Portland Church Options for a Family (Beaverton, Hillsboro: home, middle school, living)

[Bigmove6]

I am moving my family to the Portland are in the next two months. We are regular church attenders and will be looking for a medium/large size Christian church. We have 4 children ages 3-11, so programs and activities for them is important. We are not tied to any denomination, although we prefer a little less traditional of a church. Although we have experience contributing and volunteering with churches we've attended in the past, we'd prefer not to be "needed"...as smaller churches tend to do when a large family like ours shows up on Sundays.

Can someone recommend some church options for our family to check out after the move. I would be willing to drive across the city for a church so location is not a high priority. Thank you in advance for an info you can provide!

[Nell Plotts]

Based on what you wrote I can make a couple suggestions of those in the Portland core area: Welcome | First Congregational United Church of Christ Homepage First United Methodist Church . There are two Lutheran churches St. James Lutheran Church in Portland, Oregon and Zion Lutheran Church - Portland OR - Home Page .

I don't attend any of the above I have no information on the size of their congregations. I believe that the Congregational and Methodist parishes are the largest.

The church with the largest congregation is http://www.trinity-episcopal.org/ . It has well developed programs for children. It is not a 'high church' but worship is still on the traditional side.

[V8 Vega]

Beaverton Four Square is near Portland and a big church, I think its the biggest in Oregon. Big churches have all kinds of fellowship groups to go to and programs for the kids. I don't live there but my brothers family does and I have been there numerious times.

[KJoe11]

Originally Posted by Bigmove6

I am moving my family to the Portland are in the next two months. We are regular church attenders and will be looking for a medium/large size Christian church. We have 4 children ages 3-11, so programs and activities for them is important. We are not tied to any denomination, although we prefer a little less traditional of a church. Although we have experience contributing and volunteering with churches we've attended in the past, we'd prefer not to be "needed"...as smaller churches tend to do when a large family like ours shows up on Sundays.

Can someone recommend some church options for our family to check out after the move. I would be willing to drive across the city for a church so location is not a high priority. Thank you in advance for an info you can provide!

It depends, if you are part of the Elect, take V8 Vega's advice... else, choose from the list of Nell Plotts as they seem very modern and politically correct.

[The Cactus Leaguer]

Some medium to large nondenominational churches near Portland (west/southwest) that I am familiar with and that probably fit what you are looking for:

Sunset Presbyterian Church / Welcome / Welcome

Rolling Hills Community Church Tualatin

A Jesus Church Family

[StealthRabbit]

a few choices in my order of preference YMMV - Portland has a lot to choose from...(for big church / sound expository Bible teaching / good family programs)
Southwest Bible Church SW / Beaverton / Tigard
http://www.cmbc.org/ West (HWY 26)
Home - Good Shepherd East of Portland (Boring, OR)
Home NE Portland, near Gateway area

[NeutralZone]

Originally Posted by Nell Plotts

Based on what you wrote I can make a couple suggestions of those in the Portland core area: Welcome | First Congregational United Church of Christ Homepage First United Methodist Church . There are two Lutheran churches St. James Lutheran Church in Portland, Oregon and Zion Lutheran Church - Portland OR - Home Page .

I don't attend any of the above I have no information on the size of their congregations. I believe that the Congregational and Methodist parishes are the largest.

The church with the largest congregation is Welcome to Trinity Episcopal Cathedral . It has well developed programs for children. It is not a 'high church' but worship is still on the traditional side.

I have actually attended 3 out of the 4 on this list so I can give you a bit more information than Nell Plotts can.

First of all, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral is about as "high church" as you can get with out everything being in Latin. It is a large congregation with a lot of programs, but they mostly seem geared to a very white bread upper middle class progressive sensibility. They are very much into art and music, and seem to consider "good taste" to be the most important thing they strive for. I attended their Easter service last year, and at first was impressed by the large crowd and the beautiful liturgy. But then it was ruined by the priest giving the sermon who basically said the resurrection of Christ never happened. What a way to ruin Easter! I did not find anyone here to be even remotely friendly, but that has been my experience at every Episcopal church service I have ever attended. They don't call them "the frozen chosen" for nothing :-) If you like extremely traditional liturgy combined with extremely post-Christian theology, then this might be the church for you. Parking is difficult.

First United Methodist is a medium size congregation. They have a beautiful facility with great music and a great choir. I think the United Methodists in general have the best hymnal of any denomination. They have a typical middle of the road service, not too traditional, not too contemporary. Much more relaxed and less up tight than the Episcopalians. This is also a "progressive" church, but I haven't attended often enough to tell how far they go in that direction. They seem to be a bit more friendly than the Episcopalians. They seem to have a fair amount of children and youth. They have a parking lot, but parking still is tight.

St. James Lutheran is a church I've attended several times. They have a beautiful neo-gothic sanctuary downtown. The service is very traditional and liturgical, almost as formal as the Episcopal cathedral, but because of the smaller size, it seems a little warmer. I enjoy the pastor's sermons very much here. Although I wouldn't call this a conservative church by a long shot, but it seems to be much more theologically orthodox than the others. There does not seem to be very many children in the congregation at all. It's a small congregation, probably not more than 100 in worship on any given Sunday. I found them to be somewhat friendly, as a few people spoke with me, noticing that I was new. Parking is difficult.

First Congregational/United Church of Christ is the only one of these I have not attended, so I cannot say anything from personal experience. But just reading their website lets you know that they are way off in left field theologically. They don't seem to stand for much of anything, which in general is the problem with so many of the mainline churches. Same parking issue as St James (they are across the street from each other)

There is also First Presbyterian Church downtown. They seem to have a somewhat medium sized congregation. They also worship in a beautiful, old, downtown church. I find their worship style to be extremely dry (perhaps appropriate for Calvinists!), but they do seem to have some children and youth. They did not seem overly friendly either. They do have an underground parking garage.

I've also attended Pearl Church, which meets in the EcoTrust building. A small, informal church, but with a more formal, traditional liturgy. It was a very young congregation, mostly 20's and 30's, with lots of smaller children. Theologically they seem rather traditional/conservative.

[glitterbeam]

We go here and our kids love it. They have two good youth groups, one just for middle school and one for high school. Non-denominational Christian. It's in Hillsboro- we live on the edge of Portland.

Sonrise Church

[bler144]

Personally I'd say your first consideration is going to be where you're living, and the OP doesn't mention that unless I'm missing something.

There's no shortage of churches around the metro, and if you're on the east side driving over to Hillsboro for a church is probably not a great use of time or gas. If you're in Hillsboro it doesn't make much sense to pack up and drive downtown to find a church.

YMMV

[Nell Plotts]

Earlier the poster was considering McMinnville, commuting to Portland and asking about Portland churches. I hope that has been reconsidered.