When Christians do 'Fascinating Things'

I found this in Ministry Today. I love the movement that is going on in Portland right now. This is what the church should be doing. I would move to Portland in a second should the opportunity ever come up.

QUOTE: "Given the demographics, dominant status is not a 'problem' that's going to afflict Portland's evangelicals anytime soon. That's hardly stopping them from doing what has always served Christianity best. Shane Claiborne, a Christian activist based in Philadelphia, described it this way when he came to speak in Portland earlier this year. The best way for Christians to make people know about Jesus, Claiborne declared, is by 'doing fascinating things.' That's clearly what's happening here in 'Jesus' favorite city.' And more and more of the nonevangelical rest of us are becoming fascinated. —Portland, Ore.-based writer and USA Today columnist Tom Krattenmaker, on the noticeable shift in how Christians in his city are perceived. Through such initiatives as the "Season of Service," which brought together more than 500 area churches to serve the community through various means, Portland's believers are becoming known for their "show, don't tell" approach to sharing Christ and their partnerships with unlikely camps (including Portland's gay, liberal mayor, Sam Adams). " Although Portland is hardly the only place where evangelical Christianity is evolving (and making new friends in the process), there is little doubt that evangelicals here are on the front end of a deep-change trend that is taking Christianity into its new future," Krattenmaker writes. "What's especially interesting is the 'why?'—the strong likelihood that Christianity's best face is showing up here in the unchurched mecca not in spite of the city's secularism and skepticism, but because of them." [usatoday.com, 7/20/09]