Willamette Church

John Jahns Moving On!

Over five years ago, John Jahns stepped in to lead the Set-up and Teardown crew that made holding Sunday services at Rosemont Ridge Middle School not only possible, but under his leadership, smoothly routine. As we added a Saturday service at the 10th Street building, John again stepped up to handle setup and teardown. He also joined the staff on a part-time basis to provide janitorial and maintenance services for the building. When we began the process of moving into our beautiful new building, his role continued to grow as he assumed responsibility for the move. Caring for our new building and welcoming all of the new groups who use space in it again expanded John’s role. For more than a year now since the move, John has been faithfully filling the role of full-time Facilities Coordinator.

John Jahns

At each step in our church’s growth over the last several years, John has demonstrated his servant’s heart by cheerfully accepting each new challenge. But after prayerful consideration, John has now decided that it’s time to make a change. For those of us who know John well, it’s almost shocking to learn that this strong, youthful man could possibly be old enough to retire!  But John believes the time is now right to turn the reins over to someone else so that he can spend more time with his wife and children, his aging parents and his grandkids. So it’s with mixed emotions that we’re announcing his retirement as of the first week of August (we haven’t determined his final day of work yet). While we’re going to miss him terribly, we’ve been truly blessed by the time he’s been a part of the church staff and know God has great plans for him.

As the church has grown, the functions necessary to keep it running smoothly have changed. In recognition of this fact, and with John’s input, we’ve taken the opportunity to review and realign operational responsibilities. It’s with great pleasure that we’re announcing that Rhonda Johnson will join the church staff on August 1 as Operations Manager. Rhonda will oversee all functions related to the use and maintenance of our church property, including setup and teardown for weekend services and weekday use, custodial and maintenance needs and event coordination. To accomplish this, Rhonda will assemble groups of volunteers to handle the various tasks. Adding these teams of volunteers allows us both to keep our property ready for guests, but also provides opportunities for more people to serve – an important step toward spiritual growth for all of us. Those of you who have had the pleasure of working with Rhonda in her role as leader of the Food Ministry know her heart for serving people and involving others so they can feel that same joy of serving. For those of you who have not worked with Rhonda yet, we’ll look forward to doing a more expanded introduction in our upcoming newsletter for fall. For now, if you’re interested in serving in the areas of operations as listed above, please feel free to contact her directly at (503) 312-8626. Please join me in welcoming Rhonda to the team!

Rhonda Johnson

Please contact me if you have any questions during this time of transition.

Sherri

Family Night BINGO Video!

We had a really fun time at our first FAMILY NIGHT on Tuesday, June 29. Check out a video of the event! And be sure to come to our next FAMILY NIGHT on Tuesday, July 28. It’s going to be a CARNIVAL!

Cumpston Casa Renewal Pictures

We had so many people come out to the Cumpston Casa Renewal project a few weeks ago. It was an amazing day! Click here to check out some photos from the event.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors – VIDEO!

Neighbors Helping Neighbors is a program started in 2008 by Dawn D’Haeze in Lake Oswego, Oregon. This year, the program has expanded into the “neighbor” city of West Linn. Bridget Saladino has worked on behalf of the city to coordinate this event, and the results speak for themselves – the kick-off event brought in approximately 150 volunteers! Special thanks to all of the organizations who contributed to its success. To join in the West Linn effort, contact their office at 503-657-0331 and ask about Neighbors Helping Neighbors. Check out a video below!

>

Resources for Doubt

As we kickoff the Road Blocks series with “Faith Doubts,” there is opportunity to point out some helpful resources for research and investigating the truth of Jesus and His message. We will continue to highlight specific books throughout the series; here are two for strengthening faith and helping us to “doubt our doubts.”

As we recognized graduates this weekend, the transition from student life towards adult life is on our minds. While many from Christian homes walk away from the church and reject Christ during the college years, this doesn’t have to be the norm. Our goal is to develop students into life-long followers of Jesus.

Welcome to College That’s why Jonathan Morrow’s new book, Welcome to College: A Christ’s Followers Guide for the Journey, is a helpful resource for college students (and parents too). In 42 bite-sized chapters — with remarkable depth — Morrow explores essential intellectual arenas. More than giving pat conclusions, this book wisely walks through questions such as the veracity of the Bible (can we trust it?), thinking Christianly (worldview), dealing with doubt, and highly practical issues like managing money, God’s will, sex and dating, navigating media, and alcohol. Morrow offers clear-thinking yet gracious apologetics for the contemporary challenges college students face from peers and professors (metaphysics and epistemology anyone?). All of it is written in the context of a life lived in apprenticeship to Jesus.

The author is adept in both academic arguments and knowing the pressures facing students in the college stage. There’s a refusal to separate head and heart, for we know Christ is both intellectually pleasing and emotionally satisfying.

Welcome to College is a must-have resource for that student headed off to school this Fall.

A Resource for All

The Reason for God

Tim Keller, a pastor in Manhattan, has written a stellar book for our day. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism is an imminently helpful and accessible book, meant to help believers and skeptics alike as they investigate competing truth claims. This New York Times bestseller begins with a section on the leap of doubt (“doubting our

doubts”), unmasking the seven primary arguments against Christianity, the voiced doubts skeptics bring to his church. The second half of the book deals with the most important reasons for faith.

Some of the doubts and reasons considered include:

  • How do doubt and faith relate?
  • Why does God allow suffering in the world?
  • How could a loving God send people to Hell?
  • Why isn’t Christianity more inclusive?
  • How can one religion be “right” and the others “wrong”?
  • Why have so many wars been fought in the name of God?
  • Religion and the Gospel

Keller uses literature, philosophy, real-life conversations, and reasoning to explain how faith in a Christian God is a soundly rational belief, held by thoughtful people of intellectual integrity with a deep compassion for those who truly want to know the truth. We highly recommend The Reason for God (see also book website with readers guide and discussion questions).

Also see the apologetics resources page.

Calling All Graduates!

Graduates, we want to journey with you as you venture into the next chapter of life. Help us celebrate with you, on the weekend of June 5/6. More…

Website Refresh!

As you no doubt have noticed, the WCC site has recently gone through some exciting changes! Especially cool new features include the search bar (top right corner), the sweet rotating homepage header, and the new dropdown lists in the main menu. have a look around, and let us know what you think!

Tags:

May 1-2 Video Announcements!

Click here to check out our video announcements for this weekend!

Video Announcements, May 1-2, 2010

Night Of Worship (+Dinner!)

We are so excited to be hosting a Night Of Worship on Sunday, May 16 at 6:45pm. There will be a dinner preceding the worship time at 6pm. All are welcome!

More details.
RSVP for the dinner.
Check out the event page on Facebook.

Last Chance To Sign Up For Softball!

This week is the final week of softball signups! CLICK HERE to check out the info and sign up.

© 2010 Willamette Church. Site by Sarah Hellems.