Punk Pastor in Portland
Ken and Deb Loyd, who pastor The Bridge and Home PDX, were at Off The Map Live with us recently. Ken was featured in The Oregonian a couple of days ago - here’s an excerpt from the article.
(Also check out Pam Hogeweide’s post about this article and Erin Word’s experience visiting Deb Loyd’s church after being entirely out of church, by choice, for a long time.)
The Old Punk looks worried.
It’s 12:30 p.m. on a sunny summer Sunday, and Ken Loyd is supposed to serve lunch to 50 people. They gather at the western end of the Hawthorne Bridge awaiting his weekly church service. The food is the big draw, a hot meal on the one day when most soup kitchens shut down.
Loyd has had a rough morning. The Beaverton congregation providing lunch is late. The batteries on the toy microphone he preaches with just died. Athletes from the Portland Triathlon have nudged his audience of homeless men and women from their normal spot.
Less than 50 feet from where Loyd stands, athletes enjoy massages, organic pizza and microbrew. Though they just swam, biked and ran almost 32 miles, most look cleaner and better rested than the displaced.
Loyd has no time to note the incongruous setting. The minister, aging hippie and recovering drug addict, is too busy fretting. He rubs a hand through his silver Mohawk as if trying to summon a genie from a bottle. He’s losing his crowd. Where is the food?
He hands a volunteer two $20s and sends him for takeout. A triathlete bridges the divide, offering leftover pizza and bananas, just as the Beaverton church crew arrives with enough fried chicken, mac and cheese, and potato salad to feed twice this many people.
Those who drifted away hurry back. Loyd releases a deep breath, looks heavenward for a second and grins.
“That’s the way the Lord works, right? You don’t have anything, and then suddenly you have too much.”
read Pam Hogeweide’s thoughts about Ken and Deb Loyd (Pam attends one of the churches they pastor)
