Welcome

Springwater is a new intentional church community in Portland, Oregon's eclectic Lents neighborhood. This was taken at our covenant-crafting summit on the Oregon Coast, April 2008. Absent are several new members.

The Vision

The world is in a mess: empires slaughter entire nations, the greedy oppress the weak, the lustful degrade their bodies, and all flesh crumples under the weighty lies of latter-day idols too abundant to count.  Systems of domination collude with the mutinous hearts of men and women to keep God’s loving will and glory at bay.

Yet God’s will has commenced despite our common rebellion.  Through the story of Israel’s climax in the life, teachings, execution, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Lord has invaded this world with the kingdom of heaven.  And Yahweh has kept as family a peculiar people through it all – tasked now with being God’s new creations amid the world’s last, lost, and least.

We belong to that peculiar people of God.  Yahweh has called us out of the domination systems of the world and established us into the divine family and Kingdom of Jesus, set apart as a holy people.  By God’s strength and wisdom we have gathered here to covenant together to creatively live out that calling.

God’s dream has taken hold of us.  We are excited to see how it will take root, grow, flower, and bear fruit in its time.

This dream is about putting down roots as incarnation-inspired disciples living in proximity to one another in one of Portland’s most neglected areas.

This dream is about growing in love, service, and peace with one another as we worship Jesus, live simply, nurture a common life, and work for his kingdom.

This dream is about blossoming, in the fullness of time, as God’s salt and light in a forgotten neighborhood – seeking its peace, practicing resurrection, and transforming the area and one another with the gospel.  This dream is about bearing fruit and multiplying, sending out seeds of hope to other communities in Portland, the Northwest, and the world – becoming a growing network of households based on the ancient truth that God is calling us back into relationship through Jesus.

To this end we seek a community of reconciled relationships with this collection of believers under the lordship of Jesus.

Jesus

…is the center of our faith.

God shows the way of being truly human in the person of Jesus.  King Jesus is the root of our faith, our Liberator and Sage and Teacher and Friend.

Jesus is at the core of how we read the Bible and live as part of its big story.  The Way of Love that he taught, and the Kingdom of God which he proclaimed, are what it’s all about.  Jesus’ actions and teachings are the roots out of which everything else grows and finds nourishment.

In Jesus we see the true image-bearer of God.  Though we’re all cracked image-bearers, unable to be the fully-human beings that God crafted us to be, it is Jesus who makes us ‘un-cracked’ and teaches us how to follow him him in the Way of Love.  He helps us live out his teachings through the power of his resurrection in our lives together.

Jesus is also our King, the sovereign and master to whom we joyfully kneel before.  He received this authority by choosing love, not power, every time.

We know Jesus as the one who breaks chains, who beat the dark powers that oppress this world, who taught how to continue the Way of Love, and as a personal friend who cares deeply for us.

Community

…is the center of our life.

The Reign of God is explored with one another, as God’s new family.  In it we find unity and love for one another, the trunk of our spirituality.  We share life together as a reflection of the Triune God.

A Jesus-centered faith is all about relationships — healing, life-spreading, reconciling, and justice-seeking relationships.  It is truest to Jesus when it’s lived out in community, not simply as a private affair for lone rangers.

The community-centered life is a foretaste of a right-set world, of the dream of God that Jesus promised he was establishing among his followers.  It’s the ancient Hebrew vision of shalom: a place of abundance, of sharing everything, of overflowing right-relatedness and healing and true peace.  We fall short of this big dream of God all the time — yet we spot God establishing this among us just as often.  Yes: life in community is only by grace.  We endeavor to be a gospel-bearing community.

We tend to this life-together by following Jesus’ Way of Love, which includes laying our lives down for one another and actively cultivating the divine life in one another.  In this, God’s love travels from the vertical to the horizontal.  And this love of God among us is what binds us together in unity.

And this is a unity which celebrates the diversity of persons within it.  As restored image-bearers, we in community bear the image of the Trinity — the ultimate picture of unity and plurality interweaving in perfect community.

Reconciliation

…is the center of our work.

Shalom and Justice are the fruitful branches of our spirituality, extending God’s love into the world.  We join God in righting relationships within us, between us, with God, and with the Land.

A gospel-bearing community is a contagious community.  Its Jesus-centered faith and community-centered life creates goodness wherever it is planted.  As the Trinity’s healthy inner life of love led to God creating the heavens and the earth, and working thereafter to bring it into shalom, so also we as church trust that our life together will bring shalom, justice, and sustainability to our neighborhood.

A gospel-bearing community also a countercultural community.  It is created to comfort, change, and challenge the world as  we know it.

To the oppressed we are called to bring God’s salve of hospitality and justice and rest.  In our buying habits and through common practices such as gardening and dumpster-diving, we unplug from the domination systems that trample over the weak and strong alike.

To the institutions and persons already working toward shalom, justice, and sustainability, we are called to partner with them in seeking the peace of this city.

To the institutions and systems of power that resist God’s dreams, we are called to announce their defeat on Christ’s cross, and work under the banner of God’s victory to expose their treasonous ways.

more info…

What’s membership all about in Springwater? >> Membership is a process of moving deeper toward the vision in the neighborhood.  It begins with a one-year exploring/test/trial/catechumen season that we call the Novitiate year.  Novitiates are then invited into a discernment process of covenanting into the vision with other long-term members and moving toward core membership.  Also: Springwater is a neighborhood church with members ideally living within a 5-minute walk from one another, and generally swarming about within the district of our nearby high-needs elementary school.  Think of it as a relational parish.

How long have y’all been together? >> We started dreaming and scheming in summer 2007, and been in the neighborhood as a church community since summer 2008.  We’re definitely still a “baby community”.  :)

Are you affiliated with any bigger denomination or communion? >> We’re not formally affiliated with any denomination.  But we embarked on this journey in a “birthing” relationship with many in the Mennonite Church USA, Church of the Servant King (in St John’s), Christian Associates, Shalom Mission Communities, and many friends at Imago Dei.  And yes, down the road we intend to seek membership in the Pacific Northwest Conference of MCUSA.

Can I visit? >> If you can find us.