December 23, 2011 in
Church Life with
Yesterday we made the front page of the Neighborhood section in the Palm Coast Observer!!! Not only did we make the front page but we made the entire front page!!! This has been an incredible Christmas season in so many ways!!! Below are just a couple things I wanted to communicate to you:
- Our Christmas Eve services are Saturday at 3, 4:30, 6 & 7:30
- It is going to be an incredible service!!!
- Invite someone to come with you!!
- No services Christmas day – enjoy the day with friends and family!
- Our Christmas offering goal is $23,000. We have currently received a little over $19,000.
- If you have not given please pray about how God would have you participate. If you have already given – THANKS!!!
- I can’t give all the details yet but Parkview is in the process of getting one MASSIVE Christmas gift.
Can’t wait to see you on Christmas Eve!!!
December 22, 2011 in
Church Life, Service Opportunities with
This past Sunday afternoon 7 of us headed for a quick road trip to Philadelphia. Since adopting Philly as our city of emphasis God has continued to open doors for our joining Him on His mission. Since hearing of Vision Philly, a family in our church has considered relocating to Philly and 2 college students that I mentor have begun to consider Philly for future ministry opportunities. Denise joined me and the seven of us (one of the college students is married) set out on our road trip. Let me give you a rough schedule:
- Left Sunday afternoon after church and drove straight through – arriving about 3:45 Monday morning.
- Slept Monday until about 8:00 am.
- Met for team devotions and then headed out on foot for a day in the city.
- We went to a breakfast place similar to Panera
- Went up the only observation deck in the city located in this incredible structure – gave the team great perspective on the size of Philly.
- We then walked to get a quick look in the lobby of Philly’s largest skyscraper
- We left there and walked to these very famous steps
- We then walked a few blocks to this church (I will post a blog about that experience at a later time)
- We left there and had a fantastic culinary experience here
- We then walked to the subway station and took the subway to Center City East/Penn’s Landing area and took a tour of this most famous church
- We then caught the subway back to the hotel and arrived at the hotel at around 5pm.
- I returned some phone calls and answered some emails while a few of the team ventured out for a little city shopping.
- We met at 7pm and walked around the corner and ate dinner together.
- I was so proud of our team! We did all that after a 13 hour drive that put us in the city at 3:45 that morning.
In another post I will tell you what we did on Tuesday. Great team – great trip!!
December 19, 2011 in
Weekend Wrap with
- This has been the best Christmas ever at Parkview!
- We have had some tremendous worship!
- God has revealed Himself strong in Scripture each week!
- We have had alot of fun and laughter!!
- All the above has created a tremendous environment for Life Change
- This weekend we baptized 13
- We had a number of people trust Christ as their Savior
- Living Nativity and Wise Men Gift Exchange were grand slams!!
- WMGE served 150 families and 380 kids! WOW!! Special thanks to Margaret Subers and 100+ volunteers!!
- Living Nativity had phenomenal support from our church family!! Many people didn’t volunteer hours but volunteered DAYS!
- Thanks to Pastor Derek, his leadership team and a great group of servants!
- Our Christmas offering was almost $5,000 this weekend and our total is now over $19,300!! $3,700 more and we will reach our goal! REAL excited about the outreach/evangelism opportunities this creates!!
- Sunday after church 7 of us drove to Philly for a couple quick days of Vision Philly thinking. So thankful for those that God has put in my life who have a heart for our adopted city. Awesome to see others think about missional living and how that might connect them to Philly. This is just the beginning of fulfilling Acts 1:8.
- This morning our team devotion was Lamentations 3:51.
- Looking forward to 4 Christmas Eve services!!
- INVITE A FRIEND!!!
December 17, 2011 in
Church Life with
My family and I were privileged to serve with an incredible crew of volunteers tonight at the Living Nativity!! GREAT time celebrating the Christmas story! Wonderful turnout and lots of great stories! Tomorrow night is the 3rd and final night – 6:30 – 9pm – BE SURE TO INVITE SOMEONE!!
Because tomorrow night is the closing night we will not be having a Saturday night worship service – Sunday morning is 9:30 & 11 as usual! The music is going to be phenomenal. Whatever you do be sure to arrive on time – you do not want to miss the opening!!!
December 15, 2011 in
Church Life, Leadership with
I never cease to be amazed at the goodness of God. I often shake my head at His favor and I am grateful for His blessings. One of the ways that I experience the aforementioned delight is through the people the Lord has put in my life. Let me just mention 2 people:
- My wife – Denise is amazing. In fact, she never ceases to amaze me! She is loving, loyal, encouraging, and causes me to want to be a better person. She loves God and loves her family! We laugh often and enjoy life together. Like any couple we fight – and almost always at the heart of it we are fighting for our marriage. The other times that we fight it is just me being stupid:) 20 years and the best is yet to come!
- The leaders around me – At this time of year I am watching the staff work to the bone! They are committed to celebrating the birth of Christ and are trying to draw as many people as possible to the Messiah. Our elders have my back and embrace vision that is destined for failure without divine intervention. Tonight I met with our finance team and just love being with those guys. I got choked up twice in our meeting just thinking about God’s provision for His vision!!
God is good and way better to me than I deserve!!!
December 14, 2011 in
Church Life with
Alot going on this Christmas Season at Parkview. Here are a few highlites:
- The drive thru Living Nativity is this Thurs – Sat nights from 6:30-9pm. Be sure to attend and INVITE A FRIEND!!
- Wise Men Gift Exchange is this Saturday morning from 8-Noon
- You can still drop off new or gently used gifts this week.
- One person dropped of a dozen new tool boxes as gifts today for teen boys.
- Our Christmas offering goal is 23,000.
- We have received almost $16,000. Amazing and we still have 2 weeks left. I would LOVE to see us exceed our goal!!
- This weekend we are only having 2 weekend services – Sunday 9:30 and 11am. Sat night we are doing Living Nativity and it is always our busiest night.
- The music is going to be phenomenal again this weekend!!! You DO NOT want to be late to the service!!!
December 12, 2011 in
Weekend Wrap with
- Maybe the best music ever at Parkview!! Worship team brought their A game for the Savior!!
- Great to have Caron Weeks with us
- Met a new guy who came today for the first time and he told me he knew about us because he came to Trunk or Treat. He met with Pastor John after the service and is getting baptized next week!!!
- Totally excited about this – A young man comes to me and asks me if I recognized him. I confessed that I did not. He told me his name and I about fell over from excitement. Back when we first started the church he and his sister attended our youth group. Had some hard times/family stuff and I hadn’t seen him since he was about 14. He came today with his wife and little boy. They just moved back to Palm Coast. He is bringing toys for the wise men gift exchange and is coming back next week!!! God is so good!!
- I am really thankful for our team that is going to Cambodia in a few weeks!!! Going to help students live a better life and equip them to take the gospel back to their villages.
- Please continue to pray about how you can participate in the Christmas offering. Generosity!!
- A family is either faithful to church or they are not. I sometimes take for granted all those who are faithful!!!
- If you took a packet of door hangers please make sure to pass them out by Wednesday night!
- Weather is looking good for living nativity.
- PLEASE INVITE EVERYONE YOU KNOW!! The living nativity is an incredible way to celebrate the Christ of Christmas.
- I am so excited about how the Lord is growing our church!!!
- Wise Men Gift exchange already started setting up their shop!
- It is such a privilege to help people have presents for Christmas!!
- Next weekend the music is going to incredible!! I know what we experienced this weekend but I promise you next weekend is going to be phenomenal!
- Remember that next weekend we are only doing to Sunday services because we are hosting the Living Nativity Thur-Sat night.
- Praise God for the opportunity to celebrate the birth of His Son!!!
December 6, 2011 in
Weekend Wrap with
- Amazing worship at Parkview this weekend!!
- I Love Our Church!!!
- Steve was hilarious – his Pedro rendition following the opener of Feliz Navida was hysterical!! A moment we will not soon forget!! Click here if you missed it.
- Really appreciated Margaret sharing about the Wise Men Gift exchange. Going to be a phenomenal event again this year.
- It was wonderful to be reminded that we helped 132 children have Christmas last year!!
- Special thanks to Brusters and Woodys for joining us this year and putting out collection baskets!
- I am glad that again this year part of the Christmas offering will be used to help children have Christmas.
- I announced this past weekend that a family had given a $5,000 seed gift to get the Christmas offering started!
- Please pray about how the Lord will have you participate in our Christmas offering!
- We are giving a gift to Christ so that we can give the gift of Christ.
- Our attendance this past week was incredible – we had over 100 more in attendance than we did the same Sunday a year ago. That has happened a few times this Fall. More people simply means the more opportunities for Life Change!!
- The set on the stage looks incredible!!
- A special thanks to our tremendous nursery workers!! We had a full house of kids and all our workers showed up!!!
- Excited about some of the traction in kids ministry!!
- THE MUSIC THE REST OF THIS MONTH IS GOING TO BE OFF THE CHART!!!
- YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS ANY WEEKEND AT PARKVIEW IN THE MONTH OF DECEMBER!!
December 2, 2011 in
Church Life with
This weekend we kick off Palm Coast’s most exciting Christmas party! In our new series we will look at the elements of every great Christmas bash. Whatever you do – get to church on time this weekend. You do not want to miss the opening song – everybody will be talking about it!!
Also, let me share with you a couple pieces of information around our special Christmas events:
- Wise men gift exchange is in full swing. We are now receiving new and gently used gifts.
- We have incredible opportunities to be a part of the living nativity cast. If you can wear a costume you qualify! Please email Derek@parkviewlife.com. We have a number of openings each night Dec 15-17. You can sign up for one or all three. The cast needed is both men and women – 12 & up will work! Please email Derek now so we can fill the opportunities and direct our energies toward accomplishing the vision!
- This is the best season of the year to invite someone to Parkview. Embrace the spirit of the season and bring someone to our new series, Christmas Party, this weekend!
- Giving to our Christmas offering begins this weekend – can’t wait to share what already happened this week!!
Can’t wait to party at Parkview!
November 30, 2011 in
Church Life, Leadership, Miscellaneous with
I wanted to pass along 3 articles that I read recently – great stuff!
- Click here for a good view on when the church disappoints.
- Click here for how to speak up when you need to.
- Click here to read about effective leaders.
Which article was your favorite and why?
