Faith's Edge

Weird, huh? Yesterday I was writing about how great Pittsburgh was (and is!) and today I am writing about going to Portland. Any other cities folks would like me to write about? San Francisco, maybe?

Anyway, Marnie and I are going to visit Portland next week to meet with some pastors about a possible internship for the summer. The internship site is the Presbyterian Urban Network (PUN, for short...seriously, that's what they call themselves) it is actually a consortium of about a dozen small urban churches in the Portland area. Combined they have a membership of just over 200. They have realized that if they are going to survive they need to collaborate on programs and ideas. They don't actually have alot of programs up and running, so I would get to help design some.

I'm hoping to pair this internship with working with Mission Bay Community Church during next school year. Neither is a very traditional internship, and being a fairly untraditional guy, that suits me just fine. What I'm surprised with myself about is that I'm looking to work at two churches (well actually way more than two churches if you considered all the PUN congregations). For all my misgivings about the way church is done, I'm not sure I'm ready to give up on it (for non-profit work or acadamia, for instance) I think the church is still Christ's body working in the world, we just need to allow that body to grow, mature, and stretch. The organizations are flawed. The ministers are faulty. The congregations are jacked up. But the church (universal) needs to be recovered. Part of me wants to find a brand new paradigm, but that new paradigm would alienate just as many people as the old ones.

The church is still needed, now I need to see if the church needs me...