Church Of The Open Door

These next seven Sundays encompass the season of Epiphany, Jesus' increasingly being made known to the world, revealing what kind of Gift God has sent to us so that we might understand what God is like and receive His life and love. This first Sunday of Epiphany, Tom Johnson takes us to the Jordan River as Jesus approaches John the Baptizer and asks to be baptized. Teaching Pastor: Tom Johnson, Missional Life Pastor | www.thedoor.org

Ronn Johnson brings us to the Lord’s Table, that expansive and inclusive place of Jesus’ love and unity. Teaching Speaker: Ronn Johnson, Guest Speaker | www.thedoor.org

This is our annual Novembering service where we take time to be with one another as we mark the passing of family and friends of those in our body. We also desire to acknowledge together the many other losses people have experienced in this past year, loss of health, jobs, community, independence, and many other forms of losses. We hold these special services to honor and remember those we love, invite God’s healing presence into those tender places of grief and loss, and be reminded of the solid assurance and hope of Heaven. Teaching Pastor: Peggy Lang, Prayer Ministries Pastor | Novembering | www.thedoor.org

Teaching Speaker: Scott Volltrauer, Guest Speaker | www.thedoor.org

On this final Sunday of Advent, anticipating God’s putting on human flesh to dwell among us, we’ll experience first-hand some of the fruits of that incarnation. Filled with the Presence of this indwelling God, members of our congregation will offer us gifts that have sprung from their own Spirit-saturated creativity. In addition to Mark Collier’s message about shepherds and joy, inviting us to “make space for wonder and awe and running across muddy fields to meet our Savior,” Spencer Grimes has composed a song for us, Paul McLellan brings a faith story, Bob Stromberg will do the reading, and the entire McLellan family will light the final Advent candle. Our entire service this Sunday is a demonstration of Revelation’s promise that “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among humankind, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,” filling and equipping His people for His mission of joy into the world. Teaching Pastor: Mark Collier, Guest Speaker | Advent 2019

Tom Johnson brings us to the magi. We know the “wise men” chose to follow the star, present their gifts, and elude Herod on their way home. We don’t know how their story ended, though – whether they ultimately chose to follow the Way of Jesus, or not. Tom points out the human struggle in having to make that decision, and every one of us has been there: Do I obey, do I not? Do I choose what may feel like death but is really Life, where God is, where Reality is? –or do I choose what looks like life in this world but results in death? This is definitely NOT “Christmas Lite” – but it is good news!! Frederick Buechner declares “that the good news that we are loved is better than we ever dared hope, and that to believe in that good news, to live out of it and toward it, to be in love with that good news, is of all glad things in this world the gladdest thing of all.” Teaching Pastor: Tom Johnson, Missional Life Pastor | Advent 2019 | www.thedoor.org

Kati Beasley brings us to the second Sunday of Advent with a meditation on the Innkeeper of Luke 2:7. Fredrick Buechner’s The Magnificent Defeat takes us a bit deeper into the thoughts of this character in the Christmas narrative: explaining that he’d been so harried by all the details of life, “lost in the unenchanted forest of a million trees,” a million tasks to be accomplished, the Innkeeper laments, “When the baby came, I was not around, and I saw none of it... When he came, I missed him.” Missi McKown will join Kati to offer a person reflection, and Kati will create some space for us to notice God in the unexpected places of “the unenchanted forest of a million trees, a million things to be done.” Teaching Pastor: Kati Beasley, Formational Life Associate Pastor | Advent 2019 | www.thedoor.org

This is the start of Advent, and we have a beautiful series of services to take us into the waiting and the watching for what God is bringing forth. Our Advent series is inspired by four excerpts from Fredrick Buechner’s book, The Magnificent Defeat, with each passage taking us deeper into the thoughts of some of the central characters in the Christmas Story narrative. Our hope is that this series will invite us into a season of remembering that we are God's people and that something new is being born among us! Teaching Pastor: Anne-Marie Finsaas | Advent 2019 | www.thedoor.org

This Sunday, which is “Christ the King Sunday,” marks the end of the traditional Church year. Peggy wraps up the story of God that we’ve been in over the past year, and revels in the perfection and beauty of this King and His Kingdom. It’s SO different, so counter-cultural to our human ways of power and dominance. The truth, however is that it’s God’s King and God’s Kingdom that will endure forever. Teaching Pastor: Peggy Lang, Prayer Ministries Pastor | www.thedoor.org

Tom Johnson and friends are with us to close out our Missional Life Week of seeing and celebrating what God is up to. Nate Ussery, one of our supported partners, spoke last Sunday about the astonishing and gratifying growth of the Church worldwide. This week we get ring-side seats to God’s work that is happening among us locally, in the lives of Open Door folks we rub shoulders with regularly. Teaching Pastor: Tom Johnson, Missional Life Pastor | www.thedoor.org

Nate Ussery, one of Open Door’s Missional Life Supported Partners, will give us a peek into what God is up to in other places that we might not be aware of. “We hear so much bad news going on in the world; we hardly ever hear the good news of the kingdom of God around the world. On just about every continent, there are so many encouraging stories. God is at work!!!” Teaching Speaker: Nate Ussery, Guest Speaker | www.thedoor.org

Our “Novembering” service, when we take time to be present to the experiences of loss and grief that come with being human. In our culture, we don’t always know how to deal with what we’ve lost. So during our Novembering service we intentionally make space to remember and enter into these places of pain, both in the company of our community of faith, and in the presence of Jesus, who carries our sorrows and bears our griefs. We learn together how to grieve and how to hold Hope for ourselves and for one another. Teaching Pastor: Bob McKenna, Care Pastor | Novembering Service | www.thedoor.org

Jason Dyer, who is typically found volunteering on Wednesday nights as a coach with our NextYouth students and mentors, will instead find his way to the platform, to explore with us Jesus’ parable of the pharisee and the tax collector (Lk 18:9-14). Jason sees in this parable that God cares more about the orientation of our hearts than our accomplishments and our posturing. And his question then is, “How do we reorient our lives, our hearts, to this way of being?” –because our heart’s orientation affects how we see and interact with God, with ourselves, and with others. Teaching Speaker: Jason Dyer, Guest Speaker | Luke 18:9-14 | www.thedoor.org

Continuing through Luke, we come to the parable about the widow and the unrighteous judge, Jesus’s teaching that we’re “to pray always and not to lose heart.” Taking us into the passage and their own experiences of God during their long journeys in prayer at Open Door will be Scott Volltrauer and Maggie Kelly. Scott and Maggie know the patience and persistence of prayer because they know the God with whom they’re conversing. Teaching Speakers: Scott Volltrauer and Maggie Kelly, Guest Speakers | www.thedoor.org

Amanda Svensk continues in Luke 17:11-19, the cleansing of ten lepers, and one who returns to fall at Jesus' feet in gratitude. Amanda finds her heart captivated by Jesus' offer of healing, wholeness, and salvation, and the choice we have as to how fully that captures us and how much a part of our very existence it becomes. Teaching Pastor: Amanda Svensk, Next Generation Pastor | www.thedoor.org

Our teaching team – Sonia Malmquist, Rose Larson and Taylor Bongard – have landed on the 2 Timothy 1:1-14 option, where Paul instructs young Timothy to guard the treasure that has been entrusted to him, to own, protect, tend, cultivate and live out the life of God that has been deposited in him. This past August, Sonia, Rose and Taylor experienced this God-life powerfully on display in the Minnesota-Camp folks with disabilities. In Taylor’s words, “The three of us have been destroyed by the life of God these campers give us. We’re there to serve them and give them the best week of their life, and it turns out to be the best week of OUR life. They just have this complete faith and trust in Jesus, where we have to TRY to live that way.” Teaching Team: Sonia Malmquist, Next Gen; Rose Larson, Missional Life and Taylor Bongard, Community Life. | From: 1 Timothy 1:1-14 | www.thedoor.org

Mark Collier preaches from Luke 15:1-10, Jesus’ parables about a coin and a sheep that were lost and sought and found, stories that show us a God who is always searching for us. God’s relentless pursuit of His beloved creatures makes Christianity unique in all the world – a God who reaches for us, not the other way around. But even though we’ve been found, we are still “prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love.” Mark sees in these parables the invitation to turn around, to let go of the things we’ve grabbed onto, which is simply another way of saying “repent.” Teaching Pastor: Mark Collier, Guest Speaker | www.thedoor.org

Teaching Pastor: Ronn Johnson, Guest Speaker