This last week we moved to being one church that meets in two locations. Two pubs to be exact.
It's an amazing thing to watch a community grow and change. Even more amazing to be able to grow by going backwards in a sense- to move ahead by returning to our "roots."
We started our second worship gathering back in the space in which we met last- the Hawthorne Lucky Lab. About 40 evergreeners have made the commitment to make that their primary worship gathering, while staying connected to the community as a whole.
I think for them, they got the pleasure of helping to start something new, something more intimate, something if not radically different from whence it came, at least with a different feel (different personalities+different space=different feel).
For those of us who were still in our NW Quimby location, to have a smaller crowd was a shock at first... and then a surprisingly nice experience.
It's hard to say after one week, but it feels like this may be a very sustainable model for us, one that gets us to maybe three or four worship gatherings around town and with it the ability to start launching out new church communities all around Portland who'll (we hope) stay relationally connected in a network of relationship, co-operation and accountability.
Other random notes- in spite of the fact that we were "competing" with some politician who was speaking down at the waterfront (and closing bridges and roads for his motorcade), attendance was still great. (The picture is of the rally... not our attendance. ) There's been talk of needing to discipline the elder that skipped out on church to hit the Obama rally, but I'm really trying to squash that and give a little grace, you know?
Speaking of discipline... that's what I got to talk on this week. I would have put off 1 Cor 5, but... the timing just didn't work out with other elders/a trip I'm making down to Johnny V's wedding (!!!!) next week, etc...
But- we didn't make Hawthorne talk through 1 Cor 5/church discipline though. Wouldn't that have been a kick? "Welcome to Evergreen's new worship gathering. Now, here's a list of the people we might have to ask to leave..." Yeah.
They get to do that THIS week. :)
The Quimby/Pearl gathering is having an open time of talking through what God's been doing in or lives and worship, led by Sarah, one of our elders.
After this week- both gatherings will be synced up and working through the same passages/topics... just through different voices as the elders share the teaching responsibilties at both locales.
God's taking care of us, that's for sure- I had a sense of that this weekend. And I look forward to seeing where it's all going...
Wow! Competing with that Obama rally... That's tough.
I vote for grace for the elder... assuming he took the time to tell some of the 10 million people there about the church...
Posted by: David Alexander | May 20, 2008 at 06:08 PM
Glad to hear about it Bob. I'll be watching with curiosity to see how this model develops for you.
Posted by: john chandler | May 22, 2008 at 03:00 PM