One building — two separate religious congregations.

Two pastors from different walks of life, but with the same calling, the same mission and the same heart.

That is how Scott Bradley, the pastor of the As Is Church, describes the coming together of his congregation with that of Patricio Fierro, the pastor of Nueva Esperanza, the Church of Restoration.

Both groups began sharing the building on Linwood Avenue, just off of King Road, as of 9 a.m. July 8, when the As Is Church held its first meeting there. Nueva Esperanza, which means new hope in Spanish, has been meeting at the Linwood site for nearly two years, Fierro noted.

His congregation is largely Hispanic, and meets Sundays at 11 a.m., he added.

The two pastors, their wives and their congregations have “a similar vision — reaching people who are lost and hurting. We are of the same mind,” Bradley said.

As Is Church

Bradley and his wife, Gwenna, founded As Is in November, and formerly met Sunday evenings at the Mountainview Christian Church in Gresham. They have wanted to move closer in to the Clackamas area, Bradley said, because he and his congregation have been running a homeless outreach program in the parking lot of the Clackamas Service Center. The service center on Southeast 80th Avenue is a nonprofit charitable organization, dedicated to helping homeless and low-income people.

“We have been praying and seeking a new place to meet, so that we could move to a Sunday morning service, and this is where God brought us,” Bradley said.

He heard that space was available in the site of the former Linwood Church of Christ building, so he met with Patricio Fiero and his wife, Marisol, and the three discovered that they had much in common.

Bradley attended one of Fiero’s services and said it was beautiful and heartfelt.

“We felt like God was leading us here; that God is doing something here, so we came on board and made a commitment to support our brotherhood and the Latino community,” he said.

Bradley came up with the name As Is Church, he said, because he was looking for something “that would immediately communicate who we are; something to cut through the religious mumbo-jumbo.”

He was visiting a friend’s used car lot and saw a sign in the window of an automobile that said “purchase this car as-is.”

“That’s it. That’s how God accepts us,” Bradley said. “Ours is not a typical service, we are a little rough around the edges, similar to how the early church was formed. Jesus loved the multitudes — he had a heart for the common people. We are a rag-tag group of ordinary people, but we take it seriously.”

Helping others

The As Is mission is “about diversity; the homeless, the broken, the addicted, they are all valuable. They are all made in the image of the Lord. There is room for you at the table and you are loved and valued. We want to be the Lord’s mouthpiece and his hands to reach out,” Bradley said.

For more than a year, the reaching out process has taken the form of several vans, called “Love Shacks,” Bradley said.

“We have a warehouse out in Gresham, with clothes, food and basic needs items, and we load up the vans and set them up at the Clackamas Service Center. People can come in and grab what they need,” he said. The vans often head downtown to Pioneer Square to distribute goods as well, although the heart of the mission of the church is here in Clackamas County, Bradley said, noting that downtown already has a number of well-organized outreach organizations for the homeless.

“Our heart is to find folks who are isolated, or homeless and less fortunate in the county. We also want to connect them with community services out here; that is important to us,” he said.

“We want to create a place that is authentic, real and safe for those who aren’t Christians. We didn’t move out here to get more people in church, we want to reach out to the whole community on 82nd and other places in the county.”

People who wish to help with the mission of the As Is Church may attend a service on Sunday mornings, or connect with Bradley personally. He recommended visiting the As Is website to see the kinds of donations needed and to read testimonies of lives that have been changed by the church.

Nueva Esperanza

Patricio and Marisol Fierro moved to the area from Ecuador 13 years ago. They are now U.S. citizens. Before that, the Fierros were relationship counselors in their country, and then spent seven years as missionaries in Mexico, with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.

Patricio was a pastor for the Latino community at the New Hope Church in Clackamas for 10 years, before starting his own church at the Linwood site nearly two years ago.

“There is new hope when Jesus comes into our lives, and then we start the restoration process,” he said.

He and his wife said they sensed a connection with Bradley when they first met him.

Although their congregation is largely Hispanic, their members speak both languages, and the church mission is to reach out to everyone, noted Marisol, adding, “It is the same gospel.”

“We believe there are no barriers,” Patricio added. “It is not just about religion, it is about relationships with the Lord. We are selfish without Jesus; with Jesus, the selfishness is gone.”

Hardships in the past

Nueva Esperanza partners with two missions in Mexico and Ecuador, and members of the local congregation will travel to Ecuador on Aug. 18, to bring food and clothes to the poor there. Patricio and Marisol Fierro work with four churches in Ecuador, all of them in the poorest parts of the country.

And it has not been easy, noted their daughter Maria, who often translates for her father.

In Lalanshi, Ecuador, the population is not only poor, but they believe in witchcraft and idolatry, and some are violent and alcoholics, who resist any kind of help.

“Even the government won’t do anything,” Maria noted.

But one man responded to the Fierro’s efforts to establish a church in his community, and donated some land for a building.

“He was killed, because he donated his land. He was martyred, and they did not catch the people who killed him,” she said.

But out of this tragedy arose hope, Maria said, because now the people are changing and they want to learn and help.

Fast Facts

The As Is Church and Nueva Esperanza Church of Restoration meet at 10110 S.E. Linwood Ave., Milwaukie.

The As Is Sunday service is at 9 a.m. and Nueva Esperanza follows at 11 a.m.

Call Pastor Scott Bradley at 503-314-5048; by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; or visit the website at asischurch.com.

Call Pastor Patricio Fierro at 503-935-4119; by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; or visit the website at nuevaesperanza.weebly.com.