May 2008
Dear Parkway Friends,
There is so much going on at Parkway right now; it’s an exciting time to be here. The Pastor Nominating Committee continues its work of finding just the right individual to call as Parkway’s next installed (settled, as we say in the interim biz) pastor. We are in the midst of many work groups coming to stay here while working to rebuild New Orleans. There is a group scheduled for nearly every week through August! God is so good, to keep sending these people to us.
The transformation process continues; the team has done a great job of conducting the cottage conversations to discuss Parkway’s core values and bedrock beliefs. You’ll be notified shortly when the all-church event will be, sometime in May, to finalize the “first cut” of values and beliefs.
Sunday, May 11, we’ll observe Pentecost, unofficially known as the birthday of the church. Everyone is encouraged to wear some shade of red – pink, orange, burgundy, you name it. There’s a rumor that there might be some red in the courtyard. You can count on worship being uplifting, inspiring, and Spirited. 10:30 a.m. – be there or be square!
We’ve been blessed for several months now to have Arthur Ghere as our organist. You probably know that Arthur is a student at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Because of that, I have invited him to preach on Sunday, May 18. I know you’ll all want to be there and encourage him!
Speaking of Arthur, he’s also the youth director at the Chinese Presbyterian Church in Kenner. He and Suzie Craig are working with the youth of both congregations to produce a video that will be submitted to a competition for PCUSA youth groups. The winning video will offer a prize of $25,000, to be used for the youth ministry of the congregation submitting it. In our case, the prize would be shared equally between the two congregations. Still, $12,500 is nothing to be sneezed at!
The video will be presented at Parkway as part of a joint worship service between the two congregations, Sunday, May 11 in the evening. The service will be led by the youth, and is heartily endorsed by both pastors. Plan to attend this very special worship service, the evening of Pentecost and Mothers Day. Then, once you’ve seen the video, you can vote for it to be the winner of the contest.
And all of this is in addition to everything else that continues to make Parkway such a vital congregation – regular Sunday worship, adult and children’s education, Wednesday evening meals, monthly devotional services, Stephen Ministry, preschool . . . The list goes on, and you can surely add to it. As the transformation process begins to really take hold, you will see amazing spiritual, numerical, and financial growth here, which will not only sustain this vitality, but help it to take off in ways as yet unanticipated. So fasten your seat belts, make sure your tray tables and seat backs are in an upright and locked position – we’re about to take off!
Blessings,
Rebecca
