Story and Table, by Pastor Mike—Now Available!

Story and Table: Discovering Hope and Healing in Evolving Christianity

By Roth, Mike

Buy on Amazon

Mike spent the last year writing a book, Story and Table. This book is the theological expression of his deconstruction and reconstruction journey. It explores stories about the Bible, the gospel, salvation, atonement, and an afterlife. For many, these stories have caused incalculable harm. But there are, truly, better stories. This book explores them and it encourages hope and healing in evolving Christianity. 

Story and Table is now available to purchase at Amazon, or from the publisher, Wipf & Stock.

Mike will also be hosting a book launch party in early January—more details to come!

Advent 2025 Devotional

Download our 2025 Advent Devotional

The Church calendar begins in the darkest days of the year, with the First Sunday of Advent. Advent encompasses the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, this year beginning on November 30. During this season of longing, we intentionally cultivate space for the light of Christ in the midst of darkness. It is a time of preparation that directs our hearts and minds to treasure up and ponder all that is possible, in Christ.

As we enter Advent this year, many of us are feeling the darkness much more than the light. Our political, economic, and civic life seems increasingly marked by animosity, oppression, distress, and inequity. We are appalled at ICE raids, the undoing of social supports, and the incivility of public discourse. Some of us watch the news and listen to podcasts, alert for and reacting to every new threat; others of us feel checked out, overwhelmed by helplessness. And personally, we each carry griefs, questions and struggles.

In our Advent sermon series this year, Held by Longing, we will plumb the depths of our sorrow. But then, we’ll keep going. We’ll follow the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures in considering how our discouragement, overwhelm, and hopelessness can, like the North Star, hold us in light that guides us onward. Onward, to participate in Divine Love, which is capable of making all things new.

This devotional guide is meant as a companion for our community during this Advent season. For each week of Advent, you’ll find readings and meditations for families, friends, housemates and individuals to engage throughout this Advent season. Whether you use the Advent Wreath candle lighting liturgies, or the meditations, or both, we hope this devotional helps you create space and meaning during this season. Right in the midst of all our social turmoil, the weeks leading up to Christmas can add another layer of tension—a blur of activity and frivolity, but also of family tensions, tight budgets, high expectations and stressful schedules. Making intentional space to reflect, slow down, and be prayerfully present to Christ and loved ones can give us space to name the many tensions we hold, and to allow them to become creative invitations: animosity into peace; oppression into freedom; distress into healing; inequity into favor. In this season of darkness and light, may our very tensions invite us into the creative work of God with us—Emmanuel.

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Music for the Devotional

Song Lyrics

Week 1: Chase the Darkness Away

Week 2: O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Week 3: Send Us a Savior

Week 4: May You Find a Light

Christmas Day: O Come, Let Us Adore Him

Find Pastor Mike on Substack

As a supplemental offering to Mike’s work at Pearl, he’s now on substack hosting a virtual space called Story & Table. Story & Table exists for people to belong, question, tear down, and rebuild a way of being Christian that actually aligns with the loving way of Jesus. You can subscribe for free. For full access, there’s a small monthly fee, which helps to curate safe space for people to engage and process. This could be a great resource to share with friends and family, outside of Portland, who are looking to engage in the kind of Christianity we’re cultivating at Pearl. 

Forthcoming book by Pastor Mike: Story and Table

Mike spent the last year writing a book, Story and Table. This book is the theological expression of his deconstruction and reconstruction journey. It explores stories about the Bible, the gospel, salvation, atonement, and an afterlife. For many, these stories have caused incalculable harm. But there are, truly, better stories. This book explores them and it encourages hope and healing in evolving Christianity. Story and Table will be released in December 2025 and we’ll host a book launch party in January 2026. Stay tuned for more info!

Fall Launch 2025

Each year, we take one Sunday at the start of September to look ahead together over the upcoming ministry year. We share our key themes for the year, and our staff and leaders give an invitation into the many ways you can partake of and participate in our community life. If you weren’t able to join us, you can watch the Fall Launch below. Below the video you’ll find links if you would like to sign up to join any of our teams this year.

You can download the Fall Launch presentation slides here.

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Team Sign-ups

Two Service Schedule Begins Sept 14

We will be returning to our two service schedule on September 14, to make room for more people as the school year begins!

Services will be at 9:00am and 10:30am, with kids and youth programs offered at 10:30am. If you don’t have kids and youth and are able to do so, we encourage you to attend the 9am service to make room for more people, as the 10:30am services is often full.

End of Year Giving: Haylie's Story

Pearl Church exists through the generous donations of those who love and tangibly support our work. As the end of this year approaches, will you consider making a donation to Pearl of any amount? End of year giving traditionally covers about 30% of our annual budget, which makes this time of year especially important to meeting our fiscal needs. You can donate easily and securely online.

End of Year Giving: David & John's Story

Pearl Church exists through the generous donations of those who love and tangibly support our work. As the end of this year approaches, will you consider making a donation to Pearl of any amount? End of year giving traditionally covers about 30% of our annual budget, which makes this time of year especially important to meeting our fiscal needs. You can donate easily and securely online.

End of Year Giving: Kaya & Leah's Story

Pearl Church exists through the generous donations of those who love and tangibly support our work. As the end of this year approaches, will you consider making a donation to Pearl of any amount? End of year giving traditionally covers about 30% of our annual budget, which makes this time of year especially important to meeting our fiscal needs. You can donate easily and securely online.

Virtual Fall Launch 2024

It’s an annual tradition at Pearl to take the first Sunday after Labor Day as our Fall Launch. Rather than a normal service, we take time to cast vision for the offerings and opportunities that our community can partake of and participate in during the year to come. If you weren’t able to join us, you can watch the presentations here.

Fall Launch Presentations

Download the slides here.

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Fall Launch Signups

To sign up for any of the upcoming events or classes mentioned, visit our events page.

If you’d like to sign up to join one of our teams, you can use the forms linked below:

• Kids & Youth Team Interest Form

• Music Team Interest Form

• Greeting Team Interest Form

• Sunday Support Team Interest Form

Two Service Schedule begins 9/15

Beginning September 15, we will offer two services at 9:00am and 10:30am, with kids and youth programs offered at the second service.

As newcomers find Pearl, we hear over and over: “I have been searching for a church just like this!” Over the past years, our community has lovingly built up a uniquely non-violent, affirming, deeply Christian space where it is safe to deconstruct and reconstruct faith. Many people would love to join us. Our space presents a challenge—we regularly bump into our limits for seating at one service, which communicates that we are out of room. We want to extend our common table even further to make generous room. For the upcoming year, we dream of offering two vibrant services where our community, as generous hosts, can welcome those who are searching for a space like Pearl.

Story & Table Season 1 Now Available!

Story & Table, a new podcast from Pearl Church Pastor Mike Roth, exists to make connections between the stories that we tell and the tables that our stories sustain. Through a lens that is intentionally non-violent and non-dominion, Mike explores an ecology of Christian language that sets loving tables, around which humans are freed and inspired to flourish.

All episodes from Season One are now available to download on our website or on Apple Podcasts!

End of Year Giving - Stories of Raising Kids

Pearl Church member Heather Griffin shares about her hopes for kids to encounter good, non-violent theology at Pearl.

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As we near the end of another calendar year, would you consider giving a special gift to Pearl? Pearl Church exists through the generous donations of those who love and tangibly support our work and end of year giving traditionally covers about 30% of our annual budget, which makes this time of year especially important to meeting our fiscal needs. This year we find ourselves especially in need of support, as we have extended our budget in order to bring on additional staff and expand our offerings. You can find more about how to give a special end of year donation here, and also learn how you can easily set up a recurring donation.

End of Year Giving - Stories of Community

Pearl Church members Phil and Janis Petrowski share about their experience of community and support at Pearl through their battle with cancer.

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As we near the end of another calendar year, would you consider giving a special gift to Pearl? Pearl Church exists through the generous donations of those who love and tangibly support our work and end of year giving traditionally covers about 30% of our annual budget, which makes this time of year especially important to meeting our fiscal needs. This year we find ourselves especially in need of support, as we have extended our budget in order to bring on additional staff and expand our offerings. You can find more about how to give a special end of year donation here, and also learn how you can easily set up a recurring donation.

End of Year Giving - Stories of Inclusion

Pearl Church attender Hongya Chen shares about his experiences of LGBTQIA+ inclusion at Pearl Church.

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As we near the end of another calendar year, would you consider giving a special gift to Pearl? Pearl Church exists through the generous donations of those who love and tangibly support our work and end of year giving traditionally covers about 30% of our annual budget, which makes this time of year especially important to meeting our fiscal needs. This year we find ourselves especially in need of support, as we have extended our budget in order to bring on additional staff and expand our offerings.

You can find more about how to give a special end of year donation here, and also learn how you can easily set up a recurring donation.

End of Year Giving - Stories of Reconstruction

Pearl Church attenders Chris and Bentley Barbour share about their experience of Pearl as a safe place to reconstruct their faith.

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As we near the end of another calendar year, would you consider giving a special gift to Pearl? Pearl Church exists through the generous donations of those who love and tangibly support our work and end of year giving traditionally covers about 30% of our annual budget, which makes this time of year especially important to meeting our fiscal needs. This year we find ourselves especially in need of support, as we have extended our budget in order to bring on additional staff and expand our offerings.

You can find more about how to give a special end of year donation at our website, www.pearlchurch.org/donate, and also learn how you can easily set up a recurring donation.

Antiracism: Consider Taking the IDI

For those of you who missed our discussion with Dr. Jenkins last Sunday, she introduced us to a personal development tool called the Intercultural Development Inventory, which provides insight into how each of us tends to respond in situations of cultural difference. As Dr. Jenkins mentioned, working against racism occurs at the societal, communal, and personal level. This is a tool that provides personal awareness and recommendations for you to develop your intercultural mindset as an individual. If you are interested in taking the IDI assessment yourself, you’re welcome to reach out to her directly. If you’d prefer to pursue the IDI with someone from Pearl Church, long-time Pearl member Abby Coppock is trained and certified on the IDI and is also willing to assist. Feel free to reach out directly to Abby. Please note, fees may apply.

Antiracism

At Pearl Church, we embrace values embodied in the life of Jesus. Equity and inclusion are two of our values, and our intention to work against racism is a natural outflow of these values.

Definition(s)

Definitions of racism, long considered to be about individual attitudes and actions, have been updated in our day to include the growing recognition that racism goes beyond the individual. Racism is perpetuated by systems of power: governments, schools, prisons, families, economies, religions. Racism is also understood to intersect with other forms of discrimination, and this intersectionality—the ways various identities interact, such as race, gender, class, sexual orientation, and ability—affects individuals’ lived experiences, shaping their perspectives, worldview, and relationships.

Antiracism, then, is any measure that produces or sustains racial equity between racial groups and must include an attentiveness to the intersecting identities of the members of a community.

Our Commitment

Pearl Church understands Jesus’ message of divine love to be inclusive of all people. The Christian scriptures show Jesus seeking out and elevating those marginalized by the dominant voices of society. This purposeful action moves counter to the insidiousness of racism. Following Jesus, therefore, we commit ourselves to intentionally work against racism, standing firmly against racism in all forms. Our commitment is:

• The deconstruction of disadvantage based on skin color,

• to unearth bias, both conscious and unconscious,

• and to work in our community to counter inequities long rooted in the poisoned soil of racism.

Equity asks us to examine and deconstruct systems that marginalize and perpetuate disparities and to construct new, more generous and just systems in their place. Inclusion asks for active investment in our community—engaging with the unique and intersecting identities of those within our community and offering support and opportunity for all to realize their full (and fully loved) selves.

Member's Meeting 2022 Highlights

At Pearl, our financial/ministry year runs from July through June, so each year we host a member’s meeting in July. This past July 10th, the Oversight Team led us in celebrating the last year, shared some important updates for the upcoming year and ways our community can support our vision. Below you'll find highlights for a few of the most important updates from the meeting.

Members’ Meeting Highlights

Member Updates

• We met and welcomed twelve new members over the last twelve months.

• We celebrated several members’ forthcoming marriages and recent weddings.

• We celebrated high school graduations and new babies born into our community.

• We heard updates on health from several members and remembered those who passed way this year.

Working Against Racism
Over the past year our board has worked out some language regarding our intent to work against racism. You can find that statement here. We also shared about the board’s recent work with Dr. Debra Jenkins through Share the Flame. At this point our Oversight team has met individually with Dr. Jenkins and as a team. Soon we will make available a church-wide meeting with Dr. Jenkins in the coming months.

Ben’s New Role
During the meeting we shared that Pastor Ben is now working full-time as our Operations Pastor, from July 1. Ben will continue to preach and offer pastoral care, but will also be taking on the operational aspects of Pearl - finances, managing staff, volunteer coordination and donor management. This position was created after the Oversight Team met and charted out what tasks could be removed from Pastor Mike’s plate to create more room for exciting work both inside and outside our church. (See below for more on this!) The Oversight Team asked if Ben would be interested in taking on these responsibilities and he shared that it felt like a dream job description. We commissioned Ben in this new role on Sunday, July 17.

Mike’s New Work
As I shared on Sunday, I’m excited about these changes. With Ben taking over the operations side of my job, I’ll now have time to pursue more of my passion and skill by developing non-violent theology while also expanding Pearl’s work in the world. I believe that this is important. The theological work that we’re doing at Pearl is helping those who are deconstructing to reconstruct consequential faith and we’d like to be intentional to make this work accessible beyond Pearl. To be clear, the majority of my work will continue to be embodied in our local community. And, I’m looking forward to thoughtfully exploring how Pearl’s work may extend beyond Portland. I believe that the extension of Pearl’s work in the world will help to nurture change that’s desperately needed in today’s American Christianity.

I look forward to sharing more about this transition when I share my heart for Pearl as an Oversight Team member, on 8/14.

Supporting Pearl
We're so excited about the good things that are happening at Pearl - this is a work that we all share in, together. As we begin moving forward from these pandemic years toward the future, making room for more people to find and join us at Pearl will depend on our community supporting Pearl, both by volunteering and giving financially.

Part of Pastor Ben's role will be to help provide opportunities to get involved—whether spending a Sunday morning with our kids or youth, serving our Pearl Court Neighbors at our monthly Pantry, greeting newcomers on Sundays or hosting a home group. We want to be sure that all of us are able to share creatively in making this a warm, inclusive community for all people.

In addition, the Oversight Team shared that in order to hire Ben full time, we have extended ourselves financially, with a 2.75 year runway of savings to support this. In order for our community to continue to grow and thrive, we are depending on the generous giving of our members and attenders. You can learn more about ways to give, here.

As always, please be in touch with any questions.

Thank you,

Pastor Mike

Recent Covid News & Safety

Multnomah County is currently in the low transmission category for Covid. The county is not mandating universal indoor masking at this time, but is encouraging community members to wear a well-fitting mask indoors around others if experiencing symptoms or testing positive for COVID. We will continue to monitor the situation and plan to follow CDC and Multnomah County recommendations. Multnomah County's current position is to strongly recommend indoor masking. We're asking everyone to think about their own health, their own risk level, and the risk level of those in their households and social circle, and to act accordingly. For more information visit the county's website, here.