Now Meeting Sundays · Canton, Ohio
A place of prayer, encounter, and transformation
Who We
Are.
A contemplative-charismatic community consumed by the presence of God and sent out burning with His love.
House Church · Canton, Ohio · Est. 2025
About the Furnace
The Inner Room
At the FURNACE, we believe the Christian life begins in the Inner Room, where Jesus invites us to shut the door and meet Him in secret. Teresa of Ávila called that place a furnace of divine love — where the soul, like wood placed into fire, is transformed until it becomes wholly flame.
The Inner Room is not a prayer corner in your spare bedroom. Rather, it is a mystical space within each believer set aside for communion with God. “The Kingdom of God is within.” This is the place where we abide with Christ. As Jesus said so clearly:
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
Our calling is simple: to be a people consumed by His presence, purified by His Spirit, and sent out burning with His love that we might bear much fruit.
We are Christ centered. We are Spirit led. We are charismatic. We are mystic. We are the FURNACE.
Our Vision
A Movement of the Inner Room
We are not building just another church. We are preparing a dwelling place for the presence of the Living God — a community so saturated with His fire that Christ Himself is at home among us, and the Holy Spirit moves freely in power and intimacy.
Throughout history, God has always sought a people who would become His habitation — from the Tabernacle in the wilderness to the Temple in Jerusalem, from the Upper Room at Pentecost to the hearts of believers today. The FURNACE exists to be that kind of people: a living temple where His glory dwells, where the fire never goes out, and where lives are continually transformed by encounter with Him.
Our vision is to cultivate a furnace of transformation — a place where deep intimacy with God in prayer and worship isn’t reserved for a spiritual elite, but becomes the normal experience of every believer. We’re committed to teaching people how to discover the Inner Room, to abide with Christ within, and to hear His voice with clarity and confidence.
But we don’t gather the fire only to keep it. We’re being refined to be sent. As we’re transformed in the furnace of God’s love, we carry that flame outward — into our marriages and families, into our workplaces and neighborhoods, throughout Canton and beyond. We believe God is raising up a people who will burn with His presence wherever they go, bringing light to darkness and hope to the broken.
This is more than a vision for a local church. This is a movement of the Inner Room — a company of believers who live from the secret place and shake the world with the fire they’ve received there.
Our Gatherings
Every Sunday
at 10:00 am
The FURNACE gathers every Sunday at 10:00 am as a vibrant community of worshipers, intercessors, and friends who are being transformed by the fire of God’s presence.
When you join us, you’ll experience Spirit-led, charismatic worship that’s passionate and free — a place where we lift a pure flame of adoration before the Lord and make space for the Holy Spirit to move. We teach about the Inner Room and week by week gather testimonies from those discovering encounters with Him there.
At the center of our worship is the Lord’s Table. Every week, we break bread and share the cup together, remembering Christ’s sacrifice and celebrating our communion with Him and one another.
But we’re more than a Sunday gathering. We’re building a family on fire — a community where authentic relationships are forged, where we carry one another’s burdens, sharpen one another’s faith, and propel each other forward in God’s mission for our lives and our city.
We began as a house church, meeting in homes in the Canton area, and we continue to embrace that intimate, family atmosphere. We currently meet Sundays at 10:00 am in the Canton area. Because we gather in different locations, contact us for the address of our next service.
Our Invitation to You
Come Into
the Fire.
Does your heart long for deeper intimacy with God? Do you sense there’s more to the Christian life than what you’ve experienced so far?
The Furnace is for those who hunger for the consuming presence of God — for believers who refuse to settle for lukewarm Christianity and long to be utterly transformed by His fire.
Here, we gather not merely to attend church, but to enter the Inner Room — that sacred space where Moses met God face to face, where the disciples were baptized with fire, where mystics throughout the ages have encountered the Living Flame.
We are a community of seekers and surrendered hearts who believe that authentic Christianity is both deeply contemplative and powerfully charismatic. We practice silent worship and prophetic declaration. We embrace the wisdom of ancient spiritual disciplines and the dynamic movement of the Holy Spirit.
If you’re ready to move beyond spectatorship into participation — if you long to be refined, ignited, and sent out as a carrier of His presence — we invite you into the Furnace.
Come into the Inner Room. Encounter His flame. Be transformed.
Connect With Us →Our Foundation
What We Believe
We are creedal Christians. The FURNACE stands on the historical faith of the church as expressed in the Nicene Creed — the same confession that has united believers across centuries and continents. Beyond the creeds, our distinctive calling is to the Inner Room, where ancient faith becomes living encounter.
Read our Statement of Faith →Our Leadership
Meet the Team
The FURNACE is led by Pastor Scot Lahaie — professor, author, and contemplative pastor — and governed by a board of directors in accordance with Ohio corporate law. We believe that healthy leadership is servant leadership, rooted in the Inner Room and accountable to the community.
Meet Our Team →Good Questions
Things People
Ask Us
Why the Name?
The name the FURNACE comes from the mystical tradition of Christian contemplative prayer. Teresa of Ávila, the 16th-century Spanish mystic, described the deepest place of prayer as a furnace of divine love — a place where the soul is so consumed by God’s presence that it becomes like iron heated in a fire, taking on the properties of the flame itself.
We chose this name because it captures the essence of what we believe the Christian life is meant to be — not a comfortable religion, but a consuming encounter. The furnace is not a place of punishment. It is a place of transformation. It is where impurities are burned away, where the soul is purified, and where we are made more fully into the image of Christ.
The furnace is also a biblical image. Daniel’s three friends were thrown into a furnace — and they emerged unharmed, accompanied by One who looked like the Son of God. We believe that in the furnace of His presence, we are not destroyed but refined. We come out looking more like Jesus.
Read More on the Blog →What is the Inner Room?
The Inner Room is a concept drawn from Matthew 6:6, where Jesus says: “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
We believe Jesus was not merely giving practical advice about finding a quiet place to pray. He was describing something deeper — a mystical reality within every believer where the Spirit of God dwells and where we can meet with the Father in an intimate, unmediated way.
The Inner Room is the secret place of the Most High described in Psalm 91. It is the inner sanctuary where the Ark of the Covenant rested — the place where God’s presence was most concentrated. It is the Kingdom of God that Jesus said is “within you” (Luke 17:21).
At the FURNACE, we teach people how to access this inner sanctuary — not through complex techniques or religious performance, but through simple, surrendered abiding in Christ. We believe this is the foundation of everything: the Christian life, spiritual formation, fruitfulness in ministry, and transformation in every area of life.
The Inner Room is not a destination you arrive at once. It is a place you learn to live from — a posture of the heart that increasingly shapes every moment of your existence. This is the heart of our ministry and the source of everything we do.
Learn More About the Inner Room at Our Blog →Can I Start a Furnace in My City?
The Furnace is more than a local church. It is the seed form of a movement — a network of Spirit-led communities gathering around the Inner Room in cities and neighborhoods across the nation and beyond.
We are actively seeking men and women who carry this fire and sense the call to plant a Furnace in their own community. Not church planters in the traditional sense. Not people looking to build a ministry. People who have been in the Inner Room and cannot stop talking about what they found there.
If that is you, we want to hear from you. Learn about starting a Furnace in your area.
Start a Furnace in Your Area →“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”— Psalm 91:1