Beeson Podcast, Episode #621 David Parks Sept. 27, 2022 >>Announcer: Welcome to the Beeson podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University. Now your hosts, Doug Sweeney and Kristen Padilla. >>Doug Sweeney: Welcome to the Beeson Podcast. I am your host, Doug Sweeney. I am here with my co-host, Kristen Padilla. Today on the show we’re giving you a sneak peak at an exciting but unusual faculty publication. Before we tell you all about it, allow me to invite you to campus next week for our annual Go Global Mission Emphasis Week. This year’s speaker is the Reverend Brian Wright, President of Send Relief, a compassion-based ministry that seeks to meet not only physical needs, but also spiritual needs of people all around the world. He will preach in chapel on Tuesday, October 4th at 11:00 AM. He’ll give a lunch lecture on Wednesday, October 5th, beginning at 12:30 PM. If you want to come to the lunch, we are thrilled but we’d ask you to register so we’ll have the right amount of food. Register at www.BeesonDivinity.com/events. Of course, you’re always welcome to come and worship with us in chapel. All right, Kristen, who do we have on the show with us today? What is this unusual publication of his? >>Kristen Padilla: (laughs) Thanks, Doug. We have one of our colleagues on the show today, Dr. David Parks. He is the Director of the Global Center and Contextual Learning here at Beeson Divinity School. He wears many hats and oversees many things here at the school. We’re so grateful for your work here. He has written a novel that we are excited to talk to him about called, “Arman’s Freedom.” Before we talk about the book, David, it’s been a while since you were last on the show – I believe 2013 was the last year you were here. So, given that length of time, I wonder if you can re-introduce yourself to our listeners? Where are you from? Your family … how you came to faith in Jesus Christ? >>David Parks: Thanks. So, it’s great to be with you with my unusual publication. I’m excited about it. Yeah, I’m from Birmingham. By the way, I’ve been here ten years now. Which is great. I love being at Beeson Divinity School. And part of it is because I’m from here. I went to Samford as well and Beeson Divinity School. So, coming back here was a lot like coming home. I came to faith largely through, first of all, a Christian family but also my church. But honestly it really wasn’t until the end of my freshman year of high school that I really yielded my life to Christ. I always was someone that people would look at as, “He’s involved in church, a good person,” but honestly, I had one foot in the world and one foot in the church. One of the things that brought me to faith was I was playing college tennis and I’d grown-up blue-collar side of town where everyone is either a Christian or they say they’re a Christian. And all of a sudden, I’m around people from all over the world and I’m seeing Christianity and cultural Christianity through their eyes. And I’m weighing new questions like, “Oh, wow. So, I believe in this man who said he was God? I guess that seems kind of weird for a lot of people.” And I just started re-thinking through the gospel and everything that I had been taught so well. My church had a great youth minister, Terri Slay (give you a shout out). Finally, I realized that this thing isn’t halfway. So, I yielded my life to Christ. He saved me. And it was soon after that, you can see already the seeds for missions that were planted in my life because of interaction with people from other cultures then. I also felt a strong burden for youth and as it turns out I wound up in youth ministry and in missions later in life. >>Doug Sweeney: Kristen has already mentioned, David, that you run our Global Center and you supervise Contextual Ministry at Beeson. I’m thinking now about lay people in our audience listening to this who really ought to know both about the ministries of the Global Center and about … So, what is contextual learning? That’s a term that academics know pretty well, but normal people probably wonder. So, what is contextual learning? >>David Parks: Right. >>Doug Sweeney: Tell us a little bit about your ministry here at Beeson. >>David Parks: So that I don’t forget I’ll talk about that phrase “contextual learning.” That was something that was added to my job description a few years ago when I began overseeing the Supervising Ministry Practicum. This is a one-year internship that all MDIV students do. It’s not technically missions but no matter where you are serving, you need to learn the context. You need to learn what the culture is. You don’t want to just assume. Even if you grew up in a church there may be major demographic and cultural issues that you just really never understood. So, students start off the year, as a matter of fact this week they’re turning in a paper that basically explains where are they? What do the demographics at your church look like in terms of who is there ethnically? Who is there in terms of family and children? Singles? And then also what does your community look like? Do those two mesh? Or are they very different? So, no matter where you’re ministering as a gospel minister, you need to understand the context. So, the first title I had was just Director of the Global Center. And that is very much focused on global missions. As you gave us in the introduction, you talked about Bryant Wright coming. We’re excited about him. That’s going to be a weeklong emphasis on missions. And this is something we do here annually. I love the Go Global because that’s the time where we get to have other mission agencies on campus. And there’s some excitement about students walking through the missions fair and interacting with people. And you never know what’s going to happen as a result of them being called out and interacting with other missionaries. But probably my favorite event that we do, and it’s an ongoing series throughout the semester, each semester, is Global Voices. And if you’re listening to this, you’re invited. You may not be able to get to Birmingham, you’re still invited. It’s a free lunch that we have where our tagline is, “Stories from the nations.” I tell students and others who are not familiar with it … if you’re student here at Beeson you’re going to get a lot of information. It’s very good information. In Global Voices you’re of course going to get good content but you’re also going to get inspiration as well. So, we want our students to be encouraged by what God is doing in the nations. We’re going to have one of our alumni this semester who is from Iran share about what the church inside Iran looks like. By the time people hear this we will already have had Dr. [inaudible 00:07:25] who leads a very wide ministry in training leaders throughout India. And over and over there have been testimonies for our alum, other faculty across campus who have shared at Global Voices and have just really been a great encouragement to others. >>Kristen Padilla: Before we get into your book, I wonder if you can make a pitch or at lest tell our listeners about the mission certificate? So, if someone feels like God is calling them to mission work, why should they come to Beeson to do the MDIV plus the mission certificate? >>David Parks: So, what I tell students is that if you go to another seminary that has more missions’ professors and more classes, there are some real advantages to that. I don’t diminish the importance of a lot of mission’s classes. But at Beeson Divinity School the advantages are that if you are a mission certificate student, you’re going to be taking the same MDIV as everyone else. You’re not going to be pigeon-holed into just missions. I’ve watched a lot of people come and go. I’ve seen that it is really helpful for people to be trained for local ministry. Not only to help them overseas, but they may wind up back for a time. They will be in community in a way that’s very unique at Beeson Divinity School. And so, we have tried to mirror with the mission certificate program the same advantages that Beeson Divinity School already has in terms of community, iron sharpening iron. So, every Friday morning, we meet to pray for the nations. That’s not technically a class, but students learn a lot from those times. And we try to encourage each other and encourage the students. As a matter of fact, we want to encourage former students. We just prayed for Friday morning a former student who was a missions certificate student who is going through a hard time right now. And so, we caught her and prayed for her, because we want to see her to continue to grow. So, in the mission certificate program you are going to have missions’ classes, but you will also have a wide range of experiences that will connect you to local pastors and will encourage you down the road. >>Doug Sweeney: So, Dr. Parks, what is a missionary and contextual learning prof doing writing a novel? >>David Parks: That’s a really good question. (laughter) Oddly enough, I didn’t take any classes on that in my PhD program. It started with my daughter. Now, I’ve always loved telling stories, but that’s not really unusual for a missionary or any pastor or minister. My daughter was a freshman in high school, and she starts writing a full-length novel. And I couldn’t believe it. She was so disciplined and so intense. I was just really impressed with her writing. As a matter of fact, when it comes to just a writer and how someone constructs sentences as a fiction author, she’s better than me. And so, I’m just blown away and I’m also thinking that this could be a good opportunity just to join her in doing something. So, I really entered it more as a father, wanting to encourage my daughter. And I just started from there thinking, “Okay, well, what am I going to write about?” It was natural that I pulled into my mission’s experience there. >>Kristen Padilla: Well, tell us about this book. What is it about? And some of the major themes and plot points that drive the narrative? >>David Parks: So, Arman’s Freedom is about a guy named Arman who … I don’t know anyone named Arman, and that’s very intentional because if I’d named this after an Iranian that I did know that person could be in trouble. But he comes to Malaysia, which is a place where I lived. And he has a difficult past in Iran. He has experiences where he has kind of brought shame on his father and his mom. And so, he has a lot of strain in those relationships. And he also has a lot of frustration with the oppression he experienced from the government. And so, he gets to Malaysia hoping to finish a major in Journalism and then to be off to the West because ultimately, he just wants freedom. And so, this is a general scenario that I encountered, multiple times. So that’s Arman. He is also haunted in his dreams by a dragon named Dahag, which is kind of fun when it comes to doing something in terms of fiction instead of non-fiction is you can throw dragons in there. Now my kids will read it. (laughter) So, he has this guilt and shame that he’s dealing with. But then, as he begins to experience his issues inside Malaysia, which … Oh, I need to get to that … One of his worst fears is being thought of as a terrorist simply because of his nationality. And so, his worst fear becomes true when there is an attack on the Petronus Towers, and he becomes guilty by association. And so, from that point on in the book, he’s running, he hides in caves and in crowds, and then the book starts going back and forth between his story and his parent’s story, which begins in the midst of the Iranian Revolution. And so, you get a sense of over the years how their dreams during the protest are ultimately shattered as the new revolution was not quite what they thought it was going to be. >>Doug Sweeney: It sounds like the kind of story that a missionary would be especially well suited to write. I don’t want to say this the wrong way, David, correct me if I’m getting this wrong, but is that true? And is there something, in terms of a takeaway from this book that might be missiological that you’ve had in your mind? >>David Parks: Oh, absolutely. One of the questions that you had written down was what is missiological fiction? And so first of all there’s not much of it. And so that’s what’s fun about trying to do something new and different. And I would define it as an illustration of how and why the gospel translates into other cultures. And so, as I researched this, I did a lot of reading in terms of books on modern Iran. One in particular was really helpful from Mark Bradley called, “Too Many To Jail.” It got the name because there was a Christian who said to jailer or to a policeman, “Well, I guess you’re going to take me to jail now?” And the police officer said, “Sorry, there’s too many Christians now. We can’t put all of you in jail.” But what he describes in the book is a lot of backstory that really illustrates why they’re so open to the gospel. And so, one of the things that I hope the book does is mirrors that intention that he had of showing why they are so open to the gospel. And they’re also open to other things. They’re open to pre-Islamic religions, Zoroastrianism; they’re open to modernism, post modernism. So, I hope that by telling their story, that I can illustrate things like this. I also want to be able to give illustrations of not only how Jesus died for our sin and saved us from judgment, but what it means that he took our shame on him and how he saved us from shame and gives us honor. Which is of course a missiological theme. So, there’s multiple themes throughout the book that mesh with missiology. >>Kristen Padilla: You teach Introductions to Missions courses here and you work with students who are called into missions and those who aren’t. What do you hope that Beeson students, let’s say, when they read this novel will take away from it? As you’ve said, Arman is not based on a real person per se but does represent real people’s stories that you’ve encountered when you were on the mission field. So, how do you hope that God will use this book, especially among your students? >>David Parks: Well, I’ll go back a little bit. You said it’s not really based on a person per se … Yes and no. It is very loosely based on someone who I am still very much connected with. I’ll not use his name. I’ll just say “Arman.” So, he came to me one day when I lived in southeast Asia, and he had already been coming to our ministry for a couple of years. So, he’d heard the gospel. He knew the basics. But he had a dream and so over the weekend he had a dream where Jesus was involved in it. He also in the dream committed a particular sin. And it was like he was warned about this sin. And the next day in real life he committed the sin – in real life. And so, it was like he was warned by God not to do this thing and yet he did this thing. And so, he came to me just desperate for forgiveness. He knew that with Jesus there’s a promise of forgiveness. Whereas with Islam, and I’ve experienced this so much with the young men there that came from countries in the Middle East where they were controlled more, they get to Malaysia – it’s more of a country, but they have way more freedom to get involved in sin. And so, they start partying, they start having sex, they start drinking alcohol. I always thought that it was curious that the last thing to go was pork. You would think you’d start there and work your way up, but that’s not how it works. So, then they’re in the situation where they can’t possibly know that they’ll be forgiven for anything they’ve done. You just have to work, and you have no power to change. So, he comes to me and he’s just ready for the gospel. He didn’t need any eloquent words, just a reminder of what Jesus did, and he was ready to accept Christ. So, there were other conversations that I had that really … So, there’s that one specific situation but I had a lot of conversations about freedom because I would get in these conversations behind closed doors where they would begin expressing their frustration with their government. And they would talk about wanting to get to the West where they can choose. And eventually this was an opportunity for the gospel. I would say, “Yes, I do like my government better than yours, but you can have freedom to choose and still choose sin and Jesus says that anyone who sins is a slave to sin. And many people in the West make choices that really bring a different kind of slavery on them.” And that connected. And so, I had multiple conversations like this. As a matter of fact, there was a couple that were my age, and the man came wanting to talk with me and honestly just by the look of him I was pretty intimidated. I didn’t know what he wanted to talk about. But we had this exact conversation. He went on and on about how you can’t do this, you have to do this, you can’t do this, you have to do this in this country. And then he said, “But with Jesus, it seems like he likes you.” I asked him, “Arman, what is freedom?” And we had this great conversation and he and his wife came to faith. So, that’s the theme that comes out of this – the freedom that the gospel brings. >>Kristen Padilla: How do you hope that this story will inspire and encourage your students? >>David Parks: Well, an understanding and appreciation of Christians in Iran. I really do want that. I want their voices to be heard. I mentioned that Arman is someone I’m very much in contact with. As a matter of fact, I’m a supporter of he and his wife and their ministry. And he read the book and he came back to me … He gave me the greatest compliment I’ve had with it. He asked me, “So, who helped you with this?” And I said, “Well, I had one or two researchers help me with all the things.” He says, “No, no, who helped you write this?” And that’s when I realized, “Oh, good, I’ve gotten it right. The history and the background.” He wanted people here to know what they’ve gone through and what they’re still going through. And so, an appreciation for our brothers and sisters in Christ is something that I really want to come out of this. There’s a metaphor that comes out in it that I think is a helpful illustration of what it means to take a story or a myth or something within another culture and use that as an illustration for the gospel. >>Doug Sweeney: David, I think I may have told you before that I’m an avid novel reader. I’ve never written a novel, but I love to read novels. >>David Parks: I did not know that, actually. >>Doug Sweeney: And I’m fascinated by people who write them. Most people who write them are also readers of novels. I just wonder, is that true of you? If so, what difference has the reading of novels made in your life, in your ministry? >>David Parks: I think my answer will be a little disappointing here, because I, like everyone else, love Narnia, love Lord of the Rings, and there have been other books that have been inspiring to me, but really the main reason I did this … it came from my daughter. And so, there’s nothing unusually interesting about who I’ve been reading in terms of fiction that’s just outside the norm. >>Kristen Padilla: Before we close out the show, can you tell our listeners where and when they can find your book? >>David Parks: On October 1st it will be released on Amazon. And if you happen to be on Samford’s campus, I might have a copy or two for you. >>Kristen Padilla: You’ve heard that here, first. (laughs) Arman’s Freedom, by David Parks. We’re looking forward to the reading of that here in the halls at Beeson. As we end today’s show, we always like to hear what the Lord has been doing and teaching our podcast guests. So, I wonder if you could end the show today by sharing an encouraging word from the Lord? >>David Parks: Yeah, I’ve been in Psalm 108 recently. I felt God leading me to memorize the first six verses. The first two I’ll bring up. “My heart is steadfast, O God. I will sing and make melody with all my being. Awake O harp and lyre. I will awake the dawn.” I think God’s been reminding me that sometimes we get to an end of ourselves and we’re not going to think our way through something. We’re not necessarily going to be able to get a brand-new insight by more bible study. That quite often we simply need to submit ourselves to the Lord and praise him. And I have begun adding singing to my private devotion. And I’ve seen God work through that. He says that the joy of the Lord is our strength. And when we are missing joy, I think sometimes that is what God wants to use with us. >>Doug Sweeney: Amen. You have been listening to Dr. David Parks. He directs Beeson’s Global Center. He supervises contextual learning here. And he is also a novelist. We encourage you to buy his new novel, Arman’s Freedom, when it releases on October 1st. Thank you, listeners, for tuning in. Please keep praying for us. We are praying for you. And we say goodbye for now. >>Kristen Padilla: You’ve been listening to the Beeson podcast. Our theme music is written and performed by Advent Birmingham of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama. Our engineer is Rob Willis. Our announcer is Mike Pasquarello. Our co-hosts are Doug Sweeney and, myself, Kristen Padilla. Please subscribe to the Beeson podcast at www.BeesonDivinity.com/podcast or on iTunes.