Portland Church Planting – Making Disciples who make disciples, forming new churches throughout the Portland Metro area.
Portland, Oregon is the 27th largest city in North America, with 2.36 million residents in the metro area (600,000 in the urban core). Commonly referred to as Bridgetown, Stumptown, the Rose City, Rip City, Portlandia, and PDX, the moniker “keep Portland weird” is a daily tribute to the uniqueness of Portlanders.
Portland is a coffee-lover’s haven, and the biking capital of North America (6-7% commute to work by bike). It is the home of corporate giants like Nike and Adidas, and yet boasts over 700 food carts and trucks, making it truly a city of “cheap eats” with world class flavor, ranking as the World’s Best Street Food. A city of neighborhoods, it is “a Big city of Small neighborhoods.” It is also a city of refugees — both nationally and internationally.
Portland is a very spiritual-seeking city, although many do not know what they are seeking. It is a city in need of Jesus- the one who is seeking them.
Some stats according to Portlanders…. -64% believe in something -25% consider themselves religious -39% consider themselves spiritual -10% are atheist -17% classify themselves as agnostic -8% are confused -23% participate in organized religion regularly (daily/weekly) -26% participate for major holidays -51% never participate in organized religion
Though largely unchurched, Portland is a city of spiritual seeking people. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Currently, the Portland Metro area has approximately 78 SBC churches. However, most of these churches gather outside the central city causing what is referred to as the “donut effect.” Many of us know that cities are central to spreading the Gospel. Most of us know that Jesus’ movement started in large metropolitan areas before spreading like wildfire through the ancient world. Portland Church Planting, while still planting churches in the suburbs and rural areas of the Portland metro area, is poised to re-imagine being the people of God in the central city, engaging “the donut hole” in Portland. Join us in making disciples who make disciples, resulting in the birth of new churches in Portlandia – where young people go to retire.
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