The View. January Special events this month: First Service Next Step Groups: Next Step Groups begin on Sunday, Jan 4th.

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1 January 2015 The View Special events this month: Next Step Groups begin on Sunday, Jan 4th. Awana & Youth start back on Wednesday, Jan 7th Haiti Mission Group will leave on January 11th through the 19th Refuge Food Pantry the third Saturday of the month All Things Women meets the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 6:30 pm Awana Event: Drive Through Movie on Friday Jan. 23rd Leader Gathering on Monday, January 26th. next step groups! The New Year brings a fresh start. For many it is a time to start something new, to improve, to grow. I would like to encourage you to start the New Year by developing and growing your spiritual life. We will be offering new opportunities to experience God and to know Him better and to improve your life at the same time. Some of the new series we will be offering starting on January 4th are: First Service Next Step Groups: Preparing for Marriage in Room 108 This class is designed to equip couples for the wonders and struggles of marriage. We require couples planning to marry at Parkview to receive pre-marital preparation. If you are planning on getting married at Parkview in 2015 you should be a part of this class. Overwhelmed? God s Solutions in Room 107 Just as Moses and the Israelites found themselves caught between the devil and the deep Red Sea, so are we sometimes overwhelmed by life's problems. The Red Sea Rules reveals that even in the midst of seemingly impossible situations God promises to make a way for us. His loving guidance will protect us through danger, illness, marital strife, financial problems, or whatever challenges Satan places in our path. Leader: Joy Heckenlively & Tracy Zern Small Group Leaders in Room 114 Do you lead a small group? Do you want to lead a small group? It is an awesome task to lead others in a small group. We will give insights on how o create community, develop spiritual growth and how to share God s truth. We will also spend time each week sharing what is happening within your group. As iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another. As leaders we need to be sharpened by other leaders so that we in turn are able to sharpen those with in our groups. Leader: Tony Schroeder (Continued on Page 6)

2 Page 2 Student Ministries Update January 2015 the Refuge - Recap What a fun time we had at our 2 nd annual the Refuge! Thanks to everybody who helped provide the food, and thanks to the Coffee Cottage for catering the drinks. Check out the pictures below. Summer Schedule I know it s just the turn of the New Year and it s well below freezing outside, but we re already looking forward to what we ve got planned for this Summer. All the details will be coming out soon, so keep an eye out! In Christ, Brent Attendance Record YTD Small Group Average: 172 December Small Group Average: 105 YTD Worship Average: 282 December Worship Average: 276 Parkview s Financial Report (Figures as of 12/30/14 YTD Ministry Fund Rec.: 502, YTD Min. Fund Needed: 524, Weekly Average Needed: 8, Weekly Average This Mo.: 9, YTD Ministry Fund Spent: 517, Building Fund Balance 987,020.79

3 Page 3 Missionary Moments FAITH AND RELATIONSHIPS Christian worker Amy Baxter is seeing a positive outcome as she and a friend distribute quality chocolates in southern France. Ladies of the evening, working near the Old Port, have accepted the chocolates and read the Bible verses printed on the back with growing interest. Sophie responded to Amy s friendship and allowed her to speak about the importance of faith and a relationship with God. Afterward, Sophie is going trough a divorce and many legal battles. Cooperative Program gifts support Christian workers, like Amy, who share the Jesus Christ is t r u s t w o r t h y a n d dependable, as well as a constant companion. Core Values Glorify God 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 in the Parkview family is Glorifying God. We are determined to live for God s glory. 1Corinthians 10:31 says Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. A good question to ask ourselves both as individuals and ministry teams is What would bring honor to God in this situation? another way to ask this is What would make Jesus smile? This question goes a long way to helping us stay together and on track in our lives with God. December s pantry day we were able to serve 90 families or c to 522 individuals. We were also so blessed to be able to hand out a turkey or ham to each family as something special for the Christmas season. We were happy to see some new faces volunteering this month. God always comes through for us when think we might be short handed. We are so grateful for the donations being made in Parkview, it truly touches our hearts and the hearts of our guests at the Refuge Food Basket. There was a woman this month that told us that we were family to her. We ask that you continue to pray for our guests at the food basket, especially during the holidays things are a little tighter with buying presents and kids being out of school for Christmas break. Pray that they will see Jesus either in us or in someone they know, and that they will accept his love and go to him in hard times. We could all use prayer like that, God is so big and awesome and has so much to show us and so much love for us it is hard to imagine sometimes. Thank you for joining God at work in supporting us! Your generous gift of food, money and prayer is how we are able to serve these people in need, and we are so overwhelmed with thanks! Exodus 15:11 Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? Forever Grateful, The Refuge Food Basket

4 Page 4 Seasons greetings, loyal readers! At Casa de Zimmerman around this time of the year we watch a lot of Christmas movies. Maybe you all are doing the same thing. So, I present you with a challenge! Can you name this quote from a popular Yuletide movie? Here it is: "We're not just doing this for us. We're doing it for the kids. For every kid who ever sat on Santa's lap." If you come up to me with the correct answer, there could be a prize awarded to you. The theme of a lot of those movies was the virtue we talked about at Kids Quest in December. That virtue was generosity. With all the Christmas hoopla it's easier than ever to lose focus on why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. That's why we wanted to spend the month talking about generosity: making someone's day by giving something away. We hope kids get wrapped up in others as they show them how much God has been so generous towards us. There's a danger in getting so wrapped up in ourselves or so wrapped up in our things that we miss the essence of this season. There's just something about giving that reflects the character of God to those around us. Every good thing we have is a gift from Him. But we know that God's generosity has a purpose. God gives to us and expects us to do the same for others in return. Generosity changes us when we learn how to give the way God does. Detective Doright The bottom lines for the month were: Week 1--Don't get wrapped up in your stuff. Week 2--Get wrapped us in what matters most. Week 3--Get wrapped up in Christmas. Week 4--Get wrapped us in giving. The monthly memory verse was: 1 Timothy 6:18--"Be rich in good deeds...be generous and willing to share" We're not generous because we are rich, rather we are rich because we are generous. The case was solved during a recent Wednesday night session of Awana. I was eating one of the generoushearted Keri West's meals at a table with Mr. Dan and Miss Peggy. Amaya Stewart came up to Miss Peggy and told her that she had her container almost full of quarters for our Kids Helping Kids project. Before I cheer, I want to take a moment to give a shout-out to Miss Stewart and the other kids who participated in the recent Christmas program. These kids gave generously of their time and talents to make their presentation a huge success. Parkview Kids Rock!! Okay, now for the official cheer! Amaya, Amaya, you made my day ya! You gave from your heart and id your part! And that's off the chart! There you go, loyal readers, this report is as done as Bo's time as coach of our beloved Huskers. Thanks for the memories! In January at Kids Quest we'll be looking at the virtue, commitment. I'll be searching for a Kids Quester who made a plan and put it into practice. If you should see such an example, give me a New Year's toot! Here's the number with an Anniversary-of-Historical-Events-In-2015 flair. Nine plus two days in February of 1990 Nelson Mandela was released from prison 25 years ago in On the eighth day of March 1965 the first U.S. combat troops arrived in South Vietnam and it will be the 50th anniversary of this event. Seven days plus twenty-three of April, 1975, marks the fortieth anniversary of the fall of Saigon in Two plus five days in May 1915, marks the centennial of the sinking of the Lusitania in One day plus 14 days in June 1215, marks the octocentennial of the Magna Carta in Two days plus 16 of June 1815 marks the bicentennial of the Battle of Waterloo. Three days plus 7 of July 1940 marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

5 Page 5 This is a 2-day simulcast and worship time where we hope women of all ages from local churches will feel welcomed to attend. We want to see women rise up in our local community to make Jesus' name great throughout our neighborhoods. Let's gather together to wrestle, pray, and worship to see what God will do! Friday, February 6, :00-9:00 & Saturday, February 7, :00-6:00 (Breakfast and lunch provided) If: Gathering seeks to gather, equip, and unleash the next generation of women to live out God's calling on their lives. For registration info visit the IF table in January or contact Rachel Ostrom: (308) or rkostrom@gmail.com (Can't make the entire event? Please still come and catch what you can!) Women s Bible Study Hebrews by Lisa Harper Hebrews was a sermon for a specific people and culture in the midst of martyrdom and persecution, but is also relevant for us today, reminding us to continue walking toward Jesus regardless of our culture or our circumstances. Join Lisa as she journeys through this bridge between the Old and New Testaments to get to the heart of the matter: Jesus is our accessible King. He is not a faraway God, but an up-close Redeemer who draws near to us. Hebrews helps women make the connection between God the Father and God the Son and reminds us that Jesus reigns supreme, but He also draws near to us with compassion, empathy, and love to no end. Lisa Harper makes digging into Hebrews fun and doable, as only she can, without losing an ounce of depth. This 7 session study will begin mid January on both Monday and Thursday evenings. Registration will be available January 4 th or call Jane Reynolds ( ) for more information. Time For A Change? If you keep doing what you ve always done, you ll always get what you ve already got I can t remember where I first heard that but it has stuck in my mind ever since. The New Year is a great time to reflect and assess where we are in our job, family, health, and yes...our spiritual life. Are you satisfied where you are, or could your life use some tweaking? Is your relationship with the Lord where you would like it to be, or does it fall short? If you re not where you want to be, let me give you another quote I heard: If you want to make some changes in your life...you re going to have to make some changes in your life. Small changes made consistently over time turn into big results. For example, if you were to set aside just five minutes a day this year to really focus and listen to God you will have spent over thirty hours in His presence, do you think that could change your relationship with Him? New Years resolutions are fine, but most of them fail because we try to change too much all at once. How about resolving to make small, consistent changes this year that will make a great impact on your spiritual walk. Resolve to spend a little more time in prayer, a little more time serving, giving a little bit more, and reading the Bible a little bit more. Then see if it hasn t added up to a big change come next the New Year. May God richly bless you and yours this New Year. Scott Sarnes

6 Page 6 (Continued from front page) Second Service Next Step Groups: Discovering Parkview in Room 107 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. Leader: Paul Thomas Transformation in Room 108 Start the New Year being transformed by God. The only way to truly change your life is to change the way you think. During this series, learn about the habits, truths, and characteristics that enable change lasting change to happen in your life. Transformed: in my Spiritual Health; in my Physical Health; in my Mental Health; in my Emotional Health; in my Relational Health; in my Financial Health; in my Vocational Health. Leader: Mark Jones Our Global Mission Offering for 2014 was $6, The Jail Ministry delivered 6,136 cookies to the inmates at the Dawson County jail on Christmas morning. Thank you to everyone who contributed to these ministry opportunities in December Budget Process Took Prayer & Faith On the first Sunday of December members of our church family approved a spending plan for This is a process that begins in September when ministry teams dream about the coming year and submit spending requests. The Trustees are tasked with prayerfully putting it all together in a way that honors God by balancing faith with responsibility. The result this year was a budget of c. 571,000. Which is about 8% more that 2014 s spending plan. To put the challenge in perspective the total of all the original requests were nearly 640,000! They put in long prayerful hours attempting to be respectful to our donors and obedient to the Lord. Highlights include new categories for needed Building Improvement & Adult Missions. Some items were moved to new locations on the proposal such as moving Youth Missions from educational ministries to the missions and evangelism category. Cleaning personnel was also moved form building and grounds to the staff support category. While many other lines show shifts some with larger shifts include a drop in needed office supplies, break for VP3 and increasing the internship to allow for a full year intern in 2015 instead of a summer intern. Thought the numbers and balance sheet can make eyes glaze over, what they represent are twelve months of gospel ministry. More families will be blessed through AWANA, Kidsquest and student ministries. Jesus will be worshipped weekly, the gospel will be shared in jail, CR, food pantry and through many of you in the community. Missionaries will be supported from Cozad to Brazil & India. Through your visionary giving God will use us to help others find transformation in Him. Approved budget is available in the church office if you would like a copy. In His Service, John

7 The View Pastor s log January 2015 Happy New Year! Though it seems hard to believe another new year has come. We have much to praise God for from While 2015 promises to be a year with great spiritual needs remaining in our communities, I believe there are even greater spiritual opportunities. God continues to move among us, revealing Himself in the changed lives among us. In 2015 we will continue to sharpen our focus on embracing the Great Commission s call to make disciples. We experienced significant fruit in this area last year and I am confident that even more will come. I hope you will be an intentional part of this. So, I want to invite you to move to a new level in the New Year. While others are making commitments about their diet, exercise and spending habits. Why not make a new start in your spiritual life. Make a new commitment to living out your faith in Christ. Take it to a new level of growth. You have a new chance with many opportunities emerging within our church family. If you aren t sure where to start let me know. I d love to help you get a new grip. In Matthew 11 Jesus calls to us, Come to Me all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens and I will give you rest. Take My Yoke upon you. Let Me teach you, for I am humble and gentle of heart. You will find rest for your souls. (NLT) This reminds me that the key to moving forward with Jesus is not my own strength and will power. The key is simple coming to Him. It may be that each of us needs to come to Him in a deeper way than we have been recently. Here are some ways people have come to Him on their spiritual journey. Why not identify a new start you can embrace before the month is over. Come to Him through: saving faith, baptism, church membership, daily Bible reading & prayer, embracing community through a small group, corporate worship, intentional giving, volunteering, confessing sin, mentoring another and sharing Jesus with others. No matter your current life condition, with Jesus you have a new start. This month s teaching series will focus on the truth that life is a gift from God and how we can manage it best by seeking Him first. I would love it if you would start the year by joining us every week for this practical series. Perhaps you will discover your new start through these lessons. Whatever you do, I want to ask you to make a new start that draws you nearer to Jesus. If all of us do this as 2015 begins, I believe we will see the leading of Christ among us like never before. Thank you for being part of our spiritual family in Let s continue moving forward together as we make a new start together in John Visit Our Website at