This is Open Door Community

I arrived at Open Door Community at the conclusion of worship yesterday and was asked before supper had ended if I would be willing to wash pots and pans from the evening dinner. Nothing like trial by fire. In the midst of learning the history, mission and ministry of Open Door Community, I have also learned why and how to use four stainless steel sinks to wash pots and pans. Rinsing, washing, rinsing again, and sterilizing, this is the process at Open Door Community in one context. Such may be an "new image" for churches who choose to live out Kingdom values through missional living. It would seem that rinsing, washing, rinsing again, and sterilization is a process by which we can understand God's love for us and for all who are created in God's image.

Open Door Community is a ministry on several levels. First and foremost it is a ministry of hospitality for the homeless and the marginalized. There is a soup kitchen, a foot clinic, showers, public bathrooms, shoe and clothing swap shop, and blankets and sack lunches are a part of their night ministry to the homeless in the city of Atlanta.

Related and equally important to this community is advocacy for prisoners, especially those in Georgia who are on death row. Open Door Community is located less than a mile from the Martin Luther King Center and an important part of their calling as a community is a ministry of justice and equality. The community does a great deal to raise community awareness around issues of race, culture, and justice. When there is an execution scheduled in the State of Georgia, the community gathers for a peaceful candle-light vigil.

Besides hospitality, advocacy for prisoners, especially those on death row, Open Door Community is also the permanent home of 15 plus people who range in ages from their early twenties to their seventies. In addition many from the surrounding community give time and service to Open Door Community and there are others, such as myself, who pass through for a time and reconnect with Kingdom values that were and remain an important witness to Jesus Christ and to the missional purpose of the church.

In many ways, I find myself a bit of an apprentice at Open Door Community. There is so much to learn and so many experiences that will continue to shape my personal calling as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Dallas Willard talks about being an apprentice to Jesus and nurturing a passionate life in Jesus Christ. He writes, "The crucial thing is that, as disciples, we have a plan for implementing the decision we have made to devote ourselves to becoming like our master and Lord -- to increasingly live in the character and power of Christ. Disciples are those who, seriously intending to become like Jesus from the inside out, systematically and progressively rearrange their affairs to that end, under the guidance of the Word and the Spirit. That is how the disciple lives." And so it is the prevailing attitude of the many who live in this community and those who come to serve the guests, the marginalized and the least of these. Open Door Community is a place where Christ's love is transformational and incarnational.