HEALTH SAFETY

UPDATE: August 24, 2021 at 3:15 PM

Dear Portland Christian Center Family,

As you may have now heard, Oregon’s governor has announced the return of a statewide, indoor mask requirement emphasizing personal responsibility. As a church, we at Portland Christian Center will continue to gather while offering as much freedom as possible and being sensitive to the needs of those around us. Regarding mask-wearing, we plan to continue on the course we have now been on for the last few months. When you attend a gathering at PCC, you can expect a celebratory experience where we will trust you to take health and wellness measures that are a blessing to you and others. Whether those measures are masks, vaccines, or social distancing, we hope all of God’s people can gather in worship together. We love you and anticipate another powerful gathering this Sunday.

UPDATE: May 28, 4:00 PM

Dear Portland Christian Center Family,

The longer the Coronavirus restrictions last, the more interested and eager we become for the reopening of our lives—our homes, shops, jobs, and church. Many of you have asked me, “When are we going to reopen PCC?” Some have asked, “Why have we not already reopened our church?” And a few have even suggested that we should not let our Governor dictate whether our building is open or not.

I want to let you know that our Senior Leadership Team and Pastoral staff is actively planning for the day that our church family can regather in our building. Of course, there are many factors involved in this decision—some imposed by the state-directed phases and protocols for safely reopening (which are rapidly evolving and ever-changing), and some as a result of our pastoral heart to keep you healthy when we do come back together.

I reassure you that our team is working on it. However, I cannot give you a date that is certain at this time for re-opening our building. In light of that, as your Pastor, I appeal to you for your continued prayers for wisdom, your trust that when decisions are made, we have done them with the best interests of the body of Christ in mind and, I ask for your patience.

And as you await our reopening, I strongly suggest the attitude with which you wait is of critical importance to your Christian witness, to the witness of Portland Christian Center, and the witness of the Body of Christ in Portland. Below is the text of a document that I and dozens of other Pastors in the Greater Portland area have crafted that explains the spiritual posture that our individual churches will take toward the process of reopening. Our Board of Deacons has unanimously approved it for PCC. And now, I trust that you will read and absorb it, and more importantly, live it out in your attitudes and actions as a witness of Jesus in our city.

In Christ,

Pastor Ray Noah

A PASTORAL STATEMENT ON THE REOPENING OF THE CHURCH

As a coalition of Church Leaders in Portland, we feel compelled to stand together in our response to how and when we reopen our Sunday worship gatherings in light of the Governor’s phased rollout plan.

We believe that the body of Christ is called to be both a faithful presence and prophetic witness to our cities. We stand on the reality that the people of Jesus have worshipped historically and globally under every and all circumstances, threats, wars, and even persecution. Following our rich Christian history we are able to take any form to express our worship of Jesus Christ, from filling stadiums to gatherings of 2-3 people. Jesus has promised to be among us. In this moment, the churches of Portland continue to gather on Sundays in homes and through technology. We look forward to gathering again in person, and yet, we are seeing God work in incredible ways as he draws His people into places of dependence, healing, repentance, lament, and comfort.

We stand together as pastors in our commitment to innovate and sacrifice so that we can faithfully lead our congregations in worship, and serve vulnerable populations as well as our neighbors. We have agreed to work together so that every person remains safe, the vulnerable populations of our churches and neighborhoods are cared for, and to be good citizens as the scripture calls us to be.

We appreciate the complexity and unprecedented challenges our elected officials are facing. We desire that whatever plans are put forth by the Governor will take into account both the the threat of COVID-19, and the social and economic implications of a prolonged stay at home orders. We are committed to continuing to worship in new ways and serve our city courageously and generously while employing the safety protocols recommended by the CDC.

We choose to comply with the Governor’s phases at this time, and will together seek ways to learn from one another, innovate together, and be a collective witness of God’s love and salvation during such a challenging moment for our entire world.

We will continue to pray for our state and local leaders, for their health, safety, wisdom, and perseverance. We appreciate the countless hours they have worked. We pray that the flourishing of Oregonians will be valued over party politics and personal power by both the state and the church.

We together applaud our front line workers who carry the burden of this moment in ways few of us can imagine. We grieve with those who have lost loved ones during this season. We pray for those who have lost jobs and businesses, and all those who have suffered financially in this time. We pray for our houseless neighbors, those with food insecurity, those who are home but not safe, and all others who are dramatically negatively affected by this moment. Our desire is that you will find the churches of the greater Portland area to be good neighbors who love and care for the flourishing of our cities, families, and communities.

We stand together for the strength of the church and the health of our cities.

UPDATE: May 23, 7:30 AM

Dear Portland Christian Center Family,

As you may know by now, President Trump declared yesterday (5/22/2020) that churches and other houses of worship are essential. You can read his declaration on any number of news sites, or watch it here: https://youtu.be/1jPP8IeOJj8.

We applaud his words: church gatherings are essential to the spiritual health of millions of Americans, and I would add, to America as a whole. We look forward to the day where all houses of worship are open, and we pray, are fuller than before the Coronavirus restrictions were implemented.

This development has led many of you to ask if Portland Christian Center will be open for in-person worship this Sunday, May 24. We will not. Others are wondering if this means the church building will be open for services in the next week or two. Frankly, we don’t know. When we do return, you can expect direct communication from PCC leadership with as much notice in advance as possible.

When we do return to meeting in person, our leadership team—pastoral staff, Board of Deacons, and PCC medical professionals—will do its best to provide a safe experience. Therefore, prudence requires us to wait until the Center For Disease Control (CDC) and the Multnomah County Health Department issue guidelines for safe gatherings. Once that happens, our “re-open team” will review the guidelines and implement procedures for PCC to resume in person gatherings—either for groups and/or for worship services.

We ask for your continued prayer in this matter. Again, your safety is our highest priority. Likewise, we desire our re-opening to leave a compelling witness of credible Christianity to a city that is watching how we respond to this current crisis. Our church leadership needs wisdom from above to know when re-opening is feasible due to all of the restrictions that we expect to be placed upon churches—social distancing, masks, crowd size, etc.

You can expect a follow-up email from me by the middle of next week with any updates we may have, and perhaps more importantly, the posture that our church, in unity with the Church of Portland, will take in the re-opening process.

For now, I look forward to gathering with you through technology tomorrow at 9:00 AM, 10:30 AM or 5:00 PM at https://live.pcctoday.com. Our worship will be anointed and God has given me a special word on a very important practice that will fill us with transformational hope.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Ray Noah

UPDATE: March 25, 5:45 PM

Dear Portland Christian Center Family,

“This is the day the Lord has made, so let us rejoice and be glad in it!” (Psalm 118:24)

I trust that you are well during this crazy COVID-19 season. And I want to remind you that God’s got this—and you, too!

Oregon Governor Kate Brown has issued a “Stay at Home” directive, so I need to let you know that your ministry team at Portland Christian Center is complying with the order. We are working from home. There is a skeleton crew at the church, which her directive permits, so we are keeping the phones open, responding to Pastor on-call needs, and allowing our counseling office to stay operational — all the while practicing safe distancing and extreme sanitization measures.

If you need anything, please let us know. If you need help or just want someone to listen, you can email us or call the church office at 503-245-7735. Our pastors are standing by!

Our staff will continue advancing the mission of our church — to know God and make him known. Through the various departments, we are having daily all-staff meetings and ministry team meetings through tele-conferencing, and each staff member will be making phone calls to every person who is on our active church rolls—that’s nearly 2,000 calls. So be expecting a call from us simply to see how you are doing.

And, don’t forget to join us through our Livestream service this Sunday at 10:30 AM. The preferred way to watch is by logging on through our webpage, https://live.pcctoday.com. This allows you to interact with us. 

Invite a friend too! The unchurched are more open to “going” to church, even if it is an online service than ever before.

During our gathering times, you can chat with us directly through the streaming experience and we will be monitoring the phones as well. If you miss us at 10:30 AM, we will post the online service to our website.

Hope to “see” you this Sunday. And don’t forget: God’s got this—and you, too!

You are loved,

Pastor Ray Noah

UPDATE: March 12, 3:10 PM

Dear Portland Christian Center Family,

As you have likely heard by now, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown issued a statement Wednesday night that prohibits public gatherings of 250+, including faith-based gatherings, for the next four weeks in order to stem the tide of the COVID-19 outbreak. Our pastoral team has been anticipating this, so we are now shifting from planning to implementation.

It is our feeling that we need to make cooperation with our government and health leaders (Romans 13:1) as well as the safety of you, the PCC spiritual community, our top priority. In light of that, over the next few Sundays, we will shift how we “meet together” (Hebrews 10:24-25) from gathering as the church in our building to bringing church to you through Livestream. For this coming Sunday, we have rescheduled both morning and evening missions events to late September.

I invite you to tune in this Sunday at 10:30 AM as we worship, pray, give and listen to God speak through His Word. In fact, I believe that God has given me a specific word that will put the COVID-19 outbreak and our response to it into a Biblical context.  Please join me for “Pandemic Panic and the People of God” this coming Sunday at 10:30 AM via livestream at https://pcctoday.com/live.

We will also suspend our midweek on-campus group gathering during this time, but our fantastic pastoral staff will be communicating a variety of ways that the groups they lead will be able to engage in discipleship.

In the meantime, our offices will remain open, and we look forward to serving you in this unique time. Please let us know any needs you have, and we will respond as best we can.

While this pandemic has put a road block in our normal routines, I have no doubt that God will enable us to leverage it as a building block for His glory and the growth of His Kingdom here in Portland.

Pastor Ray Noah