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Fall Festival Time

October 22, 2012 in Blog, Community Outreach, Current Events, From Our Staff with 1 Comment

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If you have been around Open Door lately or have seen the billboard on Memorial Drive, then you may have heard that it is Fall Festival time!
On October 31st from 5-9pm, all ages are invited for food, fun, and fellowship!

Why do we have a Fall Festival at Open Door? Because we love our community and it’s a great way to have fun in a family friendly atmosphere! Speaking of atmosphere, the grounds open at 5pm with 5-dollar punch cards on sale at the welcome entrance. All money exchange will be done at our welcome center. This should make it super easy for you! We will accept cash, debit and checks. There will also be plenty of free fun including games and a concert for everyone from 8-9pm. A few of the main attractions will be Hot Air Balloon rides, hay rides, a professional photo booth, inflatable’s for all ages, cupcake walk, and costume judging with prizes. Please, no scary costumes!

Most importantly, come hungry! We will have plenty of food for your friends and family. For starters, we will have smoked turkey legs, hotdogs, and grilled chicken sandwiches. Your drinks of choice can be water, soda, or hot chocolate to warm you up! To satisfy your sweet desires, we will be selling homemade baked goods, cotton candy, deep south shaved ice, and snow cream!

Please make note that inflatables and games shut down at 7:30pm and last call for food is at 7:45pm. Our free concert with Open Door’s worship band and Michael Taylor will begin right at 8pm and end at 9pm.

We look forward to seeing you all! If you would like to volunteer for a 30 minute time slot, please go here and sign up by October 26th!

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Gina Robinson
Family Ministries Director

Night of Worship

September 27, 2012 in Blog, Current Events, Worship with 0 Comments

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We are excited to be having our next Night of Worship on October 10 from 7-8:30pm.

This is going to be an incredible night of worship, as well as ministry and prayer. We really feel that God wants to do something special in the hearts and lives of our church and we can’t encourage you enough to schedule this time to focus on God. A night like this gives us a chance to set aside all the distractions of life and really take the time to focus on God and bring glory to His name.

We will also be providing childcare for ages 0-5. It’s going to be an awesome service and we hope to see you there!

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5 Things You Need to Know

August 22, 2012 in After School, Blog, Child Development Center, Current Events, Four18 Students, From Aaron Kennedy, Message Series with 3 Comments

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Hey guys, I wanted to take a quick second of your time and share with you five things that are important for you to know as part of Open Door. It’s an amazing season and things are happening all over the ministry that are exciting! Continue to believe with us for the continued favor and blessing of God as we pursue all that He has called us to do.

1. Our students in Four18 are experiencing an incredible move of God over this summer. We had standing room only this past Sunday night as students were hungry for Christ! Bottom line is God is answering our prayers from earlier this year that God would raise up a generation of students that would seek the face of God!

2. We currently have almost 200 kids enrolled in our Child Development Center and new After School program! That means that on a daily basis we will have the opportunity to pour into families and kids the great and mighty love of Christ!! That is awesome…. I am stoked…. God is amazing!!

3. We have been gathering on Thursday nights for some “Old School” prayer meetings and God has been stirring a passion for His presence in our people… pray that we continue to have a hunger stir in us as a people for God. Please make an effort to get here on Thursday nights from 7-8pm. Remember, as we’ve been saying during the Heart to Heart series, if you want something different than you have, then you have to do something different than you’re doing.

4. Uprise our college ministry is starting back this week. Please be praying for our volunteers and students that God would do something awesome on the campus this year. We are blessed to have tons of students that attend Open Door! Be sure to make them feel welcome and encourage them to attend Uprise on Wednesday nights in Mendenhall from 8-9pm in Room 15!

5. We are starting a new series next month entitled Epic Faith. We strongly believe that God wants to do something powerful in this new series over the month of September. I want you to invite everyone you know from young to old as we believe God to work in our lives and for our faith to grow. We’ll be looking at some very practical steps to walking out our lives with epic faith in God. You don’t want to miss this new series, and invite everyone you can because we are praying that God would continue to change lives each and every Sunday!

I love you guys and I am so grateful to be one of your pastors. Please know that God is for you and not against you and that as we place our faith in Him our potential is unmatched. No matter what you have done, His love for you does not waver!

I leave you with a comment from Pastor Dad this past Sunday that truly encouraged me: “Two days living in your sin is at least one day too long… get up, ask for forgiveness and go on.” You guys are awesome, and remember our best days are ahead of us!

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Aaron Kennedy
Executive Pastor

Update Video Blog

August 16, 2012 in Blog, Community Outreach, Current Events, From Aaron Kennedy, Message Series, Uprise College Students with 0 Comments

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We’ve got a couple of important events coming up this week! Check out the video below for all the details:

Hope to see you tonight for Prayer from 7-8pm.
We will be meeting to help out with the Uprise Move-in Day in the parking lot next to McDonald’s at the intersection of 10th street and Cotanche at 8:40am on Saturday.

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Aaron Kennedy
Executive Pastor

Introducing: Open Door After School

July 17, 2012 in After School, Blog, Community Outreach, Current Events with 0 Comments

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Dust off your hard hats and watch for falling plaster cause, here we grow again!!! We are pleased to announce Open Door After School, scheduled to launch in August 2012 in our main building. Plans and transformation of the children and student areas upstairs are set to begin soon as we create an environment that will support school age ministry on Sunday AMs, students on Sunday PMs and after school during the week…gonna be KARAZZY! We’re pretty determined to wring everything we can out of this building as we steward the resources that God has entrusted to us!

And here’s the best part! We are pleased to announce the addition of Nikki Bailey to our staff as Director of the After School program. Nikki is a lead vocalist on our Worship Team, activities director at our recent Student Camp, faithful member of a Life Group and one of Open Door’s biggest fans. She brings 13 years experience as a physical education teacher with the Pitt County Schools, including 4 years as Athletic Director at Chicod. Nikki is passionate about her love and worship of God, deeply committed to children and families=we’re blessed and highly favored! Nikki is married to Dale Bailey; they have 3 children (Ridge, Chelsea and Dawson), not to mention frequent litters of boxer pups!

Open Door After School will be providing families with homework assistance, physical activity and personal care, all with a faith-­based emphasis. Pick-­up will be provided from the following schools: Ayden, Chicod, Creekside, Lake Forest, Parrot Academy, Ridgewood, WH Robinson, Wintergreen. For more information, please call the church office at 252-­321-­2486.

For more information about Open Door After School click here.

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Uprise:: College Ministry

January 11, 2012 in Current Events, Uprise College Students with 0 Comments

We are launching our new College Ministry called Uprise in a few short months and are looking for volunteers who are willing to partner with us as we reach out to the campus. We will be having a meeting on January 22 following the 10:45am service at Open Door. If you’d like to be a part of this ministry please make plans to join us for this meeting!

Check out the video below to meet our leaders and hear the heart behind the ministry!

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8 Things You Need to Know from our Senior Pastor

December 9, 2011 in Current Events, From our Senior Pastor, Life Change with 0 Comments

As I begin to write, I am mindful that this year has been an eventful one to say the least. In spite of this years troubling events, God has been faithful and provided and made a way through in every situation.

It is amazing to watch the Lord work, the souls which have been saved are beginning to be reflected in our services. The Baptisms are wonderful; and to see and hear the testimonies is exciting!

But as we draw near to Christmas, let us be mindful of His love and His desire for each one of us to exemplify His character and His gifts. May those around us give Him praise for the lives we live.

I wanted to take a few moments and celebrate what God's been doing recently and also ask for your prayers about a few things:

#1 – A few weeks ago we had our annual City Outreach Day to the neighborhood of Moyewood. Every year we spend a Saturday delivering Thanksgiving meals to the houses at Moyewood.  It's a chance for us to love on people with no strings attached.  This year was incredible.  We had around 200 volunteers!  That's the most we've ever had.  I can't say thanks enough to those of you who partnered with us.  I also want to remind you about the current outreach we have going on: the Giving Back Tree.  If you'd like to help out a family in need this Christmas and help them buy gifts for their family stop by the Information Center and check out the Giving Back Tree.

#2 – We finished up our "On the Edge" series in November and the responses we've gotten have been awesome!  We hope and pray that the series ministered to you and that we will all begin to step out over the edge past fear and discouragement and into the potential that God has for us.

#3 – We continue to experience salvations and re-dedications throughout the church.  Last Sunday we had the opportunity to share in the baptisms of 9 people in the morning and 4 kids at KIDMO: PRIMETIME that night.  We got to watch their testimonies and see their stories of coming to faith in Jesus Christ.  This is why we do what we do.  I hope that every one of you that serves here or gives to Open Door never looses sight of why we are here.  We want to be a catalyst for life change.  By serving and giving you play such an important part of that!  We also had an incredible night at KIDMO: PRIMETIME, an event for 4 year olds – 5th Graders and their families.  I love having events for families and we got to celebrate baptisms during the event as well!

#4 – We are nearing a new Service Team rotation and would appreciate the prayers as we evaluate the needs of each department.  If you'd like to start serving and want to join a team, please follow this link to our website and fill out the form.  We'd love for you to partner with us!  Click here.

#5 – Please be praying for our Christmas services coming up on December 18 at 9am or 10:45am.  We are praying for lives to be changed and I hope and pray that you'll invite as many people as you can.  The services are going to be awesome.  If you are a regular attender, please consider attending the 9am service.  Attendance is usually high on that Sunday and we want to make sure we have enough room for any visitors or people who may not know Christ.  And remember, instead of having services on Christmas Day, we will be having a Christmas Eve Night of Worship at 5pm.  Please join us in praying for everyone who will be participating in these services: that lives would be impacted for the Kingdom!

#6 – Please continue to pray for our Student Ministry, 418.  God is doing something incredible in 418 and we pray that students' hearts would continue to be softened to the message of Jesus Christ and that they would step out in bold faith in their schools!  Their 418 Christmas Party is on December 18 from 6pm – 8pm.  We hope all 6-12 graders can be there.

#7 –  You will hear more about this next one soon, but we are planning a 21 day fast at the beginning of the year.  We hope you'll join with us during this time as we focus our attention on what God has called us to do.

#8 – Lastly, but certainly not least, we are praying for safe traveling for all of you that will be traveling this Holiday season and we pray that you will have a great Christmas and New Year, celebrating with your families!

It is such a joy to be your Pastor!

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Greg Kennedy

 

8 Things You Need to Know from Our Senior Pastor

October 27, 2011 in Current Events, From our Senior Pastor, Life Change, Worship with 2 Comments

Hey, Open Door, I’ve got a few things I wanted to share with you today…

Before that though, thank you for all the kind words and prayers. Deana and I certainly appreciate each one of them. Our lives seem to be so busy, but very productive. We are so grateful to pastor a people who are so easy to care for. 

Many have asked about Deana's mom. She has been placed in a nursing facility in Greensboro, and is settling in. Hopefully, she will respond to therapy and do very well. It was such a blessing to find a new facility for her. 

We are enjoying this beautiful fall weather and looking forward to a few days away next month. But as we bring October to a close don't forget Fall Festival Monday night. It should be a wonderful time for all. 

I can’t tell you how exciting the past few weeks have been for myself and for us as a church.  I wanted to quickly recap some of the incredible things we’ve seen God do over the past few weeks and encourage you to pray with us about a few things:

 #1 – We recently had our Night of Worship last week.  It was incredible.  The altars were full as people gave their hearts to Jesus and received the Holy Spirit and healing.  I can’t wait for the next one!

#2 – We’ve also seen many lives changed and impacted in our Worship Services.  Over the past month alone we’ve seen over 28 lives either come to faith in Jesus Christ or rededicate their lives to Him, and over 8 of those were in our KIDMO and 418 Ministries for kids and students.  I’m so excited for what God’s going to do next!

#3 – We also opened up a new wing of our Child Development Center, which has allowed us to grow our CDC students to over 140.  We enlarged our playground and have made some improvements around the grounds of the campus.  To top it off, we were given a free gift of soil to use for future constructions totaling well over $100,000.

#4 – For those of you that could attend, we had a special Night of Worship for our volunteers and Life Group leaders at the end of September.  We felt strongly that we needed to record this and we are so excited about the possibilities for this being a powerful tool for ministry to our church.  We will release more details about this CD project as soon as we can.

#5 – We are really praying for our 418 Students and their parents to continue to see the importance of the environment we are creating for them each Sunday night.  I believe that it is so important for Middle School and High School students to be engaged and active in a Student Ministry.  Not only does this require the commitment from the students, but also from the parents.  Our prayer is that parents and their students would see the importance of this and participate with us.

#6 – In light of all the lives that are being changed and saved by Jesus we are trying desperately to hear the voice of God and seek His direction about how to create more opportunities for people to grow in their faith.  We are evaluating our Life Groups and seeing how to encourage discipleship to happen more and more.

#7 – Aaron Kennedy, our Administrative Pastor, is the keynote speaker at an upcoming conference, so please be praying for him as he will be speaking to church leaders from many different churches and countries.  Also, our Student Pastor, Tyler Braden, has the opportunity to preach at Christ Covenant School to their entire student body.  Our prayers are with him as well.

#8 – Lastly, we are praying about launching several new ministries at the beginning of the year and into next year.  Please pray for us that we would clearly hear the voice of God about these areas, that we would act in faith, and that we would have people step up and commit to helping us accomplish what we feel God is calling us to do.

Thanks for your time.  It's an honor to be your Pastor.

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Greg Kennedy

 

Taste of Night of Worship

October 20, 2011 in Current Events, Worship with 0 Comments

  Night of Worship was in a single word AWESOME!

God moved in some incredible and unimaginable ways and we believe that lives were changed!

Below are some snap shots from the night for you all to enjoy!

 Hope you will plan on joining us for the next one!

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American Red Cross Blood Drive

June 2, 2011 in Current Events with 0 Comments

June 22 from 3pm-7pm you have the opportunity to save a life by donating blood to the American Red Cross on behalf of Open Door Ministries and A Small Miracle Inc.

Last year we donated 25 pints and this year they have set our goal to 28 pints! We can do that ODM!!

Please make plans to join us and help make a difference in our community and world!

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