Portland Mercury recaps City Bible Service
Posted on August 24th, 2007 by catalyst into the City Boobie Church categoryHere's a fun little recap of a recent City Bible service in the Portland Mercury:
CITY BIBLE CHURCH
NE Portland
Reaching City Bible Church off I-205 via public transit and foot is hard. I end up climbing a vertiginous, slippery, and condom-strewn trail up the side of 612-foot-high Rocky Butte, clambering through blackberry vines in my black Donna Karan suit and shiny high-steppin' cowboy boots. I am the best dressed of 400 or so worshipers—healthy, happy-looking families, all—under the stucco dome at the center of the CBC's bluff-top campus, where greeters (but no signature gatherers) welcome guests, blasted by live synth-combo extended mixes of sheeny, contemporary hymns.
Pastor Frank Damazio pits this congregation against remote-linked Tigard and Vancouver congregations in a fundraising contest for CBC's summer camp, before delivering a sermon on divisiveness and a ritual overcoming of past wounds.
Afterward, I wander the huge lobby, snooping for campaign lit. I say I am up from LA and heard good things about CBC. "We try to go for the right mixture of the spirit and the word," a young woman tells me. My subterfuge mistaken for flirtation, she introduces me to an intense young pastor who I can tell knows immediately I am lying. Another awkward silence ensues, in which I sense that if I ask about gay marriage I will be shown the door.
By 1:30 pm, the last parishioners are leaving, and still no sign of a referendum campaign. But I leave impressed by CBC's good fellowship—the warmest welcomes are given to the sketchiest-looking—but wondering about what went unsaid in this church that lobbies against gay rights. GRANT COGSWELL
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August 24th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Wait. How did we miss this sermon?
I took this trip every day my freshman year in High School. Try doing it in the rain, in a shirt and tie…. ….I am totally going to be that type of father, "When I was your age, I had to walk through the wilderness in a monsoon just to get to school… AND I WAS GRATEFUL!"
August 25th, 2007 at 3:32 am
I say I am up from LA and heard good things about CBC. “We try to go for the right mixture of the spirit and the word,” a young woman tells me. My subterfuge mistaken for flirtation, she introduces me to an intense young pastor who I can tell knows immediately I am lying. Another awkward silence ensues, in which I sense that if I ask about gay marriage I will be shown the door.
August 25th, 2007 at 3:34 am
Oops…try again.
LOL.
Good post, cat.
August 27th, 2007 at 7:53 am
And God forbid you had to go down to the mcdonalds to get something to eat first! that added another hour at least. in the snow… uphill both ways.
August 28th, 2007 at 11:47 am
who did you get complaints from to shut down the CLF Update line of comments?
August 28th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Someone thought the language and name calling was getting out of hand. I just thought the discussion wasn’t going anywhere. They’d been having the same argument for the last several months, and it was beginning to degenerate into a yelling match.
August 28th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
I’m forever scarred by the image of a condom strewn trail. Why doesn’t Frank dispatch some interns to clean that place up, unless of course it’s the interns who are doing the strewing …
August 29th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Are you kidding?
Man, things really must be different up there now-a-days. My whole BT/CBC experience was the exact opposite.
Maybe Frank really does love the smell of sinners?
August 30th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Having been a reader of this blog for quite some time, I have come to realize that the majority of people here are hurting people. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize this, in fact people have mentioned this many times. How hurt they have been by the religious system (church/pastor) that they have been under. I read while in PBC and am re-reading the book A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards. I would recommend this book for those of you who have suffered great hurt from the church. Without giving away too much it talks about the relationship between King Saul and David and between King David and Absalom. A life-changing book.
August 30th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
I’m not supprised that you would recomend that book. More brainwashing in support of the “follow your leader even if they are wrong” teaching. I was given this book by a young man that was in Masters Commission a few years back. He has since come to the realization that he was in a very legalistic and unhealthy group. Kool-aide anyone?
August 30th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Unbelievable. If that is your interpretation of that book, then your eyes have been blinded. The point of that book, along with any good book, is to make us look inside and see what we can fix inside of us. What is inside of us that God wants to fix and change, so that we look more like Him. So that we are changed into His likeness. It has nothing to do with brainwashing, it has everything to do with pluck the plank out of your own eye first philosophy. And obviously, since you liken the book or the church to Jim Jones, you think it is a cult. And my friend I am glad I am not you come judgement day. CBC, PBC and MFI are not perfect, but I will not criticize these people who God has put there. If you want a lesson on that go back to the O.T. Numbers 12 where Miriam and Aaron opposed Moses. And if that isn’t enough for you skip ahead a few chapters and look at Numbers 16 and see what happened to Korah, Dathan and Abiram. God help you.
August 30th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
People are “hurting” all over the world, and yes pastors are sometimes the cause. We need to deal with it and move on. I recently read of a woman who found out her son had been molested by a priest. She had two coices 1- Confront the priest forgive him and let it go or 2- call the police and bring shame on the church thus leaving her bitter. She chose 1 which shows a lot about a heart after god. Yes what he did was horrible. Do i condone it—NO. Should he go to counceling—YES. But come on how many times do we have to punish people and drag their name through the mud?
August 30th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
August 30th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Woops–meant to put it like this:
Are you kidding me!?!? What he did was a CRIME and I don’t know the actual verses but the Bible does say that we are to abide by the laws of the land and the freaking laws of the land make sexual molestation a CRIME. Reporting it doesn’t make a mother bitter and whether or not the church would be shamed is irrelevant!! That is an incredibly naive and ridiculous thing to say. She can still report the crime (thus abiding by the laws of the land as the Bible instructs us to do AND protecting her child and other children), and forgive this man at the same time.
Frodo, you are implying some scary stuff: that men of the cloth/men “called by God”/”men of God”/etc. are exempt from the law. Forgiveness without punishment should be the order of the day. Not even God works that way.
August 30th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
LOL at the Jim Jones referance.
August 30th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
These examples you gave were of people who WRONGLY opposed leadership for doing what was RIGHT. They were acting from their flesh out of prejudice, JEALOUSY and spite. They weren’t speaking out against false doctrine and abuses.
Here’s another example for you: the story of Abigail & Nabal
The man shall “rule over” the woman according to the Old Testament. Wives are supposed to obey their husbands. So, wasn’t Abigail in sin for going against her husband Nabal (even though Nabal was making a VERY foolish decision that could jeopardize his household’s lives) by withholding food from David and his men? Why didn’t Abigail just shut up and stay put rather than oppose her husband?
Even more so, why was Abigail commended and even made a queen of Israel?
There is a time for a person to shut up. If you are wanting to exalt yourself or your own ministry, you should examine yourself before you criticize. If you see abusive, unbiblical behavior going on, you should first PRAY, then speak to the individuals in the wrong, and if they do not listen then by ALL MEANS speak and don’t be silent until someone hears.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
I’m surprised to read that comment about Master’s Commission. There is a MC program in our home church in Chilliwack that changed my mind about internship/mentorship programs. My husband has been through MC as well as a lot of our friends. I have been so impressed with the change I’ve seen in the people that come through their year. I certainly wouldn’t have gone to PBC out of high school if I’d known about MC. And I don’t think CBC is a cult, but I do think those in leadership are somewhat exalted above the “commoners”. I hate using that language - it sounds so cheesy - but I can’t think of another way to say it. And I can’t tell anymore if it’s the commoners or the leadership who are doing the exalting.