ENID—“…Thus says the Holy One, the True One, the One Who has the key of David, Who opens and no one will close, and Who closes and no one opens: I know your works. Look, I have placed before you an open door that no one can close because you have but little power; yet you have kept My Word and have not denied My name” (Rev. 3:7–8, CSB).
The following pictures highlight the past two years of ministry for Enid, Open Door.
Walking into Oklahoma Bible Academy on anniversary Sunday, wherever one might look, they would see celebration. The place is filled with falling balloons of every color. Background sounds of today’s top Christian music are heard. While maintaining social distancing, the buzz of people greeting one another is observed. This was the preamble to the two-year public launch celebration of Enid, Open Door.
Open Door began when Kevin and Meagan Hisey moved to Enid from Claremore to begin a new church three years ago. However, Sept. 13 was the two-year anniversary launch. The name for the new church came to Kevin from a sermon by his pastor, Keith Wiginton at Claremore, First.
“When Pastor Keith was talking about the kind of church that Jesus was describing in Revelation 3, I thought, ‘That’s the kind of church I want to start,’” Kevin said. This was the beginning of Kevin and Meagan searching for open doors in church planting.
The thing about open doors is when God opens one, His follower still must walk through it. This walk takes courage and faith. It is something that has characterized the lifestyle of the Hiseys. They moved their family to a new place to start a new church with all new people they have yet to meet.
Kevin saw this as a plus for his ministry. “I think our family moving to a new place and being new is very valuable for starting a church because it made us the new people,” Kevin said. “It helped us to be in the place of a lot of people who are new in a community or new at seeking a place of faith.”
The Hiseys spent a year becoming a part of the community. This has helped Kevin and the church make people feel comfortable and welcomed into the Open Door community. But other doors have also opened up in the last two years.
One door is the opportunity of becoming a foster family. Kevin and Meagan have three adopted children, but when they moved to Enid, they fostered a baby girl. They are now in the process of adopting her as well.
“Being a foster family has really changed our world and we encouraged that in the church,” Kevin said. “We are taking care of those who cannot take care of themselves.”
This is a demonstration of one of the core values of Open Door which is “Neighbors first—whoever is standing in front of you, love them as Jesus loves you.”
With the values Open Door embraces, church members also seek to apply with everyday life. For example, another value is creativity. They encourage everyone to use their talents and gifts in the way God has gifted them and designed them. For celebration weekend, instead of Kevin preaching, they had four life-change testimonies which reflected the church’s values.
“We want to be creative in a Spirit-led way that will connect with people at this time,” he said.
The vehicle that has been most effective for Open Door’s transmission of their values and for seeing life-change has been through missional communities.
Kevin said, “What is next for us is a deeper focus on missional community life. This is tricky with the Coronavirus going on, but we are trying to figure out how to do it.”
In the last two years, Open Door has seen 36 people make professions of faith in Christ and have baptized 35. The church averages 250 in Sunday worship. “The best is yet to come,” Kevin said.
The Hiseys and the church body are grateful for the partnership they have with their sending church, Claremore, First, and partner churches as well as Oklahoma Baptists and Cherokee Strip Association. Open Door is a multiplying church plant in that they also have supported Woodward, Ascent and are a partner church with Oklahoma City, Thrive Community, which is planted in the urban corridor of Oklahoma City.
To learn more about Enid, Open Door visit OpenDoorEnid.Church. For those wanting to discover if church planting may be an open door for them, visit oklahomabaptists.org/send-network.
