From distant Rome--in the midst of a busy ministry of his own--Peter felt the need to write to beleaguered believers in a region two seas away.  He easily could have left them in the care of another. Instead, he took the time to write them a letter.  That compassionate expression made all the difference in their lives.  Perhaps you know of individuals who are struggling through tough times who could use your encouragement......or maybe that person is you.  

Peter, probably better than anyone during his lifetime, understood discouragement.  When I consider how that rough-hewn Galilean went from failure to faithfulness through God's transforming grace, it gives me hope!  This is the message of I Peter.  Peter had a heart for the hurting and broken.  He had a ministry to the suffering.  Sincerity and truth, encouragement and exhortation--these things go hand in hand.  So we shouldn't be surprised that Peter wrote his first letter to hurting people on the brink of hopelessness.

Join us this Sunday at 9:15am as we begin a 5 week journey through I Peter.  A letter written to remind us of our hope in Jesus.  Designed to exhort us to hopeful living despite today's chaotic culture and crafted to provide us comfort in the midst of difficult circumstances.

At our 10:30am service we will continue to discuss what it looks like to live as a Christian in this Age of Outrage.  This week, we will be reminded of our role as ambassadors of the King.  When we take our eyes of the Gospel-mission of the local church, we risk fostering disunity, division, disagreement and ultimately outrage.

Finally, let me leave you with two important truths that I was reminded of this week.....

"When we begin to pray for the lost, we will begin to see the lost."

"Evangelism is simply joining a conversation the Holy Spirit is already having with someone."

See you Sunday!

Pastor Doug

​I know it's been awhile since you've received my weekly TAB email.  The last few weeks have been busy ones, both in the Boyd house and here at church.  The chaos started three weeks ago when Rose and I made a quick trip to Utah in order to move Cassie out of her campus dorm room and into an apartment in downtown Salt Lake.  Cassie will not be coming home this summer, as she will be taking summer classes and establishing residency in order to reduce her tuition cost.  Pray for Rose and I as we enter this new season of being "short" one kid at home.

Once we got back, our church began a two week partnership with Beaverton High School, as we hosted their Advance Placement Testing in our sanctuary.  In all, around 350 different students spent 3 to 4 hours on our campus taking tests.  As the first week progressed, I heard comments from both parents and students as they were surprised that we would open up our church campus to the community, but grateful to be spending such a stressful time, in such a nice, comfortable, welcoming environment.  I also had the opportunity to invite various students and parents to visit us on a Sunday.  Be praying that God would use these conversations to point people to Himself.

From there, the busyness only increased, as our number #1 candidate for the Associate Pastor position, Roger Sharp and his wife Mary Jo, spent 5 days getting to know us as a church and the ministry opportunities that exist in our community.  During their time with us, they had several meetings with the Church Council, as well as individual meals with some of our council members and their spouses.  On Saturday, we hosted a bbq at our house, where members of our Grow Young Team were able to get to know them better.  During this evening, we also had a time of Q&A so the team could ask more in-depth questions.  The next day, we invited our church congregation to join us for a time of Q&A during our 10:30am service and many of you took advantage of this opportunity to further acquaint yourself with Roger and Mary Jo.  I want to thank those of you who attended the Sunday morning Q&A.  I appreciated your questions and have heard only positive comments from this meeting.

After taking a week to process all the information from their visit, both our personnel committee and church council met separately to debrief their time with the Sharps and to make a recommendation as to whether they felt God leading us to hire Roger as our Associate Pastor.

There have been some questions as to the hiring process and whether or not this type of hire requires a church vote by our congregation.  To ensure clarity with regards to the hiring of church staff, below are the hiring guidelines as written in  Article 5 of our church bylaws:

Paid staff positions shall be created, filled, vacated, or discontinued as needed in order to establish and execute the various and essential functions of the church.  The Lead Pastor, advised by the Personnel Committee and accountable to the Church Council, shall be responsible for hiring, managing and removing all staff.  

So, based on my time spent with Roger and Mary Jo, and at the recommendation of the personnel committee and church council,  I asked Roger to consider filling the role of Associate Pastor at Parkside Fellowship and he enthusiastically accepted the position.

While I am excited to have Roger join me on staff, having moved multiple times over the last 10 years, I also know how stressful this process can be.  Please pray for Roger and Mary Jo as they wrap-up their individual ministries in Houston, sell their home, say "goodbye" to family and friends and make the move to the Pacific Northwest.

I want to personally thank our personnel committee, Church Council and everyone who took the time to speak with me, as my desire, throughout this process, has been to make the best hire possible for the future of Parkside Fellowship.

Should you have additional questions about the process we went through to hire Roger or about what his duties might be, please don't hesitate to ask.  I am more than happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thanks again for your commitment to the future of Parkside Fellowship.  I firmly believe that our best days are yet to come!

See you Sunday

Pastor Doug

​I want to provide you with an update on Parkside's search for an associate pastor.  At our annual meeting in February, I shared with our church family that I had posted on ChurchStaffing.com, Parkside Fellowship's desire to hire an Associate Pastor to help us move forward in our Replant/Revitalization process.

Since then, myself, along with our church council has poured over many resumes, narrowing our search to a list of 5 potential candidates.  After reading through their responses to a "Get-to-Know You" questionnaire and a theological questionnaire, we conducted phone interviews with 2 candidates and have narrowed our search to the individual we believe God is calling to join us as our new associate pastor.

We feel very good about the calling, character and competency of our final candidate and now want to evaluate his chemistry with myself, our council and our church, by inviting he and his wife to visit Parkside for a few days.

During this visit, I will be spending significant time meeting with him, driving him around Beaverton and sharing with him the vision of Parkside to become a church of irresistible influence in our community.  In addition, he will meet with our church council, personnel committee members and I would like to have him meet members of our Grow Young team as well.  

I understand this may be short notice for some of you and that this is also Mother's Day weekend, but would love to have you join us if possible.  We will also have a Q&A with he and his wife on Sunday, May 12th during our 10:30am service.

I am still in Utah helping Cassie move out of her dorm room and into an apartment, but when I return to the office on Monday, I will send each of you a copy of his resume, along with his answers to the two questionnaires we had him fill-out.

I want to thank each of you for your prayers and efforts in helping Parkside continue it's revitalization process and I view this potential addition to our staff as another key step in this process.  Please continue to pray for both our church and our potential candidate as we prepare to meet and discern whether or not God is calling us to join together to expand our influence in our community.

See you Sunday.

Pastor Doug