Our first stop on our month-long cross country trip to visit some of America’s most innovation and missional churches got off to a great start when we worshiped on Sunday night with the folks at The Open Door in Pittsburgh and joined five of them afterward for conversation about their journey as a church and as individuals.  They love Jesus, and they love their neighbors.  Seems like they’ve taken the two greatest commandments to heart.

I was struck by the fact that loving Jesus and their neighbors impacted their lifestyle decisions.  Two families lived in community with others from the church—choices they might not have made otherwise.  One couple moved out of seminary housing to live in the church’s neighborhood so that they could be a part of the community.

In addition to “location,” (see Jack’s blog) as a descriptor of what it means to be missional, Chris thought of the word “vocation” because many members of The Open Door community have chosen service occupations—nurse, doctor, teacher, Americore participant, etc.  BJ quoted Rob Bell from a video in which Bell said if you were a disciple of a rabbi, you would have the dust of the rabbi on your face—meaning the dust the rabbi made as he walked would be on the face of the disciple who was following close behind.  A rather wonderful image and one these folks embodied.

BJ said another visitor to their service that night had commented,  “This is the church 2000 years ago.  It’s real.  I’ll be back.”  I agree.  I was just an observer, but what I observed was what The Open Door declares in a brochure to be their practices:  listening to God, eating with others, giving themselves away to the world, learning from God, and encouraging others.  If I lived in Pittsburg, I'd be back.