Missional Communities News

project summer is almost here!

Project Summer '08 is in the planning stages and could use your vision and creativity! Join a team of folks passionate about serving children and families and help us roll out this year's project to feed and love the kids of Portland. To learn more about how your gifts match up with this missional leadership opportunity, contact Annie Kirschner at .

have elderly neighbors?

Do you have any elderly neighbors who could use your friendship and perhaps practical help? Imago Dei's Serving the Elderly ministry encourages individuals and home communities to adopt a lifestyle of care and involvement with the forgotten elderly in your neighborhoods. For more information about how simple it is to make a huge and gospel-centered impact, contact Alan Rutherford at .

compassion SE volunteers

As a response to the gospel which calls for unveiling the compassion of Christ in our city, Imago is participating with Compassion SE, a free, one-day medical clinic and social services fair for SE families in need. We invite people of all different skills and abilities to get involved, such as medical professionals; kids ministry workers; set-up and tear-down people; hairstylists; foreign language speakers; parking attendants; van drivers; warm, friendly greeters; and more! To learn more and to sign up, click here; or contact Clark Blakeman ().

looking for hope and healing?

Everyone needs seasons of life that nourish the soul in transformative ways. In response, the Imago Novus School of Theology class serves as an introduction to the Refuge ministry. The class is held every Monday from 7-9 p.m. in the Evangel Baptist Fellowship Hall (2830 NE Flanders). For more information, contact Clark Blakeman ().

missional leadership class

Do you have leadership longings with a desire to express it missionally? Do you lead a missional community or Home Community? God desires to develop and activate servant leaders as vanguards of missional movements that engage and enrich the cultures into which they are seeded. This requires strategic and prayerful attention to missional leadership development, which we are offering as a free School of Theology class. This eight-week class started April 12 and meets from 9-11 a.m. at Evangel Baptist (2830 NE Flanders). Click here to sign up or just show up.

RISE

If you submitted your taxes this year, you are probably looking forward to your rebate check as part of the Economic Stimulus Act. A group of four Christian men, including one from Imago Dei, has initiated RISE (Rebates in Service of Everyone), which is a call to those who do not need their rebates to collectively donate $100 million to local, national and international organizations that serve the poor, the hungry, the homeless or others in need. For more information, please visit the table in the Franklin hallway or go to the RISE website.

art for healing workshop

The Imago Dei Refuge and Jane McVay ministries desire that people enter and express their healing journey through creative ways, and so they have created a series of five Art for Healing workshops designed for those who have experienced personal trauma or painful struggles in their lives. Each workshop is taught by a local artist and has a unique theme and medium. One workshop will be provided once a month at two different times of the day. The next workshop is May 16. Cost is $25 per workshop; all materials are provided. All levels of artists are welcome. For dates, locations, and to register, please visit www.imagodeicommunity.com/workshop or contact Anna Studenny ().

need construction work?

Irvington Covenant Community Development Corporation heads up a re-entry program that provides construction work for ex-offenders. ICCDC, a non-profit organization licensed and bonded with the State, specializes in residential and commercial, building, remodels and general labor construction. Its prices are competitive and it guarantees the work. For quotes, call 503-281-1234.

ronald mcdonald house dinner

Each month, a group from Imago makes dinner for the families staying at the house. Please join us June 8 at 4 p.m. as we prepare dinner. This is a great chance to share with these families in need. Please contact Erin Gleason () if interested.

investing in the future

Is God calling you to journey beside people struggling with the effects of poverty? The Southeast Apartment Ministry holds a kids club on Saturdays with the intent of imparting to the children Kingdom values and life skills. This ministry also sees their work with children as a bridge to forming trusting relationships with the parents and other adults. Contact Yung Ouyang ( or 510-517-5971) if you are interested in partnering with us.

discover the mission.

Are you interested in how Christ is entering our missional communities? Curious about what the new developments that are occurring? Journals are available for you to read at the Local/Global Mission display case in the Franklin hallway (the one with the TV in it). Come read the story and discover the mission. So that everyone has the opportunity to discover the mission, please do not take the journals home with you.

what's missional community?

Simply stated, its a group of people who journey together to graciously serve people in our city with the whole gospel to the whole person. As we look outside ourselves, unite in humble need-meeting and genuine love for others a deep and rich community develops. We love the broken, the poor, the addict, the outcast, the lonely, the homeless, the displaced, because Jesus does. His compassion compels us, his grace unites us; that is missional community.
 

a missional journey

Jesus Christ was sent into the world not to condemn it but to save it. He came as the most authentic and intentional individual that ever lived and called people to follow him. It is on this journey where our story intersects with God's story and our lives take on a different path. The journey is one of purpose, of mission, but also of authentic struggle and joy, of pain and suffering as we receive and offer healing and hope. We are called to be ourselves, in the reality of our frailty and brokenness, yet dwelling in the eternal love of God, thus becoming and bringing something altogether new. It is on this journey that we are called to befriend others, to walk along side them and invite them to experience the power and grace of our loving God. This journey then becomes one in which the people of God are authentic while purposefully engaged together in mission. The Early Church did not want to step out into the world but remained in Jerusalem . God brought persecution and the church was scattered and sent on mission into the whole world. It is here that we discover and enter into the ancient story of the church of Christ .

the value applied

We are the sent people of God, to Portland and beyond. The journey takes on many forms, from acts of compassion where our church may serve, to really befriending broken people and going where they go and living where they live for the sake of loving them and letting Jesus be displayed through us. As representatives of Jesus we strive to engage our culture in issues of social justice, advocacy, assistance, and proclamation as well as simply living the reality of our passion for Christ in the midst of our culture. This is gospel. We look for God-placed flames of passion for the gospel and people. We fan the flame, we resource, we train, we give opportunities, in a word we unleash our community to enter the journey.