New Life, New Coast.

Protesters and Unitarians

Today we visited two churches -- Imago Dei in the morning and Ethnos in the evening. I've forgotten what it's like to be the new couple at church -- it's hard. And being that new couple, we had vastly different experiences at each church.

Imago Dei:
We had heard wonderful things about this church, first through Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz. It started as a church plant about five years ago and has grown to about 1,300 people -- huge!! They meet in Laurelhurst, a gorgeous area of town in SE Portland (across the river from where we live). The service was all right, but we felt a little out of place in the crowd. And they had something I've never seen at a church before -- protesters! There were two guys standing out front of the church holding signs which read "God is fake." Only in Portland!

Ethnos:
This church has an interesting disclaimer on their website -- they say that they are in no way affiliated with the organization whose space they rent. We couldn't imagine why they would say this, but turns out they meet at a Unitarian Universalist church! It's a gorgrous space, right in SW Portland. We liked this church from the moment we walked in. We met so many people, including both pastors, the entire elder board, and so many others. We felt very welcomed, very wanted. It was a great feeling. Before we left we were invited to next week's game night, a small group, and Ben was invited to the men's retreat! I think we'll go back next week.

And in other good news...it's almost a done deal that Ben and I are going to be able to rent the house in Multnomah Village! We went back to see it again today and I liked it even more this time around. I think it's going to be a great space for us...and our many visitors, hint hint!

Oh yes, and I also saw Mt. St. Helens for sure today! Here she is:

posted by Nikki @ 8:32 PM