Welcome to Community Outreach!

We have a new name--Office of Community Outreach! The Departments of Health Ministries, Community Services & Disaster Response are now being included under the umbrella of the Office of Community Outreach which exists to help Seventh-day Adventist Churches develop ongoing relationships with their neighbors in order to meet their needs and introduce them to Jesus.

What does that mean? It means the mission of this department has significantly broadened to include any endeavor of a church, that is not overt evangelism, to make connections with its community. This means that every program endorsed by this department will have some component of outreach embedded within. We firmly believe in the "commission culture " and Jesus' implied command to "go FISH!"

Since we are all in the "fishing business," I expect there may be some overlap in our missions which will give all of us the opportunity to partner with each other at one time or another. We will endeavor to help churches think creatively beyond the walls of distributing food and clothing or providing health education aimed mostly for their members. We want to help you as conference leaders, pastors and members alike to follow Jesus' example of mingling with the community.

We are excited about the future--the future of the Oregon Conference. And we can hardly wait to see churches become revitalized as a result of this new direction!