Updated 4.21.20

As our city is struggling,  many of you have asked how you can help. We are actively working every day to provide both hope and help to our community. Here are some ways for us to stay connected and aware.

We will be utilizing our website, westsidechurch.org, more and more to list new digital ways to connect and grow in our faith together during this challenging time.

We are continuing to help with needs in our community through our monthly Food Program and active support of community organizations. Thank you for your ongoing generosity, it’s making a difference. To hear about specific needs and opportunities to help, simply sign up for our IHEART365 texting line by texting ih365 to the number 313131.  We will utilize this existing ministry to text out needs and opportunities.

Pandemic Partners-Bend Facebook page is a great, community page filled with needs and people organically meeting them. Be sure and check out WhatIfWeCould.com to find up-to-date information on how to help and donate to organizations on the ground floor.

The Central Oregon Resource Directory (CORD) provides a list of food banks, doctors and pharmacies, unemployment offices, senior care agencies, housing help, and more from Warm Springs to La Pine.

Westside Church-Community Facebook page is a great place for us to start to connect as a faith community as well.

If you know of needs, or need help yourself, please call (541) 382-7504 or contact us. 

We are committed to you and to our community for the duration of this global crisis. Let’s stand together, and support one another and our city. 

In response to the Governor’s statewide cancellation of all group gatherings of 25 or larger and the President’s guideline to cancel gatherings larger than 10 people, Westside Church will be closed for all services and classes, as well as youth and young adult gatherings for the duration of the statewide cancellation (currently expected to end on April 14). During this unprecedented global health crisis, we are committed to protecting the most vulnerable in our community and will continue to monitor the situation as it unfolds.

As a church, we are called to love & care for our neighbors. Right now, that includes protecting our neighbors in every way we can. Our adherence to these regulations reflects our sense of responsibility to our community, not panic or fear.

Throughout the gathering ban we will live-stream our Sunday services online at our regular times: 8:15, 9:45, 11:15am and 5:30pm at westsidelive.org. Financial gifts can be made online on our giving page.

Watch the live-stream of our services here.

Or watch on Facebook Live.

To receive automated updates regarding the closure via text from the church, please text “westside” to 474747.

Contact us with questions.

Hi Westside Family. I, like many of you, received the information from our Oregon Governor to ban gatherings larger than 250 people in order to protect the public from the COVID-19 outbreak. I believe our response to this announcement should not be one of fear, but of wisdom and care for those in our churches and our communities as we implement what our state leadership has put in place.

Starting this Sunday, all of our Sunday services, including our evening service, will be online and available throughout the rest of the week. There will be opportunities online to pray and to continue to give financially, even chat with a pastor and others during the livestream.

We already have a robust online presence with our weekly Sunday services. We will continue to gather online at westsidelive.org during the suspension of our gatherings. Our team will provide full worship and the regular teaching we had planned.  So, while we will not gather at our physical location for a few weeks, we will still gather online in strong community.

This is a time for the church to be adaptive, responsive, and demonstrate Christlike leadership. The church has never been limited to the four walls of the church building. We have seen throughout Church history the many ways the church remained connected, stayed on mission and supported one another in unique ways, even under tremendous persecution.

We have an opportunity to love people in the midst of their fears. We can walk with empathy toward people who are genuinely afraid and love them through it. We are still the church – the visible representation of God’s kingdom. So, let’s go out of our way to love on our neighbors, to encourage people who are afraid, and to pray for those who are sick and the families who have lost loved ones all around the world.

I’m grateful that we can continue to gather as a faith community, even under these challenging circumstances, in homes online. My hope is that we can navigate this together, and in a way that honors Jesus and each other. See you online this Sunday!

-Steve Mickel, Lead Pastor