Resources We Offer
Sacred Rites
Our ministers are available to perform sacred rites such as weddings, holy unions, baptisms, communion, anointing, prayer, child dedications, house blessings, and other special dedications without discrimination based on gender, race, sexual orientation, or other extrinsic qualities.
To arrange a sacred rite in your area, please email our Minister of Church Planting at [email protected] .
Educational Resources for Churches
The following educational resources are available free of charge to Open Door Christian Communities ministries and churches. They are available for other individuals with a donation for the cost of publication and shipping & handling.
Preaching & Bible Teaching 101
This workbook is designed to offer a 6-7 lesson class in progressive churches, to
train lay people and ministers in training how to effectively explain the Biblical
message in their ministry context.
This workbook is designed to be used in small group, Sunday school, and
interactive Bible study formats, to help individuals confront verses used by
Fundamentalists to condemn gay people, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered
people. The basic message is that, when understood in their historical and cultural
contexts, the verses used by Fundamentalists to condemn GLBT people only
describe exploitive and abuse forms of sexuality, not loving same-sex
partnerships.
Discovering Your Personal Calling
This eight session series is aimed at helping small groups, Sunday School classes, and
individuals at church retreats, answer the question of “what is God calling me to
do with my life?” Written from a progressive Christian perspective, this
workbook talks about how a person’s life experience, spiritual gifts, natural
talents, and personality all can be used by God to change God’s world for the
better.
Being the Body of Christ: Basic Church Membership
This is a 6-week class aimed at new members to a progressive, Bible-based
church. It talks about the meaning of baptism and how that answers for us basic
questions about who Jesus is, what the Christian life is all about, and what it
means to live as a part of a church family.
Overcoming Bible Abuse
This interactive course aimed at use in small group settings, in-home Bible
studies, retreats, and adult Sunday school classes, focuses on the ways in which
the Bible has been mis-used by churches to marginalize and oppress women, the
disabled, sexual minorities, and divorced people. It focuses on helping
individuals realize and work through the abuse they have experienced at the hands
of fellow church people, helping people identify Bible abuse when it happens,
working through the emotional scars of Bible abuse, and re-discovering the Bible
as the book of liberation it was intended to be.
Church Planting 101
This workbook provides an interactive, in-depth training in outreach, small group dynamics, and church-planting through small groups. It is an in-depth training and provides step-by-step instruction on how to begin a Bible-based, outreach-oriented, church plant in your area.
Basics of Small Church Ministry
This workbook is for a class designed to teach lay pastors, mercy ministers, and
others assisting in the work of pastoral ministry in a progressive, Bible-centered
church. Included are class lessons on basic counseling skills, applying the Bible
to answer real-life questions, basics of Bible teaching, visitation ministry, and
organizing effective outreach ministries.
This We Believe: A Primer in the Christian Faith (Coming Soon)
This workbook is designed for Sunday school classes, small Bible study groups,
small groups, and new members classes. It goes through the basic points of the
apostle’s creed from a progressive and inclusive Christian perspective.
Community Education/Outreach Tracts
Currently we have two tracts available, with others in the production process:
“How Can I Know For Sure I will be Welcomed into Heaven?”
“I feel I am Trapped in the Body of the Wrong Gender. Does God accept me as I am?”
Training Conferences and Seminars
Our ministers available to speak at churches, community organizations, conferences, retreats, and church camps, covering any of the topics described above, as well as for racial reconciliation seminars. For more information, please contact the Minister over Church Planting at [email protected]
Contacting about materials/speaking engagements
Please contact the Minister of Church Planting at [email protected], 910-608-2016, or Open Door Christian Communities / 855 Long Rd. / Lumberton, NC 28358.
