Church celebrates 75th anniversary, new name

The local Assembly of God Church, with campuses in Sandpoint and Newport, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. In addition, church officials also announced a new chapter in the congregation's rich history — effective immediately the church will be called Parkside Church.

“As we celebrated 75 years and reflected on all the things that the people of our church have contributed to the communities in which we are located, we knew it was important for us to continue to honor our rich history while also having an eye to the future,” said lead pastor Tim Yetter, who has been leading the church since 2014. “Especially as we have expanded from a single campus to a multi-campus church community, it was important that our branding reflects the vision we have for our campuses for the next 75 years.”

With both the Sandpoint and Newport campuses located near parks, the church has made it part of its five-year plan to create community spaces in the parks in which it is located.

“One of our goals is to create family-friendly spaces for the local communities in the parks in which we are located, so the name pays homage to that,” said executive pastor Luke Cordle, who is responsible for helping bring the church’s strategic plan to life.

In addition to creating public park spaces on their church’s properties, Parkside Church also plans to create an on-site community prayer chapel at each of its locations.

Parkside Church will continue with operations as usual with church services in Sandpoint on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. and a service in Newport on Saturdays at 6 p.m. Parkside Church continues to be part of the Assemblies of God USA and will continue to offer its popular Dinner Church, which serves free meals to anyone needing a warm meal or fellowship. Over the 21 years of Dinner Church, this program has served over 150,000 meals to the community. Additionally, the church will continue its other services, including youth ministry, food pantry, hosting the Celebrate Recovery program and many other services and events.

Parkside Church was founded in 1948 in Sandpoint. With over 350 weekly church attendees across its campuses, Parkside Church’s mission is to share the person, compassion and mission of Jesus Christ.

For more information, go online to the church’s website at myparkside.church or its Facebook page.