Heavens no, not me. I speak of Burk Parsons, editor of Tabletalk and a minister at Saint Andrew’s in Florida. Tim Challies has posted a revealing look at God’s grace in life of Parsons. The four-part interview covers an overview of Burk’s family background, his opportunity to be part of The Backstreet Boys (and later N’Sync), and God’s call on his life to ministry.
I found Burk’s recollection of wrestling between being a Backstreet Boy most revealing of God’s hand. How many teenagers see things this way? For that matter how many adults?
All the while, however, especially after the initial thrill of it all wore off, I was seriously questioning whether or not it was something I should do—whether or not it was something God wanted me to pursue. Many of the Christian friends and adults around me said it seemed like it was a door that God had opened for me (herein lies the danger of “open-door” theology: Just because a door is seemingly open doesn’t mean we should walk through it, and just because a door is seemingly closed doesn’t mean we shouldn’t knock it down and walk through it). Their reasoning—almost persuasive—went like this, if God had really called me to ministry, and if God had given me certain talents, and if God had opened this door to a potentially worldwide audience, then God must want me to do it. It was an open door—why not do it? The advice from many Christian men and women, many seemingly excited and jealous for my opportunity, was to go into it and see if I could have any sort of voice for God in the world through the entertainment industry. Of course all my friends thought it was just cool and that I would be crazy not to do it.
Dear Lord, thank you for raising up men like Burk Parsons.
Here are links of all four parts of the interview…
(Thanks to Justin Taylor)
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