History

In 2014, Bryan and Amanda Buck moved to Portland to plant a church to serve communities on the southeast side of Portland. Starting Oaks Parish was a unique partnership between the Presbyterian Church in America, the Pacific Northwest Church Planting Network, and Imago Dei Community where Bryan served as a church planter in residence early on. A group of around 30 people formed the original launch team. “Life together” has defined Oaks Parish from its beginning. We’ve always been a church living as extended family, growing as disciples of Jesus, and serving the city.

Oaks Parish was built on a foundation of life-on-life discipleship. Prior to starting the rhythm public worship service, our launch team was invested in discipleship groups that resulted in people following Jesus, some for the first time. The momentum of transformation carried us into the launch of public worship in December 2015, right at the start of the Advent season. In our first years of existence we worshiped at Grout Elementary School where we had a number of opportunities to serve families in our city.

After five years of growth, we became a self-sustaining church in May of 2019. If you’re unfamiliar with the church planting world this is equivalent to moving from the start-up phase to IPO in the marketplace. In September of 2020, we began worshipping at a new location in the Mt. Tabor neighborhood. This location has enabled our ministry capabilities to expand, particular with children’s ministry, and is accessible from a variety of neighborhoods across the city. In the spring of 2021, we introduced a new five-year vision plan to grow as a community of God’s justice and healing as we follow Jesus in making disciples.