Parr, Tom
| Family Members | Tom & Naomi Parr (Chelsea, Jacob, Caleb, Katherine) |
| UIT Role | NBC, Spring 2004 - Spring 2006 |
| Present Ministry | Anacortes, Washington: Cornerstone Baptist Church (church plant) |
| Spring 2009 Update: |
We have a ministerial intern with us this summer. His name is Jason Sterling. He is from Idaho and just finished his junior year at BJU. We have put him to work teaching children’s Sunday School, leading a Friday Bible Club, gathering Teens for a Thursday Game Night, and more. He has also made a church directory and fixed the fan in my guest bathroom. He definitely shows promise!
There are two younger men (early 30s) in the church that are hungry to study theology, so I have begun a bi-weekly morning study at my home. I am using the Undershepherds-in-Training material to help them write doctrinal statements. They are enjoying it, and I am realizing once again how precious and important theological training is. Once a month the men in our church meet for a men’s prayer breakfast. We eat a generally unhealthy breakfast, discuss a book together, and pray. It is a special time for the men to fellowship. I am also doing a basic discipleship course with one fellow who is really getting interested in knowing God’s Word for the first time. He has been attending our church for over a year now.
We still hold four services a week—Sunday School, Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday night. I greatly enjoy our meetings together. Our door-to-door visitation ministry is prospering. Thank you for praying. For the first time, we had 8 people from the congregation volunteer to help out. All of them have gone door-knocking now. For many of them, it was a significant step out of their comfort zone. Praise the Lord for working in his people’s hearts!
The Deacons and I have been considering what to do about our present building situation. We are still in the Summit Park Grange building, which is barely meeting our needs. Recently our Sunday Morning attendance has often been around 50 people, and it feels somewhat close. We placed a cubicle wall in the cry room to cut down on the noise. This helped, but we all want to see Cornerstone find a permanent place to meet. I know God will provide in His time.
This summer is going to be very full. I have a update meeting at a church in Idaho in the middle of June, and I have been asked to be Marc McGreer’s best man at his wedding in Idaho in August. I think that scares me more than anything else. I trust I will be able to be a blessing to him at his special time. We also will be having Daniel Arnold to our church in August. He is on deputation to be a missionary to Germany, and we are looking forward to hearing his burden for missions. He and Dr. Peter Davis from Mount Calvary Baptist Church will be putting on a sacred concert for us at that time.
|
| Fall 2008 Update: |
Hello fellow UIT men! We have now been in Anacortes for two years. Our lives are a mixture of prayers and answers to prayer. Our door-to-door ministry needs prayer. I have yet to meet an unbeliever door-to-door who is interested in talking about spiritual things. There's some encouragement however. Toward the beginning of the year, we knocked on the door of a family looking for a Bible-believing church. They subsequently joined. They had been attending the American Baptist church in town, which had abolished its elder and deacon board and is running everything by committee. We're glad for people to leave unbiblical churches, but please pray we'll see more conversions to Christ.
Our support level stands at 95% still, though I haven't re-calculated for inflation since we moved here. Our economy leaves little room for stability, but we trust in God not the American dollar. All my hospital and doctor expenses (around $3500) for baby Katherine were paid for by the gracious giving of the Lord's people. After the baby was born, we needed a van. A '97 Dodge Caravan in good condition for $1000 came available. A couple days later, we got an anonymous gift of $1000. We needed a pianist for a long time, and many people prayed. Now we have four pianists!
We have material needs. We need to carpet the foyer (it's a concrete slab now) and cut down on the noise coming from the cry room/nursery. It can be pretty noisy on Sunday morning when all the little ones decide to let 'er rip at once. Sometimes I'm amazed we can concentrate at all. We have the privilege of having many young couples with children, and sometimes we've got 5-6 kids under age 4 for a nursery worker to handle! My wife takes the brunt of this work month after month.
In the last six months we welcomed two more families, which makes 10 families who have joined the membership. We have around 15 families who semi-regularly attend. Our largest Sunday morning was about a month ago with 64 people, but two weeks later we only had 30. I'm just thankful that the Lord is slowly adding to the ministry. |
| Fall 2007 Update: |
Things are going well for us in
Recently, we changed meeting locations. We used to meet in the Anacortes Library conference room, and now we're in a local Grange hall, which works better because it has a kitchen we can use for pot lucks. We wouldn't have been able to stay in the Library much longer anyway. Something I've learned in the past year: I need to be very careful to not have too high of expectations of people. Yes, I want them to grow, but I need to have realistic expectations and not come across as demanding and impatient.
|