We visited with two partner churches in Oregon in the Portland area. The first was Imago Dei Community in downtown Portland, followed by Evergreen Presbyterian in Beverton, Oregon.
Imago Dei Community Church
Miriam and I had dinner with Eric and Tara Brown. Eric is the director for Church planting for Imago Dei Community, a church Spanish River helped start in 2000-2001. Eric also served in this capacity for Spanish River almost 10 years ago. We had a great time reminiscing about past mission trips and other memories from when Eric and Tara lived in Boca Raton.
Imago Dei just celebrated their 11th year and average around 1900 per weekend at their 4 services. Their lead pastor and church planter Rick McKinley has done a great job leading this ministry.
Imago Dei is very involved in their city where they have several ministries that serve Portland. They also have been engaged in starting churches and have recently made the decision to form their own church planting network. Several other churches are partnering with them in this new venture.
Evergreen Presbyterian Church
Our next visit was with Nathan Lewis the senior pastor of Evergreen Presbyterian Church in Beaverton, Oregon. Nathan planted Evergreen almost 20 years ago with the support of Spanish River Church. Evergreen started their own Christian school several years ago that is doing very well. They also are planting another church that just started a few months ago called Ascension Presbyterian with church planter Eric Costa.
Nathan expressed great appreciation for SRC and David Nicholas for not only the financial investment, but also for the training and encouragement he received from David.
Ways to Pray
Please pray for Eric and Rick and their new initiative in planting churches in the northwest. Also, keep Eric and Tara in your prayers as they prepare for their oldest son, John to go off to college next year.