Parkside Blog

A Welcome...

The Middle School years are a pretty remarkable time of life.  Everything surrounding these students suggests that the world is getting bigger, moving faster, and probably crazier than they could ever have imagined. It’s exciting, and potentially a little scary.

This is where Club JV comes in. Club JV is part of Parkside’s ministry to middle school students in grades 6-8. Club JV meets on Tuesdays at the Warehouse.  Every Tuesday is an opportunity for fun and growth as we spend time building relationships, playing games, worshiping God, and studying the Bible.

Reviewed by Tim Challies, discerningreader.com

After the publication of The Reason for God, Newsweek hailed Tim Keller as "a C.S. Lewis for the twenty-first century." That is a lofty comparison and one I'm sure must make Keller quite uncomfortable. Yet at some level the comparisons are becoming undeniable. Keller's ability to communicate to believers and unbelievers alike and to do so on an intellectual level clearly parallels that of Lewis. Where Keller's first book offered an explanation as to why we should believe in God, his second, The Prodigal God, focuses on Jesus' best-known parable (and potentially the best-known and most-loved story of all-time) to challenge both believers and skeptics.

In May, Delhi Bible Institute's executive director, Isaac Shaw, visited Parkside as an attendee of the 2010 Basics Conference. Pastor Shaw sat down with Pastor Scott Kennedy to share his testimony, describe the particular religious and economic challenges in India, and to encourage listeners by sharing the story of the remarkable transformation of an arms dealer turned prolific church planter for DBI.

With the help of our Vacaction Bible School (VBS) Director Elizabeth Heisey, we began work on VBS in January.  Our VBS leadership team joined the efforts in March as music was selected, craft supplies were ordered, and volunteers were placed to meet the needs of hundreds of staff spots.  In April, we began registering what would turn out to be almost 800 children.  In May, we spent hours training our small group leaders and teachers in what they would need to know to help the children understand the truths of Scripture we would be teaching from Genesis. 

As a pastor and professor of theology, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson has probably encountered hundreds of un-amazed Christians in his classes and congregations. In fact, myriads of Christian men and women do not find the grace of God amazing. Do you? Or have you become accustomed to it?

Do you have something to sell or give away?  Do your dog's puppies need a good home? Or maybe you're looking for a place to live, a job, or need a new employee?  Let us help you get connected through our new classified ad section.

By using one of the most popular sports in the world, Ambassadors in Sport (AIS) spreads the gospel to thousands of people throughout the world by playing soccer. Founded in 1990, AIS, whose world headquarters are located in Twinsburg, Ohio, finds the soccer field to be a common battle ground that helps build trust and develop relationships.  "When you're battling out there and one of your guys gets kicked, and you go alongside him and pick him up, you're building trust on the soccer field that starts to build trust off the field," explains Matt Pheneger, Parkside member and coach with AIS.  "The ideas of teamwork, training, being disciplined, persevering, running towards a goal, those are all biblical ideas and through soccer we can illustrate all of those concepts."

In anticipation of communion this Sunday evening at Parkside, the following sermon from Charles Spurgeon helps us to remember the spiritual good that God intends for His people by partaking in this simple meal. 

To most of us, the idea of a "night out" gets us thinking of going out to dinner, to the movies, or maybe even to a party.  For parents' with special needs children, a night out might better be thought of as a "night off," a rare event that lets them catch their breath.  Or not...

What is the gospel? It seems like a simple question, yet it has been known to incite some heated responses, even in the church. How are we to formulate a clear, biblical understanding of the gospel? Tradition, reason, and experience all leave us ultimately disappointed. If we want answers, we must turn to the Word of God.