Home Churches, Hospitality & Hosting the Holy Spirit | Practical + Spiritual Keys

What does it actually look like to cultivate a home filled with the presence of God? In this conversation, we talk about hospitality, consecrating your space, creating intentional community, and why spiritual renewal requires more than inspiration alone.

From practical decisions about your home to prayer, worship, intimacy with God, and gathering around the table, this episode explores how ordinary spaces can become places of healing, discipleship, and encounter.

Real renewal follows a pattern—but most people skip the hardest part. We walk through why lasting change feels so rare and what it actually requires.

Whether you’re leading a microchurch, hosting dinners with friends, building a Christ-centered marriage, or simply longing for deeper community, this conversation will encourage you to start with what you already have and invite God into it.

The 2 or More Podcast is a conversation for lost balls and sleeping giants—followers of Jesus who are hungry for authenticity and to grow in their gifts and calling. Mike Bishop and Joel Henson explore what it looks like to plant sustainable microchurches, build spiritual family, and live out the kingdom of God in your whole life.

Instagram: 2ormore_podcast

Who is Everyday Mission? We are a people seeking transformation in our everyday lives and in the church. We are a people drawn into the harvest field by love. We are using our unique gifts, talents, and resources to influence the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to help equip Everyday Missionaries.

Website: https://www.everydaymission.com/
Instagram & TikTok: @EverydayMissionFlorida

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Alright, Joel. We're back and I've got another cup of coffee in my hand. Again, good cup of coffee. Another good cup of coffee. I'm still not with any Christmas stuff or Valentine's stuff. Or back at Breck. We're we're back at Breck. And uh it's pretty good coffee. And as we were talking about last time, how good coffee is an important part. No, no. A conduit for the spirit. A non-negotiable part of the Holy Spirit's presence at in your home.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

That's right. It's like blue lights and fog machines for large churches. It's good coffee for the country. It's good coffee. It's good coffee.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Roast your own. Start a roaster. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Perfect. That's easy to do.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

We'll do an episode on that because I do roast my own coffee. Do you actually? I am a Renaissance man. We have this conversation. You just wanted to say it. I roast my own coffee. Wow. I catch my own fish. I, you know, clean them without a knife. My bare hands. I just rip the flesh off. No. Kill the lion with your bare hands. I do none of those things. No, I actually do catch my own fish and roast my own coffee. But that's a different story. How do you roast your own coffee? It's um uh okay, compressed story. Um, long time ago, like 15 years ago, there was no good coffee around in our area here. Um very little. I think Starbucks had like one store in Palm Beach County or something, and I'm never been a big fan of Starbucks anyway. And so what happened was um my mother-in-law knew I really loved good coffee, and it was expensive to get like good fresh roasted coffee. So she, for a Christmas present, bought me this little home roaster. It looked like a popcorn popper.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Yeah. And like expensive, like a good roaster is.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Well, these electric ones are only were only like 150 bucks. They were pretty pretty cheap, but they only did three ounces at a time. One espresso shop. Yeah. So so basically, uh, and and then she got me on to a roaster or a green coffee supplier in San Francisco called Sweet Maria's. Shout out to Sweet Maria's. I still buy from them all these years later. Wow. Um, fast forward and three ounces at a time just wasn't gonna cut it, you know. I'm daily I mean how many cups of coffee is that? Is it one? Uh it's maybe three. Okay. It's uh you have to roast every day, is what you would do, and that that wasn't gonna work. So I went online and I found uh design for you to build your own roaster out of a barbecue grill with a drum, stainless steel drum, and a little gear motor. And I'm an engineer. I didn't do a great job of assembling it because I'm not that great of an engineer, but I at least understood how the how it worked. You had to get a gear motor to turn uh with enough with enough torque to turn that drum with two and a half pounds of coffee in it at like 25 RPM. And so got that solved, and ever since, every couple weeks I go out in the side yard, fire up my roaster, and it's all it's all audio. There's no visual, you can't see inside. Like a regular high-end coffee roaster, you can they have a sample port where you can see how it's doing, but it's all audio cues.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

You're just listening for the first crack, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:29

First crack, and then almost to the second crack. That's like my favorite. Your sweet spot. And uh like a full city roast for for those who are in the know. Um, and I love Central and South American coffees, and I can get them, you know, half the price or less than what you you buy at the store. So how cool. Yeah, it's been fun. It's it's uh it's something that I just haven't grown tired of doing because it's just such I mean it's the freshest coffee possible, right? You roast it, like two days later, it's just at the sweet spot.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

That's great. Sounds like a a really uh elaborate like laundry dryer. That's exactly what it is. You should uh come up with a design for that. I revolutionary. Could probably probably what, like six or eight pounds of coffee at a time in one of those? Um maybe.

unknown 4:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Yeah. I mean, that's basically what a commercial roaster is. So just a big big dryer. Big dryer. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

I love that. Well, let's uh let's dive back into uh cultivating your your home, your space. We left off on sanctifying your home and how it's your responsibility. Uh whatever you not even your home, whatever space you're in, right? Right. The beach, coffee shop, the park.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Uh well that that that's that's how I wanted to tell a quick story about that because I I think I had mentioned last time we we had been hosting things in our home for a long time, and uh we kind of the grace lifted, and that was because we were having, you know, we don't have a very large home. We were having 30, 40, even 50 people show up to our house. I mean, there were a few times when the uh somebody in our neighborhood called the cops because of the parking situation, and you know, it just it just was untenable in terms of the number of people and creating and and facilitating that environment, it became just a mass of people in my living room and not an experience where true hospitality and you know it was almost like the desire to see uh people come in and really feel welcomed and cared for and like family just became a bunch of people in my house. And so once that grace lifted, um, we actually started praying and looking as everyday mission for kind of a uh a quasi-mission center, ministry center, and we found a space, um, it was an older church building that we bought or we uh we leased and we called it the greenhouse. And it and it, you know, a few other ministries have have come alongside of us and and helped pay the bills and participate in it. And again, this is not anything nobody's ever done before. Um if you know or have been involved in anything like a network of of microchurches, which there are many around the country, uh I would say most of them have done something like this because it facilitates a connection that is a third space. You know, so a third space is not your office, it's not your home, but it's a space where community can happen, where community can gather. And um, you know, the the it it forced us though to start asking questions when we got this space. Okay, well, we know what it looks like, and Amber and I had been doing this for years, we know what it looks like to facilitate these things in our home. Like we were talking about last time, to build that that altar and and really have the presence of God, you know, inhabit our our our home. Um but we we we didn't know how to do that anywhere else. Like are the is the skill set different? Is there a way to to to you know uh create that altar in a third space versus your home? Is that different? And the reality is it's not that different at all. And it is an intentional process with the Lord of praying through and then responding to the desire to see people naturally feel welcome when they walk in the door, naturally understand that this place is a place of learning, growth, health, community, right? Not I'm coming here to be entertained or I'm coming here to consume, although we're all consumers and sometimes that just happens as a natural byproduct of being human, right? Um but there is there's a way to craft the environment in such a way when people come in the door, they just get it. They don't have to think too hard about it, right? So some examples of that. Uh this was just a big empty box when we moved into it. Um ripped out old carpet, put in some some nice vinyl flooring, nothing too fancy, but something that kind of said, okay, wait a second, this is this is a space that kind of like my home, you know. And so, okay, so what are some other ways that we can make this an opportunity in a place where there's where people feel welcome like they do in my home? Somebody donated a big couch, you know, big comfy couch, put that in the corner. Um there used to be a stage in this thing. We ripped that out, and in the corner we just put a carpet and we put a couple, you know, piano and a and a uh guitar, and you know, it's kind of like if someone is teaching or leading worship, they're just in the living room. They just happen to be in the corner, right? And then there was a desire for, okay, well, I want people to be able to sit like they did in my house and have a meal together and look one another in the eye and facilitate that that kind of level of community that they could experience around my dinner table. Well, we had more people than could fit around my different dinner table now, right? So it was like, all right, well, maybe we should get some tables. Maybe we should get some round tables where eight people can sit around and look at each other as they're having a common meal together, or they're studying the word together, or they're responding to God and worship together, right? And they're not just staring at the back of everybody else's head. So those were kind of the practical responses, but then the spiritual response was to intentionally go into that space, whether it had been dedicated to the Lord previously or not, whatever, whatever was there, right? And just go in and say, God, whatever happens here, we want it to be to your glory. Like we're gonna dedicate this space to you. This is about you. This is not about us, this is not about our thing, this is not about our brand, right? We're not gonna plaster the walls with everyday mission logos. Like, we very intentionally have not put anything up on the walls other than some artwork that one of our prophetic artists, Kim Hogan, put together. It's very simple. And so, in the simplicity, we are telling people when they come in the door, this isn't about being impressed with this space, being um, you know, made to feel like a consumer in this space and feel comfortable like you're in a movie theater. This is about you coming to participate, to actively enter the presence of God with a family, to look one another in the eye around a table, right? And to ask questions, uh to debate, um, maybe even to disagree, right? But to do that in such a way, I remember one of the first um gatherings we had there for the school of the kingdom. Um somebody taught and there was a question, and and a woman stood up and she was like, I'm really struggling with what that person just said. And it turned into this beautiful, challenging, hard conversation. But the outcome was she actually received some healing. And you know, we were able to minister to her and work through kind of the challenge and the differences and those types of things. But I don't think that was gonna be possible unless the environment allowed it to be possible, and the leadership behind the environment was intentional to say this is what this space is gonna be about. Like people are gonna come in here and they're gonna be okay and and feel permission to learn, to ask questions, to participate, to be vulnerable. Right? So all of those lessons are things that we applied to an empty box third space building. All of those same applications, those the practical and the spiritual side of that, applies to your home.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Yeah, it applies to any place where you're you're meeting. Yeah, whether it's a a new space or your coffee shop or anywhere else.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Could could apply to the to the new church building that you moved uh or that that you're borrowing or moved into down the street or whatever. It it's all the same.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

So what uh what I'm hearing you say is first, maybe in no particular order, but first you talked about curate the space, you know, make strategic decisions that facilitate w the end result that you want, right? So like in our home, we decided to not have a TV in our living room, right, because we wanted at least one extra chair and less screen time. Yeah, so that was a strategic decision just for our church that we made. Um and then secondly, you talked about cultivating the space and like praying into the space. And so not only praying into it initially, I think people do this well maybe once, even like evangelical circles. I think consecrate a space well.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Yeah, which is critical. Like, don't we cannot skip that that's crucial part?

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Absolutely. Consecrate it. Yeah, uh yeah, consecrate and like really like send this place off. You know, it's christening the ship, right? It's like we are sending it off in celebration and in praise and gladness. Uh, but the thing is we have to continue, especially in your home, especially in your home, you have to keep cultivating the spirit, almost like the spirit feeling at home there too, uh, which is a kind of funny way to put that. But it's like what I think of is when I am when I am communing with God in my home alone or with my wife, we're allowing the Lord to saturate the walls, like saturate the space in a way that if we don't do that, you'd you'd feel it.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

And we want the Lord to be a welcomed and frequent guest at our table and in our living room. Yeah. And and the thing is, is like there's this long like history throughout the church of God goes where the where like where his rule like is had, like where his law is followed, like there goes the presence. And the presence of God or the favor of God doesn't rise and fall with our adherence to his demands. Right. But there is a reality that like we can gain more when we cultivate and when we seek and when we readily hunger and we readily knock on the door, like Holy Spirit, come here. Like, God, we want to see signs, wonders, and miracles in our living room. We want our kids to have dreams about the man in white, and we want them to tell us about the angels that they see in the in our house. Yeah. Like we can seek that readily so that it just becomes part of the culture. It's in the walls, like you can feel it. And that's what we pray regularly, that anyone who walks in this space just feels an overwhelming sense of the presence of God. And even if they don't know God, that they would have like the sense of peace of like, yeah, like, wait, I bel I belong here. Like, yeah, this feels good. And and that's for us to continue to do. Yes. And so, like, the thing is like me and my buddy uh did a podcast years ago and we talked about how your identity is like you're irrevocable. Like it is like God loves you, you are a son, no matter what. And the gifts of the spirit are completely free. You can access them anytime. But the anointing on you, and I think it's the same, the anointing in your home rises and falls with the commitment and intimacy you have with him on a regular basis. Very true. And so, like, we want to keep the intimacy high, like we want to keep intimacy like as the forefront so that the anointing, like the anointing, that word just means like the fingerprints of God. Like we want the fingerprints of God everywhere in our home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

I I love your statement, or it's not really an analogy, it's true of like you know, the presence of the Lord just dripping off the walls, yeah, just seeps in. Yeah, I I I think that that image is so cool because like we always tend to to think just about our human bodies and our spirits and like who we are as little power packs of the image of God walking around, right? And we think that's really all that matters is like you and me and you know our humanity and that kind of stuff. And it's such a it's it's such a kind of it it's important, don't get me wrong, like and and we'll talk maybe in another episode sometime about how right now I would say in culture and history, like the human body, like our humanity is under attack. Yeah, like our nervous system just in our home is what you're talking about, just like the no, I'm talking about just the the whole understanding of being human is under attack. So whether that's AI, whether that's technology, whether just defining the human experience. I'm just saying being human, the experience of being human is being challenged. Okay, and so yeah, it's important to celebrate the fact that God gave us these bodies, and perfect as they are, and prone to weakness, prone to illness and sickness and death, we're all gonna die, okay? But there's a holiness and a um a beauty in our bodies, and we should celebrate that. But it's not the only thing that God created, right? He created the heavens and the earth. He created uh all the materials that we use and gave us the creativity to build these homes for our our families, to raise families, to raise, you know, to worship in, right? And you think about the early church, um they just use what they had. And I think that's what we're saying. Use what you have and dedicate it to the Lord and let the presence of God drip off the walls, because it where else are we gonna do it? Right? And let's start there. Let's start there, let's start as a husband and wife or as a single person walking into your home and saying, you know what, you know, I'm not gonna just set this up like a bachelor pad because I'm a bachelor and it's just easier for me to, you know, have everything the way that I want it, right? Okay, yeah, okay, you're living there most of the time, I get it. But if you're the type of person too that wants to have people in your home and and you know really provide hospitality and and cultivate community and you know, build an altar to the Lord like we were talking about last time, then there's certain choices that you're gonna have to make. Like maybe don't just put the gaming chair right in the middle of the living room, you know, like you say, maybe put the TV in the back somewhere or in your room or out of the out of out of the way.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

That's part of cultivating the space is making strategic decisions. Because I mean, it was like the early church only met in like circles. Like it was like like typically in Jewish tradition, it was a U-shaped table. It's like a long, kind of boxy U-shape, and then the person who was speaking or reading Torah would be standing at the gap in the table, like kind of reading to this long square of people, right? And it wasn't until the fourth century that churches started meeting in rows. Right. So Constantine wanted to mimic the theaters that were able to reach more people. Sure. And you can have your own thoughts on that, but like that was when a crucial change happened in the church, which is now kind of front to back versus like shoulder to shoulder and face to face types of grouping. And so we need to make spatial decisions as well as spiritual decisions about how our churches function. within our home. And it is our responsibility to keep making those decisions perpetually so that we are cultivating the spirit of God residing in our in our space.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

And and you and let me make this very clear too you use what you have. Listen, we're not saying like this can only work if you've got this palatial mansion and you cater a meal every time that you know like literally our first Amber and I as a married couple the first thing that we ever hosted we were still students at the University of Florida and we were living in married housing in this little probably 600 square foot one bedroom place and um you know we had a a a home group there it was mostly college age students and kids and our friends and we we made use of what we had. We had the my old beanbag chair in the corner and you know old ratty couch and people most people just sat on the floor but guess what who cares it was a we were we were learning the kingdom together right that was where Amber and I learned how to hear God's voice and respond to him and like sharpen our prophetic gifting and you know really really dive in to understanding the kingdom and how it works. And I'm like I wouldn't have traded I I who cares what the environment looked like practically it was the fact that it was it we cultivated that space we didn't know much of what we were doing at that point. We didn't know anything about this right but as a young married couple we did have and this is this is crucial we did have the value to say we're not going to be afraid to open our home and invite people in to learn about the king and to grow as disciples we're not going to be afraid because our couch isn't that great and the beanbag is old and maybe we don't know how to you know maybe we're we're poor college students beans and rice I'm sorry that's what we have tonight for dinner right didn't matter it was more like the intentionality of saying no we're we're we're not going to be afraid to open our home because I'm more interested in getting out what God wants to do in this group of people and in us than I am about being concerned about what people are going to think about my little crappy you know married housing flat.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Yeah so same same for us we started our first microchurch in 800 square feet yeah in a one bedroom you know mine was smaller that's awesome you get the uh you get the victim award here it was pretty bad but it was cheap it was cheap Joel this was like mid nineties it was in Alabama couple hundreds of dollars no it was in Gainesville oh Gainesville okay yeah that I bet that was cheap yeah yeah Gainesville that's awesome last thing that I want to hit on is just the the married couple principle yeah um if you're single and you're hosting something like this uh you're totally capable I I did that a bunch like when I was judging with some buddies I kind of would host in our home but it was like me hosting you know and I had people in the in the home we also had things as a group but um when you have other people that you're sharing this call with I think that elevates it because of the shared cultivation of two or more people being together. Yeah it is two people or more saying God we we dedicate a space and a time to you and there's a there's like God promises that he's gonna be there when you do that. And there's like this compounded blessing and spiritual authority that you have when you kind of link arms with somebody and we're like we're gonna do this right and so doing that as a married couple I think is even the highest form of that and so I I just want to encourage married couples to especially be regularly praying into their home like pray into pray about your space. Yeah like Lord release us of spiritual ties and binds that we don't even know are happening here and just like flood this space with your spirit.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

And just praying like that regularly over your home and relinquishing anything that like maybe residue of unforgiveness between you or people who lived there before or things that happened in this place before God we just we just cover this entire place with the blood of Jesus. Yeah. And doing that as a married couple is so powerful. And and that goes back to even the unity and the unification of like are you ready to do this? Can you do this as a married couple uh without feeling shy, without feeling a little too awkward to do it. Uh because it can be clunky at first but especially if your marriage isn't one that's used to praying out loud together but it's it's so it's imperative.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

You can't I don't think you can get around it and have the impact and the encounters of the spirit that you want to have without that I I I would suggest as well whether you're a brand new married couple or an older married couple with kids and you've never done anything like this in your home and this is all kind of like wow I want this but I've never done this and it's a little intimidating I'm certainly not ready to have a group in my home I would say start by doing what is increasingly becoming less of a a practice in our culture which is just invite somebody over for dinner you know like just say hey instead of going out and spending a bun a bunch of extra money like just have a simple meal together and I love you know now obviously you guys have a little one and you know a couple times that we've had meals together we've come to your house yeah very practically because it's a lot easier to deal with Roman than running around uh you know our backyard or something the one time you came over to our house was like didn't see it like I'm I'm out in the backyard.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Yeah there's there's practical things like that yeah you you're exactly right of just meet I just have someone over well it it that you trust it begins yeah it begin but it begins to cultivate in you like go through the pro don't just have somebody over for dinner like go through the whole process of consecrating your home right yeah asking God you know what should I cook tonight like go to the grocery store and what should I cook Lord like let's let's and then you know but go through the whole process like clean the house put the candles out put some nice music on you know ready ready yourself for the fact that you're gonna because man this is something that I think we were just so unprepared for of what you're talking about. This is almost like a dry run like a soft launch it is of home church microchurch is how challenging it can be to preach the gospel to a room full of six people right way harder than 600 in my opinion yeah because it is so intimate and there is no level that you can hide there's no like barrier that you can hide behind like they know you they know how you talk to your wife like they know how you treat your kids when you're frustrated like they they're gonna see it. And so it's this very vulnerable thing of like I can only out of overflow. There is no pretending for in this for very long and so having like this dry run of like okay I'm gonna bring some friends over and I'm gonna be like guys I want to pray tonight like can we just you know turn off the music or turn off the TV or whatever stop you know stop the game for a minute or whatever and we're just let's just pray can we walk around the house like and can we just pray over doors and windows and can we worship for just like one song you know 10 minutes whatever like that's that probably feels scary like for the first time to a lot of people I think it felt scary to us.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

We didn't do that exactly but like when we started man that's so clunky and it's awkward but like that's something you need to like it it it is but it doesn't have to be and that's the thing because it's really just in your mind making the decision having the intentionality to say okay I'm gonna invite this like you're a single person I'm gonna invite some friends over or you're a married couple I'm gonna invite this couple over or two couples and we're gonna have a meal right and we might play a game and we might chit chat and hang out but the intentionality is I'm gonna invite the Lord you know I'm gonna invite the Lord and we're gonna we're gonna be together during this time I'm not gonna check out I'm gonna listen what is the Holy Spirit saying while we're together you know in the core Joel there's been so many times that Amber and I have just had a couple over for dinner and we're sitting there and we're having a meal and all of a sudden somebody says something and it's like okay that's what the Holy Spirit's doing right now let's dig let's dig into that and then before you know it we're sitting over on the couches and somebody's getting delivered or there's healing or there's you know whatever like that has happened so many times. And it's not because oh well Mike and Amber they're experienced pastors and they've been doing this forever and all this stuff. No, it's because we've cultivated that and we've practiced it over and over and over. So if you come to my house whether you like it or not you're getting invited into the Holy of Holies man like and I'm gonna be there listening and watching with the Holy Spirit and yeah we might have just a good meal and it might just be a good time but that's the exception what normally happens is God shows up right the conversation invariably turns to where do you see Jesus in your life? What's going on? You know the real nitty-gritty stuff. And that again that's not because I'm just I'm an expert I'm a pastor I'm a or your or or your wife is a counselor and so she's gonna know what to say at the right time and all that kind of stuff you know or you're a Bible teacher and you're just gonna bring scripture out because that's who you are. No, it's because you as a family as a couple have cultivated a space that when people come into that space King Jesus is going to be at the center no matter what no matter what's going on doesn't matter if the dogs start fighting the kids start crying the food's not that great does not matter right and and I think if you do that if you start there that's like the lowest bar but I'm telling you it's it's it's a low bar but it's an essential place because if you can learn how to do that have people in your home just for a meal you're not very far I was going to say you're you're most of the way there. You're most of the way there that's most of it that is most of it because your example of and I agree with you I've preached in front of five six hundred people before it is easier because you don't have to look people in the eye you can just get up there and flow and just say whatever you want to say. Nobody's gonna say anything in response nobody's gonna raise their hand and say from the back hey Mike I don't agree with that you know can't do that. But in a room so full of six people you can and the reality is um how do you prepare for that you know that's the question how do you prepare for that and I think what we're saying is it's actually a lot more like sitting around the dinner table when you invited a few friends over for dinner and you're listening to what the Holy Spirit is saying and you're you're talking out of the overflow of your life with God right so if you're at at your microchurch if you're if you're talking about um what you learned by reading Romans last week right and that's your message um it's not like giving a sermon it's like sitting around the dinner table talking about the overflow of what God's been teaching you and you're inviting people into that conversation it's actually you want people to participate it's not about getting picked apart right or getting criticized or oh maybe Joel's wrong in this theological point or you know he interpreted the scripture wrong here or whatever and you know ever you're you're yeah okay maybe you are wrong sometimes I pretty sure you are Joel pretty but no the the point is is that you're there and it's an overflow of your life with God your time with him your own study and I would do the same if I invited a couple a few people over for dinner around the dinner table as I would on a Sunday night at a microchurch gathering. It's no different it's no different