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.

As we entered 2025, we did so with a vision that had been stirring in our hearts: Generous Community. This year, we decided we would journey together through what it means to imagine, receive, practice, and ultimately live in generosity. What might it look like if our church was known for its generosity—not just in finances but in time, hospitality, service, and love?

Receiving in Generous Community

Over the years, Open Door has welcomed more than 15 refugee families into America and our congregation, offering support, resources, and even vehicles to help them build new lives. Through Hope for Congo Ministries, we built a well for 35 orphans and 15 widows near Kinshasa, DRC, and are constructing a medical clinic to serve the community. Partnering with The Orphan Society, we provide food for more than 50 low-income children at Wellington Elementary each week.

Our church has been a family to many in the mental health community, offering transportation to church gatherings and events. We provide free meeting space for four Narcotics Anonymous groups, including the largest in Lexington. Working with B.U.I.L.D., we successfully advocated for a women’s drug recovery program in the local jail and helped secure an affordable housing trust fund in the city budget.

But living in a generous community also means learning to receive from one another. This can be difficult, especially in a culture that prizes independence. But we believe the way of Jesus includes both giving and receiving—sharing burdens, accepting help, and allowing ourselves to be cared for. This mutual generosity is how we grow in humility, love, and trust.

Paul writes in Galatians 6:2, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Being part of the body of Christ means that no one walks alone, or as Open Door puts it, we stick with each other. Receiving is not a sign of weakness but a recognition that we are interdependent members of one body (1 Corinthians 12:21-26).

Jesus Himself modeled this in His own life. Though He came to serve, He also allowed others to serve Him. In John 12:1–8, Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume. Though others criticize, Jesus receives this act of care and calls it beautiful. The incarnate Son of God accepted the love and generosity of others because He knew that to receive generosity was a a necessary component of giving generously.

In receiving, we open space for others to practice love—and we honor the Spirit at work in them. As we move into the second quarter of our focus on Generous Community, we lean into the work of receiving well. And we invite you to join us!

In His Love,

Pastor Christina

Next Gen Pastor, Open Door Church

Learn more about us here.

Keep reading for Community Testimonies, Devotions, & Resources

 

To Be Brothers & Sisters in Christ

A devotional practice by Home Church Pastor, Matthew Peterson

Our Open Door family belongs to the Brethren in Christ U.S. denomination. But what does it mean to adopt this label “Brethren in Christ”?

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

What’s Happening?

Worship & Community

The first quarter of 2025 was one full of worship and community. We celebrated Lent and Easter together with Restoration Church in Lexington and Common Ground Church in Nicholasville. We celebrated together the ordination of Open Door Home Church Pastor and Great Lakes Conference theologian-in-residence, Matthew Peterson.

We worshiped through art at our Lent Art Studios and through service at our youth-led Valentine’s Dinner. We added two new Home Churches to our family and we welcomed new friends into our family. We are incredibly grateful for what God is doing as we live into our vision of Generous Community and our mission to love God, love others, and share the peace of Christ in and around Lexington.

Pictured here are snapshots from our sending out of Andrew Neely, ourYouth & Youth Adult Home Church and our Maundy Thursday service.

 

We’re Broken But Becoming Whole: Easter Sunday 2025

Our Easter Sunday was a beautiful gathering of community in worship and wonder as we celebrated together the resurrection of our Lord. Our retelling of the Easter story started on Palm Sunday, continued through a Praise and Worship Night with Restoration Church on Wednesday, our Maundy Thursday footwashing service, a Good Friday noonday communal reading of the crucifixion, and culminated in our Easter Celebration Service and Breakfast.

 

Matthew Peterson’s Ordination

On Sunday, March 16, we had the opportunity to celebrate with Matthew Peterson and his family his ordination in the Brethren in Christ. Matthew Peterson serves as our Pastor of Home Churches and the theologian-in-residence for the Great Lakes Conference. Bishop Lynn Thrush from the Great Lakes Conference of the Brethren in Christ was with us for this special worship service.

LENT ART STUDIO

Worshiping God is one of our core values and at Open Door, we believe we can worship in many ways including art. God has gifted us all to worship him in different ways and for some of us, that is through art! We we excited to bring back our Art Studio for Lent and Easter. Over the course of four Sundays, our artists worshiped by painting their decptions of Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Easter Sunday.

 

BUILD Action

Each year, Open Door joins with 26 other Lexington congregations to ask our public officials to address areas of justice in our city. Our Peace & Justice team led by Kimberly Jones showed up in strength and numbers (47 Open Door representatives from all of our gatherings) at the Nehemiah Action on May 6 to ask our city to look into issues around rent, transportation, and elder care. You can learn more about BUILD at www.buildlex.org.

Valentine’s Dinner

In February, our youth invited members of the Open Door Community and surrounding neighborhood to a special dinner, complete with waiters and waitresses. The night was a lovely opportunity to reflect on the true meaning of love with a perfect ending of sharing communion with one another.

Youth & Young Adults

This auarter our service project was hosting a Valentine’s Dinner for our community (see above) and helping to clean the Community Center for our NA and AA groups.

During our home church and worship times, we focused what it means to belong in community and what our purpose is as those created in God’s image.

 

Other News & Updates of Interest

Praying for Congo and our brothers and sisters in violent situations.

In March, we gathered as a community with our brothers and sisters from Congo to pray for those who remain in Congo and for an end to the violence that had had taken 9,000 lives this year. Our hearts ache with our church family whose own family in Congo live with constant fear and loss. Please join us in praying for an end to this violence and for peace in the land. If you would like to join us in helping the widows and orphans in Congo, please support Hope For Congo.

Shalom Society and Onesimus Reconciliation

Pastors Matthew and Sungbin headed to Dayton, Ohio and the BIC Great Lakes offices to record a video for the newly formed Shalom Society. Matthew will be serving as the director of this group aimed at pursuing peace within the BIC context through reconciliation and justice. Sungbin was able share about his work with Onesimus Reconciliation.

Intergenerational Worship

As we imagine together what generous community looks like, we think one way is in how we welcome all ages and all stages into the communal worship of our church, whether on Sunday morning or in one of our Home Churches. Over the last quarter, we have been led in worship by leaders of all ages.

Backpack Ministry

Did you know that Open Door sponsors a Backpack Ministry to a local elementary school and provides meals every weekend to children who otherwise may not have enough to eat at home?

While this program is primarily grant funded, the increase in grocery costs has made it more difficult for us to fill the backpacks each week. In an effort to restock our shelves and keep them full, we've put together a list of needed items and highlighted to each month that we can donate to offset the costs.

Please note: All items must be individually-packaged, peanut-free, pop-top cans, and microwavable. You can bring in any items at any time or just the highlighted items for each month.

 

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