Mark and Kristy Ford planted Go Church East County in Portland, Oregon, an area Mark describes as hard soil for church planters, marked by deep divides ranging from progressive Christianity to secular skepticism. Many who visit come skeptical and ready to leave if anything feels off, making it difficult to reach people who aren’t ready to listen. Even so, many who stay say they will never be the same after encountering what God is doing at the church plant. Transformation is one of Go Church’s core values, worked out through discipleship, preaching, small groups, and men’s and women’s ministries. Mark points to one unmarried couple, open and honest about living together outside of marriage, who eventually gave their lives to Christ, agreed to stop sleeping together, and were later married by Mark. Their continued growth and openness about the change in their lives remains one of the church’s greatest stories of transformation.
Pray for the Fords as they plant their fourth church and continue reaching skeptical, hard-to-reach communities in Portland, Oregon.
Southern Baptists’ generous giving through the Cooperative Program sends and sustains missionaries like Mark and Kristy Ford to plant churches that transform lives in hard places like Portland.