The Open Door Podcast: Recent Episodes
John Creasy
Join The Open Door for worship on Christmas Eve at The Neighborhood Academy at 6pm for a candle light service.
Emily Cowser shares a message this first week of Advent. Music by This Side of Eve http://thissideofeve.bandcamp.com
Here's a sermon given a few weeks ago by Lee Scott on the 10 commandments, focusing in on the command that God's people "keep the sabbath holy."
For more info: http://pghopendoor.net
Garfield Community Farm: http://garfieldfarm.com
Project 6.8 "Songs for the Rest of Us"
This Sunday's sermon on the challenge of this new wilderness we've entered and the opportunity to join in the work set before us.
We're back with a sermon from this past Sunday at The Open Door. Please check out our website pghopendoor.net for more info.
Today's podcast features elder Renee Prymus and her story of faith, doubt and faith again. Also, a sermon by John Creasy on asking good and not-so-good questions.
Rebekah Berna shares her faith story of the past few years. John preaches on the raising of Lazarus from the dead.
During Lent in 2023 we have invited members of the congregation to share personal faith stories during worship. These stories are inspiring, hard, honest and authentic examples of what it is to live in the way of Jesus for our community.
This week pastor Cheryl looks ahead to the birth of Jesus and the need for joy in our lives.
John brings together juxtaposed ideas of Advent as a time to remember, a time to have hope and a time to be present.
Listen into to the forth sermon in our series on Vocation, this week with Rev. Bala Khyllep. Bala is the associate director of the World Mission Initiative at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and the husband of pastor Cheryl Khyllep.
Today's message is the second in our series on vocation. Thanks to Scott Hagley for bringing God's word to us last Sunday. Scott is the professor of mission at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
This week's sermon, from July 3rd, was recorded during an intergenerational service, meaning all of the service has elements for children built in. Enjoy the sounds of kids in the recording!
Kyle Webster, elder at The Open Door, delivers a powerful message on courage, accountability and forgiveness in the face of child sexual abuse in the church. As a child Kyle was a victim of sexual assault at the hands of a church leader in the Catholic church. Today, news of sexual abuse in both Catholic and Southern Baptist denominations have made us all realize this is an issue for us all to address, be more open about and find the courage to confront head on. May Kyle's courage be an inspiration for God's love to work in your life like God has in Kyle's life.
For our worship during Earth Week we joined Valley View Presbyterian Church to celebrate the installation of their solar panels in a large outdoor gathering. Rev. Dr. Asa Lee of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary shared a powerful message of hope and responsibility for God's faithful.
So many of us have gone through significant deconstruction of the faiths we were taught as children. Many of us are left desiring a restoration of our connection to the Divine, but unsure how to address the Christian practices that seemed damaging to us and to the world in which we live. Dr. Bahler helps us begin the process of decolonization for the sake of restoration.
Join us for worship every Sunday at 10:10am at The Neighborhood Academy or at Garfield Community Farm during the season of Easter!
Jeremiah, the "weeping prophet," said that those who trust in God are like a tree planted by a stream. That tree, even in times of danger, finds its well being through it’s rootedness. In Jeremiah’s example, the tree trusts that the river will provide and is blessed by having a lack of anxiety. Listen here to the sermon from last Sunday on this hope producing passage.
Today in worship our meditation was on Psalm 84. Find a quiet spot where you can focus your attention on your breath and God's presence in your every day life.
Last Sunday we welcomed Rev. Bala Khyllep to preach God's word. It was a real treat to get to know Bala better through this sermon and his great ability to tell stories that seem to connect us to one another and to God. Bala is the spouse of our pastor, Rev. Cheryl Khyllep, and he is the Associate Director of World Mission Initiative at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. His first book, written in partnership with Hunter Farrell, Freeing Congregational Mission, was released last week!
Today's message is a weaving of three of the lectionary passages with focus on 1 Corinthians 12, yes, I (John) am proud that I was able to use almost all of today's lectionary passages and keep the sermon in a semi-reasonable time! visit pghopendoor.net to get info on joining us in person or on Zoom.
John shares a message on James 1 in which James promises that God's gifts are for God's people, even in troubled times... and a lot more. It was our first week in our new space at The Neighborhood Academy too! Come worship with us Sundays at 10:10am, check our website for info. The Open Door Presbyterian Church.
Listen in to Pastor Cheryl's first sermon as our new Co-Pastor! This is the recording from June 27th at Garfield Community Farm where we worship each Sunday during the summer of 2021.
About a month ago we welcomed Wayne Younger to The Open Door's worship on Zoom. Wayne is the executive director of Open Hand Ministries. Open Hand is a mission partner of The Open Door Church. The mission of Open Hand is "Promoting social justice in Pittsburgh’s East End by building a diverse community focused on financial wellness, equity creation, and home ownership."
Good Friday led us to Easter which eventually led us to the ascension of Jesus, which then leads us to Pentecost Sunday! Researching, praying through and writing this sermon was such an eye opening experience for me! I hope it will be for you too as you listen in.
What could the ascension of Jesus mean for us today. We often skip right over it and just right into Pentecost.
This is a reboot of the first conversation we ever recorded for the podcast about one year ago for Mother's Day. In this conversation Amber Bahler, Katrina Woodworth, and Lisa Collier join Lauren Burdette and myself as co-hosts to discuss God as our Mother. We reflect on the why this wasn't necessarily how we experienced God in the past and how the motherly attributes of our Creator have enlivened our faith today.
Find details about The Open Door Church at http://pghopendoor.net and Garfield Community Farm at http://garfieldfarm.com our music for the podcast and much of our music in worship is by John and Alyssa Creasy, their website is http://thissideofeve.com
Find a space to experience the scriptures this day through imaginative contemplation with spiritual director Lauren Burdette. Visit http://pghopendoor.org/holyweek for more offerings of prayer and scripture for Holy Week devotion.
Palm Sunday begins our journey through Holy Week. Visit pghopendoor.net for the full Journey Through Holy Week website and daily offerings of prayer, meditation, scripture and songs.
Today I interview Rebekah Berna and Providence Smith on the spiritual, communal and missional practice of encouragement. It's a great conversation with two amazing people, enjoy!
Today's sermon is on the practice of giving or the practice of generosity as made known through the gift of Jesus Christ.
Arturo Velasco serves as pastor of Leon de Juda (Lion of Judah Church) in Atizapan, Mexico, a suburb of Mexico City. Arturo's passion is to work with the poor, with homeless street children and with indigenous peoples throughout Mexico. He and his wife Elizabeth have helped leaders throughout the country be better equipped with the Good News of Jesus and see it's holistic affect on our lives. Arturo is a mission partner of The Open Door and has led many of us in experiencing the work of Jesus outside of our American setting. Our relationship with Arturo and Elizabeth has been one of mutual encouragement. Today we hear where that encouragement finds its root.
Today's podcast is a conversation about Eating as a Spiritual, Communal and Missional Practice with Kevin and Stephanie Bell. Enjoy! You can find info here on Stephanie's spiritual direction practice and check out their website Philoxenia.
The third of our practices is EAT! Quite simple! Food and our relationship to it has a spiritual, communal and missional consequences and potential. Today we hear from Rev. Lee Scott on this Open Door practice.
Peter is an elder in our church, a neighbor of mine, a friend and an inspiration in all things in sustainable design. Enjoy our conversation and consider how all of life invites us into a learning experience drawing us nearer to God, others and the whole of the natural world! Check out The Open Door and our music by This Side of Eve.
Dave is an entrepreneur, a teacher and a coach, also a dad and husband and member of the The Open Door. Dave runs the Center for Play and Exploration. Check out the website https://www.playandexploration.com/
As followers of Jesus, can we experience the world with childlike curiosity, with an expectation that we have so much goodness left to uncover? Dave helps adults develop skills in divergent thinking that will help us experience creation and ourselves in new and surprising way. Enjoy this conversation!
This past Sunday was the first Sunday of Lent. This month we are exploring, re-imagining and recommitting ourselves to the "practices of The Open Door." These are spiritual and communal practices that we think help ground us, and anyone for that matter, in the world and also in God's Kingdom. Listen in to this tag teamed sermon by John and Dr. Brock Bahler.
In this conversation I (John) ask Lauren to help us delve more deeply into the contemplative practice of listening, one of our five communal/spiritual practices. Listen in to the deep wisdom that Lauren freely gives that comes from her own faith, her life as a mom and her work as a writer and spiritual director.
In today's podcast we delve into our communal and spiritual practice of Listening. We explore it not only from a contemplative perspective but also communal and missional and then we bring it all back. Enjoy!
Paul Seif brings us the word today from the gospel of Mark. Today we hear of some of the earliest practices of Jesus' ministry in the Galilee region. Listen in for God's word and how it might speak to us today. Music for the podcast is by This Side of Eve. Check out our church website for more ways to get involved with our farm and our church.
This week's message gets into the purpose of the church and how our worship equips us to "follow in the Way of Jesus."
This is part one of a series we'll be doing on Following in the Way of Jesus in which we delve into the purpose of the church, how to be a church that is FOR the culture but not shaped by it, how to practice our faith and how to live a contemplative but active "way" of Jesus.
This interview delves more deeply into the lives the Hurtado family and the lives of the Xi'iuy people of central Mexico. Dr. Luis is a medical doctor serving a rural indigenous village as one of the only medical professional for many miles. Honoring traditional medicine, he offers the life saving compliments of modern medicine. Luis and Karla, his wife, also help lead the local indigenous run church, especially through music and storytelling. The Xi'iuy lost much of their culture through pandemics and colonialism. Today their indigenous music is non-existant. The church and Dr. Luis offer Joy through music and the writing of some of the first Xi'iuy songs.
Today's sermon was a tough one, how much to say, how much not to say? Today we mourn the suffering, violence and trauma of all that happened in the past year and this past week. Today we are ready to move forward in love for each other and love for neighbor.
This is a special episode! A conversation with our good friend Luis Hurtado who is a medical doctor with the Xi'iuy people in the rural mountains of central Mexico. This is part 1 of a casual conversation with Luis about his work, his family and the people amazing Xi'iuy people.
This week's podcast is a sermon from worship on Sunday from one of our mission partners, Dr. Luis Hurtado. Luis is a doctor in a small village in rural Mexico serving the indigenous Xi'iuy people. Luis and his wife Karla have served in the same village for around a decade and brought much needed medical care along with their love of Jesus to the people.
This week we welcome Lee Scott to share with us a message of hope and peace. Lee is the parish associate of The Open Door Church, meaning he is an ordained pastor serving as a volunteer. He also works for the CCO, a national college ministry based here in the East End of Pittsburgh.
Week three of Advent is about Joy. As people of faith we find joy because of God's faithfulness in the past, in our hope for the future and even in the difficulties of our present struggles.
Today we'll enter into the scriptures and meditate on joy. Music from this week's episode is available at http://www.thissideofeve.com and info on our church is available at http://pghopendoor.net
This week's podcast is a sermon on Isaiah 64 focusing in on the darkness and separation from God we might feel during these difficult days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A sermon from Sunday, November 15th on 1st Thessalonians 5: 1 - 11. John takes us through this passage that hits very close to home in these dark days of the pandemic and political unrest.
Some weeks I plan to record guided meditations or prayers centering us on God, scripture and our own wholeness. Today's meditation focuses on the refuge and shelter we can find in the Divine.
A conversation between John and Alex Ruzanic about the first phase of tree planting at Beulah Presbyterian Church where the congregation is taking steps to develop parts of their land back into a native forest.
This week's lectionary passage is Matthew 22:15 - 22, and Jesus get political here! Just in time for the election. So how do we live in this work of politics and culture? Check out this week's sermon and visit our website to find out how you can get involved, no matter where you live, in the live Open Door worship gatherings.
Thanks to Alyssa Creasy for writing our theme song. Check out http://thissideofeve.com for more of her music.