Parkside Church Westside Blog

Church Progress Moment Recap

At the start of the new year, we held a Church Progress Meeting to give an update on the status of Parkside Church Westside and our goals for 2016. Last week, we took a few minutes and held a Church Progress Moment to highlight a few areas that have developed over the past five months. We hope this update will serve as an encouragement and provide insight into how our church plant is growing.

Financial

As a church plant of Parkside Church in Bainbridge, we are like young adults starting out in life. Our “parents,” Parkside Church, are helping us get established with financial assistance to help us be a steady and sustainable local church.

Our conservative budget for 2016 was set at $300,000, which includes all of our operating expenses, staff, and ministry needs, and was based on what we’ve learned from other Parkside church plants. Our expectation was that we might meet about $200,000 of our originally budgeted $300,000 with the understanding that Parkside Bainbridge would support us by covering the remaining balance. That support, in and of itself, should be a great encouragement to us -- that the vital commitment Parkside Bainbridge has in seeing us established as a solid local church means that they are prepared to supplement our budget to the tune of $100,000. However, looking at our current giving contributions, we are on track to meet our $300,000 budget with the possibility of only needing a small amount to cover the gap.

Many of us have been praying since the start of the year that we wouldn’t need the supplement at all, and for every good and right reason, it looks like God may answer our prayers even in view of the small gap of giving, and for this we are humbled and thankful.

Learn more about how our financial giving is an act of worship. You can also make a one-time contribution or set-up your giving electronically through our online community, Church Community Builder.

Community Groups

This spring we began our small groups, which we call Community Groups, that meet in the surrounding communities throughout the week in people’s homes. These have been really well-received and are one of the best ways to get to know others and to receive help and encouragement.

We have great people leading five different groups, and God willing, we will launch one or two more this fall.

 If you’ve been coming around to Parkside Westside for a while, but still feel a little on the outside, be brave and go to a Community Group get-together. You will meet friendly people who will welcome you wholeheartedly.

Children & Students

June 5th marked the beginning of a new Children’s Ministry class for our 3- and 4-year-old children. Nine months ago, we wanted to have this class, but didn’t have enough people to teach and serve so we started with just three classes. We knew it would be best to have four, but we had to be realistic.

Since then, many of you have stepped up to serve in this important area of ministry which takes more than 40 people to run. We say thank you for your faithful service because without a Children’s Ministry of substance, we will not have a church for our future generations. This new class for 3- and 4-years-olds may seem like a small addition, but it represents so much in terms of God’s favor to us. If you’ve been thinking about serving in our Children’s Ministry, let us know by filling out our Volunteer Sign-up Form.

Secondly, some of our elementary children will be moving on to our student ministry for grades 6 through 12 which is led by Nate Vogel. We are planning our first overnight retreat in August at Lake Chautauqua in New York. Fifth graders who start sixth grade this fall will be invited to this trip and to our weekly Sunday evening gatherings in August. More details to come.

Lastly, we congratulated Mitch Patterson, a high school graduate from St. Ignatius who will be attending The Ohio State University in the fall. We learned about Mitch’s interest in sports and his dedication to service.

A Word of Encouragement

As you can see from these past few months, we are continuing to lay down our foundational blocks through our Children’s Ministry, Community Groups, and our financial giving. We hope this Church Progress Moment will serve as an encouragement to you and we thank God that our hopes and prayers are being answered as we grow as a church family supporting and guiding one another to become committed followers of Jesus Christ.