The View. April Special events this month: Awana Gran Prix Friday, April 1st at 7:00 pm. Refuge Food Pantry the third Saturday of the month

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1 April 2016 The View Special events this month: Awana Gran Prix Friday, April 1st at 7:00 pm Refuge Food Pantry the third Saturday of the month Discovering Parkview Class begins April 17th at 11:00 am Baby Dedication April 17th at 9:15 & 11:00 am Mexico Mission Training April 17 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm All Things Women meets the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 6:30 pm Star of Hope Mission Dinner (watch for details) Love:India Banquet Friday, April 29th at 6:30 pm Awana Honors Night April 27th at 7:00 pm Mission Opportunities at Parkview! Two key missionaries that have had an impact on our church family are coming to visit at the end of this month. From Haiti, Star of Hope s Tony Bousiquot and his wife Myrta will be in Lexington on April From India, Pastor Gus Peters with Reach Global will be here April 28-May 1. We will have some time for anyone interested to meet and visit with them at the church. So please come join us in a warm Nebraska welcome share the love with those dedicated to spreading Jesus love to those lost and hurting Tony and Myrta, native to Haiti, have been working for Star of Hope for several years. Tony is a college educated engineer that has been responsible for rebuilding many of Star of Hope s school and church meeting buildings after the 2010 earthquake that devastated much of the island. Along with his wife, Myrta, they work with all of the school superintendants and pastors at their 7 projects. Myrta keeps track of the finances and child sponsorships while also leading vocation training for many of the mothers that have children attending school at a Star of Hope project. We will be announcing times and plans as we get closer to the date. Pastor Gus was the pastor of Carey Baptist Church in Calcutta, India when Brandon and Jess Hotz first went to India in the fall of He and his wife Shikha introduced and helped Brandon and Jess to Calcutta and ministry with Hindus and Muslim people. We are grateful for their work with our missionary couple and their desire to continue to follow the Lord to reach unreached people in India. Pastor Gus has since resigned from Carey Baptist and is developing his own ministry with Reach Global to be more creative at spreading the gospel message. Join us for an evening filled with the hope and joy of the Love:India ministry, which exists to bless the nation of India with the truth of Jesus. You will have the opportunity to meet Pastor Gus, and Brandon and Jessica Hotz will share of the continuing ministry of Brother Samuel and his work among an unreached people group. They will also give an update on the impact of Elevate as they partner with national believers in the developing world to provide opportunities that will change their lives and help fund their outreach initiatives. Mark your calendars and join us on Friday, April 29th at 6:30 pm for this special evening.

2 Page 2 Student Ministries Update - April 2016 Todd Becker Foundation We had the privilege of having the Todd Becker Foundation in Lexington on March 23rd. It was incredible to see so many students and community members attend. We had well over 100 students respond at the evening event. Thanks so much to so many awesome volunteers from the church who were able to share the gospel and pray with some many of the students! Super Summer July 4th-8th When you re planning out your Summer schedules don t forget about Super Summer for our students on July 4-8. The total cost of the trip is $190, and the deposit of $50 is due on Sunday, May 15th, along with the registration form, and the remainder is due the day we leave. If money is an issue please contact Brent or the church office for assistance. More information about the trip is on the church website under the Student à Forms. Mexico Mission Trip Training - April 17th Parkview In Christ Brent Attendance Record YTD Small Group Average: March Small Group Average: YTD Worship Average: March Worship Average: NA NA Parkview s Financial Report (Figures as of 03/30/16) YTD Ministry Fund Rec.: 130, YTD Min. Fund Needed: 142, Weekly Average Needed: 10, Weekly Average This Mo.: 10, YTD Ministry Fund Spent: 121, Building Fund Balance 953,696.75

3 Page 3 Worship Experience An Oxymoron From a blog by my friend David Manner: Missionary Moments Swedbergs Snippets The family VBS during Carnaval, the Field Council meeting, the construction at church and John s surgery have all kept us out of mischief. Thank you for your notes and prayers. John is recovering well. He has to be careful to not exert himself. He hasn t gotten back the biopsy results yet, but his doctor doesn t think there is problem. Our Field Council was a combination between our Region and All- Brazil. The Theme was Be Encouraged. Pastor Fred Froman from Holt Baptist Church spoke and we left encouraged in the Lord. Family VBS was a blessing, too. We had five visitors the last night. This week-end, a group of churches are meeting to begin a new fellowship of churches for our area of the state. Pray for the meeting. Good Friday through Easter we will be having evangelistic meetings at our church. Pray that God works in our midst and that many visitors come. John and Dan will be doing the preaching. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. We are His for Brazil, John and Karen We don t experience worship, we experience God Our response to that experience is worship Experience is an event or occurrence. We can experience a fine meal. We can experience a baseball game or Disneyland. It is something done to us or for us. It is an encounter. Worship, however, is something we do. We can experience the many facets of God inside or outside a worship service but the experience or encounter is not worship, our response is. So a worship service built on an experience alone is shortsighted if it never allows us an opportunity to respond. Depending on an experience alone can cause us to be satisfied with the feelings elicited by that experience. Consequently, we might select and sing certain songs or even styles of songs because of how they make us feel and then never move beyond those feelings to worship. And if those songs don t create and recreate that same feeling each week we can leave a worship service believing worship couldn t and didn t occur. God s revelation (experience) is when He offers us a glimpse of His activity, His will, His attributes, His judgment, His discipline, His comfort, His hope and His promises. Our response is the sometimes spontaneous and sometimes prepared reply to that experience. The purpose statement of Parkview s worship ministries is: Create environments where people can encounter and respond to the presence of God Come join us this Sunday as John continues the Philippians sermon series on Choose Joy! See you Sunday! Scott Sarnes

4 Page 4 We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done. -Psalm 78:4 Come join us for AWANAS! Wednesday Nights 6:30-8:00 pm Friday, April 1 Awana Gran Prix 7:00 pm April 6 High Five Night April 13 Noodle Night (bring ramen noodles for food pantry) April 20 Ice Cream Night April 27th Awana Award Night 7:00 pm (Final night for Awana s) Come Join us on Sunday mornings at 11:00 for ages 3 yrs to 5th grade. Greetings from Next Generation Kids! We are in the full swing of spring and have managed to cover the entire Pentateuch the past several months! We are moving right along through the Scriptures via The Gospel Project and have begun to study the Israelites entrance into the Promised Land. We did take a detour to talk about the heart of Easter and how all of our lessons thus far point forward to the death and resurrection of Christ. Sparks: K-2nd grade Ages 3yrs - preschool T&T Club: 3rd-5th grade If you have a child who joins us on Sunday mornings you may have noticed them bringing home cards with that week s lesson theme on them. These cards are provided to hopefully spur on further discussion between you and your child about the lesson for the week and the deeper significance of how it relates to Jesus and the Gospel. If you have any questions or thoughts on how we might best minister to your kids please don t hesitate to drop on in. Thank you again for the privilege to spend time with your K-5 th Graders on Sunday morning! James Morton

5 Page 5 Discovering Parkview If you are fairly new to Parkview and want to know more about why we do what we do, want to know what we believe and how we do things around here then we want to invite you to be a part of this class. This is a great way for us to get to know each other. This class is also one of the steps for membership. If you have been a part of Parkview for a long time I invite you to RE- DISCOVER Parkview by joining us in this class. Discovering Parkview Next Step Class begins on April 17th at 11:00 am. If interested in being a part of this class contact the church office at or sign up on the website at parkviewfamily.com LOVE:India - Update There is nothing in our American life that we can compare to the amount of sheer hopelessness, extreme poverty and spiritual oppression that we experienced in India. Being in the home of Hamdan (a young boy) who represents the $1 per day statistic will surely change the way you look at life. Something about it makes you want to give everything in your life so that they can have a chance. We would often think to ourselves, this HAS to be what Jesus was talking about when he said, what you do for the least of these, you do onto me. In a world where we would rather climb up the ladder with compelling words, impressive degrees and such opinionated theology, I think Jesus was really asking us to climb down the ladder like he demonstrated by coming to us and elevating us to His position eternally. This is the reason for the LOVE:India ministry. Its purpose is to climb down the ladder to serve our national brothers and sisters in the world and join them in sharing the Good News to the most forgotten people in the world. I ve always thought Jesus seemed so backwards, but maybe we are backwards and his examples and teachings came to set our eyes forward to usher in the Kingdom on earth. As we partner with Brother Samuel in the leather business start up and Gus in relationship and future opportunities, our deepest desire is to be the Lights of the world. We are so thankful to be doing this with our faithful Sending Team at Parkview. Thank you for sending us into the world & thank you Jesus for choosing to use mere humans to sincerely change the world with your power! -Brandon & Jess Save the date for Friday, April 29th. We will celebrate this work at the LOVE:India banquet

6 Page 6 More Mission Opportunities at Parkview! OPPORTUNITY ONE: Join a small group of volunteers to help in Salina, Kansas remodel a dining hall for the Webster Conference Center. We will leave on Friday April 8th and return Sunday, the 10th. Food and lodging will be provided at the location. For more information, contact Rex Hunt at OPPORTUNITY TWO: Native American (Oklahoma) Indian experience June We will be in the heart of Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma to serve the Native Americans at a local orphanage, soup kitchen and shelter. Heavy and light construction projects will be available as well as vacation bible school opportunities. Cost will be $309. For more information contact Barry Bauer at LIFE Ministry Asking for your prayers in two area. 1) LIFE Ministry - Christmas Present Project for Sadly, for one reason or another some residents do not receive Christmas presents. To make up for this the staff provides money so each resident gets a gift. This ministry would like to help the nursing home staff with this expense. It is a joy to see smiles on these dear resident s face. Make us happy to see them happy. Praying for direction..2) LIFE Ministry Grand Buddy Program. One of the ladies in the church asked if she could adopt an older person to visit. What a great idea, but should LIFE Ministry start this or let the nursing home take responsibility? Please pray. This is the Lord s ministry and want His will in this. The main purpose is to reach people for Christ and share scripture with those that are already Christians. Thank you for your prayers. Sincerely in Christ, Barb Chase Core Values Loving Others Though there is great variety in how God has made us, we are united in our faith relationship with Him as Christians. We also share some core biblical values as his followers in the Parkview family. These values help us promote and pursue unity with each other as we follow Jesus together. One of our core values is loving others. We are determined to love people as Christ commands. This love should be genuine and practical. In John 13:35 Jesus says By this all men will know that you are My disciples, of you have love for one another. He repeats in John 15:12, This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Love, real love impacts what we do and how we do it. Love for people should be a defining mark of who are as a church family. Love is the goal of our spiritual growth and the bond that unites us as we serve God together. (1Tim 1:5) When facing a challenge or decision we must ask, What is the loving way to engage this situation? Love does not always give in, but it seeks what is ultimately best. Love allows us to accept each other as we are AND to encourage each other to move forward in holiness and spiritual growth. Such love goes a long way to building our unity as we build each other in Christ.

7 Pastor s log April 2016 The View Welcome to April! We had an incredible Easter weekend of focused worship of Jesus. I hope you were among those able to participate. The Good Friday Service was one of those where you really just had to be there to appreciate how God moved. This month we will finish our series on Choosing Joy. Hopefully you have been experiencing how your faith in Jesus can transform your attitude from the core. I want to share something with you that I had been allowing to steal my joy. I must confess that in recent years, it has become puzzling and frustrating at how gathered worship has slipped from a valued commitment to such a low priority for many believers. It has become very common to hear people claim how important their faith is to them and yet our habits show that Jesus is fairly low on the priority list when it comes to worship with other believers. Church leader blogs of the past two years have been full of laments, statistics and speculations on why this is the case. I won t claim to be smarter than others on this. But I do want to share a couple of thoughts with some encouragement. First you need to know I have moved past being mad about it but remain concerned about what it really means for our/ your true spiritual condition. I believe that whatever the reasons, we have embraced a subtle deception of our enemy when we believe it is not important. One of the few times the Bible uses the work habit it refers to avoiding the habit of missing gathered worship (Hebrews 10:24-25). As your pastor for 20 years, I have seen the predictable pattern that drifting in worship leads to bad spiritual and relational fruit. One writer warns that it sows seeds of unbelief in our soul. He later concludes that while it is not the only thing needed, that worship may be the single most important Christian habit and our greatest weapon in the fight for joy. If this provokes you, the whole article can be found at As Spring emerges and turns to summer, I ask you to ask yourself, what is the true condition of my faith in Jesus? What is the reality that drives my current level of commitment to worship together with other believers? No spiritual smokescreen. No theological diversions. What is the true heart deep answer? There is great joy & strength that comes when we make a habit of seeking God and responding to God together. I encourage you to embrace this habit for your soul s benefit. Lovingly yours, John