The Portland Parachute Project: June 1-July 31

THE BIG IDEA.....
The Portland Parachute Project is a spiritual adventure designed to deploy collegiate students and young adults into strategic 20-minute communities throughout Portland to experience firsthand the realities of church planting activities while cultivating the “spiritual soil” of a community in preparation for starting new churches.

Our Missionary participants will be equipped to interact and build relationships with those who are disconnected from Christ and His Church. Our Parachuters will be “dropped off” in a strategic location for service, information gathering and other missionary activities. Pray for our team of 9 serving in two 20-minute locations.

THE GOALS:
The project carries seven goals.
(1) Develop an influential rapport between the missionary teams and the community.
(2) Gather critical information on the rhythms of the community that can be handed over to a church planting team.
(3) Identify persons of peace and other strategic contacts in the community.
(4) PRAY for the opportunity to gather at least one small group and engage them in disciple making.
(5) If the team were working with a church plant, they would help the new work have a greater Kingdom Impact within that community.
(6) Create an enlistment strategy for the field based on young adults returning to the place of service to help plant a church (Matt Jolley is coming back this summer from last summer's team and in January will move to Portland!)
(7) Be a part of a larger “farm system” that helps develop young adults’ character, knowledge and skills in the areas of
networking for evangelism, starting multiplying small groups and identifying and equipping leaders.

THE PLAN:
The Portland Parachute Project is a high velocity missional experience. A team of NINE students have committed to live for 8-10 weeks in Portland to help cultivate the “spiritual soil” of a 20-minute community in preparation for starting a new
church.

Like the name "The Portland Parachute Project" suggests, teams are "dropped off" in the middle of a community. The 20-minute neighborhoods we have chose are Sellwood and NE Portland near Fremont and Alberta. Our team's mission is simple: Live missionaly (doing missions in everyday life) by building relationships and seeping into the cracks and crevices of the culture.

Summer mission experiences often involve a specific job description. However, The Portland Parachute Project, participants will be equipped to initiate ministry. They will discover, plan, and implement ministry based on what God is doing in the community and the team's giftedness. They will be encouraged to interact with disconnected people and value meeting them on their turf. Participants will be equipped and encouraged to volunteer in community clubs, do acts of kindness /service, and build relationships around personal gifting. The team will be coached by Ken Harmon and myself while we introduce them to church planters and Portland Church Planting (coming soon www.portlandchurchplanting.com and www.portlandchurchplanting.org).

Pray for the communities of Sellwood and NE Portland (we hope to be able strengthen a church plant in the area) and for our team. Pray for Ken and myself as we coach the team in missional living, disciple-making and community activities. Pray how you can be involved in 20-minute communities throughout Portland. Pray for people in these communities to become followers of Christ and for a faith community to be started.

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