Needs in Central Oregon

Bob has posted a great question here

He brings up the notion that communities of Jesus followers should be organic, growing out of the needs and perspectives of the local community. The question is what are some of the great needs and opportunities to be active Jesus followers concerned with our local context?


About Nate

Currently, Nate is living in Bend, OR, working as the co-founder for VillageWorks (celebrating abundance | creative connectivity) and the singular Bend|OR advocate of BridgeWorks (an educational 501[c]3). He is connecting and holding space for an emerging community of people, young and old, who are seeking to grow into more sustainable and mature relationships… with self, community and God. The vision on his heart is one of giving people experience of village culture and practice. Nate can be found connecting people through at The Hub, VillageWorks’ Central Oregon community connection center (www.rockthevillage.com) and making oven pancakes for the biggest regular “village” breakfast in Bend every Saturday morning at 9:30. Nate went to Bethel College in St Paul, MN (’03), got his BA in Youth Ministry, completed his Masters in Divinity at Bethel Seminary (’06) with an emphasis in Spiritual Formation, and is currently pursuing a certificate in Spiritual Formation at George Fox Seminary in Portland. His hope is to continue to pursue community spiritual formation within the framework of the neighborhood conversation and cross-cultural dialog. Nate has been connecting people into more authentic community in Bend | OR since June ’07. Since day one of his arrival, Nate has been gifted with the chance to listen and learn about the culture and people of Central Oregon. Because of his passion for conversation and community, he has fallen in love with the people of this wonderful city and is committed to the growth of more intentional and transformational community. Nate’s particular areas of interest are: * conversational transformation * spiritual formation * relational mentoring and counseling * small group strengthening * men’s work (spiritual, emotional, and relational) * “Village Knowledge” of homecraft, live food, etc * Intergenerational community * New visions of the gifts we offer to the community * teaching for the 21st century, and more. At this time Nate has not written any books, but hopes to some day have enough material to put into some type of publication. At this point, he is dedicated to building relationships in Bend, Central Oregon, and across the United States to connect people to what is happening in an emerging and evolving paradigm and with those who are seeking to follow God and live more authentically in the transforming presence of the divine.
This entry was posted in Community, Ministry, Questions and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Needs in Central Oregon

  1. Wright says:

    Being and active Jesus follower?

    Yes brothers, it is true that our faith must manifest in the action of meeting needs. I tend to go too far in thinking that the only needs are poor people and the sick and homeless. But Jesus helps me to realize that the true needy folks are the ones that recognize their needyness (Matt 9). So, I need to remember that there may also be folks, crying out, who have plenty of wealth and resource. All that said, here is my partial list:
    -forgotten elderly
    -lonely and hopeless single parent families
    -wandering young execs seeking mentors
    -unforgiven and excommunicated loners
    -mental health cases
    -me (i need bob and nate)
    -my list could go on, but i love the topic…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>