Our Story

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In 2001, a group of 10-15 people at Bellefield Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, PA began meeting to explore and discern God's will for a new worship gathering at that church. We prayerfully began this journey together, and with the support of Bellefield and the Pittsburgh Presbytery took slow steps as we felt led. By the end of 2002, we had a clearer vision for this calling and articulated this to the Bellefield community. The name the "Open Door" was breathed into existence in this time as well.

In the summer of 2003, the Open Door hosted four "pilot" gatherings. The gatherings were designed to focus on worshiping God together in more participatory and multi-sensory ways than the church has traditionally known. This includes welcoming artistic and creative expression into the gatherings and exploring the wealth of resources that can be found in various church traditions through the ages. Also indispensable for this fledgling community was authenticity with those around us and ensuring that following Jesus Christ was a daily walk rather than a weekly event.

On September 7, 2003 the Sunday evening gathering began in full. A group of individuals have been meeting weekly to digest passages and topics from the Bible and design a full gathering around these themes. As time went by, the Open Door began to grow together in community, serve our neighbors in new ways, and discover what it means to be a follower of Christ in an increasingly postmodern world.

A year later, the Open Door sensed God's calling to become a church plant in an urban Pittsburgh setting. We began to pursue this more formally by forming a group of indigenous leaders to continue in prayer and begin in planning. A task force was also formed with a few people from the Open Door, and a few from Bellefield and from the Presbytery to provide oversight to the process.

As of October 2005, we have a new home in Pittsburgh's East End, which is near the neighborhoods of East Liberty, Highland Park, Friendship, Garfield, and Morningside. We are having weekly worship gatherings, which take place at the Union Project. We have found good harmony in the Union Project vision for these neighborhoods, and look forward to partnering with them even more. For more on this transition, read on.

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