted real peace. My friends simply explained the gospel to them. Their response was amazing! The whole family repented and started to follow Jesus. They changed their restaurant into a house church and now hold Bible studies and house people. They had no Christian background and discovered for themselves that the restaurant would be the best place to meet as a church. Often non-Christian people grasp the concept of house church better than Christians.”
“We also intentionally train people on the job to plant new house churches. We use the method of ‘Model, Assist, Watch & Leave’: we model how to plant churches, the new Christians assist us in what we do, we watch as they do it, and then we leave. Over time we learnt that it is of vital importance to keep on praying for a breakthrough in the lives of people, and to develop a clear concept of discipleship. Not everyone is really open and willing to change. Our goal is to help people to be obedient to the message of Jesus, to develop a deeper relationship with God and better relationships with people around them. It’s as simple as that.”
Source: Graziano Crepaldi
J Fokker