We invite each member and attender to join us for our Annual Meeting at 6pm during the evening service on September 9. This meeting fulfills our legal requirement as a non-profit organization in the state of Ohio and there will be a brief statement of the financial report. The 2017 annual report is available in the info racks and is also available for download here.

A Word from the Elders

The last chapter of Acts concludes as if Luke had been interrupted and simply stopped writing. It seems as if there is no conclusion, which, in one way, is correct. Though Christ had ascended to Heaven, His work on Earth continues through His Spirit, His Word, and His committed followers.  

Each believer has the privilege of being a witness for Jesus in their community, country, and world.  As we reflect on 2017, we are grateful, but not surprised, at the faithfulness of God in providing for all of our needs and the continuation of His gospel work here in our local church and beyond. As you review the financial position and activity of this report, I hope you will join me in rejoicing in God’s goodness to us as a church family. When we reflect on God’s work, it is truly amazing and encouraging. It does not depend upon us, but depends upon God 
the Spirit, Who is working in us and through us for His good pleasure.  

In 2017, God has once again honored the preaching and teaching of His Word in the making, maturing, and mobilizing of His people. New people have attended, joined, and have been baptized. God has blessed the ministries of Parkside resulting in many of those people becoming committed followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord continues to use our pastoral internship program and our missionary-in-training ministries as a pipeline to further encourage, equip, and send out young men to preach and teach God’s Word and shepherd God’s people.  

As we look outward, God has continued to bless and use our three church plants, Green, Lake County, and Westside, to spread the gospel. At the end of 2017, God answered several years of prayer by providing a physical facility for Parkside Church Lake County. Beyond these church plants, God called Mike Willmer, one of our pastors, to become the lead pastor of a church in Newcastle, PA. God’s faithfulness makes us even more eager to see the expansion of the gospel regionally. As we thank God for what He has done, we pray that He will continue to raise up and send out faithful pastors.  

We are thankful for what God has done locally and regionally, yet we know that God has called us to be a witness to the ends of the Earth. God continues to create opportunities for us to help people throughout the world to become followers of Christ. We see the Lord calling us to ministries in Japan, East Asia, North India, the Middle East, South Africa, North Africa, Europe and 10 countries throughout Latin America. In 2017, Mark and Patti Bean, our missionaries in Peru, moved us one step closer to publishing Bibles in six Quechua language dialects. We pray that this work will be completed in 2018.  

God continues to help us to see the fields that are ripe for the harvest. May we be instruments in His hands used to raise up and send out workers locally, regionally, and globally. It is important for each one of us to regularly take time to reflect upon God’s abundant faithfulness by reviewing the ways in which He has helped us in the past. His faithfulness gives us confidence for the present and the future. Jesus’s final words to His disciples in Matthew 28:18-20 provide encouragement for us today: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”   

God’s work on Earth is continuing and He has given each of us the privilege to be a part of the greatest story ever told: God’s story, which is the Good News that is ours in Jesus Christ. We all have an equal opportunity to go and make disciples through our prayers, our participation, our giving, and our going. It is an encouragement to know that our Lord Jesus is with us always, and that He who began this good work in us will carry it onto completion.

In view of God’s clear faithfulness personally and collectively, let us together strain toward what lies ahead and press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus in the days and the years ahead.  

On behalf of the Elders, we want you to know that we thank God for each of you as we pray for you and for our partnership in the gospel.

Keep on in Christ!

Tom Piazza