Breaking Ground

A Collection of Stories, Prayers, & Devotions

Breaking Ground is a quarterly newsletter highlighting the work and mission of Open Door Church & Plowshares Home Churches to love God, love others, and share the peace of Christ in and around Lexington, Kentucky.

Each quarter we’ll keep you up-to-date on important news and opportunities in Open Door. We’ll also feature a quarterly theme to help us all grow in our faith as we follow Christ together.

Last month, Open Door Church and Plowshares BIC officially became one church with multiple expressions. We have been transitioning to one body and one congregation over the past few weeks and God has been blessing our growing together. Below are the letters that Pastor Adam and Pastor Christina wrote to Plowshares and Open Door before we merged. We wanted to share them with you so you can get a feel of how our growth together has been. God has been so good to us!

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Dear Plowshares Members,

As we move through the season of Advent celebrating the birth of King Jesus and the dawn of his kingdom, I cannot help but be excited about what God is also beginning in our communities as we join together.  Over many years with Open Door, as I would gather with other pastors in town and even Christians from other churches, I would sometimes feel isolated.  Many of these folks, although sincerely trying to follow Jesus, did not have the same priorities and view of the gospel that Open Door has.  It felt as though Open Door just did not fit with their view of God’s mission for his people.  

After meeting many of you over the past two years I feel refreshed and excited to have found folks that talk about Jesus and the gospel like we do.  Folks that care deeply about loving neighbors and trying to do good in the world as we share the peace of Christ.  I really feel that Plowshares is such a gift to our Open Door community and I think we have so much more to learn from each other. 

The merger that begins in January is something that I and Plowshares staff really believe helps both communities.  We also believe joining together will enrich our growth in the way and likeness of Jesus.  I think my role in this is to facilitate and equip folks as they grow in Christ.  That may mean we see each other more, but it may also mean nothing changes for you and that’s good also.  Whatever helps you to work out your salvation and follow Jesus.  In the end, our goal is helping people follow Jesus.  I look forward to learning from you and meeting some new friends this coming year.  Please feel free to call me if you would like to have lunch sometime.  My treat.  8597972075

Peace in Christ,

Adam 

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Dear Open Door Community,

It is with great excitement and much joy that I right this letter. Over the past few years, I have been blessed to become a part of your family, gathering with you to worship on Sunday mornings and getting to know some of you as we serve in the community and share meals together in our home.

That is why I am so excited to be a part of the joining of our two congregations: Plowshares and Open Door Church. When Luke and I planted Plowshares Brethren in Christ back in 2017, we had no idea where the Lord would lead us. We just wanted to follow the Lord’s leading and serve our community. But the Lord knew that one day, our path would lead us to Open Door and to this community.

Since 2020, we have had the chance to get to know each other more, planning sermon series together, reading Scripture with one another, and doing outreach in our community together.  It became clear to us that God was certainly the one who brought us together.  We are small in number, but we have a big heart and we are excited to be a part of what God is already doing in your community.

As you get to know more of the Plowshares family, I hope that you are equally as blessed by us as we have been by you. Thank you for your welcome and embrace. 

May God continue to lead us together!

Blessings,

Pastor Christina

 

Keep reading for Community Testimonies, Devotions, & Resources

Check out our NEW Website!

Meet our Pastoral Staff

 

Learning to Rely on God

This March carries us through the season of Lent – a special time when we focus on following Jesus in the ways of prayer, fasting, and relying on God. Those last few words happen to also be one of the Core Values of the Brethren in Christ, of which Open Door Church is a part. The BIC entry for Relying on God states, “We confess our dependence on God for everything, and seekto deepen our intimacy with Him by living prayerfully.” As I reflect on what it means to live that value at Open Door, I am reminded of one of the values that we read each week, “It’s Bigger Than Us.”

Click here for the rest of this month’s devotion and spiritual practice

What’s Happening?

All Community Gathering

OnJanuary 28, all of our “multiple expressions” gathered for a time of worship, celebration, and fellowship. We welcomed new members, celebrated the opening of the Community Center and blessed the community organizations that would be using it, and shared a delicious meal together. It was a blessing to have Bishop Lynn and Carol Thrush with us as we shared this wonderful time of gathering together.

 
 

Youth & Young Adults

Our Youth & Young Adult Home Church meets every other Wednesday for a time of worship and learning together but once a quarter we go hang out and do something fun together. The ice skating trip to Triangle Park in downtown Lexington is a favorite. And no youth get together would be complete without pizza from our favorite Lexington pizza joint, Goodfellas!

Our youth also have a quarterly service project and this quarter they are writing thank you notes to local nonprofit ministry leaders for their work in the community.

 

Blessings Bags and Ministry Marches

Over the last two months, our community has gathered to participate in a number of activities to promote community and to join with our larger community in bringing attention to local needs and social justice.

On December 31, we gathered to pack Blessings Bags which are filled with items to give to those we come across in need this winter. The bags contain socks, gloves, nonperishable food items, hygiene items, and the like. After we packed them, we distributed them to the congregation to give those that may need them.

Groups of Open Door members also gathered to walk in the local Martin Luther King Jr. March and the Lexington Rescue Mission Walk for Warmth. Both of these events happened to land on the coldest days in Lexington this winter but, especially for the latter, it was a good reminder of why we march and support the work begun by those who have come before us.

 

Lent & Easter

Lent is a time for us to reorder our lives to the heartbeat of God, in the pattern of Jesus. He has shown us what is good and what the Lord requires of us; to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. This Lent, join us in syncing to God's rhythm.

To do this, we have offered our congregation a number of ways to engage with God’s rhythms through prayer and study. Our kids and families are going through the book ‘Twas the Season of Lent and our youth are focusing on Seeking Peace with this World. We offer daily devotional prayer and reading at 7 am each day if anyone is interested in joining.

Holy Week services will include a Palm Sunday service at 10 am, Maundy Thursday service at 7 pm, a Good Friday service as 12 pm, and an Easter Celebration Service for all our communities to gather and rejoice!

Pastor Marissa at General Assembly

Marissa serves as the pastor for Home Churches with Open Door and is a full-time therapist for young adults who have recently aged out of foster care in Lexington, Kentucky. She also served as the youth pastor for Plowshares BIC for several years.

She is excited to bring her decade of youth ministry experience to the teens at General Assembly 2024. The General Assembly youth program is for students in grades 6-12 and will be a space for fun, fellowship, and formation.

Other News & Updates of Interest

Justice Team

The Open Door Justice Team met in February regarding our continued work with BUILD to establish a microtransit system in Lexington. Building a United Interfaith Lexington through Direct-Action (BUILD) is an organization of 26 ethnically and economically diverse religious congregations in Lexington. Some local areas have nearly 40% of residents living in poverty. Through congregation-based community organizing, BUILD offers the church a Direct Action method for doing justice through systemic policy change. Learn more here.

Hope For Congo Lunch

Hope for Congo’s mission is to maintain a Children’s Home in order to provide basic needs, education, love and care. The group works to de-traumatize war affected children placed in its care and prepare them to be productive citizens. On February 25, Hope for Congo hosted a lunch in the Community Center and gave a wonderful updated on the medical mission which will soon be fully funded. To learn more contact Evangelist Alex Favor at https://www.hopeforcongoministries.org/.

Kingdom Life Fellowship

Kingdom Life Fellowship ministers to men in recovery at Revive's Common Groups Resource Center every Sunday and Pastor Luke from Open Door joins them weekly. God is opening the door for this ministry to grow and become a place of worship for those in addiction recovery in the wider community. We invite your prayers and support as this ministry moves forward in 2024.

Open Door Community Center is IN USE!

One of the main ways we celebrated at our All Community Gathering was to bless the organizations that us the Community Center throughout the week. We host a number of NA groups, the local neighborhood association meetings, Pegasus (an intergenerational gaming club with Pancakes, Games, and Things Jesus Says), and more. Once a month, our church gathers to clean our neighborhood and our Community Center to make sure it stays somewhere that we can steward and share well!

 

PRAISE & PRAYER

We invite you to join us as we celebrate the gifts we’ve received and to help shoulder the burdens we carry, visit our website for a regularly updated list of the community’s Praises and Prayer requests here.

Reminder: Where to Find Church News

In addition to Breaking Ground, this monthly newsletter, we also send a shorter News & Notes each Friday which includes information on current events (news) and praise/prayer requests from church family members (notes), check out these important spots for information:

Our prayer letter is part of our quarterly newsletter “Breaking Ground” and available online at https://www.opendoorlex.org/prayer-and-fasting