Our Call
We accompany Christian leaders on the journey to freedom in life and ministry.
Scripture tells us that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Yet we know how distant that freedom can often feel, especially for those who are called to ministry leadership.
OpenAir exists to help bring that freedom a little closer. We walk with you, helping you to experience God’s love and goodness so that you are empowered to serve others with authenticity, expectation, and boldness. The journey to freedom is never one you can make alone. It is our call and our privilege to accompany you on that journey.
“We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.”
Our Commitments
Inviting someone to walk with you and care for you requires vulnerability and trust. These are things we don’t take lightly. You deserve to know the commitments that guide and form us. These values shape our lives and our work, as individuals and as a collaborative.
By God’s grace, our lives with God are marked by:
+ Embracing our belovedness
As people created in the image of God, we are honored and loved by our Creator. While the reality of sin causes us to experience shame, brokenness, and alienation from God, God loves us exactly as we are and invites us to live in that love. It is in bringing all parts of ourselves—the beautiful and the broken—into the presence of God’s love that we experience redemption, healing, and transformation.
+ Acceptance of God's presence
Because God is wholly other, this presence may shatter our expectations. We trust that God is present and working even when we are not able to experience or desire this presence. We believe that a significant part of our faith journey is learning to recognize God’s voice and communication to us. We are continually invited rather than obligated to live every aspect of our lives with God.
+ Hope
We seek to live with hope because the Spirit of God lives in us. That means that real change and transformation in our lives is possible. Yet our hope is not attached to any particular outcome; it is attached to God himself. While acknowledging the reality of the brokenness of life, we hope in God, who is faithful and good, merciful and gracious, loving and just.
+ Honesty
When we know that we are loved and accepted by God exactly as we are, we can be honest with God about all aspects of our lives and experience. We are free to be ourselves without fear of repercussion or punishment. We live with authenticity before God, ourselves, and others, being open about our fears and failures as well as our joys and triumphs.
+ Openness to God
We desire to live in such a way that each aspect of our lives is open to God. We can surrender to God and God’s love because we trust who God is and believe what God says about us. We can trust God to preside over the outcome of our lives and ministry. This allows us to live with humility, freed from the need for outside validation.
+ Connectedness
We recognize that connectedness is an essential truth of our existence. To be alive means to be connected to God and to others. We desire to grow in our understanding and experience of the reality of God’s presence and in embracing our place in the Body of Christ.
By God’s grace, our engagement with the world is marked by:
+ Security
When we know that nothing changes God’s love for us, we find ourselves in a place of security. From this place, we are free to turn toward the hurting world and offer ourselves as we are—broken and beloved vessels for the unchanging love of Christ. We are able to invite others to meet God as they truly are, and as God truly is.
+ Welcome and hospitality
We seek to follow the way of Jesus, who intentionally drew people toward himself in love. We welcome others into our lives and invite them to experience what we ourselves have received: a relationship with God in Christ; a call to engage the world with God’s love, mercy, and justice; and the freedom of a life being formed by the Spirit.
+ Seeing people as God's image-bearers
Because all people bear the image of God, we believe God’s presence can be sought and found in their stories. We accompany people in the beauty and brokenness of their lives, believing that solidarity compels us to seek justice for all of God’s people. This experience is part of and flows from our life with God.
+ Being wounded healers
We are aware of our own brokenness and seek to be open to the healing that God is doing in our lives. We also recognize that the place of our woundedness is often the place that God uses to bring healing to others. We respond to others’ brokenness with compassion and hope.
+ Love
Love is the hallmark of those who follow Jesus. We seek to love others the way that Jesus did—with compassion, acceptance and sacrifice. Our ability to love this way is grounded in our experience of being deeply known and loved by God.
+ The fruits of the Spirit
The Holy Spirit has access to our lives and is at work there to ripen the Spirit’s characteristic fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control.
