Big News at Open Door

As we announced in church on Sunday, there are big things happening in the immediate future at Open Door.

As one of our members is fond of saying, over the last 53 years of it’s existence, there have been many Open Doors. We are not a static church, but rather seeking constantly for the next thing or work that God is calling us to do.

We were birthed in the aftermath of the Civil Rights movement, when the ability to worship with people of a different color was not an accepted fact. But the founders of this congregation saw it as self-evident, and thus launched a congregation that was committed to making sure the doors between God and God’s people stayed open.

Over the years that has led us to do such diverse things as after-school tutoring, working in the public schools, a dance ministry, partnering with other faith communities in responding to crises, a gap year service program, hosting a day care center, launching several ministries and many more feats that are better known to you who have been part of the Open Door story longer than I have. And of course, the launching of our new Peace Lab project.

Open Door has been here, in this building, since 2008. Almost 1/3 of our existence has been spent in this building. Many of the works God has called us to have happened in this building. Our decision to follow God into becoming an affirming congregation, making sure those doors were still open, was made in this building.

And now, we are going to do something different. It is time for us once again to follow God into doing a new thing.

Last week, we signed an agreement to list this building at TV road for sale, and beginning July the 5th, Open Door Mennonite Church will be meeting in a new location, in the chapel of Broadmeadow United Methodist Church, located at 4419 Broadmeadow St, Jackson, MS. Our worship times will change as well. We will gather at 9AM, followed by a time of coffee and fellowship at 10.

I spoke a lot about this in the sermon on Sunday – you can watch that in it’s entirety here.

There are lots of reasons we decided to do this – it was not a knee-jerk reaction. Our congregational meetings have been full of this topic over the last six months.

The building is never the church. You are the church. We are the church. And by selling this place and moving to Broadmeadow, we will free up a tremendous amount of energy, time, and other resources that properly should be doing the work of the church, but that are currently being spent on keeping a church building.

It also allows us new opportunities for ministry, as we move to a neighborhood overflowing with families and children. We will be worshipping in the building of another of Jackson’s affirming congregations, further demonstrating our commitment to solidarity with the LGBT community. It will place us in partnership with other congregations with similar values, in a space where our Queer members will be safe and respected.

In short, this will make us a better church. We will share more in coming weeks, but right now, I hope to see you at the new location in July!