10 years ago Jeff and I were sent to Portland to plant a new church. We had a vision, based in Acts 2, of a community of believers who would eat together, learn together, serve our neighborhood together, and share life. We hoped to start with dinner and spawn a series of meals in other’s homes. We did try out brunch for a while and then Snack Church began in 2019. The leaders of snack church have stepped away, but it was an essential gathering point for the 3 years of those gatherings. While we haven’t formed a network of meals like we had hoped over the past 10 years we have evolved and grown into the parish, partnering with Trinity UMC to form a creative collaboration to draw folks into this vision of shared life in Christ.
When we began we assumed that people wanted an opportunity to serve and so we worked with Bethlehem House of Bread, Transition Projects, and NightStrike. What we found were a few dedicated folks who engaged with those things and that the bulk of the people we were interacting with did not have the capacity to serve in these ways. So we pivoted and created spaces for learning. We did book studies and had deep conversations.
Over the past 10 years we have learned so much, journeyed with people as they found their true selves, and held each other up in grief, joy, and the everyday. Sellwood Faith Community has turned into something we never could have dreamed and that is beautiful. I am disappointed that our hope for a network of gatherings that touched hundreds hasn’t been the path, and yet I wouldn’t trade the sweetness of what we’ve found for that image of success. I’m not sure what the next 10 years hold, but I know that God is and will be at work in and amount us.
-Eilidh.
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