Deschutes Bible Church

    Deschutes Bible Church in Bend, Oregon, was welcomed into Columbia Baptist Conference at the 1988 annual meeting in Olympia, Washington. 
   The new church in Bend began when Jim and Tori Wright from Temple Baptist Church returned to Oregon from a rural Southern Baptist pastorate at Eureka, Nevada.  Several families living in Bend asked Jim to begin a ministry there April 1, 1985.  Support came from Temple Baptist Church, Columbia Conference, and the Baptist General Conference.
    After five months the original nucleus left the work and Jim started over, building the new church "from scratch".  He did extensive door-to-door visitation to gather a new core of families for the church.  After growing to an attendance of 70 there were enough members to organize a church.
    Deschutes Bible Church was recognized with 30 charter members February 13, 1988, by a council chaired by David Olson, pastor of Kellogg Bible Fellowship.  Recognition celebration was one month later.  Sunday worship services have been held in a square dance club.  Average attendance at the time of recognition was 70.

Material in this account was copied for John Bergeson's book "Fourth Quarter".

   The Deschutes Bible Church has since disbanded shortly after Jim and Tori left to go to the mission field in France.  They were mostly young  Christians and after Jim left they did not have the ability to carry on.  There was only two votes against the disbandment.  Jim is now a pastor at our BGC church in Bellevue, WA.  

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