Legacy & Leadership : THE WALKER FAMILY Glamping in a Georgia Yurt Six Things Every Freshman Needs to Know
CONTENTS
Publisher
Kristen Bland
10 COVER | THE WALKER FAMILY A Legacy of Leadership at Mount Paran North Church
Damien Parodi Managing Editor
7 DON’T WASTE YOUR PAIN Growing through the trials of life
8 LOCAL EVENTS Back-to-school consignment sales and local events
14 BACK TO SCHOOL Six things every freshman needs to know
16 GOODlife TRAVEL Glamping in a Georgia yurt
Gabriel Bland Editor
Autumn Burr Advertising
info@goodlifemagazine.org 770.656.4400
13 WHAT’S YOUR STORY Passing on your testimony to the next generation
17 GOODlife RECIPES George’s smoked king mackerel spread
Creative Director Damien Parodi
Graphic Designer Matthew Button
Contributing Editor Krista Messic
facebook.com/goodlifemonthly @goodlifemonthly
COVER GOODlife Magazine features Dr. Paul Walker, Dr. Mark Walker, and Justin Walker of Mount Paran North Church
COVER CREDIT Photograph | Gabriel Bland
GOODlife Magazine is a monthly publication distributed throughout Atlanta and Metro Atlanta. Entire contents, including design elements and logos, are copyrighted and may not be reproduced in any media without the express written consent of the publisher. GOODlife Magazine, LLC reserves the right to edit or reject any editorial or advertising content. Advertisers assume liability for content of all advertisements. All information herein has been checked for accuracy to the best of our ability. Not responsible for deletions, omissions, errors and or inaccuracies. 2016 GOODlife Magazine, LLC. All rights reserved.
Your Emotions Are a Gauge, Notby a Guide Jon Bloom Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13). Your rest is coming. Sooner than you know you will receive your “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading inheritance” (1 Peter 1:4). And when it comes, you will understand why your faith was more precious than gold (1 Peter 1:7). This is where Peter wants your hope to fully rest. But today is a time for war, not peace. It’s a time for faith, not sight. It’s a time of grievous trials that test the genuineness of your faith (1 Peter 1:6–7). So it’s a time to prepare for the action of battle, to keep sober. Your battle today will not be against “flesh and blood” but the deceitful forces of evil (Ephesians 6:12) and the deceitfulness of indwelling sin (Hebrews 3:13). And these two forces are going to try to use your emotions against you. So it might be helpful, by way of preparation, to remember the purpose of emotions so you can fight more effectively and know when to counter them.
God designed your emotions to be gauges, not guides. They’re meant to report to you, not dictate you. The pattern of your emotions (not every caffeine-induced or sleep-deprived one!) will give you a reading on where your hope is because they are wired into what you believe and value — and how much. That’s why emotions such as delight (Psalm 37:4), affection (Romans 12:10), fear (Luke 12:5), anger (Psalm 37:8), joy (Psalm 5:11), etc., are so important in the Bible. They reveal what your heart loves, trusts, and fears. At Desiring God, we like to say pleasure is the measure of your treasure, because the emotion of pleasure is a gauge that tells you what you love. But because our emotions are wired into our fallen natures as well as into our regenerated natures, sin and Satan have access to them and will use them to try and manipulate us to act faithlessly. That’s why our emotional responses to temptation can seem like imperatives (you must do…) rather than indicatives (here’s what you’re being told). Just remember, that’s deceit. Emotions aren’t imperatives; they’re not your boss. They’re indicatives; they’re reports. That’s why Paul wrote, “Let not
sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions” (Romans 6:12). So get ready today. “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). He will make promises to and/or threats against you. He will likely try and tap into your weak areas of unbelief and you may find your emotions surging in the wrong direction. When that happens don’t be overly impressed. And remember that your emotions are gauges, not guides. Let them tell you where the attack is being made so you can fight it with the right promises. And go to a trusted friend for prayer, perspective, and counsel if you need to. And remember that this “light momentary affliction is preparing for [you] an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17) and very soon, it’s going to be over. And God, your Great Reward, will be all the inheritance you will ever want forever. Set your hope fully on that.
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BACK to
Consignment Sales SCHOOL 11 August All 4 Kids West Cobb County Fairgrounds 2245 Callaway Road, Marietta Thu, Aug 11 from 9:30 – 8pm Fri, Aug 12 from 9am-6pm Sat, Aug 13 from 9am-1pm
19 August All 4 Kids East Mount Paran North Church 1700 Allgood Road, Marietta Fri, Aug 19 from 9:30 – 8pm Sat, Aug 20 from 9am-1pm
26 August Everything for Children Consignment St Andrew United Methodist Church 3455 Canton Road, Marietta Fri, Aug 26 from 9am-8pm Sat, Aug 27 from 9am-12pm
12 August Born Again Blessings Riverstone Church 2005 Stilesboro Road NW, Kennesaw Fri, Aug 12 from 9am-8pm Sat, Aug 13 from 9am-12pm
19 August Mt Bethel UMC Consignment Sale 4385 Lower Roswell Road, Marietta Fri, Aug 19 from 9am-7pm Sat, Aug 20 from 9am-12pm
27 August Tots to Tweens Consignment Sale Sandy Plains Baptist Church 2825 Sandy Plains Road, Marietta Sat, Aug 27 from 9am-2pm
12 August Lil’ Blessings Consignment Sale Kennesaw First Baptist Church 2958 North Main Street, Kennesaw Fri, Aug 12 from 9am-7pm Sat, Aug 13 from 9am-1pm
25 August Due West Treasure Chest Due West United Methodist Church 3956 Due West Road, Marietta Thu, Aug 25 9:30am-7pm Fri, Aug 26 from 9:30-6pm Sat, Aug 27 from 8am-12pm
28 August Pass It On Consignment Sale Acworth United Methodist Church 4340 Collins Circle, Acworth Fri, Aug 28 from 9am-8pm Sat, Aug 29 from 9am-12pm
26 August Clothing Kids for the Kingdom Summit Baptist Church 4310 Moon Station Lane, Acworth Fri, Aug 26 from 9am-9pm Sat, Aug 27 from 8am-12pm
8 September Little Lambs Closet First United Methodist Church of Marietta Thu, Sept 8 Pre-Sale ($5 Fee); 2pm-8pm Fri, Sept 9; 9am-7pm Sat, Sept 10; 9am-1pm
18 August Twice Blessed Consignment Sale McEachern Memorial UMC 4075 Macland Road, Powder Springs Thu, Aug 18 from 5pm-9pm Fri, Aug 19 from 9:30am-4pm Sat, Aug 20 from 8am-12pm
The Summit Leadership Conference Aug 11 - 12; 9:30am - 5:30pm Mount Paran North 1700 Allgood Road Marietta, GA 30062 mtparan.com/summit 8
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Pigs and Peaches (BBQ) Festival Fri, Aug 26; 6pm - 10pm Sat, Aug 27; 10am - 10pm Kennesaw’s Adams Park Free Admission pigsandpeaches.com
Celebrate Freedom Concert Sat, Sept 3; noon - 11pm Jim R. Miller Park 2245 Callaway Road Marietta, GA 30008 celebratefreedom.com/cfatl
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august 2016
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A
Legacy of Leadership : THE WALKER FAMILY
by Autumn Burr
Merriam-Webster defines leadership as “the power or ability to lead other people.” But it stops short of offering any guidelines or suggestions on how to become an effective and admired leader – one who stands the test of time and whose influence reaches beyond the present into eternity. If the dictionary was to reference an example of such leadership, it just might point you to a multigenerational group of men from the Walker family. Dr. Mark Walker, Senior Pastor of Mount Paran North Church in Marietta since 1997, and now also at the Canton campus, reveals that he is a fourthgeneration leader in ministry. His father, Dr. Paul Walker, is a prominent figure in Georgia’s capital city, known for his decades of headship at Mount Paran Church of God in Atlanta, and then continuing at the Marietta location when it became its own stand-alone church. But this legacy of leadership goes back much further. Paul’s father influenced people all over the world through his missions ministry, and his grandfather spent his life as an evangelist to the Native Americans of North Dakota. But years of heading up a ministry doesn’t necessarily make you a good leader. When asked about what qualities contribute to success in any type of leadership role, Paul did not hesitate to answer. He asserted that in order to effectively lead, you must first be a good follower. He also said it is necessary to have a calling to leadership, an ability to motivate people, and a plan that’s worth following. Mark added that you must have character – to be someone who is trustworthy and not out for yourself. The perfect model, he pointed out, was Jesus Christ. These men seek to follow that example when leading not only the church, but also their families. And they are thankful that they each had parents who modeled these behaviors for them. What does the future of leadership look like for the Walker family? Mark’s son Justin has felt a calling for theological education since he was 18 years old. He is now working on his PhD in Old Testament at Emory University. Although he has served in the college and worship ministries at his father’s church, he is unsure yet whether God will call him to follow in the same footsteps as the previous four generations of men in his family or to follow a different path. He is open to either, emphasizing that people can serve the Lord and be leaders in many different capacities and career choices, pointing out that his sister Ashten is fulfilling a leadership role as a first grade teacher. His father and grandfather agree. Mark himself spent a
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few years pursuing an education and career in business leadership before he felt called into the ministry. Paul had considered a path in music or sports. One thing that is clear from one generation to the next is that none of them ever felt coerced to go into the ministry or to fill their predecessors’ shoes. According to Justin, the pressure doesn’t exist because each of them realize that “it’s not our legacy – it’s God’s legacy in our family.” Mark adds, “We didn’t set out to raise up professional preachers. We set out to raise up people who would love and serve God and humanity.” They and their wives have done this not by forcing their faith on their children, but rather by allowing them the freedom to discern the faith for themselves, to question God, and to just be themselves rather than living up to a certain expectation. Paul explains, “Fortunately, we were all reared in homes where you could be an ordinary kid. You didn’t have to be something special because you were the pastor’s kid. You could even get into trouble – I got my share of trouble!” Society has changed drastically since the first of the Walker men entered the ministry. Where others might agonize over living in a culture where the church is no longer the centerpiece, Justin regards it with hope, claiming that it allows the church to be what it is called to be. He explains, “Discipleship is actually a decision now. One is becoming a Christian rather than being born into Christianity. Those are the contexts in which the church has always thrived in history.” Paul concurs, indicating that the faith may return to more of a “first century model.” No matter where God guides them in the future, it is clear that the Walker family has a calling for leadership. Justin now has two young children of his own. He professes that, judging from her disposition now, his daughter Kennedy could be President of the United States someday. Now that might just be the legacy of leadership that our country could use.
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Your story of God changing and working in your life is one of a kind. There is no one else that has your story. Your story communicates on grace and greatness to future generations. During the summer of 1979, my father worked at a local factory washing windows. One day, a coworker of his, Luis, began to share with him about Christ. Even though my father had parts of this growing up, he had not heard about the saving grace of God. Luis left him with a question: “Howard, if you were to die today, where would you spend eternity?” This question bugged my dad so much that he found Luis the next day. And Luis was able to lead my father into a relationship with Christ. A few years later, he met my mother while doing ministry and they had my brother and me three years after they were married. The rest is history. The story of my dad’s transformation because of the Gospel has affected our whole family for God’s glory. I will never forget his story. In the Old Testament, God supernaturally brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. In the book of Judges, Joshua passes away and so does the whole first generation of adults who came with him. These men and women saw firsthand the wonders of God. In Judges 2:10 “And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel.” Somehow, the men and women who witnessed all God had done for them failed to pass on their story. And this was the result. Judges 2:11 “And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.” They had forgotten what God had done for them and pursued idols. I think of the country Wales when I think of this story in Judges. In the early 1900s, God used a few young men and women in their early 20s to start a revival that spread across the nation. Hundreds of thousands of people gave their lives to Christ. Yet churches are closing down about 100 years later. Christians are hard to find. What happened? They failed to pass on their story to the next generation. Somebody forgot to share these stories with their grandchildren and they failed to pass it on to theirs. In the United States, it is a similar story. We have had some incredible revivals over the last few hundred years. The latest being the Billy Graham crusades and the Jesus Movement of the 1960-70s. Yet more and more people are leaving the church. So what can you do? • Share your story of how you came to Christ with your children and grandchildren. • Share often enough that they know it by heart. • Share your God stories with your family – God stories are accounts of how God has provided for you or done miracles in your life, times when God has brought you out of a trial, etc.
Jeremy Brummel is the Student Pastor at NoondayChurch (noondaychurch.org) in Marietta, GA. This is a submission from Jeremy’s blog (jeremybrummel.com). Go online and check out some of his other posts.
Your story is a powerful example of God’s greatness and love for us – never stop sharing it! august 2016
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In 1903, George Horace Lorimer published a book entitled Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son. The letters were written by John Graham, the head of a meat-packing company in Chicago, to his son Pierrepont who had recently started his freshman year at Harvard. The letters themselves are chock-full of the practical wisdom, and pointed direction, of the love of a shrewd father who wants his son to become a man. In the very first letter, Graham writes this to his son: I’m anxious that you should be a good scholar, but I’m more anxious that you should be a good clean man. And if you graduate with a sound conscience, I shan’t care so much if there are a few holes in your Latin. There are two parts of a college education — the part that you get in the schoolroom from the professors, and the part that you get outside of it from the boys. That’s the really important part. For the first can only make you a scholar, while the second can make you a man. The second part is what the last eight years of my life as a campus minister have been about. The part of college education that is more about character, about what the Bible calls “growth in grace,” which includes both seeing the need for it, and learning to live to apply it to every area of life. This is the part that makes every Christian parent of a college freshmen both excited and nervous. My kids aren’t there quite yet, but I imagine watching your child go to college feels like watching a squirrel crossing the road. You find yourself cheering, hoping that they make it to the other side in one piece. If I could write a letter to every incoming freshman who doesn’t want to waste their college, I would want to say six things to them before they move to campus. It applies to their anxious parents, too.
1. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is learn.
One difficult part about college is being confronted with so many people who disagree with you, professors included. It’s easy to get either disillusioned or overly defensive. Don’t. One of the best ways a student can bear witness to Christ is to learn so well from those who disagree so that you can sympathize with their perspective, see things from their point of view, and express it as well as they could. No one will respect your disagreement with them unless they first feel you’ve understood them, even gleaned things from them. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is to learn, especially from those with whom you disagree.
2. Community isn’t optional; it’s essential.
More specifically, I mean Christ-centered community on campus. In other words, you need friends who love and listen to Jesus. Friends who love you enough to say hard things. It takes time to find those friends. More than time, it takes persistence. Stubbornness even. You have Christ, and you need community. It’s not either-or. It’s both-and. No one says it better than Bonhoeffer in Life Together: 14
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Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. . . Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. . . Each by itself has profound perils and pitfalls. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and the one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation and despair.
3. Committing yourself to a local church is vital.
Community on campus is good. The wise, diverse, multi-generational, pastor-led community of the local church is better. This feels like a good time to remind you that the church isn’t a place; it’s a people. As a Christian, you are already part of it. You don’t go to church. You are the church. That means you aren’t being yourself if you’re not involved in a gospel-centered, Bible-believing, Christ-exalting local church. Finding one is typically easy. Committing yourself to one is the hard part.
4. Love your roommates until you love your roommates.
The hardest thing to do is love the people right in front of you. And no one is more in front of you than your roommates. You know, the ones who will keep you up way too late, and wake you up way too early. The ones who will go Castaway and haven’t left their room in weeks. The ones who major in Awkwardness. That’s exactly the person God is calling you to love. Don’t wait until you feel love for them to love them. Love them until you feel love for them. Eat with them. Play Xbox with them. Watch movies with them. Have convictions, absolutely. But convictions are never an excuse not to love.
5. Stop looking for a soul mate and look for a sole mate instead.
One of the easiest things to do is spend all of college obsessing over boys or girls. There are the ones back home. There are the ones you met at orientation. There are ones that you haven’t found the courage to speak real, human words to yet. There are the ones you’re already thinking about marrying. Then there is the fear that you will never be someone else’s “one.” That you are somehow peculiarly unlovable. That upon graduation you will be banished to Misfit Island along with Rudolph and Hermie, left to die alone in your singleness. The good news is if you’re a Christian you’ve already met “the one.” The bad news (at first) is his name is Jesus. He’s the only one who can ever emotionally fulfill you in all the ways you long to be fulfilled. He is your soul mate, the one you were made for, the one with whom you will spend eternity. This frees you up to look for what Gary Thomas calls a “sole mate” — someone who loves Jesus and is willing to walk side by side through life with you in marriage as you both follow him. The best place to find this is often within your community of Christian friends.
6. Your brokenness isn’t a barrier to Jesus, but an invitation.
The last thing I want you to know is that because college is a time that reveals your heart, it is also a time that reveals your brokenness. You are going to say and do and think things you wish you could take back. You are going to be confused. You are going to be challenged. You may find yourself with nagging doubts. You will get lonely, and take that loneliness to all the wrong places. You will find out things about yourself you hope aren’t true. I want you to know that your brokenness, whatever form it takes, is no barrier to Jesus. It’s an invitation to trust and be loved by him. The good news is that the kind of people Jesus loves are broken sinners. You’re never beyond the reach of his grace, even on your worst day — just as you’re never beyond the need for his grace, even on your best day. Because “the only fitness he requires is to feel your need for him.”
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What is a yurt? Yurts are a unique and cozy “glamping” experience! Want to spend the weekend in the woods, but don’t want to sleep in a tent? Try “glamping”—or glamour camping—in a yurt. Yurts provide a lodging experience that combines nature with the comforts of home. They can come equipped with everything from the basic necessities for a simple camping experience to luxury amenities. The success of the yurt as a structure for familial bliss is well proven by now. Yurts originated as circular dwellings used by the nomadic peoples of central Asia roughly 3,000 years ago and now are popping up worldwide. They offer
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a high level of comfort, thin-walled access to the great outdoors, and affordability (more expensive than tent camping, but cheaper than cabins). Historically built to withstand the long winters of Mongolia, the elements are easily shaken off by this crafty structure. A yurt has a low, wide, cylindrical base that is constructed with expandable sections of wooden latticework. The roof is a conical shaping of poles connected from the exterior skeleton to a central wheel that is supported by floor posts. The exterior fabric is tightly wrapped around the framework and can be several layers thick. Yurts can withstand high winds and extremely low temperatures, making them the ideal year-round glamping
accommodation. Made of wood and canvas, yurts feature a deck, picnic table, grill/ fire ring, and a water spigot on the outside. You can enjoy a campfire outdoors. Cooking is not allowed inside the yurt. Inside, you will find furniture to sleep (yurts usually sleep up to six in a combo of bunk beds and futon couches), electrical outlets, large windows, and locking doors. A bathhouse with hot showers and flushing toilets is within walking distance. All you need to bring are sleeping bags or linens, cooking utensils, a cooler, food, and your family or friends.
George’s Smoked King Mackerel Spread by Krista Messic Two Christmases ago, I surprised my husband with a Big Green Egg. Best gift I ever gave myself him! If you don’t have one, seriously, you have got to get one (or at least make friends with someone who owns one!) Since my hubby likes to go on ocean fishing trips and bring back lots of fresh fish, it only stands to reason that he would smoke at least some of it. The other day, he made the best smoked king mackerel spread for a pool party and, boy, was it a huge hit! It is too good not to share, so here you go…
Ingredients: • Approximately 8 cups of smoked king mackerel, (broken up into chunks) • 8 oz. Philadelphia cream cheese, softened • 1/2-medium Vidalia Onion • 4 oz. pickled jalapeno • 1/3 c. sour cream • 1/3 c. Hellman’s mayonnaise • 2 scallions • 1 pkg. of celery • Cayenne pepper to taste
Put all of the ingredients into a food processor. Process in bursts to mix and chop everything, but don’t over process. Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Serve with various crackers or crudité. Enjoy! (By the way, if you don’t have a Big Green Egg – yet – and a spouse who likes to fish, you can buy smoked mackerel in many grocery stores and markets, often in the frozen section.) august 2016
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DON’T
Waste your
PAIN
by Craig Jones
Everyone experiences pain, but we all respond to pain differently. Some people become incapacitated by
the smallest amount of pain. Then there are others at the opposite end of the spectrum, like my wife who has given birth to two children without any form of pain killers. In life, it’s not a question of whether or not we will experience pain, but it is how we respond to our pain that determines our future. Life can wound you if you let it. You get marked by pain and struggle, and you begin to find your identity there. If you see yourself as a victim of circumstances, you will always fall into the role of victim. This is called living with a victim mentality. But you don’t have to be the victim, even if things don’t go your way. You can’t always change the circumstances surrounding you, but you can change how it affects you. If you fail, learn from it. By doing so, you are choosing to be a learner and not a failure. Decide that even though you may be hurting and disappointed, you will adjust your decisions and behavior to never experience that pain again. You can either let your pain wound you, or you can learn and grow from it. When you work out, you have to experience resistance to achieve growth. Growth does not come from your time resting, but rather, when you choose to push through the pain and resistance, that is when your muscles become stronger. When it comes to the pain and resistance of life, you can’t quit and expect things to get better; you have to keep moving and growing. I have found that a lot of success in life comes from simply having the right outlook. I’ve made the mistake of feeling sorry for myself when things didn’t go my way, but I learned that it never changed my outcome. I realized that the only thing that I had the power to change was me, so I changed my perception. I have come to the place where when I experience opposition, I choose to see it as an opportunity for my faith and abilities to be stretched and prepared for something greater. I actually get excited about challenges because I know that if I approach them right, they can only make me stronger. I don’t make excuses – they just give me a reason to fail again. Instead, I take responsibility and choose to grow. So do the same and take hold of your life. Don’t allow yourself to be the victim any longer. Don’t just go through the trials of life, but choose to grow through the trials of life.
Craig and Janna Jones are the senior pastors of Abiding Church located in Kennesaw, GA. WWW.ABIDING.CHURCH
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