This Sunday, we gathered at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House for our Easter service. It was so fun to have our entire church body under one roof… over 1,700 of you showed up!
We also baptized lots of brothers and sisters, as we celebrated the fact that Christ has risen.
Afterwards, we met at City of Cuernavaca Park for a BBQ.
Easter photos by Riley Ralmuto.
Easter videos by Kyle Johnston.
What a blast.
Just under 200 “Park People” showed up to help serve our neighbors in the Highlands.
North High School
-Washed almost every window
-Organized all classrooms
-Cleaned the cafeteria and auditorium
The facilities manager said, “We truly appreciate the service you all provided here at North.”
Skinner Middle School
-Transformed the community “garden”
It truly looked like a jungle when we arrived. Now it’s a pristine vegetable and flower garden that the students can use and enjoy!
The Highlands
-Cleaned streets and alleys
-Weeded neighbors’ yards
-Hauled toilets and couches off of properties (with permission)
We covered over 30 square blocks in all. One gentleman, when asked if there was anything we could do on the spot, told the group, I think as a joke, that they could weed his whole yard.
And with 30 hands at work, his yard was weed free in 15 minutes.
Parks
-Picked up trash and yard debris
-Cleaned the streets and alleys
-Met neighbors along the way
BBQ Celebration
When we’d finished the above, we celebrated with a BBQ.
Over 20 of our neighbors showed up, and all in all, we fed about 150 people.
One of the coolest parts about the weekend was seeing two of those neighbors, who had never been to Park Church before, walk through the doors on Sunday morning for worship.
We had countless neighbors thank Park Church volunteers for servicing the community in this way and they let us know that they’d like to join Park Church the next time around.
We came together for two services on Good Friday, as we mourned with hope because of Christ’s death on our behalf.
Good Friday photos by Jonathan and EB Combs.
The A Boy and His Kite show at Park Chuch was great last night. Super thankful for Dave Wilton, Tifah Phillips and the other musicians who were willing to play a show for us. You can pick up some of their music on iTunes or at aboyandhiskite.com.
On November 15th, 2013, we gathered at Park Church for our very first Bread & Wine event (as part of ParkRenew, see below for more info). Bread & Wine was an evening celebrating Christ’s incarnation through bread, wine, art, & song. A month before the event, we invited artists to create artwork in response to the first few chapters of John and its implications (particularly the incarnation of Christ). We asked one of our photographers to capture images of 7 different people from Park Church in their workplaces who do very different jobs: a financial adviser, a barista, a hair stylist, a stay-at-home mom, a barista, a carpenter, and a nurse.
We hung the artwork created and photos taken, and then invited the church to join us for a meal and art show of the pieces created during that month. We provided freshly baked baguettes hand-crafted by a baker from our church and asked everyone to bring their favorite bottle of wine to share. We sang songs of praise and thanks to our generous and lavish God “from whom all blessings flow”. Our goal for the evening was to eat good bread, drink good wine, have good conversation, and ultimately to enjoy these to the praise of our God! We wanted to remind our people that because God is Lord, how we eat and drink and open our homes and work are affected. All things are to be done to the glory of God!
About ParkRenew: ParkRenew exists to advance the work of cultural transformation and renewal under the Lordship of Jesus, through the Gospel of Jesus. Our hopes are to see the confessional work of the church pushed into the corners of our world and to see it renew all parts of our city. The Gospel changes the way we think about everything, including business & economics, the arts, missions, sexuality, friendship, the realities of marriage, and living in a complex culture like the modern city.
Below are some photos of the event taken by Caitlin Fairly (http://caitlinfairlyphoto.com/).