Cover Story

by Allison Brandow

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Clackamas Church Prepares for Expansion Into Culture

New Hope Community Church's current building will come down in 2009
to make way for development. --Allison Brandow, photo

The white neon cross along Interstate 205 in Clackamas may soon disappear. Instead of the icon positioned atop New Hope Community Church, drivers will see apartments, shops, offices and a hotel.

The church is not selling out. Instead, it plans to expand and reinvent its image in the community.

"The real effort is to see ourselves connecting through our community and becoming a place where the community feels at home with us," adult ministries pastor and project point person Dennis Deardorff said.

In conjunction with Christian developer Neil Nedelisky, New Hope has designed a complete lifestyle community. Those who live in the community apartments will be able to shop at the community mall, work in the community business complex and worship at the community worship center. Their kids will enjoy a roof-top skate park, and together they will watch movies on a giant outdoor screen.

The planned expansion is part of New Hope's vision to reach the unreached, especially those who would never enter a church on their own.

New Hope will encourage non-Christians to rent apartments, shop and absorb the peaceful atmosphere created by the church. Then, New Hope pastors believe, those people will seek to know the beliefs behind the community.

"We want it to be friendly to everyone, believers or non-believers, and to be a place where they meet Jesus," Mr. Deardorff said. "They'll hear about the gospel through life being shared in that community."

The project will cost the church millions of dollars, starting with about $4 million for the 2,000- to 4,000-seat worship center. The planners are searching for shop tenants, businesses and a hotelier.

"[We're] talking to businesses that are a bit upscale and a little bit different than you'd find, say, in the mall," Mr. Deardorff said. "The idea is it's not going to become a place for just the rich, but it will offer the kinds of amenities and retail that you're not going to find at the average mall."

As New Hope seeks to offer different shops than does the nearby Clackamas Town Center, the church also desires to attract people by becoming like the surrounding culture.

"I think it is just a fact that churches reflect the culture they are in," Jim Byrne, lead minister at Clackamas Bible Church, said. "The word of God is countercultural. The word of God stands in judgment of every culture, but it seeks to redeem every culture also."

Pastor Byrne pointed out that churches are called to minister in different ways to the community.

"[New Hope] is appealing to a more affluent, educated culture," Mr. Byrne said.

"Our architect [Gary Reddick] calls it almost heroic," Mr. Deardorff said. "He said he has not seen anything like this created to his knowledge anywhere in the United States, if not the world."

The central part of New Hope's planned community, which is called Eagle Landing, is the worship center. The church will meet there for services, and the building will be available to rent for other events.

Across the street from the worship center will be a plaza surrounded by shops and a five-star hotel. Mr. Deardorff said the church will rent the shop spaces to secular businesses but only ones that align generally with the church's standards. They will accept restaurants that serve wine but will not allow shops such as Victoria's Secret.

Dr. Todd Miles, theology professor at Western Seminary, is cautious about New Hope's plans. Unfamiliar with the church's desires, he said all churches need to be careful with becoming too much like the consumerist culture of the United States.

"Consumerism is a way of life that has nothing to do with the sacrificial values of the kingdom," Dr. Miles said. "Christ went to the cross to reconcile all things to Himself. One day it will be realized by all. We need to realize that we as kingdom dwellers need to comport ourselves in the character of the king.

"It's a horrific thing," Dr. Miles said. "Consumerism in the church might be the greatest vice facing the church in America. I can't think of another culture where we church shop to have our needs met."

Mr. Deardorff saw little problem, however, with New Hope imitating the consumerist culture in Portland.

"This is who we are," he said. "We're a consumer society, and so [New Hope pastors] don't have any aversion [to being like that]. I think it's just utilizing that whole fact of our economy and our lifestyle. We can use that to advance the kingdom and advance the gospel."

"The church's main responsibility is to proclaim the gospel," Dr. Miles said. "The church needs to keep the main thing the main thing, which is the gospel of Christ, the proclamation and living out of the kingdom of God."

In this development model that sits in New Hope's foyer, visitors can see the proposed hotel (far right front), shops, (center front), worship center (center back) and apartments (far left) --Allison Brandow, photo

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