- Loved spending Thanksgiving weekend with our church family!!
- Thanksgiving praise was great!
- Loved doing communion at the tables with family!
- It was great to have Barry and Laura as our guests
- Thankful for how God is using them
- Grateful for how Parkview sponsored, prayed and supported them
- Enjoyed the time that Denise and I had on stage with them – great to do ministry as family!
- The last 2 weekends have just been so enjoyable.
- Love how we partnered in Hendersonville, love that we have adopted Philly.
- Really looking forward to further developing our strategy for Philly!!
- Look forward to our Christmas offering – it is such a thrill to use our gifts to help so many!!!
- BIG announcement this weekend about our Christmas offering!!!
- Excited about all the outreach that is a part of Parkview’s Christmas season.
Weekend Wrap-up
Weekend Thoughts
- It was a defining weekend in our church!
- We took missions to a whole new level and adopted the city of Philadelphia!
- 1.5+ million people
- 5th largest city in the country
- People just like us everywhere
- In Philly 2-4% attend an evangelical church on any given weekend – the national average is around 20%
- We are joining God on His mission in Philly!
- Our ideas are crazy and destined for failure without divine intervention!
- This weekend we chose faith over fear!!
- One of the greatest things about pastoring Parkview is how our church receives and acts on vision.
- I said this weekend that I don’t have pastor envy – I don’t want any of my friends churches! Love Parkview!!
- I am very thankful for the vision of our elders and staff!!!
- Got to hang out with the staff for a little while last night – they are NUTS and I love them! (Steve has rubbed off on us!)
- Loved our worship this weekend – God is worth all the excellence, energy, adoration and glory!!
- Super excited about www.visionphilly.com
Weekend Wrap Up
- There is alot to look back on and celebrate this past weekend
- Dan Schill did a great job leading worship this weekend. Love seeing leaders step up! Dan has faithfully been leading our teen worship band on Thursday night and had one of his teens, Stuart Knob, join him in our weekend worship experiences.
- Several times this weekend I looked around and saw people going the extra mile in volunteerism and do things “not in their job description”. Thankful for all of our awesome volunteers!!!
- If you are not volunteering you are the one missing out!!! Email penny@parkviewlife.com to get plugged in today. We have awesome opportunities in 2nd-5th grade and are looking for people to bring Life Change to students.
- It was great to meet new friends!
- Enjoyed Get Connected!
- Concluded our series, Unstuck, by talking about how to get unstuck in our finances.
- John Skripko and Jessica Farmer did a phenomenal job in sharing their stories!!! Thx for doing it 3 times!!!
- Although talking about money can be a tough subject, I always love how our church responds.
- I actually enjoy talking about finances – not because I want something from our people but because I want something for our people – the supernatural touch of God upon their money!!!
- I shared in all 3 services that over the last 3 years our general fund offerings have gone up 11%, 11% and 4% consecutively. Considering the Palm Coast economy that amazes me. I am thankful for the generosity of our church family. Generosity emulates Christ and creates opportunities to bring Life Change!
- I love pastoring Parkview!
- CAN’T WAIT FOR NEXT WEEKEND!!!! GOING TO BE AWESOME!!
Weekend Wrap
- Thankful!!!
- Spoke on a very relevant topic this weekend – How to Get Unstuck in your Career. I felt like each service was very engaged and grabbing biblical principles for Life Change.
- A major chunk of our lives involve our careers – we can’t afford to life out of sync in this area!
- Mark was a quitter (Acts 13) who was rejected (Acts 15) who went on to write the second gospel and be requested by Paul at the end of his life (II Timothy 4:11)
- We are not what we do!
- We are God’s masterpiece regardless of our job title.
- A daily quiet time and a weekly sabbath help us maintain our identity and keep it separate from our occupation.
- Having faith and being faithful are two separate things.
- You can have all the faith you want but that may never get you a promotion. You have to be faithful in the little things. Matthew 25
- I am very grateful for all those coming on Saturday night. We had another great Saturday night attendance this week. Also, the 9:30 service had a tremendous crowd. As a result 11am had good space – which creates room for our guests. We regularly have guests at all of our services but 11am has the highest guest traffic so I am very grateful that we are creating room for growth at 11am. Thanks for your help!!
- I announce this weekend 3 recent results of generosity – 37 families given food the last 2 times our food pantry was open, a family had their electric turned back on, and 3,500 came out to Trunk or Treat!!! A special thanks to every person who gives to make this happen!!!
- This coming weekend we will share the opportunities that will be connected to our annual Christmas offering. I can’t wait to give a gift to Christ so that we can give the gift of Christ. Our Christmas offering always has an others/outreach focus.
- Tomorrow and Wednesday I will be spending significant time on our new missions endeavor that we will be unveiling soon.
- I am really excited about how the Lord is expanding our missions endeavors.
- We have some amazing volunteers and watching them in action every week is a real privilege!!
- Have a blessed day!
Weekend RWD
- Nice to have my in-laws in town for a month – really:)
- Looking fwd to trunk or treat tonight – praying the rain relents
- I look forward to going to Parkview every weekend
- The place just doesn’t disappoint!
- God is at work
- Love the love from all the people
- Love the power of the Word
- Love engaging in worship
- Think our drama team always hits a home run
- Get charged by seeing so many people serving from the heart
- Seeing people experience Life Change never gets old
- Seeing people come to faith in Christ is what it is all about
- This weekend a little girl came to me and said that she remembered that I like Kit Kats and she gave me 2 of them – made my day!
- Thankful for the great staff and leaders that God has placed around me!
My Pastor
October is Pastor Appreciation month and in honor of that I would like to share a few words about my pastor.
My pastor is Tom Messer. Pastor Messer leads Trinity Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fl. He has pastored that church for about 19 years and has done a phenomenal job. Let me share a few ways that he has been a blessing to me:
- He rarely misses an opportunity to tell me he is proud of me.
- He led Trinity to be our mother church when we launched Parkview
- They invested several thousand dollars into our ministry in the early years.
- He still buys my lunch regularly:)
- Even though our churches are different he has always encouraged me and not tried to change the philosophy I embraced
- He has taught me more about preaching than anyone else
- I have benefited from hundreds of his sermons over the years
- He has stepped in and helped me through some very challenging seasons of my own ministry
- In recent weeks he stepped up again
- He brags about me like a proud dad
- He has trusted me in his pulpit on countless occasions
- He is a great leader
- He has faced very difficult times in his own ministry and remained steadfast
- He has modeled how to love a congregation
- He has modeled how to shepherd a congregation
- He is a faithful friend
I can’t think of a finer mentor and friend! You can check him out here and here.
How is your family?
We had a phenomenal launch to our new series, Unstuck! Last weekend many people experienced Life Change at the level of salvation. This weekend we explore, How to get Unstuck in your Family. The choir will be leading us in worship, our awesome volunteers will serve the children, the environment will be filled with love and we will be looking for your arrival!!!
Last week we announced that we are offering 3 mid-fall classes. Each class is distinctly different and each provides a great opportunity for fellowship and spiritual growth. You can sign up using your communication card or you can email john@parkviewlife.com right now to register.
Victory with Your Eyes
A four-week men’s study on the book, “Every Man’s Battle”, begins Saturday, October 29th, 8:30-9:30am at Parkview. As many of our brothers are crashing down, we owe it to ourselves, our families, and our God to learn how to prevail against sexual temptation. The cost is $10 and you can register for this class with your communication card.
New Believers’ Class
Are you new to the Christian faith having recently received Christ as your Savior and wondering what’s next? This class meets on Sundays at 4:00pm for six weeks, beginning Sunday, October 30th, and is led by Pastor John Williams. You can register for this class using your communication card. Simply write New Believers Class on the back next to Other.
End Times Study
This two-week study will help you understand the war Satan is waging against God and how that conflict affects us. It will prepare the church for what is to come and give us tools that we can use to prepare for this time of distress. Sundays, October 30th & November 6th, 2:00-4:00pm. Join us for this eye-opening study, “What, on earth, is God Doing Today?”. The cost is $5 and you can register for this class with your communication card.
Be blessed and come ready to experience God at Parkview this weekend!
Things in my heart and mind
I just wanted to share some things that are either rattling in my head or resting in my heart right now about Parkview:
- We have some extremely talented people who step up and make kingdom differences
- No matter how many volunteers we have we will never have enough
- Those who are not serving are the ones missing out
- You can come up with 100 excuses why not to serve – all of them are lame!
- People not serving and not in community are more lonely than they realize
- When a crisis comes the loneliness will be deafening
- I love leaders who love me enough to speak into my life
- Our staff has a “whatever it takes” attitude
- That attitude is one area where our staff has grown the most in the last year
- Our church family loves our staff and our staff love our church family
- For me the relationships just keep getting deeper
- The end of this month our church is 14 years old
- I was 27, I am now 41 – not quite sure what to think about that
- I have alot to learn
- Denise is an amazing Pastor’s wife – people will never know how loyal she is and how much she supports me. She is my biggest fan.
- Being a pastor’s wife is harder than being the pastor – I have known that for about 13 years. I don’t think that is her opinion but it is mine.
- I love our city and want to do whatever it takes to see people come to Christ and experience Life Change
- Looking forward to adopting a city and begin focusing strategically on taking the light to a dark area
- National missions
- I miss people when they move away
- I hate it when people in our church hurt
- I hate splintered marriages
- I hate busted bank accounts
- I hate rebellion in students
- God is in the miracle working business
- Looking forward to Trunk or Treat
- Looking forward to Living Nativity
- God is at work at Parkview
Weekend Wrap Up
- The best thing about the weekend was those that received Christ!!
- Every service people got saved!
- Every service people came and talked to a counselor after the service!
- Loved our worship.
- The Skit Guys (that is there name) video that portrayed the interaction with Christ and Peter was in my opinion probably the best sermon video we have ever shown. Powerful!
- Loved the live baby dedication on Saturday night and the video replay on Sunday morning. Sevrin is a miracle! If you missed the weekend don’t miss watching this video. Click here to view.
- Loved launching our Unstuck series!!
- Our church leadership also had to handle a very challenging situation this weekend.
- Never been prouder of our elders!
- Never been prouder of our church!!!! Your gracious response was God honoring.
- John 8:7 – you lived it!
- Some of you have asked for Jack and Becky’s email – jack.weight@gmail.com and becky.weight@gmail.com
- Many people signed up to serve in Trunk or Treat, Living Nativity and Wise Men Gift Exchange. Thanks for your service and ministry!!
- A special thanks for how you have participated in October’s Month of Generosity!!
- Generosity creates opportunity!!
- God is to be glorified for all that is happening at Parkview!!!!
- Love pastoring Parkview!
He was the most generous
Last weekend I spoke to our congregation about designating October as a month of generosity. The reason for the call to generosity is in response to the Lord’s blessing and the addition of many new families to our congregation in the last few months. This season of ministry is our biggest opportunity and it calls for our best offerings. I am so grateful for how our church family has responded in these first couple weeks of October. We have been blessed with 2 of our best offerings in some time and I don’t remember the last time we had back to back offerings like this.
I would like to say thank you to everyone who has given generously! Also I wanted to encourage you with the results of generous giving:
- The giver is the one who is really blessed (Acts 20:35).
- Generosity has a guaranteed return on investment. Sometimes we are blessed financially, other times we are blessed in better ways. (Luke 6:38).
- Giving guarantees future blessings (I Timothy 6:17-19).
- If I learn generosity when I don’t have much, God is more likely to trust me with more (Matthew 25:21).
- A life of generosity proves that I am interested in others. Lack of generosity proves I am interested only in myself (Matthew 6:21).
- When I am generous I am most like God. He gave His most valuable possession – Jesus (John 3:16).
What I Am Reading
