The first Sunday of October marks one year since Open Door called me to be their pastor, so I thought this would be an excellent time to give you an update on how that’s going – at least from my perspective. Besides, so much in ministry takes time to measure, and can only be accurately seen in hindsight.
Over the last year, without a doubt our biggest challenge as a congregation has been dealing with our becoming a more egalitarian, congregation led church. I am incredibly proud of how Open Door has been willing to stretch to meet this challenge.
In the year prior to my being called, Open Door went through an intentional plan of discernment about who we are as a congregation and who we want to be. The last year has been mostly about us living into that, and trying to turn it into reality. It is only now, a year later, that it feels real.
Our normal Sunday attendance has nearly doubled (that sounds much more impressive than if I told you the actual numbers) – some of them are old friends who want to give the new vision a chance, and some of them are people who found us and are attracted by who we have decided to be. What makes me really happy is that every single one of them are there because of who we say we are. In other words, they are there as a result of the vision we cast.
One thing we decided in our discernment was that our Mennonite identity was important to us. We had no desire to be Open Door Community Church. But, Mennonite identity here in the diaspora is difficult to maintain. So we have intentionally built partnerships with Mennonite Mission Network, and we host 4-6 tour groups a year as they come through town for Civil Rights learning tours – the last one was a few weeks ago.
Likewise, we are working on strengthening our ties with our fellow Mennonites at Nanih Waiya Indian Mennonite Church in Neshoba County. In September, many of us went up there for their quinquennial remembrance walk from the sacred mound to the church. And this fall, we hosted Mennonite Central Committee – Central States for their semi-annual board meeting. I also serve as a board member for MCC-CS, which also helps in our efforts to connect with Anabaptism at large.
Before I go, I would like to tell you about my single proudest moment as pastor at Open Door (so far).
As is well known, one of the outcomes of our discernment process was our deciding that Open Door would be an inclusive congregation. This is more than merely changing a statement on a website, but rather, we as a congregation needed to change – to increase our cultural competence, to be truly curious and open, to be affirming of who people said they were.
So one day in June, when one of our people asked us to call them by a new name during a potluck, I was not at all surprised when everyone instantly agreed. And then, because I am human, within 5 minutes I used their old name. Instantly, several members of the congregation spoke out and corrected me.
What I love about this story is several things:
- They were hearing this person when they asked to be called by a new name.
- The person in question trusted us enough to ask us – they were not yet out to all their family or co-workers.
- And the members of this congregation felt safe enough to instantly correct the pastor when they saw me make a mistake.
I think we are going to be OK.
Open Door Mennonite Church 