'World's biggest log church' envisioned

By JOHN FORTMEYER
CNNW publisher
    OREGON CITY — Joe Wardlow readily admits he is far from having all the pieces in place. Yet, he also believes God already does, and that is why Wardlow fully envisions the world’s biggest log church standing in Oregon City and drawing fresh attention to the Northwest’s Christian heritage.
    Once achieved, the Trail’s End Log Church would be the fulfillment of a vision that Wardlow says God gave him four years ago. It was while in prayer, he says, that God dramatically instructed him to do something that he had never come close to doing, nor even had the inclination or ability to do:
   “Build me a church.”
    Over the following weeks, continued prayer revealed to the retired warehouseman from Oregon City the kind of church that he believes God wants built, including where it is to be built — on Beavercreek Road in Oregon City — and by whom — West Coast Log Homes of British Columbia, Canada.
    Wardlow said the potential cost of the project even became apparent to him. It is a figure that in itself calls for extraordinary faith, especially in today’s economy — $17 million. While the project ultimately may not cost that much, it is Wardlow’s estimate of the total value of land acquisition and construction.
    Today, a recently launched web site, trailsendlogchurch.org, helps illuminate Wardlow’s vision. He has established a non-profit organization and is seeking to hire a development director to take on the task of raising funds for the project.
    Wardlow says the most immediate need is to purchase the property at a cost of $2 millon. He is not divulging the specific site nor its current owner, but says negotations are ongoing.
    Besides the main 30,000 square-foot sanctuary seating 1,200 people, the proposed 68,000 square-foot complex also would include an adminstration building, a prayer chapel, a Christian school, a gazebo and a Christian history museum that also would be headquarters for ROAR (Reviving Oregon’s Amazing Roots), a ministry focusing on the region’s Christian heritage.
Construction would primarily be in cedar, and the complex would be built “green” — environmentally friendly with wind-generated power and landscaping treated with well water.
    ROAR founder Aaron Auer of Oregon City and his associate John Sutton of Springfield learned of the project last year from Wardlow and have since agreed to serve as the church’s pastors. Auer is former pastor of a church in Lake Oswego and a graduate of Rhema Bible Training Center in Oklahoma. Sutton was associate pastor for 20 years with Crossfire Ministries in Eugene and then worked with Church of the Harvest there.
    Wardlow is thrilled by their commitment, as the need for a pastor had basically put the project in a holding pattern for about two years. He said their involvement makes perfect sense, because the church is meant to call attention to the region’s Christian roots.
   “I knew it has to do something with our heritage,” Wardlow said. “Why else would it be in Oregon City?”
   Auer and Sutton, who conducted the Line in the Sand Tour of every county in Oregon last year as a ROAR outreach, were struck by how little the state’s churches know about the Northwest’s Christian foundings. “Not one church in this state knew about our heritage,” said Sutton.
   Trails End Log Church would seek to change that, and would unashamedly challenge the state’s culture by “speaking the Word of God... preaching the issues of the day from the pulpit,” he said.
   Auer said he and Sutton see the project as a way to bring the ROAR message to a larger platform.
  “I knew that this had the potential to do what was already in our hearts,” he said.
   Wardlow invites anyone interested in learning more about the project or in assisting it to contact him at 503-502-9771 or joe@trailsendlogchurch.org.