Dear Insiders,

It’s 2015, and another year has come and gone. It continues to be our privilege to partner together to keep you, our readers, up-to-date in the life of Parkside Church. It is our hope that God would use this e-newsletter to become much more than just another e-mail, or worse yet, another digital distraction in a sea of spam. With that goal in mind, we desire that these weekly emails might help you find places for meaningful connection and friendship, lead you to pray for one another, gain a bigger vision of all that God is doing in and through his people, or possibly provide the impetus to add your gifts to one of our ministries. We hope that The Insider serves you well toward these ends throughout the coming weeks and months.

Thank you for signing up for these e-mails. We are glad that as an “insider,” you’re in, and we’re prayerful that God will continue to make us all-in for his kingdom. Thanks for reading, praying, and encouraging us to make The Insider even better.

Warmly,
Jonathan Cameron
Pastor of Communications

Thank You for Your Feedback!

We were thrilled to have more than 100 responses to our recent readership survey. We are working hard to implement some of your great ideas. Here are a few highlighted questions and comments:

“It would be very nice to have a section regarding needs of service in the church. I understand that sometimes there are announcements regarding these issues. But it would seem that there are ongoing needs as well.”
We agree!  We’ll separate announcements into two categories: one featuring service opportunities and requests, and another highlighting things of an informative nature.

“Better follow up on original prayer requests, even if the news is ‘no news at this date.’”
We received quite a few comments regarding prayer requests and follow-up. We want to do things well and we’re not quite sure that The Insider would be the best avenue for providing this type of information. Invariably, we wouldn’t be able to include everything or everyone and for that reason we’ve decided to leave prayer answers and updates to Parkside’s Prayer Warriors. You can learn more about that ministry at www.parksidechurch.com/serve/prayer-warriors. Additionally, we will feature that ministry in an upcoming Insider article so you can find out more!

“I think the newsletter is great! A link to recent sermons would be icing on the cake!”
Well, we think you’re great! And consider the cake iced! We’re working on a new section of The Insider that will include links to sermons and a few other pertinent things.

“I stopped reading the book reviews when they started to come from amazon.com rather than from someone on staff. It would be good to get feedback from a pastor/elder on what he's read lately and what God has taught him through the book.”
Our goal is to equip our people with good books to help you build your personal library, or to share with a friend. With that in mind, we’ve lined up a number of guest editors to help us give you reviews that will give you a more personal insight into why you might like the book and how God has used it personally in their lives. This month we’ll start with a great little book called “Can I Really Trust the Bible” by Barry Cooper. Brandon Smith, our middle school youth pastor, will be reviewing it for us.

“I would also like to see testimonies from people at Parkside or stories of how people have grown significantly. Not high profile people but just regular attenders. Connect us.”

“A weekly profile of a pastor, staff member or Parkside member would be nice to make a big place seem smaller. Maybe one suggestion on a prayer topic for the upcoming week. A "mission focus" would be nice to learn more about various missions.”

“Pastors and elders should be highlighted each week on a rotating basis. Introduce each one, tell a story or two about their ministry involvement and keep it going.”
More than anything else, we received a lot of feedback that you want to hear about the people of Parkside. We’re glad for that because we want to make Parkside a place where people become increasingly connected and want to share how God is working in the lives of His people no matter who they are or what their role at Parkside. Thanks for the great suggestions. We look forward to working creatively toward this end throughout the coming year.    

“I’ve had trouble receiving the emails, I’m not quite sure what happened.”  
If you have trouble signing up or receiving e-mails please let us know. We’re happy to help if we can. You can always e-mail us at insider@parksidechurch.com.