Actscelerate.com

Walker leaving MP North for Lee University

Acts-celerater Posts: 566 **6/25/17 5:32 pm**

From Mark Walker's Facebook account:

If you missed the announcement this morning you can head to mtparan.com to watch this mornings service. Here is a special letter from Pastor Mark in regards to the future of our church.

In this morning’s worship services, I made the announcement that I will be leaving my role as Senior Pastor of Mount Paran North to go to Lee University in Cleveland, TN., where I will serve as the Vice President for Ministerial Development and the Chair of the Department of Christian Ministries. I will also be teaching in the classroom as Professor of Pastoral Studies. In these combined roles, I’ll be leading a team of dedicated leaders and educators to prepare, train, and equip young men and women to serve all around the world as pastors, church planters, missionaries, youth and family ministers, chaplains, and other vocational callings.

This has been one of the most difficult decisions Udella and I have ever made, and we haven’t taken it lightly. We have prayed more about this decision than any other decision we’ve ever faced, and we are confident that this is a direct call from God. Our last Sunday will be July 30.

Over the past 25 years at Mount Paran North, Udella and I have served with you seeing God touch thousands of lives through countless community outreach events, worship services, missions trips, salvations, baptisms - the list goes on and on. To say it is difficult to leave you and this ministry is the understatement of the century, but we feel compelled to follow the leading of the Lord and step out in faith. As evident as God’s presence has been in our 25 years with you at Mount Paran North, He is just as present in our decision to serve at Lee University.

In the Church of God denomination, the appointing of the senior pastor to a local church rests in the authority of the Administrative Bishop of the state or region of that local church. The Administrative Bishop works in collaboration with the established leadership of the local church to make the appointment. The Trustees of Mount Paran North and the Administrative Bishop of North Georgia, Tom Madden, have met together and, after much prayer and dialogue, have selected Dr. Kirk Walters to serve as the next Senior Pastor of Mount Paran North.

Dr. Walters, his wife Laura, and their two children, Bradley (19) and Lauran (17), are no strangers to Mount Paran North. Dr. Walters served on this staff for over five and a half years (2006-2011) - first as our Director of Missions and then as our Administrative Pastor. He has pastored churches in Mississippi, Ohio, and, most recently, at Metro Church of God in Birmingham, Alabama. Each of these churches has grown under Dr. Walter’s leadership. He has a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership and is an excellent communicator of the gospel. I am thrilled that the Trustees and Bishop Madden have appointed Dr. Walters. He is a dear friend, and I believe he is called to be your next Senior Pastor. He loves God with all of his heart and he loves Mount Paran North. Dr. Walters’s first Sunday will be August 6.

I have no doubt that under Dr. Walters’s leadership Mount Paran North will thrive and see more lives than ever before changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. The best is yet to come for this amazing church that God has strategically and sovereignly planted on Allgood Rd. in Marietta, GA. I can’t wait to see all that God is going to do next!

Be praying for Dr. Walters and his family as they prepare to make the transition to Mount Paran North. Also be in prayer for Udella and me as we transition to our new calling at Lee University.

We love you dearly and will miss you greatly, but will take the memories of Mount Paran North with us. We will never forget you and will always call Mount Paran North “home.”

Only the words of the Apostle Paul to the Philippian church can adequately express our feelings for you:

3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart…all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:3-8 NIV)

Blessings,

Pastor Mark

Acts-pert Poster Posts: 15570 **6/26/17 5:17 pm**

Yep, ole Dr. Mark is one a them pastors what used the title "Dr." an its the real deal. PhD-Regent University. You let some a these 2-bit docters try to use at worthless sheepskin in the real world, for example, to take the position at Dr MW just took, an they would be horse-laughed all the way down Ocoee Street.

Kudos to Dr. Mark.