Vacation Part 2

Here's the story of our church hopping this past weekend...

My plan was simple: find the three coolest churches in Portland, Oregon and through the miracle of modern multiple services, go to all three of them in one weekend.

Problem #1: How do you find out the three coolest churches in Portland? (BTW, cool is not actually a measurable with which I try to judge churches...it's just a lot easier than talking about buzz factor, worship style, leadership structure, use of arts, etc.) I actually googled "cool churches in Portland" but didn't come up with much. So here is the selection process, after all, I only had one weekend in Portland, so I had to choose wisely.

The one church I knew I wanted to check out was Imago Dei. I finally picked up "Blue Like Jazz," and Miller makes such mention of his church, Imago Dei, that I a) wanted to check out the church and b) wanted to track down Donald Miller and have him sign the copy of his book that I'm reading. I'm not really into having famous people sign things, but the book belongs to my friend 3pete and I thought he'd appreciate it. So church number 1 is Imago Dei - Portland.

The very cool couple that were kind enough to invite us to live in their house this week, spoke often of their church, Southlake Church. They both said it was well-known for its music and worship services, so I thought it sounded like a safe bet...plus it's close to Lake Oswego (West Linn) and it offered a 12 pm Sunday service which helped immensely with the 3 church plan. So Southlake Church is church # 2.

The third church was harder. I didn't really find anything for a while...New Hope Church almost got the vote because its huge and we passed it several times on I-205 driving around town. But then I remembered that one of the bloggers that I follow had a list of "churches on my radar." After going to a few wrong sites, I found it was Tony Morgan's. I checked his list for a church in Portland but there wasn't one, but there was one in Vancouver, Washington...just across the river/state line. Living Hope Church. Didn't know much about it but it was multisite and had a solid website and had three services on Saturday. This also fit well into the three church plan.

So the plan was... Step 1: Go to LHC in Vancouver on Saturday night--it was 45 min away, but we picked a 7 pm service and let the kids sleep on the way back. Step 2: Go to the 9 am Sunday service at Imago Dei--20 minutes away in downtown Portland. Step 3: Stop somewhere for brunchish type snacks to fend off hunger pains for the li'l ones. Step 4: Go to the 12 pm Sunday service at Southlake Church--a great option as it's only 8 minutes from the house where we're staying.

So this was the plan. I'm trying to set a good example for post length for my good friend (you know who you are) so I'll continue this in Part 3.