New Life, New Coast.

A Change of Direction: Trying a New Church

Finding a church in Portland has been a rather interesting (and disappointing) experience for us this past year. There was the Presbyterian church where no one spoke to us for five weeks. We tried an Episcopalian church, but it lived down to every cliché of that denomination (just a couple of old people talking about how enlightened they were and badmouthing more conservative Christians). And we can’t forget about the stereotypical, non-denominational church in the suburbs. We didn’t like it, but we kept attending because we didn’t want to hurt the feelings of our college friends who believed the church was the greatest thing since Super Mario Bros. 3.

We’ll save the hardcore analysis of our inability to find a church for another day. Let’s just say that we decided it was time to scrap our usual game plan and move out of our comfort zone. With that in mind, we found ourselves visiting the Evergreen Community. Our fellow Minnesota transplants, Kobie & Travis Moore, have settled in nicely over there.

Overall, it was a good experience. Some random observations from our visit:

• I had been reading the blog of Bob Hyatt, the pastor at Evergreen. I got the feeling that he was just a normal, down-to-earth guy; someone you could have a beer with. After Sunday, I still think that’s true.
• Kobie introduced us to Chris, the Associate Pastor, who bears a striking resemblance to my brother, Joe. He also lives in our neighborhood. You have to love it when Multnomah Village represents.
• They’re a church plant that meets in a pub. I have some church plant experience. I tell you, being in the pub made me feel very nostalgic for the days when Church of Cross was meeting in the social room at my apartment complex. Not having your own building really gives you a certain energy that is lost when a church “settles down” into a permanent space. I could definitely sense that at Evergreen.
• They don’t do typical sermons. It’s more of a guided discussion. (It’s not as shallow and annoying as it sounds.) It went better than I thought it would. People were engaged and polite. Plus, my mind didn’t wander like it usually does during sermons (and it always does).

Bottom line: I got the feeling that at its core, Evergreen is a community of people struggling together to figure out what it means to be the people of God in a broken world. That sounds like Nikki and me. I don’t know if that means we’ve found a new church home, but I do know that it means we’ll visit again. (Of course, with Nikki out of town on business this Sunday, I might chicken out and “be sick” instead of visiting by myself. We’ll see.)

Labels: Church

posted by Ben @ 10:17 PM