First a fire, then a sale:

nationally known church

needs new home

By JOHN FORTMEYER

CNNW publisher

   PORTLAND — Within a 10-day period, the nationally known Eastside Foursquare Church here experienced what seemed to be a double whammy — first an accidental but devastating fire April 26, and then learning May 5 that the church and its hotel properties are being sold by the congregation’s parent denomination.
    Eastside Pastor Eric Bahme, whose unusual pairing of a church and a hotel business at 9727 N.E. Sandy Blvd. these past six years has drawn wide media attention, acknowledges that the events of the past several weeks initially caused him to wonder what God was doing.
    Between the two incidents, Bahme said, it is clear that God is ending one era for the church and starting another.
    “Did God close a door here? God slammed a door,” he said.

     Bahme still has lots of unanswered questions, but he says his faith is stronger than ever that God is in charge and that things will work out for good — really good.
    “I’ve never been more excited in my life,” said Bahme. He has already begun seeking a new home for the church and its associated ministries, including the Freedom House drug treatment center for men and whatever ventures might be developed as he and Eastside seek to expand Bahme’s “Mission-Based Enterpreneurship” model that pairs churches with the business world.
    But in the meantime, the immediate needs of the roughly 400-member congregation are commanding Bahme’s attentions. The pending sale of the Quality Inn & Suites and Rodeway Inn site to Premier Hospitality Group LLC is set to close in the coming weeks, and Bahme believes the church and ministry programs need to have moved by then even though the prospective buyers have invited the church to stay.
    Bahme’s feelings on that run deep. He said Eastside has always considered the three-acre campus sacredly dedicated to the Lord’s work. That is why what was previously known as a run-down haven for drug use and prostitution has become a spiritual beacon in the area, he said.
     But Bahme said that under new secular ownership it would be inappropriate for the church and ministries to continue there. While he is familiar with the new owners and respects them as “good hoteliers,” the church would not be a good fit with them because they share a different faith, Bahme said.
    Investigators determined the fire was caused by a malfunction in a lamp. It destroyed the church’s meeting space, maintenance area and Sacred Grounds coffee shop. Damage was estimated at $2.5 million.
    Since the blaze, the congregation has found a short-term meeting site in the chapel building at the Western Seminary campus in Portland. But that is only available until August, said Bahme, and he is open to any ideas about a new long-range home or business partnerships for Eastside. He invites anyone with suggestions to contact himat 503-542-0440 or eric@eastsidechurch.net.
     The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel bought the property for $3.8 million in 2004. Bahme said the asking price this time was $4 million.
He acknowledges that the denomination has longsubsidized the hotel operation but had decided it could no longer do so.
   “We were close to turning things around, and then the recession hit,” he said.
    Bahme said he was notified in January that his denominational board had decided to put the Eastside property on the market, but that was all he was told until news of the pending sale came four months later.
    He said that while he is not intimately involved with the denomination’s financial challenges, Foursquare has been impacted by the global economic downturn and that likely played a role in the decision.
    “I have no problems with them selling the hotel,” he said. “And for me to get my heart bent out of shape, when I don’t look at the global picture, would be wrong.”
     But he does have two major questions lingering. First, he wonders “why our (Foursquare) family didn’t include me in the process.”
    Secondly, he wonders why more of an effort wasn’t made by the denomination to keep the property “in the Kingdom” by selling to another Christian group who could continue ministry from there. Bahme said the neighborhood likes what the church and its businesses have done.
   “We took (spiritual) ground,” he said. “If it took six years to establish this bulkhead, why give it up?”
    Furthermore, Eastside’s influence has extended well beyond the neighborhood by planting six other churches, including four in the Portland area and two in Nicaragua.
     Adam Davidson, assistant vice president and director of operations for the denomination, said the original intent in purchasing the hotel “was to invest in a viable business that would fund ministry opportunities from its operating profits. Unfortunately, not only has the hotel/church been unable to accomplish this goal, it has never been able to assume responsibility for the significant debt obligation incurred by the Foursquare Church to ac-quire and redevelop the property … this despite the best efforts and close partnership of everyone involved.”
    For that reason, the Foursquare board “reluctantly” chose to pursue the sale, Davidson said. He said the listing agency “marketed to all groups,” but that no Christian organizations made a formal offer.
   “We would have loved to see a Kingdom-minded organization purchase the hotel; however, this simply did not happen,” he said. “While the preference of the Foursquare Church has always been to sell properties to other ministry organizations, in this case, the very unique nature of a hotel/church operation that we believed held great potential for ministry, apparently isn’t immediately recognized by other organizations.”
    There is no question, Davidson said, that “tre-mendous ministry has taken place on-site, many lives have been impacted, and the Eastside Foursquare Church is making a difference in their community, but we believe reasonable opportunity has been given and good stewardship demands the church move forward without the hotel.”
    Davidson agrees with Bahme about Eastside’s strong future. “In fact, I believe that the church will be able to reach a greater level of impact without the financial burden of the hotel,” he said.
    Bahme outlined his concept of a “complementary relationship between mission and business” in his recent book The MBE (Mission-Based Entre-preneur) Revolution, and at www. kingdompoint.net.
    He said the sudden changes coming to Eastside Foursquare seem to indicate that a new platform will be established both for the church’s harvest of souls and for the MBE model to be extended through other congregations..
    “I think Eastside has a wider model now, a wider reach,” he said. “I think God is planting a church-planting marketplace movement.”