Praying for Those in Authority: Multnomah County

Portland and Mount Hood

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. John 14:23

We have now come full circle around the state praying for those in leadership in each county, now back in Multnomah County.  Multnomah County is, of course, home to the largest city in the state, Portland, which is also the county seat. It is the smallest by area, about 474 square miles, with the largest population, 815,428. Its northern border is the Columbia River, and it lies just to the west of Hood River and north of Clackamas County.

The county was formed in 1854 out of parts of Washington County and the northern part of Clackamas County. Multnomah is Chinookan for “lower river.”

Multnomah County, Oregon

Numerous denominations were established in Multnomah County, especially in the growing city of Portland, in the early pioneer days. Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic, and Episcopalian all had built churches and grew along with the booming town.

By the late 1850s a number of churches were built along Third, Fourth, and Fifth avenues [Portland]. The major Protestant denominations were represented, and congregations of Catholics and German Jews also were organized. In 1861 the Portland Jewish congregation built the first synagogue in Oregon at Fifth Avenue and Oak Street.   ~Oregon 1859: A snapshot in time by Janice Marschner

The Reformation churches – Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ – came in a bit later to Portland as their habit was to establish congregations in the more rural areas first. Those Reformation churches established in the Willamette Valley eventually branched out to plant the first Christian Church in Portland in 1879, with others established around the city as time marched into the twentieth century.

Montavilla, which is the shortened form of what was originally Mount Tabor Village, now between        I -205 and Mount Tabor, was the site of a Christian Church plant about 1915. In 1935 a minister named Archie Word became the pastor and continued for 33 years. While pastoring the Montavilla church he set the denomination’s national record for sending men and women into full-time ministry. His slogan, “Hear A. Word preach the Word,” was mentioned in Ripley’s Believe it or Not, and he was reported to be one of the most powerful preachers of the era, compared with Billy Sunday and D.L. Moody.

Archie Word was born in Kentucky in 1901. The family moved to California, and Archie ran away from home his freshman year to join the Navy and World War I. After the war he went back to school, getting his high school diploma at age 21. He then earned a reputation in the San Joaquin Valley as a bootlegger, running three dance halls and saloons where he sang and played the violin. He lived a very colorful life for about three years until he was nearly killed in a car wreck and gave up his bootlegging lifestyle to attend business college. He was expelled – twice. At a loss, he was working at a local gas station when a minister, W.S. Lemmon, pulled in and heard Archie sing as he filled his tank. He asked the young man to sing at his church. Archie accepted the offer but braced himself with several drinks before going. The elders were not pleased, threatening to fire Pastor Lemmon if he allowed the rough, slightly drunk young man to sing. Lemmon, who had a history himself, evidently saw something in Archie and told the elders, “I’m going to let him sing. If that young man is ever converted to Christ, he will be a power for God!”

As it happened, in the congregation that night was the president of Eugene Bible College (now Bushnell University), Eugene C. Sanderson. After hearing him sing, he offered Archie a full music scholarship at his college and Archie went with it. A couple of months into his studies, he accepted Christ and went into the ministry, eventually spending 33 years as the pastor of the Montavilla church, renowned for his fiery preaching and success at soul-winning.

The County Commissioners of Multnomah County include the chair, Jessica Vega Pederson, Sharon Meieran, Susheela Jayapal, Julia Brim-Edwards, and Lori Stegmann.

The County Sheriff is Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell. Tim Scott is Director of Elections and Mike Schmidt is the District Attorney.