Cedar Mill Bible Church has stood on the west side of Portland for more than eighty years, gathering week after week at 12208 NW Cornell Road in the heart of the Cedar Mill neighborhood. What began as a small Bible study has grown into a multi-congregational church that holds two English services and a Spanish service every Sunday, runs a preschool, sends students back into their high schools as disciple-makers, and surrounds its people with counseling, prayer, and small-group life. The whole church is oriented around a single phrase that sits beneath its name: becoming like Jesus and making Him known.
Two Sunday Mornings, Two Languages
Sunday in-person and online gatherings are the primary way Cedar Mill comes together as a church to worship, learn from the Scriptures, pray for one another, and create space to hear from the Spirit. Services meet at 9:15 and 11:00 AM in the Worship Center for the English congregation, and the gathering is livestreamed on YouTube for those joining from home. A second congregation, Cedar Mill en Español, meets at 11:00 AM in the Chapel under Pastor Ruben Castro, giving Spanish-speaking neighbors a worshiping community in their own language.
A typical gathering includes a time of contemporary worship and a Jesus-centered Bible teaching from one of the pastors. The order of service is built around families - children move into their own age-appropriate programming during the message - and newcomers are invited to fill out a digital Connect Card so a pastor or ministry leader can follow up. Drop-ins are also welcome at the church office, which is open Monday through Thursday from 9 AM to 4 PM.
Seven Distinctives
Everything Cedar Mill does is anchored in seven short statements that the congregation calls its distinctives. They are:
- Worship Fully - Jesus is worthy of all worship, so we worship Him with all we are.
- Pray Constantly - We seek constant, conscious communion with our heavenly Father.
- Trust Radically - We follow God into the uncomfortable.
- Engage Inclusively - We grow and reflect God's heart when we embrace people different from ourselves.
- Relate Authentically - We know God uses transparency for transformation.
- Hope Relentlessly - We cling to the unmovable promises we have in Jesus.
- Love Extravagantly - We love people when they least expect it and least deserve it.
The list reads less like a strategy and more like a family creed. Lead Pastor Dave Teixeira and the elder team point back to it whenever they teach, plan, or step into a new season.
KIDS: Known by God, Known by Others
The children's ministry, branded simply as KIDS, serves families from birth through fifth grade with the conviction that children are not the church of tomorrow but the church of today. Under Director Jennifer Frey, the team describes itself with the words Known: known by God, known by others. On Sunday mornings, children are checked in through KidCheck and spend the hour in programming built around Scripture, curiosity, and honest prayer. Fourth and fifth graders gather separately for Jr Youth on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 PM during the fall.
Two weekly rhythms invite parents into the mix. Open Play Gym meets most Thursdays from 9:00 to 10:30 AM in the church gym, where parents and caregivers of kids under five can drink coffee and connect with other adults while their children bounce through an obstacle course. The gym is also open between Sunday services for community-building events like the women's summer connection gatherings. KIDS publishes a monthly newsletter for parents and welcomes volunteers who want to invest in the next generation.
Students Who Make Disciples in Their Schools
The student ministry, led by Pastor Luke Emery, frames its work around a bold conviction: that the next generation of world changers is already in the church's midst. Rather than building a flashy youth group, Cedar Mill is investing in a potent one, marked by depth, devotion, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Students are encouraged to see themselves as the church of today, not tomorrow, and to lead in their schools, communities, and friend groups.
That conviction has a concrete shape. Many of Cedar Mill's students lead Jesus clubs on their own campuses in partnership with FCA or Youth Alpha, and the church helps them find those clubs or start new ones. Twice a year the youth ministry participates in UNITE, a citywide worship movement. The fall gathering focuses on praying for schools and jump-starting Christian clubs, while the spring gathering brings 50-plus youth ministries together to celebrate what God is doing and to proclaim the gospel.
A separate Instagram (@cedarmill.youth) and YouTube channel (@cedarmillyouth3392) keep students connected between gatherings, and a text-update signup gives them quick access to weekly announcements and a youth worship team.
Young Adults, Women, Men, and Seniors
Cedar Mill has organized ministry around the seasons of adult life. Young Adults (ages 18-30) meet on the first and third Mondays of each month at 7:00 PM in the Chapel, hosted by Associate Pastor Jeremiah Nealon, with the goal of building friendships and growing in relationship with the Lord. Women's ministry, led by Pastor Katie Thomas, centers on WOW (Women of the Word), a Tuesday-morning Bible study from 9:00 to 11:00 AM that has been working through the book of Hebrews and includes ABC Kids for children ages five and under. The women's team also runs seasonal studies and fellowship nights, including a knit-and-crochet evening that uses the church's yarn and needles to support ministries that gift handmade items.
Men's ministry, pastored by Austin Hamilton, walks alongside men in prayer, mentorship, and service. Seniors - branded as Ambassadors - are cared for by Pastor John Hamilton, whose title of Pastor of Seniors & Care Ministries signals the church's commitment to its older members. Together these groups keep the church intergenerational rather than age-segregated.
Devoted: Six Weeks Together
Each fall and spring, the whole church walks through a six-week series called Devoted. Small groups across the city study the same weekly sermons and the same discussion questions, then gather around books, articles, podcasts, and videos curated for the week. The first two weeks center on intimacy with God, drawing on authors like Ruth Haley Barton, Tish Harrison Warren, John Piper, Adele Calhoun, Brother Lawrence, and Eugene Peterson, along with practices such as Lectio Divina, the Examen, and prayer walking. Weeks three and four turn to intentional community, with Henri Nouwen, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Timothy Keller, and Sarah Westfall setting the tone for conversations about belonging. Weeks five and six focus on passionate ministry, reading Leroy Barber, Corrie ten Boom, Howard Thurman, and Timothy Keller as the church talks about calling, justice, and sentness.
The series is designed so that small groups, ministry teams, and individual readers can go at the same pace and depth. A devoted toolbox with weekly resources keeps the conversation going long after Sunday ends.
Marriage, Counseling, and Care
Cedar Mill treats marriage as God's design and supports it with a full pipeline of care. Engaged couples can sign up for pre-marital counseling, a six- to eight-week process with a pastor that builds a biblical foundation, identifies strengths and growth areas, and walks through conflict, finances, communication, and parenting. For married couples who want to grow deeper, re/engage runs for fourteen weeks on Sunday evenings at 6:30 PM via Zoom, with teaching, testimonies, small-group discussion led by facilitator couples, and weekly homework with a spouse. Childcare is provided.
When relationships struggle, the church offers more specialized care. Mending the Soul provides a confidential, group-based environment for those who have experienced abuse, trauma, or neglect. Betrayal & Beyond is a weekly support group for women healing from sexual betrayal and broken trust within their marriage. Stephen Ministry equips trained laypeople to extend the care pastors provide for people facing loss, hospitalization, divorce, illness, or spiritual crisis. Pastoral counseling is available for short-term, biblically-based care, and the office can refer members to licensed Christian counselors for longer-term professional help.
On the topic of marriage itself, the church holds firmly that marriage is a covenantal, lifelong, exclusive relationship between one man and one woman, designed by God and affirmed in Scripture, and that no marriage is perfect - every couple needs grace and mercy.
Alpha, Royal Family Kids Camp, and the Preschool
For those exploring faith, Cedar Mill hosts Alpha, a Tuesday-night course described as a dinner party where guests watch a short film and discuss questions about life, faith, and Jesus in a judgment-free setting. The evening is free, runs seasonally in the fall, and is led by hosts who keep the conversation open and unhurried.
Each summer the church partners with Royal Family Kids Camp, a week-long camp for children in the foster care system, providing respite and the chance to be celebrated by a caring community of adults. Cedar Mill's own preschool, Cedar Mill Preschool, is led by Director Jenny Bernick and shares the church's campus, giving families a Christian early-education option rooted in the same community.
Prayer Room, Prayer Team, and Prayer Requests
Prayer is woven into the rhythm of the week. The Prayer Room is open Monday through Thursday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and sits just inside the West Entrance - down the stairs, through the first set of double doors on the left, and into the first door on the left. Anyone can submit a prayer request online; every request is prayed over by the prayer team, and weekly prayer lists keep the congregation aware of how to lift one another up. On Sunday mornings the prayer team gathers from 8:15 to 9:00 AM and again from 10:00 to 10:45 AM to pray for the gatherings before they begin.
Pastors, Elders, and the Women's Leadership Alliance
The pastoral team is led by Lead Pastor Dave Teixeira and includes Ashley Bell (Associate Pastor of Outreach, Hospitality & Discipleship), Ruben Castro (Cedar Mill en Español), Luke Emery (Youth), Austin Hamilton (Men & Worship), John Hamilton (Seniors & Care Ministries), Jeremiah Nealon (Families, Young Adults, Prayer), Ted Bernick (Facilities & Service Ministries), and Katie Thomas (Women & Groups). Supporting them are Joseph Choi (Coordinator of Worship), Keilah Epperson (Hospitality & Outreach), Jennifer Frey (Director of KIDS), and Jenny Bernick (Director of Cedar Mill Preschool).
An Elder Team of Shola Adegboye, Ron Carlson, Ken Dyall, Luke Emery, Dwain Fagerberg, and Dave Teixeira provides spiritual oversight and shares the shepherding work of the church. Alongside them, the Women's Leadership Alliance - Cindy Cartmill, Linda Herdina, Cleo Leigh, Tochi Okeke, Gloria Palau, and Katie Thomas - brings female voices into the conversations about the church's spiritual, social, structural, and relational life, supporting the elder team, engaging in church discipline if needed, interceding in prayer, listening to women in the congregation, and mentoring the next generation.
An 83-Year Story Still Being Written
Cedar Mill Bible Church began as a small Bible study in the early 1940s and has grown into a multi-congregational church where English and Spanish services share a campus, where preschoolers and seniors sit under the same roof, and where students are sent back into their schools to make disciples. It is a church that teaches through books and prayer, that counsels in groups and one-on-one, and that welcomes a newcomer with a Connect Card and the offer of a conversation with a pastor. After more than eighty years on NW Cornell Road, the church's mission has not changed: becoming like Jesus, and making Him known.