discover: Week 1 – 5 January 2014

We had a good number in for our first week of the new discover service at Parkside.

This was the first week that we had served coffee (and other drinks) in the main hall and it seemed to work well, with those arriving, happy to partake and mingle ahead of the main service.

Discover Week 1

The opening week was chaired by Phil and began with an a capella version of I do not know what lies ahead and prayer.

Phil explained about the new format for discover and that the children would be going out for their activities at 12:00pm, at which point Alan Michael would begin a six week series using content from the well-known Christianity Explored course.

After a number of children’s choices, it was time for the children to adjourn to the back rooms, along with Lesley, Sarah and Brian.

Phil read from Mark 1:1-15, before handing over to Alan.

Alan’s title for the first week of the course was Good News: What are we doing here?’ and worked through the first few verses of Mark 1, explaining them one verse at a time.

At the end of the service, Alan offered some handouts with questions on, based on the Questions Week 1passage covered, as well as inviting questions either via pen and paper or making use of Twitter.

We were very pleased with how the first week went and look forward to hearing David Angell next week, who will be taking the second week of the course, with the subject Identity: Who is Jesus?

You can download a copy of Alan’s slides from Week 1 of discover here – discover-week-1-05012014.pdf or download the talk by right-clicking on the link below and selecting ‘Save link as…’.  Alternatively, press the play button to listen directly from the website.

Discover Week 1

We hope you’ll be able to join us next week.

Looking back and forward – 31 December 2013

We hope you had a very Happy Christmas and will enjoy a peaceful New Year.

Carols by Candlelight

We’ve had a great time over the Christmas period, particularly thinking about the real reason that we celebrate Christmas – that of the birth of the Lord Jesus at Bethlehem.

Our December Family Service was followed by an excellent Christmas lunch which proved to be very enjoyable.  We also had over 80 people along for our Carols by Candlelight service on Christmas Eve, which was brilliant.

Final view before the big pack up began
Parkside stall at Maidenhead Festival

Aside from Christmas, we’ve had a busy 2013 with Family Services being held each month as well as enjoying a busy day with our stall at the inaugral Maidenhead Festival, back in the summer.

We had good numbers for our two BBQs in the summer and Mother’s Day Tea in March.

Our young people had a great weekend away at Swindon, where they studied the Seven Churches mentioned in Revelation, as well as at the annual camp in Romsey.

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Mike Wells

2013 also saw the commencement of our ‘Men’s Night’ and ‘Ladies Night’ activities.  The men enjoyed a meal and also had a walk and BBQ evenings.

It’s also been a sad time in some ways as we said goodbye to Karla Cordell, back in January who had been suffering ill health for some years.  Later in the year, we also bid farewell to Mike Wells who passed away after a period of illness.  We had an excellent Thanksgiving Service for his life, with over 150 attending.

We’re thankful that both Karla and Mike are free from their discomfort and are with their Lord and Saviour.  We continue to remember their families in prayer.

In practical matters, 2013 has also seen changes to the outside of the building.  We put up a new sign on the front and also resurfaced the car park and created additional parking.

In 2014 we’re making some changes, as we begin our new discover service on 5 January.

discover

This will be a combination of our monthly Family Services, our weekly Sunday Club and The Link Coffee Bar and will contain activities for all ages.  We’ll begin with talks for the adults from the popular Christianity Explored course, for the first six weeks in January.

As a consequence of the changes on Sunday mornings, our Evening Service at 5.30pm on Sundays will no longer take place.  Instead, we’ll be moving our Bible Teaching from Tuesday evenings to Sundays, beginning at 6pm. Our Prayer Meeting will also be moving from Thursday night to Wednesday night at 8pm.

We’re excited with the plans that lie ahead for 2014 and go into them all with an air of expectation and faith.

We don’t know what the Lord has in store for us at Parkside during the next year, but we look forward to every opportunity that we’ll have to tell others about our Saviour and what He has done for us.

Below are a few tweets from 2013:

https://twitter.com/quenchshops/status/326600264608002048

December 2013 Monthly Conference – 14 December 2013

Monthly Conferences 2013-14_edited-3

Following on from last month’s conference, today we welcomed Steve Buckeridge, who spoke on the subject of Gideon: a nobody’s faith.

Below are tweets from the evening and at the bottom you can listen to the conference.

You can download Steve’s talk by right-clicking on the link below and selecting ‘Save link as…’.  Alternatively, press the play button to listen directly from the website.

December 2013 Conference – Gideon

November 2013 Monthly Conference – 9 November 2013

We had the first of our winter series of conference this evening and began with Alan Michael taking the subject of Daniel: a teenager’s obedience.

You can see tweets from the evening below, as well as listen to the conference:

You can download Alan’s talk by right-clicking on the link below and selecting ‘Save link as…’.  Alternatively, press the play button to listen directly from the website.

November 2013 Conference – Daniel

Annual Conference – 28 September 2013

Our Annual Conference took place on Saturday 28 September when we welcomed Jonathan Singleton with us to give a report on the work in Angola.

After tea, Jonathan lead us in a time of ministry from the Bible.

Annual Conference 2013Report on work in Angola

Evening ministry