Portland: An Urbane Faith for Urbanites
By turns green and gritty, Portland, Oregon, makes room for every lifestyle except boring ones. Its residents are physically active, socially progressive, and volunteer-minded. Unlike other cities that might be called "post-Christian," Portland is a place where Christian faith has always been marginal. Perhaps that's why it's now the site of some of the most innovative church-civic partnerships in the United States. Season of Service, which began in Portland and is spreading to other cities, is Portland's most visible expression of a new kind of urban Christianity: unabashedly evangelical and committed to the common good.
Why You Should Eavesdrop on Your Neighbors
What happened when Portland third-graders interviewed their elderly neighbors about their city's past.
5.10.12
Why Liberty Needs Justice: A Response to the Tea Party-Occupy Film
A real revival in America will include the 99 percent.
3.20.12
Freedom and Virtue: A Response to the Tea Party-Occupy Film
If Christians want to advance the common good, they should turn to their own hearts, not the government.
3.15.12
With Liberty or Justice for All: Inside the Occupy and Tea Party Movements
How can people who share the same faith embrace such different politics?
3.13.12
Church-'With': Small Churches Find Their Future in Neighborhood Renewal
The Rosewood Initiative, a merging of churches, police, and nonprofits in Portland, is finding their own peace by seeking their neighbors'.
2.21.12
A Native Faith: Richard Twiss Shapes Portland's Youth and Beyond
In a city still skeptical of white Christianity, Twiss's cross-cultural witness is gaining a hearing among citizens and leaders alike.
2.16.12
The Cost of Serving Portland—and Jesus—as an Oregon Politician
State Representative Jules Bailey, an unlikely Christian, has drafted some of the most innovative environmental legislation in the state.
1.12.12
The Gleaners: Giving More Than Food to the Working Poor
The Birches offer 600 Portland families—including my own—a path to financial freedom.
12.19.11
How to Abandon 'Homeless People'
With his bike-friendly nonprofit, C. J. Speelman offers a better way to address our friends who live outside.
12.16.11
Beauty and Need Collide: Portland in Photos
For two photographers from Imago Dei Community, loving their city means really seeing it.
12.2.11
100 Men Standing against Portland's Gangs
John Canda believes the best way to curb gang violence is to ask adults—especially men—simply to show up.
11.30.11
Before Saving the World, Go See Your Family
Shoshon and Stephanie Tama-Sweet on how a healthy marriage sustains their activism.
11.14.11
Re-'Placing' the Christian College
Why faith-based schools must root their mission in their own community.
11.14.11
Where Portland Church Planters Fear to Tread
MaryLou and Rusty Bonham, founders of Springwater, commit to the forgotten Lents neighborhood.
11.10.11
Art That Stops You in Your Tracks
Martin French, director of the Exile Poster Project, on the power of the public poster.
11.3.11
The Exile Poster Project: A Slideshow
Portland Christians confront their city’s sex trafficking problem with public art.
11.2.11
'All I Was Good for Was Sex'
Behind the mind-numbing statistics are stories of actual people living the horrors of being trafficked.
11.2.11
Portland's Quiet Abolitionists
Leading the liberal city's efforts to halt child trafficking is a network of dedicated Christians. Just don't go advertising it.
10.31.11
Christianity Today's City Project Celebrates Portland
The Friday launch party spotlighted Christians' labors of love in a post-Christian city.
10.27.11
Sex Trafficking: Beyond Storming Brothels
For Shoshon Tama-Sweet, working for the flourishing of his city comes at a great cost.
10.21.11
Creating Young Artists
For Laura Streib, cuts to arts programs meant getting involved in Portland public schools.
10.21.11
A City of Activists: An Interview with Rick McKinley
The Imago Dei Community pastor on how his city's culture of activism affects the local church.
10.20.11
Christian or Lobbyist? Yes!
As a lobbyist in Oregon, Stephanie Tama-Sweet believes that politics can't be black and white.
10.20.11
Enlisting Men in the Sex Trafficking Fight
Tom Perez, founder of Portland nonprofit EPIK, believes men have created the problem—and better men have to stop it.
10.20.11
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