5 Issues the Sanctity of Life Affects

January 15, 2017 by Leave a Comment

Sanctity of Life

January 22, 2017 is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. Every year we specifically remind one another life is God-given and God-made. As we remind one another of this, we are sobered in that many disagree with this. We can easily sobered knowing such a biblically-based belief is so counter cultural. Below are 5 articles or messages that will help your understanding of the importance and effects Sanctity of Life has on life as a Christian, American, and citizen of the world.

Understand the Sanctity of Life and ethics. Carrie Earll and Focus on the Family explain the value of life is unquantifiable, and the baseline reason is found in that humans are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Human dignity and distinction are derived from this, and this is what drives our conviction.

Understand the Sanctity of Life in the face of abortion. John Piper, in this resource of 3 transcribed sermons, articulates abortion factually, exhorts us to consider Lordship, and the call to follow Jesus despite all else in the world. The last sentence is a gracious summation we need regular reminder of: “Jesus Christ can forgive all sins, and will give all who trusts him the help they need to do everything that life requires.”

Understand the Sanctity of Life and the American tax dollar. Joe Carter of the ERLC provides a credible exposé on the federally-funded Planned Parenthood, the nation’s most used women’s health organization and the largest provider of abortions in America.

Understand the Sanctity of Life Sunday and why we ought to pray it become unnecessary. Russell Moore, through anecdotes and cultural insight, reminds us that this Sunday is not meant to remain with the church for the rest of our history, unlike Christmas or Easter. A good prayer to pray is that this Sunday emphasis would be removed by the Lord orchestrating orphans to be adopted and abortions to be removed from the face of the earth.

Understand the Sanctity of Life as it relates to the world. David Platt helps us see that the issue does not exist in America, alone. The issue of devaluing human life is worldwide, and the answer is “make disciples of all nations, by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded” (Matthew 28:19-20).

While the fight and disagreement about this issue transpires outside of the church and in the public square, we must have our minds set that when we gather, we gather not to argue about this issue, but to celebrate God and honor Him by strengthening one another and believing His Word.

Filed Under: Abortion, Books/Resources, Discipleship, General, Gospel, Missions, Worship Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Guest Blog From an Aspiring Missionary

December 4, 2016 by Leave a Comment

At the age of 15, the Lord burdened my heart for the nations in a way that was different from brothers and sisters around me. I knew the trajectory of my life had come into focus on my first international missions experience. Due to the support and mission at Parkwood, I’ve been able to spend anywhere from a week to 10 weeks in different countries making disciples and leading others to do the same. The time is drawing near when my family will become “official” missionaries working among unreached peoples in Central Asia.

William Carey is best known as a British missionary who served until his death in 1834 in India. Some regard Carey as the “Father of Modern Missions.” Currently, the International MiWilliam Careyssion Board is discussing professionals using their jobs to take the Gospel to the unreached. Carey wrote about that in 1792. Currently, common practice is to send missionaries to join missionary teams rather than to work independently. Carey advocated that to be a better practice in his day. Currently, unreached people groups are the focus of missionary sending. Carey produced one of the first charts statistically accounting for how many Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and Pagans (we would now delineate as Hindus, Buddhists, Animists, and Atheists) exist in every part of the world. He wrote an essay, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, that is still pertinent to our considerations of to what the Gospel’s calls our lives. Friends, family, and strangers have all made sure I was aware I could make disciples in my city because not everyone is a Christians here. The same have also given reasons as to why most individuals shouldn’t go, but, brothers and sisters, please contemplate William Carey’s rebuttals that he wrote before 1800.

“They are too far away.”

“Whatever objections might have been made on that account before the invention of the mariner’s compass, nothing can be alleged for it, with any colour of plausibility in the present age…Yea, and providence seems in a manner to invite us to the trial, as there are to our knowledge trading companies, whose commerce lies in many of the places where, these barbarians dwell.”

The compass was thought of as technology sufficient to get to all peoples. May I ask, what is our excuse when we can communicate instantly with 40% of the world?

“The way of life is too barbaric.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Books/Resources, Discipleship, General, Gospel, Missions, Sermon Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Mid-Term Update

June 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment

God has a mission to magnify His glory and to proclaim His gospel in all creation. Jesus clearly prescribes His strategy for accomplishing the mission when He commissions His followers to make disciples of all peoples. Go into all the world and make disciples that God’s glory might be magnified and His gospel proclaimed. Missions at Parkwood flows from the mission of God as we seek to participate in His mission through short-term, mid-term, and long-term sending. 

Mid-Term Missions is a missions endeavor occurring in a timeframe of two months to two years. Parkwood currently has three mid-term gospel workers on the field. 

Rebecca was recently sent by Parkwood to serve for the summer alongside Jason Griffin in Surprise, Arizona as part of our Phoenix partnership. She left Gastonia at the beginning of June and plans to return from Phoenix at the end of the summer. She is doing well and serving in the Arizona heat for the sake of the gospel. The Father is granting her valuable experience and using her life and work for His glory. Pray for Rebecca that the Father’s mercy would rest upon her and yield much fruit through the ministry He allows and blesses. 

Esperanza has been sent from Parkwood to an extreme place and frontier location. She is in a secured area where we cannot divulge her name or location for her safety, yet she has willingly and joyfully left home and comfort for the sake of the gospel among a people far from God. Pray for Esperanza and for her family as she is away; pray on behalf of her parents for their peace and that they would be strengthened by their daughter’s zeal and sacrifice for the gospel. Pray on behalf of Esperanza that she will be as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove and that her joy will be a never ending fountain springing up unto eternal life. 

David and Carla Demaree and their children were sent out from Parkwood in November of 2015 and are currently serving in Honduras among the Chorti through 2017. David is working in discipleship and training with Edgardo, a Chorti brother leading much of the work among his people. Pray for the Demarees as they have given this period of their lives to serve God’s glory and gospel in Honduras. Pray they will see fruit in their ministry, in Edgardo’s life and ministry, and in gospel advancement among the Chorti of Honduras. 

As our attention is called to these two ladies and this family who have given two months to two years for the sake of the gospel, please pray for them. Thank God that He has called them, and pray for His sustaining grace in their lives. Also, as you consider their going, would you consider your going? Parkwood desires to continue sending increasing numbers of short-term, mid-term, and long-term gospel workers to the nations. Pray for Rebecca, Esperanza, and the Demarees, and pray that the Lord of the harvest would send more workers into His fields that are white for harvest. 

Filed Under: General, Missions Tagged With: , , , , ,

Meet Parkwood’s Global Disciple-Making Mobilizer 

May 15, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Meet David Crane, Parkwood’s Global Disciple-Making Mobilizer. 
David Crane was born in El Paso, Texas and was raised in Cherryville, North Carolina. David is married to his beautiful wife Renee, and they are blessed with three children: Thomas, Zebulon and Mary. Zeb is a writer and lives in Charlotte. Mary is also single and lives in Nashville, Tennessee where she is a Vet-Tech. Thomas and his wife Leslie are serving the gospel internationally, and they have three children: Judah (5), Sofia (2), and Sarah Renee (born Jan 1, 2016).

The purpose of Parkwood is to glorify God by laboring together for the growth of all believers while going with the gospel to all people(s). It is therefore our desire to increase gospel witness and effectiveness in our community and among the nations. To this end, Parkwood’s missions effort is developing into a more focused two-pronged approach: Local Disciple-Making and Global Disciple-Making. Enter David Crane. David will join the Global Disciple-Making office as a mobilizer to offer consultation and guidance from a wealth of knowledge and experience. 

Crane holds degrees from Columbia Bible College and Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. He pastored Beulah Baptist Church in Virginia before serving with the IMB for more than twenty years. From 1993 to 2015, David and Renee served in Africa, where the Father called tens of thousands to Himself. He has served as a Personalizer and as a teacher at the Kenya Baptist Theological College. Crane was also a strategic leader for East Africa, coaching and supervising field personnel in five countries.

I encourage you to make David and Renee feel a welcomed part of the faith family at Parkwood, and take every opportunity to get to know them. This wonderful couple is a great addition to our leadership as Parkwood seeks to make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching everyone that we may present everyone mature in Christ (Matthew 28:18-29, Colossians 1:28). 

Filed Under: Books/Resources, General, Missions, Parkwood Events Tagged With: , , , , , ,