Open Arms Christian Fellowship celebrates grand opening

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[November 17, 2015]  LINCOLN - On November 15, 2015, Open Arms Christian Fellowship held a grand opening celebration, open house, and ribbon cutting ceremony at their new location on Woodlawn.

As lead pastor, Larry Crawford, welcomed everyone. He said, "Thank you for celebrating with us today. We love this community and are committed to serving it. In order to better serve, we prayed for a larger and better ministry facility and you are experiencing God's answer to our prayers."

Pastor Crawford said when they began looking for a new facility, they specifically prayed that it would:

  • be easily accessible and highly-visible.
  • have sanctuary seating for at least 250 people.
  • be over 10,000 square feet.
  • have more rooms to expand NextGen Ministries (for youth).

Crawford said the new facility has everything they prayed for.
 


Open Arms Christian Fellowship has been meeting in the new site since July 19 and Crawford said the church has experienced a sixty-five percent increase in attendance since the move from the former location on Broadway that they had been in since June 2008. Crawford said, "numbers matter because every number represents a person."

Andre and Aaron Hinton provided special music with the song, "God has a purpose." Before the song, Andre Hinton prayed that God would bless this community.



The morning's message

Crawford's message was "'Father's House' There's No Place Like Home." Crawford said, "God wants to bless your home and he is preparing an eternal home far better than what is here. It will be beyond what we can ever imagine. God wants to give us a little bit of heaven to go to heaven with."

Crawford said, "[our] Father's house is a house of hope." Many feel hopeless, but God has a plan. He transforms lives for the better.

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Crawford also said, "[our] Father's house is a house of healing." God will heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and set at liberty those who are oppressed. Crawford said that if you are broken-hearted, God can heal you. We fight for lives in this country, but Crawford said, "God will restore us."

 In closing, Crawford said, "The Father's house is a safe place full of provision for all, where you are expected, accepted, forgiven, and celebrated." It does not matter what you have done. There will be peace. Crawford said that when the prodigal son came home, he was welcomed with open arms.

Crawford ended the message by thanking God for 'this house' and praying that it may always be a safe place. He said, "I want to see this community blessed."

As part of giving back to the community, Open Arms donated $5 each to the Humane Society of Logan County and to the Logan County Food Pantry for every new visitor at the service.

After the service, Crawford invited everyone to tour the facility to see what God has done here already. Though most of the work is completed, the kid's area is still a work in progress.

At 11:30, Logan County Chamber/Alliance Director Nicole Cox led an official ribbon cutting. Pastor Crawford and his wife Wendy cut the ribbon with the assistance of Mayor Marty Neitzel and several community and church members.

Before cutting the ribbon, Crawford thanked the many people who donated time and supplies to get the renovations done and the many who worked so hard on the building.

The ribbon cutting was followed by a fellowship time with hors d'oeuvres served by Lincoln College Catering.

Next week, the church will hold their Fourth Annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner at the VFW on Fifth Street. Everyone in the community is invited to join them for this special time of thanksgiving.

[Angela Reiners]

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