Northwest Christian Church
Northwest Christian Church has a heart to see the Highway 99 corridor reached and served. The church has a history of building close relationships outside its building’s walls. They do this so they can meet the spiritual and physical needs of the community.
Ben Greene
Pastor & Writer
Tens of thousands of people along Highway 99, running southwest out of Portland, Oregon, don’t know how much a church can bless their neighbors.
But Northwest Christian Church seeks to change that by a consistent, compassionate response to community needs. The church has a history of building close relationships outside their building’s walls. Pastor David Case explained that they do this to meet spiritual and physical needs.
“When we get some of their physical needs met, we know that we can help meet some of their spiritual needs as well,” Case said. “We want to continue to say yes, to be that kind of church where you can come and you can get some help.”
The church, which started in 1907, now has four campuses southwest of Portland, including online worshipers. Case explained that he and others at NCC have asked what the town needed now and in the future. Then, they asked how NCC could help.
“The church stepped out and it was a game changer for us in our approach,” Case said. “We want to build community. We also want to be invitational to the community around us.”
Together, they’ve raked leaves and cleaned up schools and run after-school programs to bless their neighbors, They’ve welcomed trainers for police K-9s to use the church’s space and started a community kitchen to help hungry individuals and families.
After starting an after-school program for two schools, the church now serves students from four different schools. The knowledge that 70 percent of kids make their decision for Christ between the ages of four to 14 years old motivates the church, Case explained.
Christian Financial Resources has come alongside Northwest several times, he explained. They have a growing partnership in loans and investments since 2020.
“They’ve been really, really great to work with,” Case said of CFR. “It’s been remarkable how they are for us. They catch what we’re trying to do and they support us.”
The latest venture between CFR and Northwest is buying land at the Newberg campus and improving the children and students’ ministry space at the Tigard campus.
“We can’t do that without some help from CFR,” Case added.
Case, who was raised in the community and baptized at the church, left for college. But he came back to town, went on staff 41 years ago, and never left. Over the decades, he said the church’s people have partnered with town schools and leaders with community resource centers, a gym for kids and even a water filtration system that the area might need during disasters.
For the tens of thousands in the Highway 99 corridor, Case wants them to see how much the church cares about their lives. He said he once saw a statement that asked, ‘If a church disappeared, would anyone notice it was gone?’
“That haunted me and I wanted to make sure the community knew that the church is really a light,” he said. “We’re a light in the community. We’re for the community.”
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