Mission Portland changes location, support staffing

By JOHN FORTMEYER CNNW publisher PORTLAND -- Mission Portland Networking, a clearinghouse and linking movement for activity by the evangelical Christian community locally forthe past 11 years, is making significant changes to help ensure its long-range effectiveness.

Chief among the changes is a relocation of offices away from MultnomahBible College, which has served as Mission Portland's base since its founding in 1989 in a joint venture by Joe Aldrich, then the president of Multnomah, and Terry Taylor of the Navigators.

Instead, Mission Portland has a new operations base through a partnership with Crawford Broadcasting Company, owner of Christian radio stations KKPZ, KKSL and KPBC in Portland. On June 1 Mission Portland's phone number became (503) 242-2911 and is now answered by station staff, who are themselves familiar with networking efforts among local Christians. The station also will manage a new Mission Portland web site at www.missionportland.org.

Also, much of Mission Portland's records and data will be handled by Carl Townsend of Strategic Resource Ministries in Lake Oswego.

The changes reflect no dissatisfaction by the college with Mission Portland and its goals, but changing circumstances mean Mission Portland's growth can perhaps be better served offcampus, said college President Dan Lockwood.

I don't see us going our separate ways at all, he said, affirming that the college still endorses an important role for Mission Portland in the years ahead.

Lockwood said a big factor was the unexpected death last year of Terry Dirks, director of Multnomah's International Renewal Ministries. Prior to Dirks' death, Mission Portland had been placed under the IRM structure and Dirks' supervision.

With Terry's death, and also with input from pastors and servant-leaders, we got a sense that we needed to wait on the Lord's direction a little more with IRM, and there also was a sense that we needed to free up Mission Portland... There's not anything that Mission Portland is doing that we disagree with Lockwood said. But it's just coming back to our mission as a college. Ultimately we are an educational organization with an educational mission.

We're not severing relationships or ties with Multnomah, just managing Mission Portland in a different way, agreed Dennis Blevins, one of Mission Portland's key coordinators since 1989.

Blevins several months ago became executive pastor at Greater Portland Bible Church. While Blevins remains active in Mission Portland's steering committee, he welcomes the new assistance fromKKPZ-KKSL general manager James Autry and his staff. For James, this networking has been his passion for many years. And he's got these resources and manpower that we don't have.

Autry is similarly enthusiastic.

It's a partnership I've been working toward the past three years, he said, so that Crawford Broadcasting will be a local voice for Mission Portland as to what God is doing in our city and region through the church, business and ministry networks.

In addition to its ongoing work of encouraging the Christian community to action though 16 local regional networks, Mission Portland has played a key role in coordinating large events such as the Billy Graham crusade in 1992 and the Promise Keepers rally in Portland in 1994.