Article about Dollie Knight & Northside in the AG News Online

Every church should -- and could -- have a Dollie
June 26, 2006

Stooped over her walker, the poorly dressed, heavy-set woman was breathing hard as she shuffled forward. At times she would pause, her swollen face contorting by some fresh wave of pain . . . or simply in exhaustion of moving her weight.

As the Florida sun looked down, sweat began to trickle from her closely cropped head and dampen her skin - a groan escaped her lips. Was it the crippling back pain? Perhaps the thought of standing in line? Or maybe, this drug-abuser needed another hit of crack cocaine? Only she knew for sure.

That's right. This was no "cookie-baking" grandmother. She didn't look good, she didn't dress good and from society's view, she was no good.

Dollie had come to Hopetown that day some four years ago because a friend had told her she could get a free meal and free groceries. Despite being crippled, the thought of free food drew Dollie - she needed food. So week after week she made her way to Hopetown, becoming a regular visitor.

But this day was to be different for Dollie - this was the day someone would actually invite her to church. But why now?

Two words: Larry. Deanna.

A few months after Dollie began coming to Hopetown, the husband and wife team of Larry and Deanna Shrodes became pastors of the outreach's home church, Northside Assembly of God in Tampa, Florida. That's when big changes started happening.

The Shrodes put an even greater emphasis on Hopetown's outreach. Their goal: to move Hopetown from a "Saturday only" ministry to making it the first step in connecting and integrating people into the church body.

"We wanted to build a bridge between the weekend outreach and church services," Deanna says. "We wanted those benefiting from Hopetown to become a real part of the church as a whole."

So committed to seeing the church becoming Christ-like in all of its efforts - including Hopetown - the Shrodes developed a church pledge. It reads:

"You will never knowingly suffer at my hands. I will never say anything or do anything knowingly to hurt you. I will always, in every circumstance, seek to help and support you. If you're down and I can lift you up - I'll do that. If you need something and I have it, I'll share it with you. If I need to, I'll give it to you. No matter what I find out about you, no matter what happens in the future - either good or bad, my commitment to you will never change. And there is nothing you can do about it."

"We recite it [the pledge] each and every Sunday," says Deanna. "And we share that pledge with the people in Hopetown - we pledge to help people who are in any kind of need in any way, and if we can possibly do it, we do."

The pledge is far from a lightweight commitment. For even in the Hopetown ministry alone, the pledge takes on some serious responsibilities and requires deep spiritual self-examination.

Larry explains that it's one thing to share God's love with people who are, for example, addicted to drugs or homeless at the weekly Saturday Hopetown ministry. However, it's a whole new level of acceptance to sit next to the same people in church, love them like a brother or sister and genuinely want to see them come back.

Oddly enough, that is what is happening at Northside. Yet, Larry and Deanna agree that in order for something this "revolutionary" to happen in any church, it must start with leadership modeling the example.

"When I first assumed leadership over the ministry, I was there every week at Hopetown," Larry says. "In fact, my whole family has been involved in serving. Unless people see their pastors model [what they're teaching], people just don't catch it."

And that's exactly where Dollie came in.

A new vision had been cast for the church and Dollie was about to be a part of it. That week as she stood there as she had done times before, a volunteer approached her and started up a conversation. And then, to Dollie's complete surprise, she invited her - the crippled crack abuser -- to church.

"I looked like a pregnant elderly woman - I knew I didn't look good," Dollie recalls. "My self-esteem was very low, if I had any at all . . . I couldn't believe someone would want me to come to church."

Even in her condition, there was something about the invitation Dollie couldn't resist. The next morning, she came to church. And that's when the first "miracle" began.

"I was not treated any different than anyone there," Dollie says, still in some amazement. "You know how some people sort of look over a person because of the way they dress or how they smell or something like that? That didn't happen - everyone was special and treated as special."

"People can genuinely tell deep down inside if you really like them or not," Deanna explains. "They can sense if you genuinely love them, like them and want them to come back . . . and when they [people] feel that on the inside, it makes all the difference in the world."

The Holy Spirit had been working on Dollie's heart during the Saturday Hopetown services participants of the program attend. God had been even answering prayers, helping her to get her life back in some kind of order.

Now, as she sat in the Sunday morning service, people were invited to come forward for prayer for healing, salvation or whatever needs they had.

Dollie, felt a boldness come over her. She decided to see just what God would do. So she stood, and using a cane in place of her walker, she made her way slowly, painfully to the front.

"I told Pastor Deanna that I wanted her to pray for me that I could walk," Dollie says. "I started to cry and she prayed and prayed. Then the Holy Spirit hit me. I was on the floor and still crying, but now it was tears of joy. Something was pulsating through me, like nothing I ever felt before."

An usher offered Dollie help to her feet, but she just waved him off and stood by herself. Something incredible had happened!

"I jumped up and down and started running up and down the sanctuary and through the aisles," Dollie says, her voice rising with the memory. "I felt joy like I never felt before - all I had to do was ask. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. It was the biggest moment in my life. I still feel it sometimes."

But God didn't stop there. Along with healing her, He instantly delivered her from crack and lifted decades from her countenance.

"When she got up and began to run, it was as if youth came upon her," Deanna says. "She suddenly transformed from an elderly-looking crippled woman to looking her actual age -- a vibrant, joyful middle-aged woman. She has now lost all that weight as well."

And the cane she had depended on to make her way to the altar? She told Larry to keep it -- she didn't need it anymore. Now, it's mounted on the sanctuary wall as a constant reminder of God's miraculous power.

Yes, God certainly works wonders in inner-city churches with people in desperate need. Of course, what many may find surprising, Northside Assembly is a suburban church.

"There are people [in the suburbs] who need help, who are addicted to drugs, who need hope," says Deanna. "A church may think they're too middle class or upwardly mobile [for this kind of ministry], but Jesus didn't preach that kind of division."

Another huge misconception for many churches is that the cost for providing food and clothing for the needy is extreme. The greatest challenge for Northside is just picking the items up and having enough volunteers.

"I don't think people realize that actually any size church can accomplish this kind of ministry," Deanna says. "Most of the food we receive to give to people comes from the government for the asking."

"We talked to our local food banks and found out that if you're a 503c non-profit, you can apply for grants to get USDA food," Larry explains. "I spoke to other food banks to ask how they were doing it, learned from them what grants to apply for [to get food] and then we also work with consignment shops for clothing - along with our people donating generously as well."

The Shrodeses say there is some paperwork involved, you can't sell the food and that under the guidelines, no one can be turned away. The rules work for Northside - they don't want to turn people away.

Remember that church pledge? Living it is "catchy." And again, Dollie is living proof.

"Everyone was just so friendly and loving and you just knew it was real, not fake," Dollie says. "I try to pass that on to the street ministry, where I live, to the people God puts in my path."

With her involvement, a lot of people come across Dollie's "path." She regularly witnesses to the homeless, drug addicts and even people in the store. "She's led at least 40 or 50 people to the Lord," Deanna says.

Dollie is also an altar worker, works in the clothes bank, is part of the leadership of Hopetown, serves in Women's Ministries, picks people up for church, delivers meals, visits the sick and the list goes on. Any church would be happy to have a member like Dollie - and all it takes is love.

Perhaps Northside isn't a typical church. It calls 21 different nationalities members and doctors sit next to the homeless. But Northside has a passion to seeing people loved to the Lord -- a passion, they pray, will spread to churches across the country and around the world.

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