An Update on the Blevins ministry in Portland, Oregon (7.17.03)

 SERVING WITH THE NAVIGATORS

We have lived in the Portland area now for almost 14 years. Wow! It has been an exciting journey. We have been burdened and passionate about the vision to take the Gospel to the whole city. We have called this effort MISSION PORTLAND. You can see the PowerPoint presentation and view our work on our web site missionportland.org. It has been wonderful to see the hearts of pastors and other leaders who want to pray and labor for this task. We have seen major catalytic and revival ministries such as Billy Graham, Promise Keepers, Operation Mobilization and Luis Palau be used to see many people trust Christ and to bring fresh energy to the churches. Of the 1100 churches, over 650 have participated in these major outreaches. Numerous other events and outreaches have been carried out in the city with wonderful results.

However, has the city been reached? Has everyone in the city had an opportunity to understand who Jesus is and respond to the good news of Jesus Christ? The answer is emphatically NO! How do we know this? The answer is Phil.

We met Phil recently at a 4th of July party. He was a friend of the hosts of the party from the local condominiums. He shared with us that he had never looked at the Bible and knew nothing about most religions. He was 35 years old. He has lived here in the Portland area all his life. He was part of a small business downtown. However, he expressed great interest in the Bible and wanted to get together to discuss his questions about religion and other issues of life! I look forward to our next time together to explore answers to life with Phil. Pray with us for this man. He is like many others in this city who want to hear and understand the true meaning to life in Christ. This makes me continue to ask, "How do we complete the Mission?"

God has been helping us answer this question by what he tells us in Matthew 9:36-38. He says the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.  The answer is laborers. For the last 30 years with the Navigators we have been trained and have ministered to raise up laborers. It has been wonderful. However, how do you do this in a whole city? In the last four years we have begun to see how this question can be answered.  We have partnered with a local church called GREATER PORTLAND BIBLE CHURCH to learn how to become an intentional disciple-making church. Most churches believe in the Great Commission, but they have what we call “assumed disciple making.” 

We too often assume that if we have enough ministry activity that will cause disciples to be raised up. This can happen, but not with much tracking. Through training from several major ministries we have been able to see a change process take place in our congregation at Greater Portland Bible Church, as well as in 29 other churches that have entered this process with us. In fact, now there are over 84 churches that have been influenced by this intentional disciple-making process. This process may take 4-6 years for the value of disciple-making to penetrate the values of the people. When this occurs, the men and women of the church move toward becoming the laborers that we need in reaching our city and our world. There are over 10,000 people in the churches that Mission Portland ministers with.  Can you imagine if 50% of these believers become laborers? That would result in 5,000 people reaching out to the "Phils" in the city.

This seems to be the work we are presented with now as we continue to labor with the Navigators and other Christian ministries who are committed to developing intentional disciple-making churches.

Thank you for keeping us in this ministry with your prayer and financial support.

Pray that God will lead us to the right churches that will be the foundation of multiplication among other churches. Pray also for wisdom as we serve on the staff team of Greater Portland Bible Church and see this work continue to grow among the leaders and members of this strategic church in Portland.

For our family, Regina continues to teach school in the nearby town of Gresham and loves it. She is serving in our church high school ministry. Andrea is at Multnomah Bible School for one more year; then hopes to go with the Navigator ministry “EDGE CORE.” Rebecca is ministering in Venice beach this summer with an evangelism outreach--and having a blast. Mary Jane and I are enjoying the summer with ministry to people in our home and leading four small groups in which we are training apprentices for future leadership. We recently vacationed in Puerto Vallarta and it was a special time away.

We appreciate you all very much!

Dennis and Mary Jane Blevins