The Face of a New Church in Portland, Oregon

Tonight I write this from my room at the Paramount Hotel in downtown Portland, Oregon. I'm finishing up day 4 of what's called an "advance" for the doctoral program I've just begun at George Fox Evangelical Seminary. The doctorate will be a Doctorate of Ministry in George Fox's "Leadership in the Emerging Culture" cohort, shepherded by an ecclectic and excellent faculty and mentored by historian and futurist Len Sweet.

My cohort is the smallest they have had at ten people. But my peers and I believe this to be the powerful work of the Spirit. There will be more time for us as a small group to form a group identity, to interact and challenge one another, and more air time for each of us as we converse with Len over matters of the Kingdom and learn to "hear" with semiotic awareness God loose on the world.

I'm excited and a bit amazed. I'm a liberal evangelical, a part of what faculty here are describing as the most diverse cohort they have had. A Presbyterian pastor from inner-city Portland, two ex-Pentecostals (one who serves as the young adult pastor at mega church Hillvue Heights Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky and the other a passionate layman from Nevada who just finished his seminary education and wants to pursue a doctorate in spiritual formation as an offering to his local congregation), an Episcopal priest from Oakland, California, a teaching pastor from a non-denominational church in Springfield, Oregon, a Free Methodist pastor who serves a dual point parish in Neversink, New York; a student ministries pastor, circuit speaker and regular contributor to Group Magazine from the Yorba Linda Friends Church in Yorba Linda, California, and two United Methodist Pastors, one who serves dual point parishes in East Texas, and the other who serves dual point parishes in West Texas. Lastly, there's myself, the liberal evangelical ELCA Lutheran pastor from rural Nebraska.

We've moved fast this week to listen and self-define and to build bridges across theological and ecclesiological chasms and though so much of the insider language of our various churches varies in incredible and difficult to understand ways, we have found a common center.

Jesus. He is our Lord, and each of us has a deep and abiding love for him and a restless, holy discontent for the bodies of Christ we serve--that they might be the bride of Christ in all her glory.

I'm amazed and humbled by the level of listening with open minds, hearts, and spirits that has taken place...and in the midst of the amazement, I wonder...

I wonder if we aren't the face of the future church, passionate about our contexts but ultimately truly post-denominational with a deep appreciation for the tall shoulders of faith and tradition we each stand on but a deeper love still for the Jesus who is Lord in all of our traditions.

I wonder. If WE can talk and laugh and love and listen like we have been, then perhaps the Spirit of God in us, the Spirit of reconciliation IS larger than our human divisions.

It's really stupid wondering isn't it? Of course God's Spirit is larger than our divisions.

We are the church. Not all of it. But together, we are a powerful expression of a new future being created as we walk and talk, share, dream, and challenge.

With hope for the kingdom where you are...

Nathan