Jesus left his followers with a mandate to share the good news with others, to make disciples of all people, to baptize them and teach them how to know, love, and follow Jesus.

These two “great C’s” provide a framework for how we are to love God, love others, and share His love with a hurting, lonely, broken world. But there is a third great C that you might be less familiar with, it is called the Great Collaboration from the book of Acts, chapter 2.

The Great Collaboration is a picture of what it looks like to follow Jesus in concert with other Jesus followers. Acts, chapter 2 describes the first church in Jerusalem, a group of people who worshiped together, met in homes to talk about and remember Jesus together,  they shared what they had with one another with great joy and generosity all the while praising God and living in a collaborative and cooperative community.

If you have been around any of our churches, you have probably heard about the high value we place on these elements of the Great Collaboration, a desire to consistently gather together to worship God, to be in a small group that talks about and supports each other to live according to the teachings of Jesus, and to share our time/treasure/talents with each other.

Our Elders have also recognized that the Great Collaboration is not just limited to an individual congregation, but is something that should be applied towards the way churches should interact with each other. Our value of Undeniable Kingdom Impact, is not just limited to our efforts here in one neighborhood, but anytime we are supporting or coming alongside another church or partner to see God’s Kingdom expanded, we are fulfilling All Three Great Cs.

We know what this looks like locally. When we partner with an organization that serves kids in foster care to provide Christmas gifts. We don’t care who gets the credit. We just want a child to know that they are loved. We want a family to know that there are people in their community who care about them. We want partner organizations to know that they aren’t caring for our community alone.

In 1925, Beaverton Christian Church (BCC) was started by a group of faithful men and women who wanted to live out the Great C’s in Beaverton. In 1957, a church in Oregon City felt that it was important that people across the river in West Linn have their own local church that could meet the needs of that community. They contacted a number of other churches in the area, including BCC, and asked if they would provide some money to help this church get started. BCC gladly participated, and Willamette Christian Church was founded.

In 2016, BCC found themselves at a point where they needed support and reached out to Willamette Christian Church for help. Through thoughtful and prayerful conversations, the Elders of both churches realized that it would actually be better if they worked together to inspire people in both communities to know, love, and follow Jesus.

In 2010, Hope City started as a church plant in southeast Portland. One of their early supporters was Willamette Christian Church. In 2019, after two years of watching BCC and Willamette work together to care for their communities. The leaders at Hope City wondered if that Better Together method might be right for them. At the same time, Milwaukie Christian Church (founded in 1940) was looking for a new lead pastor, and Hope City was praying for an opportunity to move out of worshiping in an elementary school and have a more permanent location to invest into their community.

So we helped merge the two congregations together, and they became the third member of our family. Here is another fun little fact, one of the other churches that provided funds to start Willamette Christian Church was a community of believers in Milwaukie, also known as Milwaukie Christian Church.

In 2020, New Hope Church had just sold their building in southeast Portland, and they were preparing to hold services at Clackamas High School. The pandemic changed those plans, and the New Hope community needed a new home. At the exact same time, Mt. Scott Church of God was looking to do something new to reach their community.  They saw what being Better Together had done for our church and asked if we would help them to combine their two congregations.

Through thoughtful and prayerful conversations over the next few years, our Elders and the New Hope elders realized that we would be Better Together, and in 2024, we became one church in four locations.

Lastly, or most recently, in January of 2025, the Great Collaboration continued. The story might sound familiar, in 1891, a group of faithful believers started a church in downtown Portland. It was primarily a church for recent immigrants to the United States from Switzerland, Germany, and Russia. In 1954, the congregation moved from downtown to southeast Portland, near Mt. Tabor. And in 2021, the church found themselves in need of some support. At that same time, All City Church, a church plant, started in 2020 (in the midst of the pandemic) was looking for a permanent location. They became Better Together and began serving the Mt. Tabor community in 2021.

Fast forward a couple of years, the All City team realized that they were in need of some support and began building relationships with the Elders and leaders of our church. After thoughtful and prayerful conversations, All City joined us in January 2025.

Three heritage churches (Trinity Fellowship, Mt. Scott Church of God, and Milwaukie Christian Church), five campuses, and one heart: to see neighborhood-centric churches that are committed to living out the great commandment of loving God and loving others, committed to living out the great commission by inspiring people to know, love, and follow Jesus; and committed to living out the great collaboration by encouraging each other to follow Jesus, share our time, talent, and treasure to care for our communities and expand His Kingdom.