A note from Pastor Allyssa

“that you may be rooted and established in love.”
Ephesians 3:17

It is already a month into 2025! We’ve been hard at work the last few months, discerning and living into what God has for Open Church in 2025 and beyond.

In 2024, we recruited, trained, and equipped at least 10 individuals to start new faith communities and ventures to reach new people in new places for Jesus. We celebrated and launched 8 new communities in October. Each of those 8 communities are flourishing, each fulfilling their missions and reaching the people they set out to meet. [Learn more about each of these communities here.]

When we first started dreaming of a new church in Columbus in 2023, it was clear that God was calling us to start a safe spiritual community for people in recovery, particularly the community that we were building on the Westside of Columbus. As Open Church started to take shape this was continued to be central to our day-to-day work, while we continued to explore a variety of opportunities and models for church.

As we neared the end of 2024, I felt a sense of tension in the work we were doing with starting new communities as it related to our mission of being a spiritual home for people in recovery. As I expressed this to our staff team, we realized we didn’t need to make so much a change in direction, but rather clarify what God has been showing us. We still believe that every person is called by God to serve; we still believe that each of us has gifts and graces to reach new people that God sends our way; we still believe that the Church should be really good at gathering and sending people; we still believe that church doesn’t have to center around a Sunday morning worship experience in order to be faithful to God’s mission on earth; we are still messy Jesus-followers making the kingdom of God tangible in our city.

And now, we are committed, more than ever, to being that kind of church for and with people in recovery from addiction, people returning from prison, and people who are still in active addiction.

When we started Open Church, we had a vision of the whole city being transformed by us meeting together often, sharing meals and resources, sharing God’s love through our actions and words. We really had no idea how it was going to happen, but as we continue to pray and work, we are refining and clarifying that vision so you can see it too.

I’m so grateful to be on this journey with you. If you have any questions or want to talk more about this, please reach out!

Blessings,
Allyssa