Open Door advocates hands-on church
MONTREAL, QC—"If church means getting together to celebrate God, shouldn't it be the best party in town?" Kim Reid says that question led a small group meeting in his home a few years ago to do some serious thinking about starting a church.
The informal gatherings on Sunday nights included singing, prayer and Bible study. Reid says a sense of community has always made the group special. "We eat together, laugh and cry together, we fight and make up; we encourage and rebuke each other. We struggle together with what it means to follow Jesus authentically and love the world."
There was a growing sense that participants were getting more out of their Sunday evening get-together and the bonds they were creating than out of the churches most of them attended. "Church is the only activity we do just because we feel we have to," says Reid. "It shouldn't be that way."
So when he and his wife Sylvia attended a church planting conference in Vancouver in September 2003, Reid took a new look at the Sunday evening group. "What we hadn't quite realized was that we were already a church," he says. "I would say that we were a church about a year before we even knew it."
Coming together
Around the same time, Jared Siebert of the Free Methodist Church approached Reid, asking if he would be interested in planting a church in Montreal. The pieces were falling together. On November 30, 2003, the gathering moved out of the Reid's home and into The Vault, a drop-in centre for youth on the West Island of Montreal, for the first official service of the Open Door Community Church.
About 60 people now gather at The Vault every Sunday. Meetings begin with a community lunch at 1 p.m., followed by worship music and teaching, typically led by Reid in an open discussion style. "People ask questions, share experiences, disagree. In a community, we learn from each other," he says.
Twice a month during lunch, the group also makes about 100 bag lunches for the homeless. Then as part of the church continues in worship and teaching, a team is sent out for a "street run," distributing the free meals in the downtown core.
"Evangelism for us involves a holistic view of sharing Christ," says Reid. "We want to love people as Christ did, to live as He lived. It is our job to be His hands and feet in the world."
Reid is not a novice when it comes to compassionate ministries and community service. He is the founder and director of On Rock Ministries, which began as the sponsor of The Vault drop-in centre. In the past 13 years, On Rock has added a music store, a recording studio, a soup kitchen and a food bank to its efforts. Working in collaboration with other community organizations, the food bank services about 200 families every week.
Although the church and On Rock are run as separate entities, there is some overlap, as many of the food bank and drop-in volunteers are also part of the church community. Reid says a couple of hard-core drug addicts that originally came to The Vault have now found Christ and are part of the church.
Several people who attend Open Door do not claim to be Christians. "That's fine with me," says Reid. "This life is a journey, not a destination."
"The fact that you walked through the door means you belong."
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