Parker Short was recently voted by the Covenant Members to serve as the Treasurer on the Navigation Team. Read on to find out more about Parker.
Tell us about yourself.
My name is Parker Short, I’ve been in Austin for three years, I moved here right after graduating. I just got married to Lindsay two months ago. I run a company in town that works on marketing strategy with companies and have been at Vox since I first moved here. I’m a bit of a foodie, and over half of my tweets in a given year are during SXSW.
How would you describe journey of faith?
My journey of faith really got interesting towards the end of high school. I really became disillusioned with mega church culture, and Christian culture at large. Luckily, I decided to hang on to my faith, but begin to re-examine it for myself.A few months before I graduated and headed to college, I read a book called “a new kind of Christian”, and found that it really spoke to me. The book sort of approached the reader as someone who’s become burnt out on Church, but not quite ready to give up on Christianity. I began reading a lot of different Christian authors and found that this was a topic a lot of people were beginning to struggle through.
I went to college and found a community that seemed intent to struggle through it together. I found that at a certain point you have to stop deconstructing your faith and begin to figure out where you go from there. After moving to Austin and finding a community, I’ve found that living in community is something essential for growth, and it provides a good way to engage the community and an outlet for serving.
How did you get connected to Vox?
Went to school at Baylor, and during that time heard Gideon speak many times, since he was serving as our interim teaching pastor while also at Vox. Once I moved to Austin, I came to check it out. Turns out, it’s easy for people to tell you are new if you show up at 10:50. I met a few people that week, including one Kevin Chen, who then talked me into being a coffee mule for him under the pretense of grabbing a bite to eat. I feel like the rest is history.
What are some experiences have helped prepare you to serve as treasurer?
Well, I’ve always liked helping Vox. I’ve always felt that serving at your church was something that’s important, and I’ve always tried to do what I can here. I can’t really remember what I started out doing, all I can say is that I’ve been here long enough that I can remember doing a group sermon.
Outside of here, I’ve been on the board of directors of the Baylor Alumni Association, I was student body vice president during my time at Baylor, which meant overseeing a large, unwieldy organization of opinionated people that I had no control over (so that’s not really relevant : ) ) and we also had to dole out money to lots of different causes and groups. Additionally, I run my own business.
Why covenant in such a non-committal society? What does that mean to you?
I’ve always felt that commitment is an important concept, and one that shouldn’t be taken lightly. I’ve not only joined the church in covenant this year, but also with my wife, so I’ve thought a little bit about this.
It takes work. But it lets others know that you’re not going to give up. It allows you to be tough with someone, but lets them know that it comes from a place of love.
Commitment means that rather than just complain about something, you have an interest in making things better.
It’s the difference between someone who complains about all of Christianity’s shortcomings versus someone who’s trying to make following Jesus mean something. It’s easy to complain, it’s hard to be committed. But there’s value is doing the harder thing, because not everyone will do it.