PORTLAND MENNONITE CHURCH
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • STAFF CONTACTS
    • DIRECTIONS
    • CALENDAR / EVENTS
    • NEWS
  • CONNECT
    • NEW TO PMC?
    • SMALL GROUPS
    • MAKING FRIENDS @ PMC
    • STEPHEN MINISTRY
    • Congregational Care
  • WORSHIP
  • LEARN / SERVE
    • FAITH FORMATION >
      • CHILDREN @ PMC
      • YOUTH GROUPS
      • YOUNG ADULT
      • ADULT CLASSES
      • MEMBERSHIP
    • PEACE & JUSTICE >
      • PEACE & JUSTICE @ PMC
      • FAMILY PROMISE
      • NIGHT STRIKE
      • CLIMATE CHANGE
      • RADICAL HOSPITALITY
      • Racial Justice blog landing
  • GIVE
  • PRESCHOOL
  • ONLINE CHURCH

STORIES FROM THE
​LIFE OF PMC...

Shirley Showalter is coming to PMC

6/27/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture

Shirley Showalter is coming to PMC on July 6. She will preach and be available afterward for a discussion time.

Shirley Hershey Showalter  grew up on a Mennonite family farm near Lititz, Pennsylvania. The first person in her family to go to college, she eventually became the first woman president of Goshen College in Indiana.  Her memoir "Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World" tells the story of a little girl who dreamed big and was transformed by dreams much bigger than her own.

 If you are interested in finding out more an event page is on Facebook.

Picture
0 Comments

Kalispell 2014

6/27/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Last week several of us had a chance to travel to Kalispell, Montana, for the annual assembly of the Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference (38 congregations spread over six states). We don't get to see each other very often, so I always find it meaningful to hear the ways other congregations are living out the Gospel. As delegates we had some pretty candid conversations about the differences in our congregations and the commonalities that hold us together. Among the official business, we affirmed our own Brett Tieszen to be the conference Treasurer (replacing our own Harold Nussbuam, who finished his term). Pastor Samuel Moran, of Ministerios Restauracion (the Spanish-speaking Mennonite Church with whom we share our meetinghouse), was also affirmed as the Moderator-Elect. I've asked each of the delegates to write a short paragraph about their experience of the Assembly and we'll pass those on in the next week or two. And you can mark your calendar now for next year's conference in Lebanon, Oregon - June 19-20, 2015.

Last Sunday morning many of us joined Mountain View Mennonite Church for worship (and yes, they have a pretty terrific view of the mountains right outside their sanctuary). Then a number of us headed up to Glacier National Park for an afternoon hike. The picture above was taken at Avalanche Lake. The words of a Manley Hopkins poem kept looping through my head - 'He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him!

Peace to you,
Rod Stafford 
0 Comments

PMC Sunday School Kids FINISH heifer project for the year

6/26/2014

0 Comments

 

In the beginning of the year this "barnyard" was empty. 

Thanks to the stewardship of our kids in Sunday school they were able to fill it with life giving gifts for other families around the world.

Thank you to Kathi Appleberrry for organizing this creative project this year.
Picture

0 Comments

How long?

6/10/2014

2 Comments

 
Picture

Rod's sermon from 02/10/13  
MCC U.S. preventing gun violence guide
mccu.s.gunviolencepreventionguide.pdf
File Size: 726 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File


'How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long?' - Psalm 13.2
How long do we have to hear 'special reports' and 'news bulletins' on another shooting? This morning it was a shooting at Reynolds High in Troutdale, last week it was at Seattle Pacific University, before that it was in Las Vegas, and before that it was at UC Santa Barbara, and before that it was Newtown and Clackamas and Aurora and Virginia Tech and Columbine. How long? How long does this madness go on?

The reason public policy doesn't change is because of powerful forces who believe that 'the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is good guy with a gun.' And what we've ended up with is a country and a culture awash in guns. There are so many privately-owned guns that there are more than enough for every adult in the US to have one. And guns are the only consumer product exempt from any federal safety standards. Paint-ball guns have to meet safety standards, but not domestically produced firearms. The result is that in every other western industrialized country the number of gun deaths each year doesn't exceed 250. In the US (granted, a bigger country than most), the number of deaths by gun violence averages 30,000 per year. How long?

I do not believe that violence stops violence. It only accelerates the descending spiral of loss and fear and more violence. Instead, I believe in Jesus who refused to respond to hatred and fear and violence with more violence. He taught us to love the ones who hurt us and pray for the ones who want to. He taught us that hatred can't overcome hatred, only love can.

So pray for peace. Pray for the victims and the families and friends, for the students and teachers at Reynolds High School. And pray for the shooter and his family. And for the police and the medical professionals and the counselors and therapists.

And act for peace. Our political system is maddeningly inert; it isn't clear how we can effect change. But we are still called to bear witness to the way of Christ. The Washington Office of Mennonite Central Committee  has resources to help end gun violence. And to help us think 'christianly' about the issue, here's a (link) to a sermon I preached in 2013.

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Rod Stafford
2 Comments

Thanking the Jr High Sponsors

6/7/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
1 Comment

NEXT SUNDAY!!

6/2/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
0 Comments
    Picture

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013

    Categories

    All
    Advent Workshop
    Becoming Parables
    Children
    Christmas
    Climate Change
    Convention
    Giving
    Homelessness
    Immigration
    Jr High
    MCC
    Mcusa
    MDS
    Outreach
    Peacemaking
    PMC History
    PMC Leadership
    PMC Playlist
    PMC Retreat
    Pnmc
    Sunday School
    Wildwood
    Worship
    Youth

    RSS Feed

CONTACTS
DIRECTIONS
GIVING
PMC LEADERSHIP TABLE
DOCUMENTS
ABOUT PMC


NEW TO PMC?
PMC DIRECTORY HELP
WHAT IS A MENNONITE?
HP FREE CHURCH
Picture
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • STAFF CONTACTS
    • DIRECTIONS
    • CALENDAR / EVENTS
    • NEWS
  • CONNECT
    • NEW TO PMC?
    • SMALL GROUPS
    • MAKING FRIENDS @ PMC
    • STEPHEN MINISTRY
    • Congregational Care
  • WORSHIP
  • LEARN / SERVE
    • FAITH FORMATION >
      • CHILDREN @ PMC
      • YOUTH GROUPS
      • YOUNG ADULT
      • ADULT CLASSES
      • MEMBERSHIP
    • PEACE & JUSTICE >
      • PEACE & JUSTICE @ PMC
      • FAMILY PROMISE
      • NIGHT STRIKE
      • CLIMATE CHANGE
      • RADICAL HOSPITALITY
      • Racial Justice blog landing
  • GIVE
  • PRESCHOOL
  • ONLINE CHURCH