Jer was the Founder and Lead Pastor (2004-2015) of The Open Door Community, a courageous collective of people pursuing God’s dream for the San Francisco Bay Area.  Open Door orients their life around the life and teachings of Jesus; live, work, & play in the neighborhoods of San Francisco’s East Bay; and are finding that the downwardly mobile journey of the Cross for the sake of others is the best possible way to live.

The story began in 2003 when Jer and some friends began to re-imagine what it means to live and narrate the Story of a God made real in Jesus.  As they did, they discovered three realities that changed the way they thought of the Church, Christianity in general, their context, and the world.  First, most people were intrigued with Jesus but wanted nothing to do with the Church.  Second, most people were intrigued with Jesus, but wanted nothing to do with Christianity.  Third, most people were intrigued with Jesus and thought that Jesus would have some things to say about how we live for the good of our little part of the world and beyond.

Jer and his friends leveraged the Jesus-intrigue and the justice-yearnings, fused them with Jesus-oriented, practice-based, experiential learning, and…well, The Open Door Community was born.  You can check out Open Door HERE to learn more about them and to join the movement.