From the Pastors' Heart & Soul

Park Road Baptist Church NON PROFIT ORG. 3900 Park Road U.S. POSTAGE PAID

Progressive Theology Charlotte, NC 28209 CLT, NC Progressive Theology Traditional Worship Traditional Worship June 17, 2015 Welcoming Community Permit #979 Welcoming Community from the pastors’ Heart & Soul

Return Service Requested Not long ago, someone visited on a Sunday morning, and we exchanged emails. He was very complimentary of what he had found in worship, its style and content. Also he was impressed with the warmth of our congregation’s welcome. However, he made a COMING UP: comment that I found odd, and very surprising because he seemed so genuine: “You did not badger me for money! What a nice, refreshing change!” Sunday, June 21 9:30a Deacon Prayer Is his response really typical of what people find when they go to the average church 9:45a Adult Sunday School on Sunday morning? Or, is this just a kind of cliché, an easy complaint to level against Milford Chapel organized religion? I know, of course, that some religious personalities do offend with Speakers: Mike and Beth their overreach for money, but is that really the norm? Whitehead Cross-Country So, ironically, let me run the risk of being “offensive,” and let you know that we have a Pilgrimage new plan for the Sunday offertory! Beginning this coming Sunday, there will be a new 11:00a Worship way for you to give. No Youth Activities We are going to ask you, each Sunday, to make an extra, Beginning this non-monetary, offering. Good Tidings, USPS permit #979, is published weekly by PRBC, Good Tidings is intended for our members and friends. June 21-27 This Sunday you will find a card in your bulletin entitled Sunday, there will 3900 Park Road, Charlotte, NC 28209. Please notify us if you no longer wish to receive this Youth Mission Trip to New Orleans “My Offering of Ministry and Mission.” The card will invite be a new way publication. Thank you! POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the above address. you to share with us where and how much you have served Thursday, June 25 one another in the past week. Have you participated in one for you to give. 7:00a Men’s Bible Study of the many mission opportunities offered through your An Informed Faith: Our Summer Speaker Series 2015 Noon: Lunch Bunch church? Or, just as importantly, have you visited an elderly neighbor, sent a card to one of our Friends at Home, made a phone call to someone you know is hurting or Thanks to Dan McClintock, our own Baptist Campus Minister, for kicking off our 2015 Summer Speaker Series last lonely, volunteered for another nonprofit organization? Sunday with an informative session about today’s college students. Sunday, June 28 9:30a Deacon Prayer On the front of the card, you will be invited to tell us where you have given your time. The speakers and their topics for the next two Sundays are listed below: 9:45a Adult Sunday School We recognize there are many places to give, many places outside of our church’s own June 21: Mike and Beth Whitehead: Cross-Country Pilgrimage Milford Chapel ministry and mission opportunities. These places of service all benefit the Kingdom of Speaker: Carol Anne Lawler God - and are part of the way we are becoming a good news Church in this community Mike and Beth own and manage Whitehead Manor Conference Center in Charlotte. Recently they were able to take Hospice/Palliative Care - even if they are not “official” PRBC programs. time to travel the country together and will share with us their adventures and the impact that such travel has had on 11:00a Worship their lives and faith. The back of this card will remind you of the many opportunities you have to serve No Youth Activities at Park Road. We also hope you will consider supporting these opportunities with June 28: Carol Anne Lawler: Hospice and Palliative Care your time.

Carol Anne Lawler is the Communities of Faith Liaison for Hospice and Palliative Care Charlotte. Carol Anne provides This past week’s remarkable response to my blog post about the Franklin Graham education and promotes the benefits of hospice care and palliative medicine for those in need of end-of-life care. September 4-6 decision has sensitized me to the message the Church offers, and particularly, the Carol Anne, an ordained pastor with the United Church of Christ, has served churches in New England and Intergenerational Retreat message that our church offers. You are going to hear us talking a good bit in the near North Carolina for over 15 years. Registration Deadline: August 4 future about being a “good news church.” Being a “good news church” requires not just giving money (though it does require that), but giving time. And if there is Please join us every Summer Sunday at 9:45a in Milford Chapel. You will be enlightened! anything we value more than our money, it might be our time. Remember in Prayer Our Ministry Council recognizes that we have no way to account for all that our John Hall, Atria Merrywood Monty Bennett Heather Gaskins Dan McClintock congregation is doing in our community, and your leaders felt it would be informative, Director of Music and Organist Child Development Center Director Minister of Missions and Family Life and hopefully inspirational, to be able to quantify that contribution in some way. The Brenda Casteen Joey Haynes Paul Owens Remembering Offering of Ministry and Mission will help us better understand just how much of an Administrative Assistant Youth Coordinator Facilities Manager Our Friends at Home impact Park Road has in the community.

Russ and Amy Jacks Dean Bruce Holliday Carrie Torres Joan Mialik So we are going to ask you to give. We’re not going to apologize about that. We’re going Pastors Director of Communications Children’s Coordinator 3915 Ashton Drive to ask you to tell us where you gave and how much! Remember: if you are not giving Beverly Doyle Cason Maccubbin Charlotte, NC 28210 some of your time away, you are not giving enough! Diaconate Chair Financial Administrator 704-556-1330

Phone: 704.523.5717 Fax: 704.523.8481 www.parkroadbaptist.org email: [email protected]

Register and Volunteer for Vacation Bible School July 27-30 Youth Mission Trip During VBS this year, the children will experience “God’s love in Our Youth Group will be Action” for their mission-focused theme. They will explore crafts, music, missions, recreational games and Bible leaving Sunday June 21 for storytelling. Register your children by clicking the “Events” tab their Summer Mission Trip to at www.parkroadbaptist.org. We hope to see your children there! We still need 5 more volunteers—especially Bible Storytellers New Orleans. This year they and Floaters. Please contact Carrie at [email protected] Making final preparations . . . Last Saturday Take one giant step. The Sharks Class from the will team with or the Church Office if you can help. Thank you! Park Road Child Development Center had a members and visitors volunteered to serve about Project Homecoming 150 meals at the Uptown Men’s Shelter. graduation party on June 5. It was a great celebration! Now off to Kindergarten they go! to help with community Congratulations! projects and rebuilding.

The theme of Project Homecoming centers on Christmas in June . . . what love is and through that The people of PRBC and love what can be members of the Dean family accomplished, not only in mill around the Dean’s patio laughing, talking, eating and ourselves but also in the It takes a community! The youth add celebrating Jackson’s graduation world. PRBC Youth will Dave Silden, Deacon of the Week their support to weeding, watering and and just being together. engage in personal and Dave has been a member at Park Road for 12 years. Dave has been active reaping in our Community Garden every in the Men’s group for many years that has faithfully met every other Tuesday evening. spiritual reflection, group Thursday for breakfast and study. He has also been a faithful tenor in our bonding and invigorating choir, as well as serving on many teams as an active member of church. But Dave is mostly associated with his love of brass music – always activities on the worksite. organizing and rehearsing and leading many instrumental groups from An important aspect of the both within and outside the church to minister to us and to the community “Come Away with Me, through the beauty of music. Dave is a retired school band director and is Let’s Grow Together” trip is to be fully present married to Sally, who is a retired teacher. When the doors of the church physically, mentally and are open, you will likely find Dave and Sally not only passing through A church-wide intergenerational retreat is them, but most often opening those doors to others! planned for Labor Day weekend: Friday, spiritually. September 4 through Sunday, September 6 (two nights instead of the usual one!) at In their free time, they will Diaconate Supports Family Promise Lutheridge in Arden, NC. Lutheridge is a beautiful facility on 160 acres, and we hope visit the French Quarter and Last week was my first time to volunteer at Family Promise, and for the first Moments of fun, times of you will mark these dates on your calendar time, the Diaconate committed to sponsor the mission for the week. We soak up some of the unique reflection—all that and more are and attend! Time is planned for us to share in constantly hear about the problems facing so many in the Charlotte community included during our Church’s activities, relax, enjoy meals and just spend time culture and cuisine of and want to help, but often finding a way to make a difference is difficult. Intergenerational Retreat. together. New Orleans. Please keep On Tuesday night, Erin Rumble and I watched the children while their mothers The cost of the retreat will be fully funded for all received some training about maintaining their own home, the goal of all the them and their adult leaders wishing to attend, thanks to a generous donation from a member who families. Serving at Family Promise was a simple way to impact the lives of a A spot of tea . . .Dan McClintock, feels that time together like this is very important in the life of our church. As in your thoughts and prayers few families. Working with such families may begin to break the cycle of Madison Porter and Jackson Dean in the past, if you would like to make a donation to help with the cost of this poverty and homelessness which is so prevalent in our city. prepared nearly 400 glasses of tea and during the week. trip (in order to extend the life of this fund), that would also be welcome, but What a terrific way for me, for the Diaconate, for PRBC to be church! lemonade for lunch at The Urban it is not necessary in order to attend. Call the Church Office to register by Ministry Center on Friday, June 12. Cathy Gerald August 4!

Phone: 704.523.5717 Fax: 704.523.8481 www.parkroadbaptist.org email: [email protected]