Merry Christmas Parkside Family!
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Christmas is here!  It's time to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, whose name is Immanuel...God with us!
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As I have been sharing in our "Christmas Wonder"... series, the Christmas story began long before Mary and Joseph, a bunch of shepherds and some wise men watched as Jesus exploded onto the scene.  The story of Christmas began way back in the book of Genesis, when God first promised that one day, He would send a Messiah to redeem mankind from his brokenness.  And while the last chapter of the Christmas story begins with the words, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.  For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.  And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.  And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born.  She gave birth to her first child, a son.  She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available to them.", it doesn't end there.  The last chapter is still being written.  Bethlehem was just the beginning.  Jesus gave a promise of a repeat performance.  The skies will open up, trumpets will blast and a new kingdom will begin. 

The point of Christmas is that you and I need a Savior and because of Bethlehem we have one!  Let's not keep this a secret.  Invite someone to join you this Sunday morning at 10:30am for Christmas at Parkside!  Below are the details:

This Sunday, December 22nd, we will have ONE service at 10:30am.  There will be NO adult Sunday School.

The morning kicks-off at 9:30am with our Christmas cafe' featuring an assortment of fruit, bagels, pastries, cookies, coffee and hot chocolate.

At 10:30am we will all gather in our main sanctuary for a time of celebration featuring Christmas carols, advent candlelighting and a presentation by our very own Mary Jo Sharp, who will be speaking on the topic, "Is the Story of Jesus a Copy of the Pagan Myths?"  Mary Jo is an accomplished Author, Professor and Apologist. 

This Sunday represents a great opportunity for you to invite a relative, friend or neighbor who may need to hear the true story behind the birth of Jesus.  Who are you going to bring with you this Sunday?

So, don't forget this Sunday, December 22:  One service at 10:30am.  No Sunday School.  Christmas Cafe opens at 9:30am.  Don't come alone!

See you Sunday!

Pastor Doug

When you think of a church, what do you think of; worship, prayer, Bible study, fellowship, ministry, mission, discipleship? At Parkside Fellowship, we believe a church exists to fulfill the Great Commission, which says:
 
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:16-20
 
We are SO EXCITED to announce that we have begun the Bible study, “Why Do You Believe That?” with our middle & high school students! The students began meeting in the student building last month from 10:30-11:30 on Sundays and have enjoyed wonderful leadership. The study seeks to equip students to have confident conversations when it comes to matters of faith. Please make it a point of prayer as these students tackle difficult questions in today’s climate.
 
Who do you know that would enjoy growing in their faith? Invite them to attend any of our classes, which meet on Sundays at 10:30. Our teachers do a great job of facilitating discussion and making the lesson relevant to our lives.
 
See you Sunday,
 
Roger Sharp

This Sunday, the city of Beaverton will be hosting a half-marathon race.  Those driving to Parkside from Central and South Beaverton should expect minor delays near the race route.  Closures will begin at 6:30am and will be most restrictive from 8:00am to 11:00am.  Please give yourself a little extra time as you make your way to church this Sunday.

Below is a list of street closures and times: 

• Stratus Street between Creekside Place and Nimbus Avenue, closed from 6:30 am to Noon
• Nimbus Avenue between Stratus Street and Scholls Ferry Road, closed from 6:30 am to Noon
• Gemini Drive, closed from 6:30 a.m. to Noon
• Scholls Ferry Road between Nimbus Avenue and Conestoga Drive, partially closed from 6:30 am to Noon
• Conestoga Drive to 125th Avenue, closed from 6:30 to 8:55 am
• 125th Avenue to Brockman Street, closed from 6:30 to 8:55 am
• Brockman Street between 125th and 135th Avenue, closed from 6:30 to 9:05 am
• 135th Avenue to Weir Road, closed from 6:30 to 9:55 am
• Weir Road to Davies Road, closed from 6:30 to 9:55 am
• Davies Road to Carr Street, closed from 6:30 to 9:55
• Carr Street to Sorrento Road, closed from 6:30 to 9:55 am
• Sorrento Road to Hart Road, closed from 6:30 to 10:15 am
• Hart Road to Hall Blvd, closed from 6:30 to 10:15 am
• Hall Blvd to Denney Road, closed from 6:30 to 10:15 am
• Denney Road to Lombard Avenue, closed from 6:30 to 10:15 am
• Lombard Avenue to 5th Street, closed from 6:30 to 10:55 am
• 5th Street to Western Avenue, closed from 6:30 to 10:55 am
• Western Avenue to Allen Blvd, closed from 6:30 to 11 am
• Arctic Drive between Western Avenue and Allen Blvd, closed from 6:30 to 11:15 am
• Allen Blvd to Scholls Ferry Road, closed from 6:30 to 11:15 am
• Denney Road between 105th Avenue to 111th Avenue, closed from 6:30 to 11:30 am
• Hall Blvd to Cascade Avenue, closed from 6:30 am to Noon
• 217 Freeway Ramps at Denney Road, closed from 6:30 am to Noon

Hope to see you this Sunday!

Pastor Doug
   

​I hope you enjoyed our Summer Shuffle Sundays.  I want to extend a huge "THANK YOU" to the congregations of Colossae Beaverton, Common Ground, El Buen Pastor and Global Community Church for sharing their pastor, and in some cases, their worship teams and hospitality teams, with our Parkside family.  Personally, I loved hearing from the different pastors.  

As we prepare to return to a "normal" Sunday schedule, I want to let you know that, moving forward, we will be discontinuing our 10:30am service option.  The reason for this change is to give our new Associate Pastor, Roger Sharp, a blank slate, with which to craft a service that will be appealing to young adults and families who are either occasional or non-church attenders.  We also want to spend the fall praying for, seeking out and building-up a core team to help launch this service.  Our hope is to relaunch in January of 2020.  In the meantime, please be in prayer for Roger and his wife, Mary Jo as they relocate to Beaverton, get settled into their new home and begin their new ministry here at Parkside!

For those of you who have been attending the 10:30am service, I want to let you know that for the month of August, we will have various options for you to choose from during the 10:30am hour.

This Sunday, August 4th, I will be leading a Concert of Prayer at 10:30am.  We will begin with a time of praising God through song, led by Pastor Avery.  After this time of musical worship, we will spend some time in God's word and conclude our time together with an extended time of prayer focused on the future of Parkside Fellowship.  Consider joining us for this special time of praise and prayer.

Also, this Sunday at 9:15am, we will officially kick-off our brand new series titled, "Words to Live By".  Each week, we will focus on a new commandment from either the Old or New Testament.  The purpose behind this series is to help us understand that the commandments found throughout Scripture are not meant to regulate our behavior, but rather, are designed to shape our hearts, so that we can be a better reflection of God's character. 

This Sunday, we will be looking at the first 2 commandments found in Exodus 20:3-6.  With these two commandments, God is saying, "I am your God and I need you to recognize the fact that I have always been your God and that my relationship with you is not based on a set of rules.  In fact, my rules are not a condition of my love, rather, they are a confirmation of my love for you."

Hope to see you on Sunday for both our 9:15am service, followed by our Concert of Prayer at 10:30am.

Pastor Doug

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

​Nobody is a whole team.  Each one is a player.  But take away one player and the game is forfeited.

Nobody is a whole orchestra.  Each one is a musician.  But take away one musician and the symphony is incomplete.  

Nobody is a whole play.  Each one is an actor.  But take away one actor and the performance suffers.

Nobody is a whole hospital.  Each one is part of the staff.  But take away one person and it isn't long before the patient can tell.

Cars are comprised of numerous parts.  Each one is connected to and dependent upon the other.  Even a tiny screw, if it comes loose and falls out of the carburetor, can bring the whole vehicle to a stop.

You guessed it.  We need one another.  You need someone and someone needs you.

To make this thing called life work, we gotta lean and support.  And relate and respond.  And give and take.  And confess and forgive.  And reach out and embrace.  And release and rely.

Especially in God's family.....where the "One Another" of the New Testament should be a part of every church's standard operating procedures manual.  For the church, love and acceptance are not optional luxuries.  Neither is tolerance.  Or understanding.  Or patience.  You know, all those things you need from others when your humanity crowds out your divinity.

Since none of us is a whole, independent, self-sufficient, super-capable, all-powerful human, let's quit acting like we are.

Join us this Sunday as we kick-off a brand-new series at 9:15am titled, "One Another".  Each week we will focus our attention on one of the key characteristics that not only sets us apart from the world, but is vital if we desire to have a "Jesus" influence in our community.

During our 10:30am service, we will be looking at the essentials of a healthy marriage and how trusting Jesus is vital to married life.

Finally, our Room 4 Hope ministry is one way we come together to provide hope to those who have been affected by homelessness.

Starting Sunday, Parkside Fellowship will become a safe, temporary “home” for families in our community. 

To learn more or to volunteer, simply write “HOPE” on your connection card or reply to this email and we will contact you.

Hope to see you Sunday!

Pastor Doug