Since its inception in July 1916, the Church of the Open Door has been committed to missions. Organized as an independent, evangelical interdenominational church, charter members recognized the church's biblical responsibility to reach the world for Christ. Our church wasted no time in joining the work of Gospel Missionary Union in Kansas City, Missouri, by starting the first missionary fund in August 1916. George S. Fisher of GMU, was the recipient of this commitment in the amount of $12.50 per month.
Gospel Missionary Union emerged out of the missionary movement of the last two decades of the nineteenth century, a movement which brought into being numerous foreign missionary societies. Through the evangelistic efforts of the YMCA, young men of Kansas were challenged to Christian service. The Secretary of the Kansas State YMCA was George S. Fisher, whose parents had been missionaries in .
Fisher's conviction was that the gospel must be preached in all the world, wherever Christ was not named. He led a campaign for foreign missions among the local associations of the YMCA in Kansas . The movement spread to other states, and soon there was a considerable number of young men and women eager to go to West Africa with the gospel. Although Gospel Missionary Union was not officially organized until 1892, the first party of nine missionaries landed in West Africa in 1890. Within a few months, five were dead. Soon a second party of twelve sailed to join the survivors.
In 1892, Fisher and other Kansas leaders resigned from the YMCA and formed a new independent organization called the World's Gospel Union. The name was changed in 1901 to Gospel Missionary Union. A lifetime member of the church, Mrs. Frederica , attended many GMU functions and could remember riding as a child on a GMU hay wagon in downtown Kansas City .
Since that first commitment to Mr. Fisher, Church of the Open Door has continued to faithfully support GMU and other various mission agencies. Missionaries and organizations we supported in the past include Rev. and Mrs. Garnett McRostie, West Africa (GMU); Rev. Gordon and Daphne McRostie, Morocco (GMU); Wilma Ehrnan (GMU); Rev. and Mrs. Gerhart Hahm, Pakistan (CEF); Mr. and Mrs. John Dugan, West Virginia (CEF); Victory Christian School, Leavenworth; Youth for Christ, Kansas City, Kansas; Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Gast, Bonair; Ed and Sandy Fuller, New Guinea (BMM); Carver Bible Institute, Kansas City, Missouri.
For many years, the first Sunday night of every month would find a representative of GMU as the speaker, sharing with the church what God was doing through missions. To this day, many of the older GMU missionaries remember their visit to Church of the Open Door in Leavenworth, Kansas .
In October 2000, a Missionary Task Force (MTF) was established to oversee the missionary activities of our church. Recognizing this same biblical responsibility, MTF spent the first year writing the policy defining the purpose and procedure of missions for the church. The MTF is committed to reaching the unsaved around the world with the gospel of Christ by:
Currently, Church of the Open Door supports 15 missionaries and 3 non-profit organizations.
