Offering for New Chairs

Our current burgundy chairs — that make brides shudder — are riddled with broken welds, mismatched fabrics, protruding screws, worn padding, rips, and 40 years of butt dust. They’ve served us well.

But have you ever considered who paid for the chair that supports you each week? Odds are most of our chairs were paid for by men and women of faith who have since graduated to Heaven! With eyes of faith, they gave and invested in both their own discipleship and the discipleship of those who would follow.

Each week our chairs are used by men and women to hear the Gospel and grow in faith and family — through Sunday mornings, Celebrate Recovery, Set Free! Retreats, Christmas Dessert Nights, and more!

Our Church Council has set this year as the year to retire our old chairs and purchase new ones for present and future generations of Jesus followers!

We are hopeful that our church family will also see the need and opportunity to advance the work being done at Parkside by giving an offering (a donation above and beyond our regular giving) to support this effort.

We believe it would be helpful to consider giving an offering to replace the chairs needed for your household and/or an extra chair for a future Parksider to sit on. The cost per chair is $88 (with an overall need of 300 chairs). The chairs are made in Canada and are of high quality that will last for a long time.

Council has designated a new chair fund. All donations are eligible for a tax receipt for income tax purposes.

Donations are accepted through all the regular giving methods (e-transfer to donations@parksidechurch.ca [include “chairs” in the memo]; at the office via cheque, cash, debit; or online via Visa or Mastercard).

Thank you for your consideration and generosity!

FAQ’s

Why this year?
We’ve been limping by for a while and don’t have enough chairs on certain Sundays or for other events (i.e. large funeral). Furthermore, we anticipate reaching more of our city this Fall – inviting more to faith and family and we want them to have a nice seat!

Aren’t there greater priorities than chairs?
New chairs will help to advance the Gospel in several ways: 1) Create a more welcoming and warm space for newcomers; 2) Increase Parksider pride leading to more invites to join them at their church; 3) Increase Parksider learning through less distraction; 4) Grow our heart for the harvest through giving/investing in the future work and people of the church; 5) Introduce more Parksiders to the beauty of giving (some aren’t ready to give to a general fund, but will give to something tangible like a chair); 6) Increase rental revenue as our space becomes more attractive and functional; and 7) Stretch our faith, generosity, and outreach! The net benefit of all the above is more of our city saved, discipled, and sent! We believe there is greater long term benefit by acting now rather than delaying this opportunity.

When will they arrive?
Lord willing, both the funds and shipping will be fulfilled by mid-summer.

What will happen to the old chairs?
Some (the good ones) will be repurposed for the Youth Centre. The remaining chairs will be sold to the highest bidder (if there is a market for them). If there is no market then we would look at donating them to a worthy organization and/or recouping the value of their metal.

More questions? Contact Pastor Clint (clint@parksidechurch.ca).