Everyone is a child of God and we aim to love you as Jesus taught us! We believe that our differences add to our richness and strength. We are not a creedal or dogmatic church, and there is unity in our fellowship under God.
We are not perfect and yes, we mess up at times. Being a disciple of Jesus is messy and that is why We are the Church! We help each other discover our gifts and work on our weaknesses. We praise God together whenever we gather and this gives us strength for the journey!
We want you to know that you are loved! We will celebrate you as an individual. We are an open and affirming congregation and that means that the LGBTQ/GRSM community is embraced and affirmed, not merely "tolerated!"
At Open Door Congregational church we take the bible seriously but not literally. We believe that God has spoken in the past through the law and the prophets and that Jesus Christ is the revealed Word of God in our midst, meaning that God is Still Speaking. The bible is a sign, pointing the way toward God, but the bible is not itself God, nor should the Bible be worshipped! God alone is worthy of our worship, and Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh who continues to dwell among us through the Holy Spirit.
We are a church that seeks justice for those who are oppressed, and respects the dignity and worth of every human being made in God's image and likeness. We don't offer simplistic answers for today's problems, and we don't put God in a neat little box and tell you what to believe. Instead we discover God's loving path together, as we listen to the Word and discern together what the Still Speaking God is asking us to do.
We are a Christian church. We believe in the Holy Trinity, the Sacraments of Holy Communion, Healing, Baptism and Marriage. We celebrate same sex marriages. We baptize infants, children, youth and adults. We believe in the power of prayer and transformation.
We love music and we have all kinds of it! At Open Door you may hear a variety of styles of musical expression - bluegrass, classical, chant, gospel, old fashioned hymns, new praise songs, global songs and more. We have three choirs - an adult vocal choir, an adult hand bell choir and a children's choir that also plays with hand chimes. We use many instruments - organ, piano, flutes, drums, guitars, fiddles, harmonicas, tambourines and whatever else the Spirit brings to us!
We believe in God as creator, and we are partners in the care of our earth!
We love children and families. We are devoted to hiring excellent child care staff and train our Christian Education teachers to be loving examples. Our primary lessons with children are to love God with all your heart, your neighbor as yourself and treat the earth with care. As you can see, we are excited about being Christians! Won't you join us?
Questions? Call Pastor Gary today for a personal visit! He would love to meet with you! 209-728-3141
Beginning August 20, we will be having Morning Prayer every Wednesday at 8:15am on Zoom.