Mission ConneXion draws crowd while encouraging action

By JOHN FORTMEYER
CNNW publisher
    PORTLAND — Although this time with a new name, a now-familiar and increasingly popular mix of speakers, exhibits and workshops came together again in a big way Jan. 19 and 20 to encourage people to take the Gospel to the entire world.
    And it seems that moreand more young people are catching the vision, at least based on the numbers attending Mission ConneXion Northwest, according to chairman Bill MacLeod.
   “I was thrilled with how many young people I saw,” said MacLeod, missions pastor at Greater Portland Bible Church.
   “The median age has dropped,” agreed David Bilby, a member of the event’s guiding committee, as he surveyed the crowd. “You used to see a lot of grey hair here.”
    Formerly known as MissionsFest Northwest, this year’s fifth annual event drew an aggregate attendance of about 10,000 people to Sunset Presbyterian Church, said MacLeod. It is sponsored by an informal coalition of local churches.
    Theme for this year was “Impacting Nations” and was emphasized by keynote speaker Skip Lanfried of the North American P.E.A.C.E. missions strategry program of Saddleback Church in California. Also featured were Floyd McClung Jr, international director of All Nations Family; Catherine Coon, a missionary with WorldVenture, and Paul Borthwick of Development Associates International.
    Describing his program at Saddleback, Lanfried told a plenary session Saturday the 20th that it has been “thrilling” to get 80 percent of his church’s members committed to participation in at least short-term missions. He urged Northwest churches to show similar commitment.
   “We’ve got to get people to realize that there really aren’t enough professionals to reach the world,” he said “The Great Commission is for everybody.”
    Transportation and communications today make it an exciting time to reach the world for Christ, Lanfried emphasized.
   “It’s possible now for people in your church to go anywhere in the world,” he said.
    Mission ConneXion Northwest offered more than 120 workshops on a wide range of missions topics, and more than 70 exhibits by ministries working throughout the world
   “It’s wonderful,” said Mike Klontz of Spokane, Wash., a regional representative for New Tribes Mission, as he manned his agency’s exhibit. “I haven’t been able to get around, because I’ve been so busy talking with people.”
    He said Mission ConneXion Northwest was a great venue for exposing missions agencies to people from a wide range of churches.
It also is good to interact with representatives of the other ministries, he said.
“We’re all in this together, to reach the world for Christ,” he said. “There’s no competition.”
    Mission ConneXion Northwest is rotated among the larger churches in the Portland metropolitan area. Next year the event will take place Jan. 18 and 19 at Rolling Hills Community Church in Tualatin. Plenary speakers will be Reuben Ezemadu, international director of the Christian Missionary Foundation of West Africa; Bob Sjogren, president of UnveilinGlory; Heather Mercer, a relief worker with Shelter Now International who was imprisoned along with Dayna Curry in Afghanistan by the Taliban; and Portland-based international evangelist Luis Palau.