Summer at Parkway!

Pastor's Update

Hi Parkway People –

Last Sunday was a great Sunday for Parkway! We packed a Baptism, Pentecost, Confirmation, and brunch all into one Sunday full of celebration and community.

One more congratulations to our 2024 confirmands:

Brady Slikker

Chloe Stypa

Trey Tilton

Kinley Williamson

When you see them, congratulate them for their work through this last season, for claiming their faith, and welcome them as full members of Parkway!

If you were here this past Sunday, you also heard another important announcement about the future of Parkway Student Ministries:

When I first landed at Parkway a year and a half ago, Kat expressed the desire to step out of Student Ministries and into a Pastoral role. I was still in the process of learning the church and asked her to stay in the Student Ministry role for my first year. Kat graciously agreed. In January of this year, one year later, Kat expressed the same desire to step out of Student Ministries and into a Pastoral role, especially as she is getting ready to graduate from Seminary this Summer.

Working with the Parkway Board, we developed a full-time Student Ministry job posting that is going live this week. The goal is to make a hire and have a new Student Ministry Director in place in time for back-to-school. The plan is for Kat to lead Student Ministries through the Summer, and when the new hire is in place she will step into a more general Associate Pastor position that serves all of Parkway.

If you know of someone who would be interested in helping Parkway students grow as followers of Jesus and as a community, you can direct them to the job description HERE.

SUMMER STUDIES

This summer we are trying two new ways growing in faith and learning in community:

Summer Book Study

Starting this June, I will lead a book study on The Air We Breathe by Glen Scrivener. There are many values popular in our modern culture that are often attributed to the secular movements: Equality, Compassion, Consent, Science, Freedom, and more. In The Air We Breathe, Glen Scrivener traces the roots of these ideas not to modern secularism, but ideas, thinkers, and movements that grew out of the Christian tradition.

If you want to learn more about or purchase a copy of the book, you can click HERE.

If you are interested in being a part of the study, email me at justin@parkwayumc.org or reply to this email. I will reach out in early June to figure out the best time for us to meet.

App-based Bible Study

I'm a firm believer that face-to-face Bible study is one of the best ways to grow as a reader of Scripture. Summer, however, is a time that makes that difficult. Rather than take the Summer off, we are trying something new.

The YouVersion Bible App allows for group Bible studies where people can interact, make comments, and study together even if we are spread out on vacation, work, or busy with life. Starting in June, we will try a hybrid Bible study – reading and interacting on the app, but also gathering in person once a week with whoever is in town.

If you're interested in trying out this app-based Bible study, here are step-by-step instructions so you can be ready to go:

Looking forward to trying these new ways of staying connected to Scripture and each other this Summer!

VBS SET-UP HELP NEEDED

Becky Betz, director of Parkway Children's Ministry, has been hard at work with her VBS team getting ready for another great week of welcoming families and the community to Parkway. She has set two times on the calendar for VBS set-up to try and get as much help as possible. Check out the set-up times below and jump in where you're able. Childcare and lunch provided on both days:

Thursday, May 30^th - 9am - 1pm (email rbetz@parkwayumc.org)

Sunday, June 8^th - After second service (just show up)

ONE SERVICE – VBS SUNDAY, JUNE 9TH

Last year we invited our VBS families back on Sunday and we had a great time connecting with them in Worship and lunch afterwards. This year we are doing it again!

Parkway will have ONE SERVICE at 10.30AM on SUNDAY, JUNE 9TH. We'll feature our VBS kids, and I'll preach on one of the verses they've learned during the week. Afterwards we'll have hotdogs and hamburgers for lunch, and a splash day outside for the kids – waterslide, games, and more!

Ways you can plan to help:

Parkway will provide the hotdogs and hamburgers – if you have a grill you can bring up to the church to help cook them, let me know by replying to this email. (We have one, could use up to two more).
Please bring chips, a dessert, or both if you're feeling it. If we all pitch in, we should have more than enough to feed everyone!

U.M. Army is a mission trip in which students spend a week in a different community serving through building wheelchair ramps or porches, other construction projects, volunteering at local organizations, painting houses, and more. Each day students participate in morning and evening Worship, their worksite, program time, and meals together.

You can register your Jr. High student by clicking HERE.

If you have questions about the trip or scholarships for covering the cost of the trip, talk to Kat Britton at kbritton@parkwayumc.org.

A FINAL NOTE –

One summer project I've just begun is looking to redesign, refurbish, and update Parkway's website. If you have experience with this, I would love to take you to coffee/breakfast/lunch and bounce some ideas off you!

Best of luck to the families that are SO CLOSE to the end of the school year – you can do it!

Looking forward to seeing you soon in Worship, on the Bible Study App, or around Sugar Land. I'm holding you all in my prayers and I'm excited about summer at Parkway!

Pastor Justin

Parkway United Methodist Church | parkwayumc.org