Church Of The Open Door

Teaching Pastor: Dave Brickey, Lead Pastor | Lent 2021 | www.thedoor.org

Teaching Pastor: Kati Beasley, Pastor of Formational Life | Lent 2021 | www.thedoor.org

Teaching Pastor: Tom Johnson, Missional Life Pastor | Lent 2021 | www.thedoor.org

Teaching Pastor: Dave Brickey, Lead Pastor | Lent 2021 | www.thedoor.org

Teaching Speaker: Jolaina Falkenstein | Ash Wednesday | www.thedoor.org

Amidst Paul’s call to unity and living as citizens of heaven, in Philippians 4:2-9, we find an invitation for how to move through conflict, focused on Christ. Even the most devoted leaders can face conflict. Where do you notice disagreement in your life with a person, people, community or group? With our minds set on things of the kingdom, there is always hope for forgiveness and someday, reconciliation in Christ. What is your invitation? Teaching Pastor: Amanda Svensk, Next Gen Pastor | Philippians | www.thedoor.org

Teaching Pastor: Dave Brickey, Lead Pastor | Philippians | www.thedoor.org

Teaching Pastor: Tom Johnson, Missional Life Pastor | Philippians | www.thedoor.org

Teaching Pastor: Dave Brickey, Lead Pastor | Philippians | www.thedoor.org

Teaching Pastor: Kati Beasley, Pastor of Formational Life | Philippians | www.thedoor.org

We’re entering into a new year with a detour from where we left off before Advent, in Acts 16. Paul had started the first church in Eastern Europe, the Roman colony of Philippi, and we’re going to take a look at the vision Paul casts in his letter to them, about what it looks like to live as citizens of heaven while here on earth. These four brief chapters offer such potent words of encouragement, wisdom, and worship. We’ll be spending time together over the next seven weeks, anchoring ourselves in these Kingdom realities. Teaching Pastor: Dave Brickey, Lead Pastor | Philippians | www.thedoor.org

Teaching Pastor: Dave and Stefanie Brickey | Christmastide | www.thedoor.org

Luke 2:1-14 is one of the most familiar passages in all of scripture: the story of Caesar Augustus’ call for a census, with Joseph and very-pregnant Mary journeying to Bethlehem, where “she gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.” Angels announced the birth of this Holy Child to shepherds, “keeping watch over their flocks by night,” and the shepherds hurried to Bethlehem as angels filled the air with shouts of “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people of good will.” Tom Johnson takes us into the Story this Sunday, wondering about the peace of which the angels sang and that the Prince of Peace brings. Is it just internal peace, or might there be an external aspect to this that affects relationships around us? Let’s ask the Spirit for refreshed eyes and ears; and let’s wonder, too, as we read Luke's familiar words again. How is God inviting us into His purposes? What is our role in this kind of

Kati Beasley takes us into the third Sunday of Advent, still in the Light of Isaiah 9:2 and, this week, the Everlasting Father in Isaiah 9:6 and Luke 1:67-80. In Zechariah’s prayer and praise, and the blessing he gives to his newborn son John the Baptizer, Kati sees a beautiful picture of God as Father with His people. Zechariah has spent the nine months of his wife’s pregnancy without speech (and possibly without hearing), and in that protracted silence, capacities grew within him that would create the kind of love, blessing, and parenting out of which John would grow strong in spirit, to become the prophet of the Most High. It is worth spending time in the psalm Zechariah uttered when his speech was restored. As phrase adds upon phrase, there’s a growing weight and depth and brilliance to Zechariah’s prophecy of the mercy, grace, compassion and caring heart of God for His children who are in such need of rescue and restoration. Especially now, in the circumstances of our own time, it is good to root ourse

Time has never felt more like the in-between, or as we say around here “liminal space”. As we enter into the text in Isaiah 9:2,6, we hold onto the promises of a Messiah who has already come, and we wait for the promises yet to be fulfilled. In the waiting time we are given a Wonderful Counselor who comes as the human-mind-baffling wisdom of God for us to lean-on, hope in, trust and surrender to. As the people of God we can learn from Mary's response to an invitation from God in Luke 1 and trust God to be with us in our questions. Teaching Pastor: Amanda Svensk, Next Gen Pastor | Advent 2020 | www.thedoor.org

Dave preaches from John 15, the Abiding passage, inviting us to root, to remain, to stay “fixated on Jesus as our northstar” in this season Teaching Pastor: Dave Brickey, Lead Pastor | www.thedoor.org

A meal surrounded by friends or even adversaries has long been a way to bring reconciliation, restitution and harmony. The Bible offers many examples including Acts 16 where Paul and Silas share a meal with their captor. The Lord’s Table is the consummate example. Teaching Pastor: Tom Johnson, Missional Life Pastor | A New Way | www.thedoor.org

A particularly timely word for us today, Dave Brickey picks up in Acts where Kati Beasley had brought us two weeks ago: “We will not break fellowship.” Division is rampant right now, not only across the country, but also in our churches. "This is the most divided we’ve been since the Civil War,” yet Jesus’s prayer for us is for unity – so how do we followers of Jesus walk this out with one another? We lift our eyes above the street-level view to the Bigger Story that unifies us. Division exists only when we’re focusing on the small stuff and we don’t see “big enough.” Teaching Pastor: Dave Brickey, Lead Pastor | A New Way | 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

Kati Beasley takes us to the meeting of leaders in Jerusalem who were faced with the divisive issues of their day around what it meant for Gentiles to follow Jesus. Did they need to observe Jewish practices given by God in the Torah – or was that not a necessary precondition for following Jesus and being welcomed into the community of faith? And how might the apostles’ and elders’ “becoming one mind” and “coming to one accord” give us guidance and encouragement to live as Kingdom people in the discord and divisiveness of our current time? Teaching Pastor: Kati Beasley, Pastor of Formational Life | A New Way | www.thedoor.org