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5 Things You Might Be Surprised to Learn About Saturday’s City-Wide Night of Worship
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You might know about The Door, and you've probably heard about this Saturday's City-Wide Night of Worship at 6 pm, but we bet you might be suprrised to learn these five things:
- We were supposed to worship outside, but the cold front had other plans.
I don’t know if you know this, but we live in Houston. Houston isn’t cold. Except for this Saturday, it’s going to be in the 40s! Holding the worship night outside was more than just a change in venue. Westheimer is one of the main east-west arteries connecting the city of Houston. By worshiping outside on Westheimer, we hoped to create a symbol of what it means to be a light across Houston. No one wants to freeze, however, so the worship program will move inside. We still pray that you will consider how to impact the city, even from inside the heated Hall Life Center. - 20% of foster youth become homeless the
moment they age out of the foster care system. St. John the Divine wants
to help break that cycle.
Just a few weeks ago, our church announced the launch of a new non-profit, A Lighted Path. Its first program will help young adults aging out of the foster care system find job support, mentorship, housing, and care through a program called Adults in Training in partnership with DePelchin Children’s Center. In honor of the launch of A Lighted Path, this month’s City-Wide Night of Worship will focus on what it means to be a light. - Tori Hope Petersen lived in
over 10 foster homes when she was growing up. She went on to be a state
track champion, Mrs. Universe, mother of three, and best-selling author
of Fostered. Now, she is coming to speak at the worship night this Saturday!
We met Tori at the Global Leadership Summit this year, and knew right away we had to ask her to visit. As A Lighted Path starts to partner with young adults who are aging out of the foster care system, we wanted to hear more of her story! Tori will share with us how becoming a Christian changed her life and the power of showing God’s love to others. - Anna
Lehnhoff visited St. John the Divine for the first time at The Door’s
first worship night. Now, she’s one of the worship leaders.
In June 2021, Anna stumbled through the doors of SJD as a first-time visitor. She had seen the Instagram ad for the City-Wide Night of Worship and decided to give our church a try. Now, just a year and a half later, Anna is part of the worship team at The Table on Sunday mornings and is leading Be Thou My Vision at the worship night this Saturday. If you haven’t met Anna yet, look for her after the program in Sumner’s Hall during our food truck lounge and hang-out time. - The Door has partnered with 25+ musicians since it started during the pandemic in 2020. Now, it wants to partner with you.
The Door is more than a type of worship night St. John the Divine hosts twice each year. As a ministry at St. John the Divine, it seeks to bring worship music, biblical teaching, and episcopal and Anglican traditions to a new generation of Christians. Pray about how you might be called to disciple the next generation of Christians in your life. Will you come on Saturday and feel called to support A Lighted Path? Will you start to pray for your younger coworker, maybe even invite them to lunch? Discipling others is a call placed on all believers. How might you answer the call?