Acts 18:7-8 “Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.”

Paul didn’t have to search all over the city for a new place to preach and worship. The door God opened up was literally right next door. Titius Justus was one of the new converts to Christian faith. His house could accommodate the little congregation. Now they could worship and learn and grow in peace, without everything Paul said about Jesus having to be a debate. It was better for the fledgling church not to have everything they had come to believe constantly questioned and attacked by people who didn’t want to believe what their own Scriptures were trying to tell them.

Doors were also opened with some of the other new converts who joined Paul’s congregation. As the synagogue ruler, Crispus was something like a combination of senior pastor and church president. He would have known the Bible well. He would have been a man with gifts for leadership and administration. He would have been a man with a mature faith. Now Paul had a place and he had the kind of people around whom he could build a stable ministry. God was opening doors for his work in this city, where Paul would stay and preach longer than any city except for Ephesus.

In my little church’s short history, we have been moved around for different reasons. When things didn’t work out so well at the hotel where we first met, God opened a new door at an event center belonging to a caterer. When that location didn’t suite our needs, he opened a new door for us in a strip mall. God willing, this is just a step to something bigger and more permanent, a place to worship we can call our own.

Several pastors have served my congregation in just over a decade. The first pastor served another congregation and preached only long enough to get things started. He was followed by another man who could serve only part time. Now I am the man God has called to preach and teach in this place, but the day will come when someone else is filling these shoes.

Few things are more certain than change. But when it comes, our Lord invites us not to fear it, not to try to hold on to the past at all cost, but to trust him to open new doors. He wants us to keep spreading his word even more than we do.