We invite each member and attender to join us on December 13 at 6pm for our Annual Meeting during the evening service. 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 2019 annual report is available in the info racks and is also available for download here.

View the Annual Meeting Presentation here >

A Word From the Elders

In Philippians 1:3-6, the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians these words, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.  And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Paul’s words express how the Elders think about you and thank God for you because of our partnership in the Gospel.  What Paul goes on to say is also our experience, that as we thank God for you and pray for you, we do so with the affections of Christ Jesus.  Please continue to pray with the Elders, asking God to help each of us grow in being a disciple of Christ so we can all go and make disciples.  

As you review God’s financial provision for us, we are confident you too will be humbled and filled with thankfulness for God’s continued provision for us as a local church in 2019.  Though we are not surprised by God’s gracious provision, we are grateful for your prayers, giving, and partnership in seeing unbelieving people become the committed followers of Jesus Christ. 

The Elders remain deeply committed to the centrality of missions: locally, regionally, and globally. Locally, God continues to bless the preaching of His word and the witness of his people. Every believer at Parkside is being sent into our local mission field each week where we all have a different but equal opportunity to share Christ with the people God has uniquely placed around each one of us. In 2019, we saw many individuals and families come to faith in Christ, join our membership at Parkside, and be baptized. We thank God who faithfully provided the increase. In addition, in our missionaries-in-training (MIT) and our pastoral residency ministries, God continues to identify, equip, and mobilize Godly men to become future leaders in God’s church to under-shepherd God’s people.  

Regionally, as we reflect on God’s goodness last year, our church plants continue to be a significant highlight of God’s faithful work in all that God is doing regionally.  God is doing abundantly more than we would have ever imagined in our church plants in Green (Parkside Green), Lake County (Shoreline), and in Lakewood (Parkside Church Westside).  Please join us in praying for our next pastor God is raising up to send out beyond the walls of Parkside Church, which is moving forward as I write this letter.

Globally, we continue to be encouraged about what God is doing around the world. God continues to open doors in South America and beyond for pastoral training which is happening through Equipping Servants International (ESI).  This work is led by our missionary/offsite pastor, Kep James, and is now in fifteen countries. The translation of God’s word in both the Quechua (six dialects) and Mam languages was completed, and now God’s word is being spread to the Mam people in Guatemala and Mexico and the Quechua people in Peru. Our missionaries and ministry partners in Japan, North India, North Africa, South Africa, Europe and South America, continue to plant and water God’s word and build the local church in all of these areas of the world.

As we look to the future, our eyes are on the Lord, and we are humbly praying and trusting that the good work God has begun in and through us will be completed in Christ Jesus in His time and in His way. Please pray for God’s continued guidance and provision as He has so faithfully cared for us through 2019. God is continuing to build His church, and we know as it says in Matthew 16:18 “…the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” God has given each 
of us the undeserved privilege to be a part of the greatest story ever told, God’s story. We all have an equal opportunity to be Christ’s disciples right where we are, and to go and make disciples by our prayers, participation, giving, and our going.  

We praise God for all He has done in 2019, and for all of you, and trust that the best is yet to come in Christ.
Your brother in Christ,

Steve Terrell
on behalf of the Elders