Why Portland?

So, many times we get asked this question: "Why Portland?"

This question usually follows us explaining that we feel called to start a discipleship school in Portland. But not usually right after. The people asking this question usually wait two or three days and spring it on me at an inopportune moment, when my mind is totally engrossed with the sandwich I'm eating, or exactly how far I can tip that chair back without falling over, or something equally mundane. They'll just walk up to me out of the blue and say "Why Portland?" like I should have some deep insightful answer just sitting there, waiting for someone to ask me.

What usually ends up happening, is I stammer out a few stats about human trafficking, something about how much Portland needs it, or homelessness, or maybe something about how cool of a place it is. It's not convincing at all, and it sounds very much like I'm not committed, or that I haven't thought through this thing at all, but that's about as far from the truth as it could be. It's just that my mind doesn't switch into sales mode that quickly. I'm more apt to be wondering how the decay of the speed of light as a universal constant could be a convincing argument for creationism, or about how the organizational structure of YWAM spells it's own death, or about what light waves refract in the atmosphere above the clouds.

What I'm not thinking about is: "What's a cool way to communicate the vision I feel God has put on my heart for Portland and my future?"

So, here's an attempt:

Why Portland? I'm glad you asked! It's simple, really. God called us there. I don't understand all of his reasons. I just know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's where he wants us to be. God is doing something special in Portland right now. There's lots of things being started there and being brought back there or moving there for the first time. I don't understand it completely, but Portland is spiritually significant right now.

Also, both Lydia and I feel that God is putting on our hearts some type of authentic community (yes, I know that's all the rage right now). Not like an ultra-hip church, though. I'm not ultra-hip, and I don't know how to be. Also, I don't go to church.

No, the community God is describing to us is a community of people that does life together. Instead of being committed to a "cause" or a "model" or something like that, they're committed to each other. Plain and simple. They live together, they eat together, they get involved in each other's lives. They don't all work in the same place - in fact, they interact with and react to the community at large, but are so filled up with love and refreshed and enjoying life and God that they become beacons of hope to people who have no understanding of unconditional love, who may even be hostile to God.

Now, Portland seems like an awesome place to make that happen. I envision myself running a discipleship school half the year, then working with the previously described communal group the rest of the year. And raising a family. And having awesome microbrews. And going on missions. And writing a (New York Times Best-selling) book(s).

Want to come?