LORD'S ACRE

On the first Saturday of November (11/6/21), Powell Butte Christian Church presents to our community The Lord's Acre sale. From the fruits of our labor throughout the year, we are able to offer the sale of meat (including the world-famous Lord's Acre Sausage), pie (whole and by the slice), candy, crafts; and hold an auction for home-made quilts. On top of all that, there is music, a great BBQ lunch, a 10K/5K Run/Walk, and lots more!

Saturday, Nov. 15, 1947, was a red-letter day in Powell Butte. It was the first in what has come an autumn tradition — Lord’s Acre Day.

The idea for Lord’s Acre Day came from an article in a church magazine. It was adopted from the Farmer’s Federation in South Carolina who initiated the Lord’s Acre to help members of  churches to finance their needs.

The original concept was that each farm family would donate the yield from one acre of land to the Lord’s work, thus the name Lord’s Acre.

On April 27, 1947, members of the Powell Butte Christian Church board met and decided to work out a plan to raise money for a church building. They called it the Powell Butte Lord’s Acre Project. They raised nearly $6,000 for the building fund that first year.

From those humble beginnings in the fall of 1947, Lord’s Acre Day has grown over the decades into a community tradition that sees as many as 2,000 visitors and raises as much as $80,000 for the Powell Butte Community Church.

Although in the early days the proceeds from Lord’s Acre helped build the church building, these days, the funds cover major maintenance projects, scholarships for students attending Bible colleges, and missions.

From the beginning, 10 percent of the Lord’s Acre proceeds were tithed for missions work. Missions range from local, Northwest and overseas. They support organizations such as Grace Networks International, Pregnancy Resource Centers of Central Oregon, McKinley Indian Mission, and Medical Teams International. They’ve sent members of the youth group to missions in Mexico and support KingdomWork Ministries International, which sponsors two Uganda, Africa, villages.

Unfortunately, with the CoVid-19 pandemic still looming out there, the Leadership of PBCC has made the necessary decision to cancel the 2020 Lord’s Acre. While there still may be connections for memorabilia to be purchased via online sources (more details to come later), we decided that it would not be responsible of us to continue with the event, knowing how hands-on all of the aspects of the Lord’s Acre are. We want to be considerate of our community, and do not want to be seen as uncaring about the pandemic concerns.

This was a painful, but wise decision. And you probably will have some strong feelings about the cancellation. Our Leadership will be happy to sit down with you to explain more if you would like. Our hearts didn’t want to do this – but our spirits knew we had to go this route.

We WILL be utilizing the press – news stations, newspapers, etc. – to celebrate the heritage of the Lord’s Acre, to inform our community of the cancellation, and to help build excitement and anticipation for the 2021 Lord’s Acre which – Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise – will happen next year. In the meantime, the crafters will continue to craft, the quilters will continue to quilt, the Lord’s Acre committee will continue to meet and plan, and we will make sure that next year will be extraordinary!