Day in the Park – Labor Day 2011

This is Church

Evangelists, musicians, pastors and stunt dudes come together to give inner-city Portland a Day in the Park. On a sunny Labor Day in Portland, Oregon, the grounds of Lents Park were transformed into an open-air village of inflatable jump houses, plywood skate ramps and tents of food and activities. Music varying from freestyle hip hop to gospel filled the air as local and visiting Christian artists joined the Luis Palau Association’s Next Generation Alliance, Save the City Records and several area churches to host Day in the Park, a free event for Portland’s inner-city community.

“Our heart is really to incorporate all facets and come together as a community,” said Tray Michaels, one of the event’s organizers and an associate pastor at Southeast Portland’s Revolution Foursquare Church. “We really wanted to put on an event where we could get out into the community, shake hands and get to know our neighbors.”

Revolution Foursquare, under the guidance of Lead Pastor Alpha Hayward, began performing park outreaches with its youth ministry over seven years ago. Through collaboration with other ministries, the event has grown into an annual full-day festival featuring a growing repertoire of well-known Christian artists and new attractions such as BMX and skate demonstrations. “It’s an honor to be able to do something like this in the neighborhood you meet in every week,” said Hayward. “It’s definitely a different dynamic when you can see the people you’re reaching out to the next day at the grocery store or the gas station.”

Vic Murphy and John Andrus of Action Sports Outreach, together with skateboarding pro Tim Byrne and team members from SkateChurch Portland, performed air-defying stunts throughout the day. Murphy concluded each show by sharing his testimony and proclaiming the Gospel to the crowds of delighted adults and children.

“Our main goal is proclamation evangelism,” said the BMX rider, who has taken his characteristic mix of stunts and evangelism across the world. “Whether it’s big or small…we just want to serve and partner with others to help them reach people for Christ.” Byrne summed up the event in a single word: Community. “People are drawn to this and they don’t even know why,” he says. “It’s the idea of what the Church is—Capital C. This is Church.”

This year, Save the City Records brought nationally-known artists Group 1 Crew and Byron “Mr. Talkbox” Chambers to perform at the event. When he learned about Revolution Foursquare’s park outreaches, Derek Hoiem, president of the burgeoning record label, decided to come alongside the effort and help it grow. “It was really a big science experiment,” said Hoiem. “Our own cities have become our mission fields. We go where the people are.”

The collaborators expressed a hope that this community-based outreach model would become the norm among churches. “That’s one of our visions—to get churches to do it in their own neighborhoods,” said Michaels. “We really want other people to catch this vision, learn how to relate to their community and go outside the box.”