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Page 4...The Portland Observer...September 25,1991
• Portland Observer
Scripture o f the ‘Weeh.
RELIGION
FUNERAL
Area residents helped by United
Way o f (he Columbia Willamette funded
programs w ill give updates on this year’s
United Way campaign at a report lunch
eon, Friday, Oct. 4, noon, at the Port­
D IR E C T O R S
F a m ily O w ne d and O perated
Since 1954
S erving the C ity o f P o rtla n d
f o r o ve r 37 years
In y o u r h o u r o f need
Vann & V a nn are there to serve
Cleodus V3nn
503/281-2836
5211 N. W illia m s P o rtla n d , O r. 9721 7
Mallory Avenue
Christian Church
D
e
is c
o f
s
C h r
s
land M arriott.
The service recipients w ill provide
campaign progress reports as w ell as
tell how agencies such as Boys and
G irls C lub o f Portland and Interna­
tional Refugee Center o f Oregon have
made positive differences in their lives.
Campaign Chairman Robert L.
Ridgley, presidcnt/CEO, Northwest
Natural Gas Company, w ill announce
the total amount raised so far toward
this year’ s goal o f $20.5 m illion .
Jim L ittle o f K A T U w ill emcee the
event, which also w ill feature live music
and a final report on the Pacesetter
campaign (tire early company fund drives
that provide a financial base fo r the
main campaign in the fall).
Tickets for the luncheon are $13
and are available by contacting Susan
M itche ll at 226-9326.
t
God's Presence promises
Pouier through Jesus Christ In
Good Times and Bod Times
Matthew H.&S
Health Check-Ups For
Women Offered
A health check-up for women w ill
be given from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Satur­
day, October 26, 1991 at Western States
Chiropractic College C lin ic, 2900 NE
132nd Avenue in Portland.
The $15 examination fee w ill cover
the cost o f a pap smear, breast exam,
spinal examination, and urinary lab test.
The check-ups are administered by
fourth-year interns under the supervi­
sion o f chiropractic physicians. A p ­
pointments are necessary and may be
made by calling 255-6771.
Western State Chiropractic C ol­
lege Cline is a nonprofit organization.
"Come to me all you who ore
weary and heavy loden and I
will give you rest"
9:45am
11:00am
7:30pm
Discrimination In The Church!
United Way Recipients
to Report Campaign
Progress
VANN & VANN
Sunday School
Morning Worship
Tuesday Bible
Study and Prayer
Denise FI. Bell, Pastor
Inter-racial Congregation
MADD
126 N.E. Alberto t Portland. OR 97211 + (503) 288-5173
M o th e r s A g a in s t D r u n k D r iv in g
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personally invites you io be his special guest at
MARANATHA CHURCH
New Worship Service
Come expecting worship services, with contemporary music, practical
preaching from the Bible, and sharing from personal experiences
, V;
24).
But on their arrival, these Jewish
Christians imm ediately took issue w ith
the status o f the Gentiles (non-Jews)
who had received the gospel o f Jesus.
They could not believe that God w ould
be w illin g to save anyone who had not
received circum cision, and submitted
to the law o f Moses (15:1, 5). In their
minds, the Law was essential, fo r it had
been given by the Lord. Furthermore, it
would be impossible fo r Jewish Chris­
tians to keep the Law (especially their
laws on ceremonial cleanness) i f they
freely fellowshipped w ith Gentile
“ pagans.” So some kind o f separation
among the believers w ould have be­
come inevitable. I believe this was the
same time period Paul describes, when
Peter, and even Barnabas, began to
discriminate against Gentile Christians
evangelization through interacting as
equals in this conference.
N ow as the message o f C hrist
penetrates new tribal and urban people
groups, the missionaries w ill encounter
traditions, beliefs and religions that are
often quite different from the ones they
know at home. This may sim ply repre­
sent the wonderful variety o f G od’ s
creation w ith in the human race. It may
also represent the sinful nature o f
mankind, acted out in such degrading
forms as child exposure (leaving un­
wanted babies, usually girls, exposed
to die), ritual torture, and slavery.
We must not fa ll into the humanis­
tic trap, o f attempting to ju s tify a ll
cultural mores as equally “ good.’ ’ The
gospel o f Christ - indeed, all the Scrip­
tures -- confronts every culture in its
sinful patterns, and issues a call from
God him self, to repent and be trans­
formed into the image o f Christ. No
(Gal 2:11-14).
Luke shows us that the real issue at
stake was the c o n flic t between outward
cultural form (lik e circum cision) and
inward reality (like the new life in Christ
and the fillin g o f the Spirit). C ircum ci­
sion doesn’ t divide Christians in our
country ; but other matters do, such as
certain spiritual gifts (or lack o f them),
certain baptismal forms or formulas or
even particular practices o f worship.
And like the Judaizers in Acts 15, many
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Paul and Barnabas took every opportu­
nity to tell o f the wonderful works o f
God among the Gentiles (14:27; 15:3,12).
When we see sinners receiving the Lord,
liv in g holy lives and displaying love fo r
one another, we ought to praise the
Lord! But often our pride gets in the
way, and we start looking for reasons to
criticize another church o f denomina­
tion fo r their growth. And often the
differences we m ight p ick are really just
different cultural practices.
H old fast to the W ord o f God, and
to your convictions based on the W ord.
James did that, as he spoke in favor o f
the Gentile mission (15:13-19). And he
was most concerned fo r the salvation o f
every group o f people: “ we should not
make it d iffic u lt fo r the Gentiles who
are turning to God” (15:19). I f this is
our heart’ s desire, we w ill fin d ways to
respect and accept other bel ievers, w ith
out compromising our convictions, and
yet w ithout condemning our brothers
and sisters.
Radio Ministry each Sunday. 8:00 A .M .-K B M S
A Teaching Church With A Reaching Ministry
Dr. Jam es E . Martin, Senior Pastor
Chu rch O ffice 116 N .E . Schuy er.
School Board members, Stephen
Kafoury and Roby Roberts; Black
community activists Richard Brown and
Joyce Harris; and educators Jeff Edmund-
sen and B ill Resnick w ill debate a major
school reform proposal commissioned
by the Portland Public Schools. The
Special Task Force proposal calls for
more power in the hands o f teams o f
parents ail teachers at individual schools.
The proposal is endorsed by the Black
United Front, leader o f last February’ s
school boycott for a sim ilar reform
proposal. The com m unity forum is
Tuesday, October 8, 7 PM at the K ing
Neighborhood F acility, 4815 N E 7th,
sponsored by the Rainbow C oalition.
Prayer for healing every Service
4222 N.E. 12th Avenue Portland, Oregon
97211
(503) 288-7241
r
ward reality - that all believers are one
in C hrist (John 17:20-21) and that love
fo r one another w ill authenticate our
message (John 13:34-35) -- is more
im portant than the outward form .
A nd the evident blessing o f the
Lord helped prove the propriety o f the
mission to the Gentiles. Peter gave tes­
tim ony from his experience w ith C or­
nelius (Acts 15:7-9; 10:24-11:18), while
Stone Tower Church,
N .E . Sandy Blvd. & 30th
Worship Services 8:00 A.M . & 11:00 A.M .
Church School 9:30 A.M . to 10:30 A.M .
Bible Study, Wednesdays, 116 N.E.Schuyler
10:30 A.M . and 6:30 P.M.
f e t Ç aul ¿Missionary
^Baptist (Ctjnrclf
•i.
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ferences.
Paul saw this kind o f discrim ina­
tion in Antioch, and knew “ that they
were not acting in line w ith the truth o f
the gospel’ ’ (Gal 2:14, N IV ). The in ­
WE ARE MOVING
SUNDAY SERVICES
TO
C om m unity F oru m on Special Task
Force Proposal commissioned by
P ortland School B oard
Wednesday, September
11,1991 at 7:00 PM
"MARANATHA'S VISION'
Christians believe they can point to a
Scripture to prove that they are rig ht —
and they can then ju s tify separating
from the less “ spiritual” believers.
M any times believers choose their
views on these things by their own cu l­
tural experience, not by mandate o f
Scripture, and don ’ t even realize they ’ re
doing it. T hankfully, we don’ t always
go to the extreme these Judaizers did,
denying someone is even saved i f they
did n ’ t accept circum cision (15:1). But
we often do separate ourselves from
other believers because o f cultural d if­
MT OLIVET BAPTIST
CHURCH
CHANGE OUR
SCHOOLS!
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....
are tremendous.
Four years ago, the w ell-know n
evangelist B illy Graham hosted (and
financed) a conference fo r over 2,000
evangelists in Amsterdam. The p artici­
pants came from a ll over the w orld,
including crusade speakers like Gra­
ham, lesser known itinerant speakers,
and pioneer evangelists from India,
Southeast Asia and A fric a -m e n and
women who live at subsistence levels
and travel on foot or bicycle to villages
where the gospel has never been
preached. A ll are involved in the same
great task-the evangelistic enterprise
pioneered by Paul and Barnabas over
1900 years ago. And these ministers o f
Jesus found they could learn much about
themselves and the task o f w orld
are encouraged.
Sunday, September 8, 1991 at 6: 00 PM
"RESTORING PURPOSE IN OUR GENERATION’
> #.z.
PORTLAND BIBLE COLLEGE
The text fo r the Sunday School
lesson (International Series) fo r the
next Sunday is Acts 15:1-12.
In this age o f rapid travel and in ­
stantaneous comm unication, o f jum bo
jets, satellite links and C N N , we have a
tremendous opportunity to learn about
people o f various cultures and beliefs.
Even in the church o f Jesus Christ, the
possibilities to learn from each other
gon Cable Channel 38.
Commissioner Lindberg w ill talk
about his assigned bureaus (Water,
Energy, Parks, Arts) and overall sig­
nificant City issues such as public safety
and neighborhood revitilization. Calls
Service times are:
Early Sunday Morning Worship at 8:00 AM (New)
Sunday School at 9:30 AM
Regular Sunday Morning Service at 10:45 AM
Sunday Evening Service at 6:00 PM
Wednesday Evening Service at 7:00 PM
Sunday, "Maranatha Live": KPDQ 93.7 FM at 11:00 PM
Sunday, September 8, 1991 at 8:00 AM & 10:45 AM
"HOW TO HANDLE LIFE'S DEEPEST HURTS &
TOUGHEST PROBLEMS"
f • • *■ ■
. > « .
DEAN OF NORTH
Portland C ity Commissioner M ike
Lindberg w ill be the guest for the L IV E
C A L L -IN edition o f Black C om m unity
Television’ s “ N E Spectrum,” W ed­
nesday, October 2, at 7:00 p.m. The
program w ill appear on Channel 30 on
both Paragon and T C I systems. The
program w ill also be available on Para­
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culture is exempt, including our own.
Even though Am erica has had a
long history o f C hristianity, this does
not mean Am erica is aC hrislian nation.
Alongside our C hristian heritage has
also been a shameful history o f slavehold­
ing, exploitation o f Native Americans,
reckless corporate greed, and public
display o f lust and im m orality. And no
com m unity in this culture can excuse
its sins by comparing it to other seg­
ments o f the whole culture.
Unfortunately, our churches often
equate certain cultural patterns w ith the
essentials o f Christian faith. This week s
Bible lesson shows us that this is not a
new problem. In this case, some repre­
sentatives o f the Jerusalem church came
north to Antioch to fin d out more about
the evident growth o f that c ity ’ s church,
and perhaps also about the fruits o f Paul
and Barnabas’ missionary e ffo rts (1 5 :l,
BY MICHAEL LINDSEY
City Commissioner To
Appear On Live
Call-In-Program
Pastor Wendell Wallace
•t •
Matthew 13:3
Up until 1830 when anyone pur­
chased a bar of soap, the grocer
simply hacked off a chunk from a
large block
8101 N. Fiske Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97203
Church Phone: 2 8 9 -0 1 4 7
Sunday Service
10:45
Sunday School
9 :3 0
Bible Study
6 :0 0
Evening Service
7 :0 0 P.M.
Study Phone: 2 8 9 -1 9 1 1
Pastor. Rev James C E. Faulkner
Them e: W h a te v e r you're go ing to do
fo r th e Lord, do it now
I Peter hr.11
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