Today marked a monumental day for those who call Opendoor Church home. Next Sunday we will enter into a new building. A BIGGER building. A Bigger building is not meant to point that we are growing in numbers, it is meant to point at the faithfulness of our God.
“In the summer of 1976, Greg Kennedy and his wife Deana moved to Greenville, North Carolina, to pastor a church plant. In the summer of 1986, God began to stir a vision within Greg’s heart that could only be accomplished by God. That vision led to the birth of Opendoor Church on October 5, 1986. In 2015, Aaron Kennedy, Greg and Deana’s son, officially became the Lead Pastor of Opendoor Church. Since 1986, Opendoor has seen tremendous growth and impact in the community under Greg and Deana’s leadership and now the baton has passed to the next generation.”
To view the video of the whole story visit : http://opendoorchurch.com/about/our-story
Pastor Greg was given a God sized dream that was bigger than himself. For years him and Pastor Deana have stewarded the vision that God so beautifully gave. Because of their obedience to walk faithfully in what God had said, God has done what He does best, which is the miraculous. No, I haven’t been at Opendoor all of my life. No, I haven’t been with Opendoor since the start or walked with them through every season, but even in just the 5 years that I have attended Opendoor, I have been forever changed.
During our last service yesterday in our old building we were pressed to reflect. You couldn’t help but feel the draw of the Holy Spirit on your heart to look back on all that God had done in you, in that place. I was brought to tears every time I looked around. I could see every prayer. I could see every word God had said. I could see the hope that was restored and the healing that took place. I could see the tears on the altar that I had shed. I could see the friends sitting beside me, and the ones not with me, that God had brought to me through being at Opendoor. I could see the moment I lifted my hands and released my dad into the hands of Jesus. I could see the morning that I got baptized. I could see my Pastors and mentors that have prayed over me and poured into my life. I could see the first Renew happening over again, where a room full of women were passionately singing to the throne of Jesus. I could see the friends who came to know the Lord and then went on to get baptized. I could see my first Sunday back at Opendoor after moving back from South Carolina. I remember the Lord saying then, in that service, that not only was I back to build a ministry but I was also back to serve this one. I could see the faces of my pastors, and friends, and my spiritual mentors, who have stayed by my side through losing my dad this past year. They were the people that prayed for His heart to meet Jesus one day. They are the people who have so graciously poured words of wisdom into my heart during this time of grieving. These people are a gift. God knew at every turn and curve that my life would take, these people would be apart of His promise that He never leaves me nor forsakes me. These people are what God has used to show me His glory.
Opendoor, not only for me, but for many, is home. It one of the biggest reasons I call Greenville home. The people that have become family. The place where God wrecked my heart, and called me out of who the world wanted me to be. I don’t praise a building and the glory isn’t given to my pastors because the praise is all God’s. It always has been God’s and forever will be His.
This is just one story of how God took the least-likely, the girl who wasn’t bold enough in her faith to step out in a calling that God had placed on her life many years before, and made her a new creation. I never saw it in myself, but God placed people in that church to call it out in me. Jesus gave people His eyes and His Spirit so that they could see me and call things out in me that He saw and He wanted spoken. Opendoor, to me, is home. I don’t love my church because it is a place that makes me feel good. I love it because it is the house of the Lord filled with His loving presence and all surpassing glory, with His beautiful people that passionately and unashamedly worship Jesus.
Today we reflect so that we may never forget all He has done, and so that we stay faithful for the abundantly more that He is about to do! I am forever grateful that God led me to this church! My prayer for this blog is that you don’t see Opendoor, but you see what God can do. I pray you see what God does when you dream and walk obediently in something that is bigger than yourself. To the world it make look crazy, but when it is crazy it is Jesus. No story in the Bible was normal. No story was one you could imagine on your own. Manna didn’t have to fall from the skies. God knew the Israelites needed food in the wilderness. God knew that they were going to be hungry. Wouldn’t it have been easier if He just put the bread in nice picnic baskets and set it out for the Israelites to eat? It would have been easier, but you and I can set out picnic baskets. The theme through out the Word is that God does what we can’t do. He goes where we can’t go. He is full of wonder and glorious power. The testimony is that the Israelites never could doubt where the bread came from! It only could have been from God because of the way that God sent it.
The story could have always been easier or different, but it wasn’t! The story of Abraham and Isaac also comes to mind when I think of crazy stories in the bible. God had made a promise to Abraham. Abraham finally received a son! After receiving this blessing of a son named Isaac, God asked something of Abraham that seemed CRAZY! “1Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” 3So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.” Genesis 22:1-3
Abraham was asked to sacrifice a promise that he had received from God. Yet, Abraham walked faithfully. Isaac saw that his father had gathered wood and stuff to make a fire, but he didn’t see where the lamb was for the sacrifice, so he asked him where it was. The response from Abraham was beautiful. He told his son that the Lord will provide the sacrifice! The story ends with Abraham taking the knife and just about to sacrifice his son when the angels stop him and provided a ram in the thicket for him to use! You can ask why did God have to do it this way? Why did He test Abraham in such a scary way? The answer I have is so that we can always stand on the truth that “The Lord Will Provide”. God gives us task that are absolutely bigger than ourselves and bigger than anything our human bodies can do without the empowerment of Him. He does it this way so that we can never sing of ourselves. We can never look and say ” I did that!” No it is so that we can sing that our God has always been faithful to provide and always will be!
Opendoor is a testament to just how faithful our God is to provide even in a vision that doesn’t seem possible. All the glory and honor to the God Most High. I am honored and privileged to be called His daughter. Thank you Jesus for these many blessings that you have out poured from Opendoor Church!
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