Sam Cole

Sam Cole has taken an innovative and nontraditional approach to Christian Education since assuming the job in 2005. That figures, because Sam took an innovative and nontraditional route to joining the staff at MPC. Sam earned his Ph.D. from Penn State University in Creativity and Communications, and for a time headed the freshman program in the Oregon State Speech Communications department.

After leaving academia, he worked in private business, most recently as marketing manager for an international company headquartered in Portland. Upon retiring from that career, he felt called by his spiritual side to fill the Christian Education post at MPC. "I was available," Sam says, "and I felt I could add something." And, so he has.

Sam has four goals:

  1. To put quality teachers in every Sunday School class.
  2. To support Sunday School teachers with the best available curricula.
  3. To provide a varied and compelling Sunday morning educational experience for adults.
  4. To work closely with the MPC’s Christian Education Commission, to ensure that MPC provides an opportunity to enhance the faith journey of anyone of any age who walks through the church doors.

"It’s hard for modern-day Christians to be spiritual," Sam says. "It’s hard to cut out the distractions and get to where God is in your heart. I think that has very little to do with religiosity, how we worship or the style of worship. It has to do with people. I hope we can attract people looking for that kind of spirituality, bring them back and help them feel this is their home."

Sam has many and varied interests. He is an author about to complete a third manuscript, and still is looking for the right publisher. He describes his writing as humorous observations on the human condition. Recently, Sam has turned his hobby of stringing beads into a small business. He custom-designs necklaces and bracelets for men and women and is booked to sell his jewelry at several big shows in Portland and Seattle. "I love it when I can delight a customer, when I can introduce them to centuries-old practices and religions, with real beads from those times," Sam says.

Sam and his wife, Jane Loftus, are longtime members of MPC. Their son, Charles Loftus-Cole, then a junior at Clackamas High School, died in 2002 after being hit by a car while walking home.

In the years since, Sam and Jane have been spokespeople for organ donation. They annually sponsor a work day for the Oregon Food Bank in Charles’ memory. Every year, Sam and Jane award a college scholarship to a Clackamas senior who plans to major in drama or film.