Rev Vince Anderson, Dr Harold Ivan Smith, Bishop Carlton Pearson, Pastor Randy Eddy-McCain, Pastor Jay Bakker, Pastor Sheryl Myers, Pastor John Pavlovitz, Pastor Dick King
Our annual fall conference will be held September 30 – October 2, 2016.
Guests : John Pavlovitz, Rev Vince Anderson, Dr Harold Ivan Smith, Bishop Carlton Pearson, Jay Bakker, and Peggy Campolo
ODCC FALL CONFERENCE 2016 SCHEDULE
(Final)
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 30, 7:00 P.M.
SPECIAL MUSIC BY Open Door Community Church praise team, and Rev. VinceAnderson.
SPECIAL SPEAKER BISHOP CARLTON PEARSON
HEAVY HORS D’OEURVES
SATURDAY OCTOBER 1ST
(Continental Breakfast)
10:00 A.M. BISHOP CARLTON PEARSON
11:00 A.M. – PANEL DISCUSSION. PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY WITH SPEAKERS: JOHN PAVLOVITZ, JAY BAKKER, HAROLD IVAN SMITH, AND PEGGY CAMPOLO.
12:00 LUNCH IS SERVED
1:15 JAY BAKKER SPECIAL SPEAKER
2:30- 3:30 WORKSHOP WITH HAROLD IVAN SMITH Grief and the Master of the Magic Kingdom: Things You Did Not Know about Walt Disney Walt Disney’s name brings to mind the Magic Kingdom, fairy tales and storybook endings, not loss, grief and death. On the 50th anniversary of Walt’s death, we will explore the private grief Mickey Mouse’s creator learned. And what might Walt have to say to grievers today.
3:30-7 BREAK\
SATURDAY CONT.
7:00 P.M. Reverand Vince Anderson in Concert
SPECIAL SPEAKER: 8:00P.M. – JOHN PAVLOVITZ. After John’s message, he, along with Pastor Sheryl Myersand Pastor Dick King will be presented with thePeggy Campolo Carrier Pigeon Award– anaward given to those who give love, support and a voice to the misunderstoodchildren of God.
HEAVY HORS D’OEURVES
SUNDAY OCT.2 10:45 A.M.
MORNING WORSHIP
SPECIAL SPEAKER HAROLD IVAN SMITH
POTLUCK FOLLOWING SERVICE.
Peggy Campolo Carrier Pigeon Award
This year there will be three, count them three, Peggy Campolo Carrier Pigeon Award presentations: John Pavlovitz blogger, and our own Pastor Sheryl Myers, and Pastor Emeritus of Indian Hills Church, our sister church, Dick King.
Guests and Award Recipients
Peggy Campolo, who we lovingly refer to as our Patron Saint, was the inspiring force behind the creation of Open Door Community Church. As a friend of Pastor Randy, she counseled him when he was fired from his job as an associate pastor at a local church because he chose to be honest about his long time loving relationship with his spouse, Gary. At the time, Pastor Randy felt he had nowhere to go where he would be welcomed in to worship. Peggy told him that if he felt that way, there must be many more people who felt that way as well. She suggested the idea of founding a church where everyone would be welcome, and the seed for Open Door Community Church was planted.
Peggy has long preached her ministry of inclusiveness, and she has worked hard to bridge the gap between the misunderstood and the misinformed.
As Open Door Community Church approached its 2007 Annual Fall Conference, we decided to honor Peggy’s work with an award that would not only honor her, but would, in her name, honor the work of someone every year who exemplifies her ideals of inclusiveness and equality.
You can read more about Peggy and the Award by clicking here.
John Pavlovitz says of himself on his website www.Johnpavlovitz.com :
“I’m an 18-year ministry veteran trying to figure out how to love people well and to live-out the red letters of Jesus.
I enjoy songwriting, exercising, cooking, hiking, and eating emotionally.
This is a place where I say stuff that I think needs to be said.
I welcome you to say what you believe needs to be said in response, knowing that ultimately the truth is somewhere in the middle.
I proudly serve at North Raleigh Community Church. I pastor people in the Raleigh area and throughout the world.
Thanks for stopping by, and for reading the musings of a flawed, passionate, work in progress.”
John is a pastor and blogger. In 2014, John wrote a blog titled “If I Have Gay Children: Four Promises from a Christian Pastor.” It has been downloaded, shared and read by over five million people. John’s articles regularly appear at The Huffington Post. He is one of the strongest voices advocating for church inclusion for all people in the country today. He also has written extensively about race relations, depression, the Stanford rape verdict, and many other important topics. He is kind, compassionate and bold
Pastor Dick King is Pastor Emeritus of Indian Hills Church and has led his flock from a Southern Baptist Church to becoming an independent church in part to his changing perspective on the interpretation of scripture. Since attending our conference in 2014 his understanding of LGBTQ inclusion has taken a major shift, and he is now more than welcoming and affirming. He says his 70th birthday was the beginning of his second period of life and learning and teaching acceptance of LGBTQ folks is a priority now.
Pastor Sheryl Myers has been associate pastor of Open Door Community Church for many years.
Sheryl Myers lives in Hot Springs, Arkansas with her husband Jack. Sheryl retired as a kindergarten teacher for more than thirty years. She and Jack are the parents of three grown sons, Marcus, Matt, and Craig.
When son Craig came out to them as gay at the age of sixteen, Sheryl found herself on a journey that began as a search for understanding of their gay son. She discovered on that journey that her child had spent his young life with a secret he had been afraid to share with his family and she grieved for the “motherless child” he had been. She began to grieve for all “motherless children” everywhere, no matter their age, and her desire was to affirm them, to love them and embrace them when their own mothers couldn’t or wouldn’t, and to help reconnect parents with their beautiful GLBT sons and daughters.
Along the way, she heard the hate-filled messages coming from many people who called themselves Christians, yet condemned her gay son, and those like him, to hell. When she began her earnest search for God’s heart and the truth of Jesus’ love, He led her to Open Door Community Church and Pastor Randy McCain. She found Open Door to be an oasis of God’s unconditional love and grace, a place where serving Him and loving all his children, gay and non-gay, is joy unspeakable.
Sheryl was ordained as a minister in September 2005 during our annual Fall Conference and assumed duties as Associate Pastor of Open Door Community Church.
Sheryl posted the following concerning the Supreme Court ruling on Marriage Equality on her facebook page:
“June 26th, 2015…What a day! I promised our wonderful son Craig, when he came out to us 20 years ago at the age of 16, that someday he would have the right to marry the person he loves, because we live in a country that pledges justice for all and the right to the pursuit of happiness!.
Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you to Judge Piazza, Pulaski County Clerk Larry Crane for your courage and kindness, Judge Wendell Griffen for the same and for sharing the love of God with the outcast Children of God, to Pastor Randy-Eddy McCain and his husband Gary for showing the world what beautiful human beings and a beautiful marriage look like….for being the” poster children” for this hard- won fight when few were able to step up and take the risk….. and remaining grace-filled followers of Christ all the while!!!.
Thank you, thank-you, thank-you to the millions of brave LGBT persons who have had the courage to show the world that their “true “colors are beautiful”, including my hundreds of personal friends!!!!.
Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you, to the non-gay friends and families who have helped progressive, loving people everywhere move this ball down the field! Thank-you to” Modern Family” and Whoopi Goldberg and the ladies of the View!
Most of all, thank-you to our courageous, compassionate president Obama!!! And thank-you God for your followers…we know them by their Love!!!
As I watched the anxious crowd in front of the Supreme Court awaiting the decision, I expected their reaction and mine to be an eruption of cheers…but instead it was an eruption of tears!! The cheers came, but Craig and I shared ours over the phone with 5 minutes of joyful crying! LGBT people everywhere, I love you!!! Congratulations!! To the 55 couples I have married…Best Wishes for a Lifetime of Happiness Together!!!”
Harold Ivan Smith
Dr Harold Ivan Smith is a grief specialist on the teaching faculties of Saint Luke’s Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri, and the Carondolet Medical Institute in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
He is recognized as a Fellow in Thanatology by the Association for Death Education and Counseling. He received the Distinguished Service Award from ADEC in 2009.
He earned the doctorate from Asbury Theological Seminary and the EdS. from George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. He graduated from the MidAmerican School of Funeral Service.
He speaks frequently to grievers and grief counselors and educators. He has lectured in Vietnam, Taiwan, Switzerland, England and Haiti. He has facilitated Grief Gatherings, creative storytelling groups for grievers, at Saint Luke’s Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri, for eighteen years.
His primary research is on borrowing narratives from the grief of U.S. Presidents and First Ladies. His book, Griefkeeping: Learning How Long Grief Lasts, chronicles the grief of sixteen presidents and eight first ladies.
We are fortunate to have Harold Ivan in light of the tragedy in Orlando.
Jay Bakker
Jay has become an integral part of our church since his first visit with us.
Jamie Charles (Jay) Bakker (born December 18, 1975) is an American pastor, author, speaker and theologian. He is the younger of two children born to televangelists Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker Messner.
During his young adult years Bakker became disillusioned with mainstream Christianity, becoming particularly critical of Christian fundamentalism and the Christian right.[2] He later adopted a much more progressive, radical form of Christianity and became a co-founder of Revolution Church, which was created in 1994 in Phoenix, Arizona.[3] Bakker then preached at Revolution’s Atlanta location before pastoring the New York City branch of Revolution Church, which holds services at the bar and venue Pete’s Candy Store, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Much of Bakker’s story was retold in a documentary on Sundance Channel called One Punk Under God: The Prodigal Son of Jim and Tammy Faye. His story has also been chronicled in Time Magazine. Jay has since become pastor of Revolution Church in Minneapolis.
More information is available on Jay at “www.Jaybakker.com”
Bishop Carlton Pearson
Bishop Carlton Pearson
Carlton Pearson is a native of San Diego California, where he spent the first 18 years of his life with his parents and five siblings. He was raised in a traditional fundamentalist Christian home, a fourth generation Pentecostal preacher.
After studying at the Oral Roberts University in Tulsa Oklahoma, where he majored in Biblical Literature/English Bible and minored in Theology/Historical Studies, he served for 15 years on its Board of Regents, and two years as Associate Evangelist of The Oral Roberts Association, (ORA).
In 1977, Pearson founded Higher Dimensions Ministries (now New Dimensions ), in Tulsa, which grew from a traveling evangelistic team in ‘77, to a multi-faceted global ministry, which included a local church of over 5,000, a home for unwed mothers, one for ex-offenders returning to society, a full service licensed Counseling Center, prison and nursing home outreaches, a national Purity With Purpose Discipleship Program for men and women, with graduates nationally and internationally, a 645 acre horse Ranch for troubled Youth and Teens.
His annual Azusa conference, held on the Campus of the Oral Roberts University, (his Alma Mater) saw attendance swell as high as some 50,000 during the week-long event. The popular conference helped give exposure to numerous now well-known and highly successful ministers and ministries who now enjoy an international platform and worldwide recognition.
A Stellar award winning vocalist, Pearson has sold into the millions of CDs and videos with his recording contracts with Warner Brothers, Atlantic Records, and Tommy Boy and has also been nominated for the Christian recording industry Dove Award.
After a shifting to what Carlton calls “Expanded Consciousness” and the broader hope that all humanity would come to and ultimate end of good and God, rather than eternal damnation, his entire ministry was transfigured to one of radical Inclusion. This shift caused the re-inventing, re-positioning and re-branding of himself and his ministry.
Today Pearson’s ministry targets specifically and primarily the “un or less-churched.” He makes his appeal to those who feel spiritually unresolved. His ministry now addresses issues of spiritual, social, moral, cultural, religious and political significance in a practical, yet provocative manner relating faith to culture. He likes to call himself a Sacred Activist and Spiritual Progressive and is a strong proponent of Justice and Peace issues.
Bishop Pearson places high priority on personal integrity, meaning the integration of all aspects of human beings, being human and how that plays out thru what he calls “Self Actualization” and that all in the global human family should acknowledge its common relevance and its corporate relativity. He believes the opposite of that is dis-integration, (disintegration) of the human spirit, race and civil society.
Pearson was consecrated to the office of Bishop in 1996 through a College of Bishops headed by Bishop Charles E Blake, presently the Presiding Bishop of the Churches of God In Christ, the denomination of his upbringing, and through whom he was officially ordained into ministry in 1971. He founded and presided as Bishop of the Azusa Interdenominational Fellowship of Christian Churches and Ministries, a network of over six hundred churches and ministries. He has served on the College of Bishops of the International Communion of Charismatic Churches, and on the boards of several other charitable and humanitarian organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign of Wash DC, an organization promoting the civil rights of America’s GLBTQ community. He has authored a variety of books and booklets and more recently, he has felt a passion to proclaim the “Gospel Of Inclusion” and has written a widely acclaimed book by that name, published by Simon and Schuster. The book emphasizes multi-cultural dialogue and common respect for all faith disciplines. It confronts the Christian church’s exclusivism as being inconsistent, in spirit with the teachings of Jesus and that it is more important what Jesus said about God than what the church says about Jesus.
Pearson feels the mandate to help enhance the possibilities of peace on the planet through his emphases on a more inclusive approach to spirituality, encouraging interfaith dialogue and fellowship. Pearson teaches that we don’t have to go along to get along, that we can mind many of the same things without necessarily having the same mind about everything. His work towards racial reconciliation, bridging the gap between ethnic groups, nations and denominations, has given him audience with kings, presidents, other government officials and people of influence, both in America and abroad. He has been welcomed in and invited to speak in Synagogues, Islamic groups, Atheist and Agnostic organizations along with developing relationships with faith communities outside the Abrahamic faiths and fostering links between his Pentecostal/Evangelicals and other faith disciplines and traditions, as a means of fostering cooperation and respect and bridging the gap both in and outside of Christianity. The ministry and message of Carlton Pearson is a commitment to reconciling our differences, celebrating our diversity, and acknowledging our oneness in the world and in worship.
Believing that a silent church is a saltless church, Pearson’s frank and often controversial take on a number of different subjects has earned him appearances on television programs such as NBC and MSNBC’s Dateline, ABC’s Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning America, CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley, The Edge with Paula Zahn and Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, The Monique Show on BET, and a number of other television, radio and print media outlets. Bishop Pearson was recognized as one of America’s 10 Most Influential Black Ministers by Gospel Today and Belief.net. He has received several honorary doctoral degrees.
In 1993, Carlton married the former Gina Marie Gauthier (pronounced Go-chay), who is a professional Life Coach, Landmark Education and Yoga enthusiast. They are the proud parents of one son, Julian D’Metrius, and a daughter, Majestè Amour, both teenagers.
Bishop Pearson, at the invitation to serve as the Interim Senior Minister at Christ Universal Temple in Chicago, moved his family and ministry headquarters from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Chicago where he is Founder/Executive Director of New Dimensions Chicago, building a local multi-cultural and radically Inclusive spiritual community that emphasizes radical inclusion, expanded consciousness and Self-Actualization (the development of the personal Self and Soul) and includes a cyber ministry reaching a global Internet audience of thousands.
His newest book, God Is Not A Christian, Nor A Jew, Muslim, Hindu…God Dwells With Us, In Us, Around Us, As Us, was published by Simon and Schuster and released in the spring of 2010. He is presently working on his next book titled “You’re Not In Trouble, You’re In Transition: Making, Managing and Mastering Change.”
Rev Vince Anderson is the founding pastor of Barstool Tabernacle in Brooklyn NY. Reverend Vince is a New York City based musician. He has had a regular show at Union Pool for decades, which Time Out describes as “somewhere between Wesley Willis and Tammy Faye Messner”. “His music is described as “dirty gospel”. He has been described as a Brooklyn institution. Barstool Tabernacle is a newly planted church community in meeting in Pete’s Candy Store, a bar in NYC. It is the successor organization of Revolution NYC.
Rev Vince wrote our church hymn :A Heaping Portion of God’s Grace