Student Contributor -Brittany Wells
The purpose of the organization is to spread the Gospel and make disciples. Garden Church does a lot of outreach with the homeless community and with sharing the Gospel around the Portland area. They are Biblically based Church that shows God’s love through their words and their actions. Their Mission Statement is “Building families of everyday missionaries seeking to disciple the city”.
Garden Church will often pass out items that have been donated to the homeless and use that to connect with them. However, they don’t just pass things out to the community, but rather take the time to get to know that person they are talking to. They try to see them as who they are, not as the situation that they finds themselves in. The Church also does Spiritual Surveys in which they ask deeper questions to get to deeper conversations about what the person believes and to sharing the Gospel, the people usually receive a gift card at the end of the survey. They also will do interviews with the homeless, in which they record their story and take their picture and put it on a blog. This brings awareness and gives a voice to the realities of homelessness.
Some ways that you can partner with the Church is sending supplies for them to pass out for their outreach. If location permits, going to them and passing out the items to the homeless and taking the time to talk with the people on the street or doing the Spiritual surveys with the people around Portland.
