This past weekend I had the delightful experience of spending time in Portland with some amazing brothers and sisters. I was asked to lead the annual Leadership Connexion and speak that evening at Mission Connexion 2015.
I never would have guessed that 100 church and agency leaders would sit through a 6 hour leadership training and 1000 people would show up on a rainy Friday night for a missions conference in the Pacific Northwest–in Portlandia of all places! Totally weird, in an amazingly good way!
The Lord is doing some amazing things in a corner of our country that few of us probably know about.
If you are in this region and are not connected to Mission Connexion, you should check them out. In addition to numerous things they do throughout the year, they also host this annual event with four plenary sessions and 120 workshops.
If you are part of a mission agency and did not show up this year, then you missed a wonderful opportunity to connect with others. I’m estimating 80 organizations had displays set up at this event. The display hall was a who’s who of agencies with headquarters in North America. Definitely catch them next year.
I thought I would share a few fun pics with you in this post and fulfill a promise to the Leadership Connexion participants.
Yes, this is the carpet in the airport. Did you catch last week’s tweet, or this article?
So, in Birmingham, my favorite doughnut shop is Heavenly Doughnuts. I found out that Portland has Voodoo Doughnuts. #notintheBiblebelt
Here is a shot of my gracious host, Greg Strannigan, speaking at the Leadership Connexion Training.
Below is founder and Executive Director of Mission Connexion, Bill MacLeod, kicking off Mission Connexion 2015. He’s reading a passage, not checking his email.
This is Don and Carol Richardson. Don was also one of the speakers this year. He served in Irian Jaya (Papua New Guinea) and wrote Peace Child and produced a movie by the same title. This was taken in a room with poor lighting. I promise I was not trying to put a halo over his head with the light on the wall.
On a serious note, I promised those attending the leadership training that I would post my slide presentation.
Here it is. Thank you, brothers and sisters, for your participation and interaction. It was an honor to be with you. May the Lord continue to use you in the advancement of the Kingdom!
Guys, if the slogan about keeping Portland weird means standing for Christ in a region of lostness as you did this weekend, then keep it weird!
J.D. – It was great to have you at Leadership ConneXion. Now I have a voice (and accent) in my head as I read your blog posts. I have been attending Mission ConneXion NW since moving here (from L.A.) over seven years ago.
For all the reputation of the Pacific Northwest being unchurched and unfriendly to Christianity I find that the “Missions Energy” among the churches here to be much greater than I experienced in So. California.
Also, thank you for your personal words of encouragement.
Thank you, Don. It was great to be with you. Keep up the great work!