Jim Parker

Church Planter Catalyst /Associational Director of Missions
October 9, 2011

Our North American Mission Board, of whom Patsy and I are appointed home missionaries is going through historical change. As I look to begin our sixth year with Color Country Baptist Association, it is humbling as I am more aware of the tremendous challenges that are before us. We are in an “epoch” of time of financial insecurity and spiritual apathy, both as a nation and individually. The circumstances of our nation and ourselves is part of a worldwide breakdown of Christian values that leads to deterioration of the many things that we have held in high, yes, in too high esteem.

And in spite of the doom and gloom, God is using this "epoch" for people to turn to Jesus Christ for salvation of their souls, and especially for Christians to be saved from themselves, from their worldly views and ways. It is time to Wake Up. It is time for revival in the church, a time for spiritual revolution.

And yet, this has been the way God uses to get our attention throughout history, in order for us to turn back to Him. During these extended periods of time God is calling out the called to take advantage of His Grace and Mercy. We must take advantage of the days the Lord tarries before His return by responding in obedience to His Word. We must obey the Lord's Words and be faithful to love our Lord with all our heart and soul & strength and mind: our total being. We must also love our neighbors as ourselves. It is time to Obey: To Obey the LORD.

When we're obedient to the Holy Spirit and to the Word, the Lord gets hold of our lives, and fills us with His Spirit, and we in turn show others who Christ is, demonstrated as we Walk in the Spirit. This is the result He longs for, that will overcome the world. We call this the W.O.W. Factor.

To fulfill the Great Commission is not just for church planters, but for every one of us to be involved.  I need you to pray with us and to be with us in the W.O.W. Factor!!!  Our focus for 2012 is not a new emphasis, but a concentrated one to be sure.

C.T. Stud, missionary and cricketer from the nineteenth —twentieth century wrote from Eastern Africa, "Only one life twill soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last". Paul said it this way... (I Corinthians 15:1-4, 58) Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according  to the Scriptures, (58) Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord".  WOW!!! Let's do it!! Jim