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What to Expect

Love and friendliness

Open Door is not just a name, but a way of treating people.  Our doors are open to everyone, and you ’ll find love and a friendly greeting when you walk through our doors.  In a world that can be harsh and unforgiving, we think of Open Door as our shelter from the world and the troubles that surround us throughout the week.  It is the place where we can be with people that care for each other, share the same heart for God, and love people as the Lord does…unconditionally!

Truth

At Open Door, the Bible is front and center.  You will find practical Bible lessons in every class, for every age group.  We stand on the Bible as our only authority for life and faith, and Pastor’s messages are filled with uncompromising, relevant, helpful Scripture.

Diversity

Open Door has a heart for people of all backgrounds, ages, and ethnicities.  We have people who have attended church all their lives, and people with no church background.  We have a mix of young and mature.  We celebrate the countries and cultures of the world.  At the last count, we have had people from 56 different countries visit our church!  You will find that no matter how you look, where you have been, or where you are now,  you will feel at home here if you simply have a desire for spiritual growth.

Comfortable atmosphere

While we are passionate for the Lord, we have a happy and excited,  yet relaxed atmosphere.  We know some people don’t want to stand out or be pressured, so you can grab a cup of coffee and just relax and enjoy the service.  During our services, we have heartfelt singing, relevant Bible preaching, and open invitations to respond, but it is up to you how you want to respond as the Lord speaks.

Common questions 

“What should I wear?” and “What is the music like?” are two common questions.  On any given Sunday you will find almost everything in clothing, but the norm would be most of the men wear suits or nice casual pants with a collared shirt, and many of the women choose to wear modest skirts or dresses, but we want you to feel welcome no matter how you dress.  We are the most concerned about your spiritual state!  As far as music, we love to praise the Lord! We are a conservative church and sing mostly hymns along with some good choruses and scripture songs.  It is uplifting and encouraging, but not worldly.

WHO WE ARE

We are focused on the family.  

We believe strongly in the Lord’s first institution—the family! We work hard to help families become more close and strong.  In a nation of broken homes and distant families, the Lord still shows us how to have a happy, strong family, and we see Him working in the families of Open Door.

We are strongly Bible-based.

Christians tell us that they are starving for the Word but aren’t being fed in churches.   Everything we do is Bible-centered. The teaching and preaching are filled with the Bible. We don’t replace biblical preaching with man’s opinions or ideas.

We are passionate about the Lord. 

We are not just trying to have the same, run of the mill, 21st-century Christianity which is very “lukewarm”.  The people of Open Door have a sincere desire to learn all we can about the Bible and to please Jesus Christ, both in our church and in our personal lives.  Although we are all at different stages of growth, our pastor has given us a vision of reaching toward our Lord while reaching out to others.

We are conservative.  

We are not trying to be like the world, but like Jesus.  The service is traditional, and the preaching is Biblical.  We seek to be Biblically correct, not necessarily politically correct.

We are reaching the lost.   

We don’t just say that we need to reach the world; we aggressively fulfill the Great Commission in our daily lives and through church ministries that give us opportunities to share our faith.  We use the biblical pattern of “everywhere, and house to house,” which is found in Acts 5:42 and Acts 20:20.

We are an independent church.

Open Door is an independent church without a denomination, fellowship, or organization to control the church.  We have one authority:  the Bible!  We simply look to the Bible to see how God wants a church to be and we use the church in the book of Acts as our example.  ODBC is not our church, but His church.

We are NOT…

We are not trying to recruit Christians from other Bible-believing churches.  If you already have a good church and are just “shopping around”, this is probably not the church for you.  Yet, we do understand that some Christians just aren’t being fed or their church has moved away from the Bible. There are also Christians who have moved to a new area and need to find a good church nearby. If you are one of those people, we welcome you!  It is not easy to find a solid, Gospel-preaching church in the Seattle area.  We promise that you’ll never walk away from Open Door feeling spiritually hungry!

CLASSES AND CHILDCARE

While we are adjusting to our new facilities, we may have to rearrange our classes.  This is how we divided our classes before, and we hope to resume all of these classes as soon as possible once we are settled into our new building.  Feel free to call Pastor Byram at 206.851.8640 if you have any questions about our current class organization.

Sunday

11 AM Service 6 PM Service
Childcare (0-4 years old)Nursery (0-4 years old)
Kids’ Class (5-12 years old)Main Service (6+)
Main Service (13+)

Thursday

7 pm Preaching Service (everybody is together)

We love having everybody together during this service!  It gives the young children, and even babies or toddlers, an opportunity to practice how to behave in an adult setting.  We usually encourage the adults without young children to sit closer to the front so that the back rows are open to the families with little ones.  This tends to make parents more comfortable as they work with their kids to develop good habits.  Even very small children can learn from the preaching of the Word of God!