By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA – A new place of worship is now open in the city of Helena, as Open Door Independent Church continues to welcome new members into its congregation after opening in mid-July.

Rusty Hosmer and his wife, Rebekah Hosmer, serve as co-pastors of the church that has seen its fair share of growth since Rusty’s parents Terry and Shirley Hosmer founded the church decades prior.

Most recently, Open Door Independent Church was based in Calera, but the Hosmer’s made a move when an opportunity came available to purchase the former space of Trinity Nazarene Church located at 120 Laurel Woods Drive in Helena.

“The biggest factor where we had grown and plus for our kids to go to Sunday school or children’s church they had to leave one facility and walk to another one so we wanted everyone under one facility and everything in one place,” Rusty Hosmer said of leaving Calera. “The biggest thing is we had outgrown Calera’s facility and there was nowhere around it to build.”

Since moving from Calera, the church has seen its growth double from about 60-70 people to now 140 in its congregation. The first service in Helena was held on Sunday, July 14.

When it comes to the church name, Rusty Hosmer said his parents came up with the idea “Open Door.”

“They just wanted a place as simply as the name says, a place that is open to anybody,” Rusty Hosmer said. “It’s open to whoever, whenever and whatever and we wanted everyone to feel welcome when they walk in.”

Open Door Independent Church is a Pentecostal based church that offers Sunday School at 10 a.m., a worship service at 11 a.m. and a Sunday night service at 5 p.m. The church also has a 7 p.m. Wednesday night service.

Childcare is available at the church through the nursery during the church services. In addition, the church offers youth programs such as the Open Door Kingdom Kids for children ages 3-10 and the Impact Youth Ministries for children ages 10-16. For adults, Sunday School classes and small groups are offered throughout the week at different times.

As time goes on, Rusty Hosmer hopes the church can continue to grow in its space in Helena through the vision that church should be an enjoyable place to be.

“My whole idea of going to church as a kid was that you were made to go to church,” Rusty Hosmer said. “We want to have the church where people want to come to church and see what’s happening at church. Not for the kids, but for the adults as well. I fully believe that if we’ll let God do what he wants to in our lives, we’ll enjoy every aspect of life but we have to make him a part of life. We want to create an atmosphere here where people want to come to church and enjoy being at church and feel free to worship in their own way.”

Rusty Hosmer and his wife Rebekah both help lead the Sunday services and have adopted a motto for the church.

“We’ve adopted this saying at our church ‘How to take the limits off God in your life’ and I believe he’s in every part of your life and he covers every avenue,” Rusty Hosmer said.

As for the church’s worship music, Open Door utilizes modern contemporary music and mixes in traditional music in the same service. The church praise team also writes some of their own music.

For more information on Open Door Independent Church, visit Opendooral.com.