Open Door Ministries Blog

Four18 CAMP!!!!!

We can't contain ourselves with excitement as we are making plans for Open Door's first ever Four18 Camp coming this summer!  Check our this video blog with some of our staff for some more details!

 

 

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Uprise:: College Ministry

 

We are launching our new College Ministry called Uprise in a few short months and are looking for volunteers who are willing to partner with us as we reach out to the campus. We will be having a meeting on January 22 following the 10:45am service at Open Door. If you’d like to be a part of this ministry please make plans to join us for this meeting! 

Check out the video below to meet our leaders and hear the heart behind the ministry!

 

 

 

 

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New Message Series:: The Core

This Sunday marks the start of our brand new series, The Core!  Below is a video blog from Pastors Greg and Aaron with some of the details!

 

 

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Giving Back

This Christmas, we had the opportunity to adopt several families that were in need during the Holiday Season.  Check out what the faithful people of ODM did to help out!  It's AMAZING!!

 

 

 

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8 Things You Need to Know from our Senior Pastor

As I begin to write, I am mindful that this year has been an eventful one to say the least. In spite of this years troubling events, God has been faithful and provided and made a way through in every situation.

It is amazing to watch the Lord work, the souls which have been saved are beginning to be reflected in our services. The Baptisms are wonderful; and to see and hear the testimonies is exciting!

But as we draw near to Christmas, let us be mindful of His love and His desire for each one of us to exemplify His character and His gifts. May those around us give Him praise for the lives we live.

I wanted to take a few moments and celebrate what God's been doing recently and also ask for your prayers about a few things:

#1 - A few weeks ago we had our annual City Outreach Day to the neighborhood of Moyewood. Every year we spend a Saturday delivering Thanksgiving meals to the houses at Moyewood.  It's a chance for us to love on people with no strings attached.  This year was incredible.  We had around 200 volunteers!  That's the most we've ever had.  I can't say thanks enough to those of you who partnered with us.  I also want to remind you about the current outreach we have going on: the Giving Back Tree.  If you'd like to help out a family in need this Christmas and help them buy gifts for their family stop by the Information Center and check out the Giving Back Tree.

#2 - We finished up our "On the Edge" series in November and the responses we've gotten have been awesome!  We hope and pray that the series ministered to you and that we will all begin to step out over the edge past fear and discouragement and into the potential that God has for us.

#3 - We continue to experience salvations and re-dedications throughout the church.  Last Sunday we had the opportunity to share in the baptisms of 9 people in the morning and 4 kids at KIDMO: PRIMETIME that night.  We got to watch their testimonies and see their stories of coming to faith in Jesus Christ.  This is why we do what we do.  I hope that every one of you that serves here or gives to Open Door never looses sight of why we are here.  We want to be a catalyst for life change.  By serving and giving you play such an important part of that!  We also had an incredible night at KIDMO: PRIMETIME, an event for 4 year olds - 5th Graders and their families.  I love having events for families and we got to celebrate baptisms during the event as well!

#4 - We are nearing a new Service Team rotation and would appreciate the prayers as we evaluate the needs of each department.  If you'd like to start serving and want to join a team, please follow this link to our website and fill out the form.  We'd love for you to partner with us!  Click here.

#5 - Please be praying for our Christmas services coming up on December 18 at 9am or 10:45am.  We are praying for lives to be changed and I hope and pray that you'll invite as many people as you can.  The services are going to be awesome.  If you are a regular attender, please consider attending the 9am service.  Attendance is usually high on that Sunday and we want to make sure we have enough room for any visitors or people who may not know Christ.  And remember, instead of having services on Christmas Day, we will be having a Christmas Eve Night of Worship at 5pm.  Please join us in praying for everyone who will be participating in these services: that lives would be impacted for the Kingdom!

#6 - Please continue to pray for our Student Ministry, 418.  God is doing something incredible in 418 and we pray that students' hearts would continue to be softened to the message of Jesus Christ and that they would step out in bold faith in their schools!  Their 418 Christmas Party is on December 18 from 6pm - 8pm.  We hope all 6-12 graders can be there.

#7 -  You will hear more about this next one soon, but we are planning a 21 day fast at the beginning of the year.  We hope you'll join with us during this time as we focus our attention on what God has called us to do.

#8 - Lastly, but certainly not least, we are praying for safe traveling for all of you that will be traveling this Holiday season and we pray that you will have a great Christmas and New Year, celebrating with your families!

It is such a joy to be your Pastor!

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Greg Kennedy

 

2011 Giving Tree

There’s no better time to share the love of Christ than during the season of giving, Christmas. Open Door is supporting families for Christmas who are in need. You can help in two ways: 1) you do the shopping and wrapping; or 2) financially with a cash or check donation and we do the shopping. Look for the ‘Giving Back’ Christmas tree at the Information Center.

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Christmas Stage Flip

Christmas is coming which means, its time for a new stage design!  Check out the short video that shows you how Michael Chandler and his team go about it!

 

 

 

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Creating Something Amazing

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" - Ephesians 2:10 

For the past four weeks the KIDMO team has been sharing with the kids of Open Door about God’s creativity. This is truly one of my favorite things about God, and it has been an amazing four weeks! Four kids have gotten saved and eight kids have expressed a desire to get baptized! We have not just learned about God's creativity but have gotten to see how it works in our every day lives, and in God's bigger picture! 

This past Sunday we ended our creativity series upstairs. As we closed out this series I am reminded of my senior year in college that I lived in a little apartment with my older sister, Amber. It was a small two-story apartment that was longer than it was wide. As soon as you walked in you were standing in the living room, which was open to the kitchen, and the stairs leading up to our bedrooms were right in front of you. When it came to explaining our décor in this apartment we fully embraced the phrase “broke college students”! It mostly consisted of friend’s furniture that we happened to end up with, and our sheet white walls were covered with posters. However, one of those posters always stood out to us among the rest. It was a photographic mosaic of a laughing Bob Marley hanging above our kitchen table. A photographic mosaic is where lots of smaller pictures make up a larger picture, that is only seen when you take a few steps back.  This poster was one of our favorite things for two reasons. We loved how in the poster Bob is smiling so big that his eyes are nearly shut.  He just looked so incredibly happy. Even though in reality I'm sure the reason for him smiling so big was not because he was so happy. We also loved this poster because of the simple concept of smaller pictures that can all stand alone but are creatively apart of something bigger. The shading and coloring of these pictures line up perfectly so that when you stand back you see the bigger picture. It’s nothing short of awesome!

Looking back years later, I think about how the concept is just like how God works creatively in the Church as a whole. We all individually make up our own picture. Maybe your picture would include family, friends, your love for the Lord, serving, your work, or maybe school.  What makes up your picture--the shading and coloring--matters.  God takes these pictures and creatively places them one by one together, each one as important as the next, to create something amazing: the Church of God. So that when people that are not yet apart of it take a look at the picture from a few steps back they don’t see Bob, they see the face of God. A God that is not just truly happy but truly joyful, filled with a love like no other, overflowing with compassion, and offering grace.  Our awesome God not only has a creative plan for our individual lives but for us as a church. I am so excited to be apart of it!

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Megan Pulaski

Video from Pastor Greg and Pastor Aaron

Hey guys take a minute to check out this video about our upcoming series "On The Edge"!

Click here to find out more info about the series.

 

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“Swag” On

A couple months ago I came across a passage of scripture that has begun to change my life. Personally, I was going through a season of change in my life. My wife and I just had a little baby girl 4 months ago and we moved across the country to take on the Student Director position here at Open Door.  I was experiencing pressure and growth like I never have before in all areas of my life, from being a husband, a father, and in now, in ministry.

But God led me to this passage:

“7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

We see Paul here, one of the greatest men in the Bible, dealing with something. The Bible never told us exactly what, but he was dealing with something and it was bad enough he went to God 3 times begging Him to take it away. We tend to put these great men and women of God on a pedestal like they never dealt with sin or troubles, but I saw here that Paul was. What’s amazing about this passage is what God says to Paul in return. He told Paul that His grace is enough and when Paul was weak that He is strong! So Paul now boasts in his weakness because that’s when God takes over.  If we can begin to grasp this thing called Grace we will begin to get our Christian “swag” on. We will walk around with a swagger because no matter what we are going through we will always be on our A game. If we are strong then we are strong, but if we are weak then God is strong. So we never have to be on our B or C game.  God’s grace is enough for us no matter what new challenges we come up against or battles with sin we may have.

So as we go through this week, let's begin to get caught up in God’s grace and get the “swag” we were created to have!  

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Tyler Braden