“Love Portland.”  It’s that catchy little phrase you hear around Imago…mysteriously showing up on t-shirts, bumper-stickers, and events.  Some people think it means cleaning up schools, while others just think it’s a nice idea they’ve seen floating around.

When the words “Love Portland” gets stamped on an event, does that signify one more sweet volunteer opportunity, a chance to be as involved in the community as the rest of your neighbors?  Why would we show up around the city, randomly doing good deeds?

Saturday mornings throughout this summer and the rest of the year, we approach this idea of loving Portland by collectively showing up to join Christ, as He loves Portland. More than just serving schools, we have many different projects to connect ourselves to this city that God loves.

On June 4^th, we’ll be loving on those who are often Invisible when we pass them on the street…Invisible because we don’t notice them, or because they are shut away, behind closed doors.  You’ll have a choice between projects with homeless youth, preparing a meal for people who are hungry, working with the elderly, or working with your hands.  All tangible ways of experiencing Christ’s love in, for, and through us.

The goal, the reason that we participate in each of these events is to draw each of us deeper into the story of Christ.  The story of a risen King who is reconciling all things to himself. This is the King that is breaking into the broken pieces of our lives, and bringing a Kingdom of restoration, of justice, mercy, and love.

When we love this city that God loves, we proclaim to our city that God love Portland.  And just as He loves Portland, He loves you, too.  We give our lives away just Christ gave his life away.  As we serve within these areas within Portland we are entering places of need, that our world would say we should ignore, and we take our eyes off ourselves and see Christ breaking in.

For some of you, you know this to the deepest core of your heart.  You’ve experienced what it’s like to give and give and give and yet miraculously feel like you were the one who was blessed by the experience as God works on our hearts in the process.  Maybe you haven’t really experienced that, and this invitation is for you to join us as we participate in something Jesus has been about for hundreds of years—loving the world.  As we draw into Christ’s story of redemption—we see not only how he’s transforming our city, but also our hearts as well.

God loves the world.  God loves Portland.  When we serve, we are proclaiming that truth.

EXILE POSTER PROJECT 2011

APRIL 26th & May 5th

6-9 pm :: IMAGO ART SPACE, 512 NW 9th

If you would like to purchase a poster please visit: http://www.exileposterproject.com/

Overall Vision

The Exile Poster Project aims to confront a specific area of injustice and oppression in Portland through the powerful medium of the poster. The annual show, based in Imago Dei’s 9^th street gallery, will feature passionate and personal work from Professional artists from throughout the city. This body of work will be presented in a way that will incite action within the city’s art and faith communities, hopefully galvinizing those communities to assist the city in its ongoing efforts to uphold the law.

The 2011 show will focus on the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

The poster is unique among art forms. It has a long history of taking complex ideas and packing them into a single, potent, and compelling image. One instant. Once glance. That’s all a good poster needs to charge a mind with a new thought or change a heart with a fresh feeling. The poster is also tough, inexpensive, mobile: it’s as likely to surprise us in an alleyway as in a gallery. And the poster is personal and passionate, and therefore viral: designed to incite, to confront, to stimulate response.

As such, the poster is potentially a powerful tool by which to address ugly social issues like the sexual exploitation of children.

First, posters don’t depend upon impersonal data or upon painful stories. Rather, because they depend upon a singular, memorable, insightful image, they can supply the average citizen with a symbol able to serve as both talking point and rallying point. Posters don’t necessarily ask people to know more or do more; at bottom line they help clarify to people how they already feel while also demonstrating that such feeling can be expressed in powerful ways. An encounter with a poster can be more than a transaction of information: it can be a spark of galvanized action as one person realizes they are not alone in their convictions and that they would not be alone in acting on those convictions.

Second, thanks to their size, inexpensiveness, and street-toughness, posters can’t be evaded. Perpetrators of thriving criminal activities become experts in evasion: they learn to evade the law, to evade civil society, to evade their own consciences. But posters can’t be evaded. They can hang anywhere. A poster infiltrates the unlit city and proclaims the spirit of the law in the language sex-traffickers manipulate: the language of passion and beauty. In so doing, it has a unique power to rattle their rationalizations and possibly warn off those they would entice.

Third, a poster can help dissolve the illusion of disconnectedness between people in our city. While an image hangs on a polished street front and incites action out of apathy, the same image can hang in a seedy backstreet and confront brutality with beauty. Rather than ceding creative space to a culture of sex oppression or allowing civil culture to remain silent before it, posters advertise the unavoidable fact of our connection and decry denial from either side. Posters can establish a shared public space in which the ugliness of the situation becomes  appropriately unavoidable and intolerable.

The artists participating in this years Exile Poster Project would like to gift the city with more than beautiful symbols of protest. They are making images that will proclaim the authority of law and decency to the city on behalf of children who deserve our committed, unified, passionate action.

For more information please contact

Martin French: studio@martinfrench.com.

Paul Ramey: paul@imagodeicommunity.com

medical professionals gathering
Medical Professionals community: we will be gathering again on May 19th at 7:30 in Room 101.  Spread the word!

“Portraits to Profiles”
“Portraits to Profiles”,  a photographic event to support change for a dollar.  May 7th 1pm-8pm in the gym of Imago Dei. All are welcome. Come out and get your portrait photo taken for $1and receive a digital copy of your photograph. All the dollars go to change for a dollar.

exile poster project
April 26th will be the opening reception at the Imago Art Space for an exhibition of original poster designs by 15 Imago Dei artists. The show, which seeks to bridge creative expression & missional theology, has targeted the commercial sexual trafficking of children as its theme. Each artist has been asked to shed light on one of our city’s most troubling realities, with the ultimate goal of changing cultural opinions through the power of public art. For more information please contact Martin French at studio@martinfrench.com.

a few good hosts
Our trusty Host Team is in charge of collecting the offering, distributing handouts, and helping guide people around our campus. Think you have what it takes to help our services flow smoothly? The Host Team is looking for volunteers to serve during any of our Sunday meetings, once every three weeks. Get in touch with team leader Robbie Flowers:rob@imagodeicommunity.com — Lisa Nelson Assistant to Arts & Worship :: Communication/Design

baby dedications
Baby Dedications are scheduled for May 8, Mother’s Day. Sign up sheets are located in the Nursery (lower Sanctuary) and Ankeny Building check-in areas.

volunteer with idc kids
Each Sunday hundreds of kids gather here at Imago Dei to join us in being shaped by the gospel and worshiping Christ. If you would like to be involved in helping our kids grow in their relationship with Christ, we are looking for volunteers to care for, play with, teach and spend valuable time with these youngest members of our community. If you are interested please email Jen Frankamp for more information at jfrankamp@imagodeicommunity.com.

q is coming to portland april 27th-29th
Q is an annual gathering convening church and cultural leaders for a conversation about the role of Christians in a post-Christian society. It is not just another conference, but instead, an intentional effort to platform the best and the brightest ideas that are shaping our world and interact with them. For more information about the conference & to register go to: http://www.qideas.org/event/concept.aspx.

mentoring college students
The Imago Dei College group is gaining momentum, and one of its foundational goals is to connect college students to mentors. Are you at least 30 years old? Want to change the world? Then contact Joe Sauer:joe.sauer@imagodeicommunity.com, and talk with him about how you can befriend a college student in Portland.

mug ministry
Bottoms up! In order to be wise with our resources, we’re switching to mugs for our coffee. Please return the mugs to the lobby when you’re done. And if you’d like to help out by washing mugs, contact Ariana: apteryx1@gmail.com.

imago dei college
This unique ministry is growing. If you are 18-23 years old, come see how God is moving in the individual lives and communities of college students in Portland. Friday nights, 7-9 p.m. in the gym. Contact Ben Tertin for more info:ben.tertin@imagodeicommunity.com.

May 8th – Contact jen.frankamp@imagodeicommunity.com

Baby dedications are an opportunity for parents to commit themselves to raising their children in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. If you are interested in dedicating your baby, contact Jen at jen.frankamp@imagodeicommunity.com.

At Imago Dei, we hold baby dedications twice a year as opportunities for parents to commit themselves to raising their children in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. Dedicating your child to God is a public sign that you are seeking to bring your children up in the ways of Christ, and as a community we stand with you in that passion.

The family is the key place where a child learns and develops their understanding of God and His love.  They learn this primarily through the teaching of their parents. It is God’s desire that believing parents establish homes where God is honored and glorified and where parents model love and faith in Jesus Christ. It is our desire as a Church to walk alongside parents in this process, enabling, equipping, and encouraging them in this God-given role.  A baby dedication ,which can take place at any time in your young child’s life, declares that you, with the support of the Church, are committed to this role.

In regards to infant baptism, although we recognize that historically it has been practiced in some churches, we do not believe that it is clearly scripturally supported; instead we believe that baptism by water immersion is for believers who have confessed their faith in Christ.  Babies are not yet able to make this confession; therefore we hold baby dedications as a way for parents to bring their child before God and church community. We pray for the parents as they strive to teach their child and for the community as it learns to model Christ to our children. Our desire is that one day the child will come to faith in Christ.

It is fascinating to me that part of God’s rhythm is this holy day of rest. One of the things that Heschel mentions;

“ Man is not a beast of burden, and the Sabbath is not for enhancing his efficiency to work…The Sabbath is not for the sake of the week days, the week days are for the sake of the Sabbath.” (p. 14)

Those two sentences are paradigm shifting for me. There may not be a more subversive act of allegiance to Christ in our culture then keeping Sabbath. We have allowed ourselves to believe that we are in fact “beasts of burden” relentlessly needing to answer texts, emails, deadlines, the next thing then the next thing and we almost celebrate success as the one with the biggest burden wins. We worship work.
Sabbath confronts our understanding of ourselves and our work through the lens of how we treat time. Time is given to us to call our attention to God. For six days we work then we rest. The Sabbath is there at the end of our week reminding us whose we are and whose world we are living in.

It is so tough to do. Turn off your phone for a day and find out what I mean.

Perhaps there is something that Heschel gives us that will help us. In that last line he tells us “the weekdays are made for the Sabbath”. That subtle shift in realizing that I am working so I can take Sabbath. I am moving toward something not looking forward to a break so I can work some more, but moving toward a day where I can celebrate God, his creation and remember who I am in the context of time.

Eugene Peterson and his wife Jan decided that their Sabbath would be a day to pray and to play. I like that. It’s an easier way of looking at it. Instead of a list of things we are not going to do they simplify it. We pray and we play. We talk to God and we recreate.

Jeanne and I are trying to take this seriously. I don’t think which day you do it matters but what we have grown convicted of is the need to anchor our week in something larger than the things we need to do, and the places we need to be. We want our week, our time, to reflect and be centered on Christ. I am hoping that we can learn to do it well. So far it’s tough and rewarding. I don’t think keeping Sabbath was a suggestion though. I think it is an often-disregarded commandment that if we can keep we will know God in a profound way and understand ourselves better too.

The question is buried in a story we know well, an Easter moment before Easter: it is the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. It is a story worth reading right now, one in which many observations can be made, observations about life and death and what we believe. It is a very human story, one in which we could find ourselves. Mary and Martha are very concerned about their brother – he is sick and could die. They seek out their friend Jesus, the one whom they have watched heal many others, and beg him to come visit Lazarus, implying that he, Jesus, would be able to heal him, as well.

The story is very compelling, keeping our attention. There are many things to ponder: why does Jesus not go immediately? When Lazarus dies, why does He declare this a good thing…can it really be good? By the time He gets to their house, Lazarus has been in the grave for four days, and Martha has resigned herself to the only reality she knows: her brother is dead. Something about death makes us accuse God of betrayal. “Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (vs.21)

Jesus confronts this reality with a bold statement: “Your brother will rise again.” Martha wants to believe, and responds with her best theological answer. It is a truthful answer, but emotionally disconnected. Jesus drills deeper: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die, do you believe this?” (vs. 25)

Others have described this as the question for the canyon’s edge – the canyon of death. If God is God anywhere, He has to be God in the face of death. To some degree psychology can deal with depression, the power of positive thinking can deal with pessimism, and prosperity can handle a myriad of our problems. But only God can deal with our ultimate dilemma: death.

“I am the resurrection and the life, do you believe this?” Let the question sink into your heart for a moment. Jesus has a way of stripping our pat answers from us, removing our intellectual reasoning, and exposing our hearts. A lip-service answer will not suffice; this requires a full-throated, heart-resonating answer. Do you believe a young, itinerant Jewish preacher is larger than your death?

The question separates Jesus from a thousand other prophets and religious leaders. The question drives any responsible listener to absolute obedience or to total rejection of the Christian faith, two very different trajectories.

As you approach Easter, may you reengage this question, and may you celebrate the truth that our only hope is found in Him. Hope for today, and hope for tomorrow, from the one who “laid death in his grave.”

“As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.” (NLT)

It’s peculiar to simply read the first verse of a section of scripture that is clearly the beginning of a story, but for a moment we’ll remain there. Jesus sees the blind man and the one known as the light from the first chapter in John notices the one who knows nothing but darkness. The healer known as the ‘Son of God’ stands before the helpless known as the ‘son born blind’.

Think about your life for a moment through this season of lent. It would be my hope that through this season you have made space to spend time with Jesus and all your attempts at hiding or minimizing your sin have been drawn into the light.

So now you stand, fully aware that Jesus sees the real you. You have examined your heart and you see your transgressions and rebellion. No longer hidden, you stand exposed as Jesus just uncovered the lies you once tried to find rested among. Although we all know this story of John doesn’t end here, it’s terribly important that we don’t simply remain within this part of the story – diagnosed but not healed.

Read the verse again, but continue reading through verse eleven.

Although Jesus finds us in our sin, He has no plans to leave us there with simply a proper understanding of our current condition and diagnosis. The good news is truly good news because of his promise to heal. The story continues from the first verse to find a man, once fully aware of his blindness that is now healed and tells the world about the one who has healed him. Although many have told him he was blind, in this man’s entire life, no one has healed him.

Sometimes it feels safer to simply remain diagnosed as broken, when compared to the trust that is required as we walk with Christ into healing & restoration. Will you trust that the one who has revealed your brokenness is able to heal you? The sins and conditions Christ found you in are no longer your home or that which names you. Take a moment and think about the areas of your life that have been exposed within your heart during this season of lent. Where does Christ want to heal you?

I wrote this book for a number of reasons but the main was to anchor our motive for mission in the Gospel. It is easy to slide away from the Gospel and make mission into an idol. I know that sounds odd, but I think it is true. In all of our attempts to change the world, or plant churches or reach people it is easy for us to desire the Kingdom but not because of the King.

One of the major paradigm shifts that God’s people need to make is moving from How to–to-Want to. We spend so much time focused on the how question that we never face the underlying questions that run deeper in our soul; do I actually want to? Do I want to love Jesus?  Do I want to love my neighbor? Do I want to serve the world? Do I want to follow in the Jesus way? If we never face those deeper questions then we just hide behind the How questions and act like our biggest problem with following Jesus is that we are ignorant of how to do it.

In order to do that it seems to me we will have to confront the obstacles to our deeper desires. I think those are death, duty and dishonesty and I try to tackle those topics because I think they paralyze people at the deepest levels where Jesus does his deepest work. All of that sets the table to be confronted by the love of our risen King. I wanted to help us look inside the life of Jesus from the incarnation to the ascension peering into our own hearts through the lens of desire.  I think seeing Jesus from this vantage point is pretty crucial for us, if we are going to be the people of God.

So I wrote this book. I hope it will help us make that shift. To help us move from people who hide behind the How and actually move into desire. Following Jesus and loving the world because we are in love with the King.

Sample chapters

Read or remember the story of the woman at the well (John 4:5-26)

She was a woman who’d had five husbands, with a lover at home.

It was noon, not the typical time that women drew water from the well.   But she needed water to cook, to clean, to drink.  Some say she chose this time purposefully.  In her shame, many believe, she chose a time when few would notice her.  It is almost as if she were hiding, in broad daylight.

Christ noticed her. He saw the layers of hurt.  He saw the men who had left. He saw her feelings of isolation and her ways of reacting.  He saw the defiant independence, the tightened shoulders and hard eyes hiding years of living lonely, surrounded by others.

They began to speak.  Christ offered her living water. He told her to bring her husband, and they would speak more.

“But I have no husband,” says the woman, alone at the well, at noon.

And Christ, in his directness, in his simplicity, speaks the truth back to her.  “You’re right,” he says.  “You’ve had five. And the man you’re living with now is not your husband.”

He did not condemn her or shame her.  Instead, out of his compassion, he spoke the truth to her.  When she tried to be invisible, to hide, Christ did not leave her there.  He saw her, and he engaged her in conversation.  And in the midst of it, he offered her living water.  He offered her life.

We all have our ways of hiding in broad daylight.

Some bind their wounds with sarcasm.  Some hide their insecurity by belittling their spouse in public.  Some cover long histories of betrayal with brown paper wrapped bottles.  We put on piece after piece, layer after layer, of defensive coverings.  We hide.

But Christ’s eyes are not blinded or tricked by what we do or do not tell him.  By what we show or hide.  When we turn away, piling our burdens back on ourselves, seeking to be invisible from the world and from ourselves, there he is.  With eyes that know, full of kindness and compassion.  He gently and honestly uncovers our disguises, and tells us the truth, about who we are, and what he offers to us.  Life.

In what ways are you hiding in broad daylight?  What do you try to conceal from Christ? What is keeping you from coming to him?

Perhaps his words to you

“Come, come, whoever you are…

wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving–it doesn’t matter…

Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times,
Come, come again, come.”

Pray that you would receive the truth that Christ knows all of you and always invites you to come to him.

The second week of Lent calls us to deny the power of evil over our lives.  The temptation to sin (as Josh wrote about last week), to do what we know to be fundamentally wrong, to live a life oriented toward our own self-centeredness sustains a powerful hold over our lives.

We see this very picture painted for us so many times throughout Scripture:  Adam and Eve who held their own desires above the promises of the Father; Abraham and Jacob who wrestled with their own tendencies to lie and deceive; Moses and Aaron who were great leaders of the people of Israel, yet struggled with their own unbelief in the God they told their people to follow; and then there’s King David who clearly fought with the sin of lust.  And not just any lust, but a lust that so enticed him, dragging him to the edge of insanity, adultery and ultimately murder.

As a child I would hear stories about these “great” men and women of scripture, these iconic, biblical characters who did significant things.  Yet the question that remained was “if they couldn’t how can I?”  Throughout my adolescence the answer to that question was given to me in the form of many tangible things I could do to overcome my own sin.  I could read the bible more, pray more, be more involved in serving others, be a part of accountability groups, and so on.  So I entered into this cycle of trying, failing, confessing, and back to trying.  But the rub for me came when my own parents and heroes in my life began to cave to sin.  Sin that dropped a grenade in the middle of what I thought was spiritual health and vitality.  That’s when it all stopped making sense to me; when denying my own sin became an impossibility; when I gave up and had to make one of two choices:  walk away or start pretending.

Take a moment and read Luke 22.  Yes, I know there are 71 verses, but it’s important to read the whole chapter to understand the context.

In a chapter that is bookended by men who are caving in to sin we find Jesus remaining faithful.

Read verses 39-46.  While Jesus is asking the Father to take away “this cup” – this gruesome task that was before him – he continues to bend his will to that of the Father’s.  “Not my will, but yours be done.”  The contrast in this chapter is stunning.  Jesus’ own disciple caves and betrays him.  The other disciples argue selfishly about who will be the greatest when Jesus becomes king.  After pledging his undying allegiance one of his closest friends denies knowing him, leaving Jesus to endure the agony he will face alone.  And then at the end of the chapter we find Jesus being mocked and beaten by those he came to rescue.  Yet HE is the one who does not cave to sin.  As I read this passage I am reminded of the way Satan tempted Jesus to unleash his power while in the desert.  In the same way, Jesus resists the temptation to depart from what the Father had given him to do, but remains faithful to the Father and faithful to his mission and purpose even while drops of bloody and sweat drip from his face as he anticipates his brutal hours ahead.

Who do you find yourself identifying with in this chapter?  To those who deny Jesus?  To those who are self centered?  To those who fight?  To those who are lazy in their faith?  To those who mock and blaspheme?  Or do you identify with Christ?

The season of Lent can tend to be a time when, as followers of Christ, we focus on all of the things we have to do. Our approach to God can become very works based when we search for those tangible “handles” that will help hold us up.  However, our call to deny sin cannot be found in our own attempts at obedience.  There is no formula to deny sin.  There is no amount of “quiet time,” activism or fasting that will enable us to remain faithful.  Lent is about receiving Christ.  Denying sin is about receiving Christ.  And so let us return to what we read last week, “As we observe Jesus’ faithful obedience during Lent, our first response should not necessarily be “we need to [deny sin like Jesus did,”] but rather, “we need Jesus.”  Jesus is true humanity.  He is more than just an inspiring figure who [denied sin], he is the humanity we need to be but can never be without him.  Jesus is our representative before the Father who lives the life we couldn’t live, dies the death that was ours to die, so that we might live again in him.”

So I resolve not to walk away or to pretend.  There is a third option, and it is to embrace the fact that I cannot deny sin, but he can, and I am in him.

In a life that is bookended by men and women who are caving in to sin – even those who seem closest to him –  we find Jesus remaining faithful.  Take a few minutes to thank God that your life is found in his, and that he has overcome the evil one.

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“For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.  I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  ~ Galatians 2:19-20

If you have time, read and meditate on Col. 3:1-17