Imago Dei Community

The story of Jonah begins by him being called to preach to Nineveh, one of the world’s most insidious and evil empires. Invited to Nineveh, he flees to Tarshish and “from the presence of the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “presence” here is the word for “face.” Jonah cannot look his God in the face and so flees the exact opposite direction to modern day Spain. What happens when we run from the face of God?

Last year, at our 25th anniversary as a church, we collectively committed to a higher participation in the mission of Imago Dei. Our commitment was through October of 2027. This October, join us as we celebrate all God is doing through A Sanctuary for the City and encourage one another to continue our commitment to His purposes.

How often have we stopped to consider how our daily life contributes to the purposes of God? How does our work, parenting, singleness or marriage, further the purposes of God? How can a “sober judgement, in accordance with the faith God has distributed” help us see our life’s purpose? All we do either furthers or detracts from God’s purposes in the world. How can we develop a new imagination and add to the spiritual and social vitality of the city?

The conversion of Lydia in the book of Acts tells us of a woman whose heart was “opened” by the gospel message and it changed not only her life but the life of the early church. How does her story help us see God’s desire for his church? What is the difference between a community being “a church” to “our church?” God has entrusted all who call him Lord with responsibility to contribute to a local church.

Did God have anything to do with where we live? Paul tells the Athenians that the very God who made the world drew out lines of our dwelling places. “God did this,” he says, “so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17:27). Many modern Americans look at a city like Portland and ask, “what will it give me?” But the Christian asks a very different question: how can I love and serve this city? Paul shows us a vision for how the gospel contributes to the social vitality of a city.

We have a small part to play inside the vast kingdom of God. Still, in remarkable grace, God has given “the keys to the kingdom of heaven” to his church, the gathered believers who confess his name. What does it mean to be entrusted with this set of keys? From Peter to Paul, it seems like the early Christians did not use the “keys to the kingdom” to lock the community behind gates, but to unlock the power of the Spirit.

In the end of Psalm 63, David says, “On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.” The “watches of the night” is not the place where God is absent as we sleep, but the place wherein we can find God. To seek God at the end of the day or through the night is to invite God into to transform our restlessness to peace. How does prayer work in the night?