A creative collaboration between Trinity United Methodist Church and Sellwood Faith Community

It has been over a month since our last update to this blog.  In that time we found out my dad's cancer had returned, learned that there was nothing more that could be done to treat it, partied with him, said goodbye, and sat with him as he died.  In the two...

I recently had an experience that caused me to reflect on my very first week of professional ministry.   That week in August of 1998 I moved from the suburbs of Chicago to the high desert of Yakima, WA.  I arrived in Yakima and just 2 days later I piled...

This photo does not do the chocolate cake justice.It might seem an odd combination, pumpkin ale and chocolate cake, but trust me it made for a pretty good duo last night at Theology on Tap.  Depending on what you think about both theology and alcohol just the...

Me- literally building somethingWe are building a community, a culture, a church.  We are creating systems and budgets.  We are learning a ton along the way.  One of the more important things we have learned in our three months of being new church...

A night of serviceI was chatting with a friend about something Paige and I did this past week.  “You took your 8 year old where?” They asked.  The “where” in question was under the Burnside bridge on Thursday night to a program called Night Strike. ...

Jeff and I just returned from a new start training in Boise.  We meet with national leaders in the new faith community movement as well as numerous leaders from the west who were launching their own unique ministries.  Much of what we heard was both a...

I'm a work in progress, just as this community is.I'm home for a few minutes between volunteering at school and picking up the daughter.  I decided to come home for 30 minutes to just be in my house.  I played a little candy crush, drank some water, and just...

The perfect shoes for taking holy stepsFall is here I can't believe it's been so long since my last post!  Things have been moving as we'd hoped with the new start, which means slowly.  Our whole vision is to create networks, get engaged with our community,...

come and ask some questions / God leads us on a journey / our questions help us grow From Come on In by Jeff LoweryMy job these days is talking to people, which is something I love.  Talking to people who we already know, talking to people who have...

Today for Jeff's birthday we went down to Bertie Lou's for breakfast.  Well first we walked to Ada's, but it's been closed so we wandered down 17th to Bertie Lou's.  As we were hanging out waiting for a table the smartest little thing walked up to Paige to...