I was born in 1980 and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. I did not grow up in a Christian home. God used my grandparents to begin taking me to church as a teenager and that is where I heard and believed the gospel. I came to Christ and was baptized at age 15. I went to college at Murray State University and became involved in a campus ministry called Campus Outreach. God used the people involved in that ministry to mature me in Christ.

Over the course of my undergraduate years, God did a radical, transforming work in my life. It was at Murray where I first sensed a call to pastoral ministry. I graduated in 2003 with a degree in Middle School education, married my best friend, Katie, and moved to Owensboro, KY, to be part of Heritage Baptist Church. I took a job as a school teacher, joined the church and began to be mentored by the pastors of HBC while taking courses through the Midwest Center for Theological Studies.

I later transferred to Reformed Baptist Seminary to complete my studies. My call was confirmed by the pastors and saints of HBC and I became a pastor of Heritage in April of 2010. My current responsibilities include preaching, shepherding one of our care groups, working with high school students and assisting in music ministry. My long term goals are to remain here and to be a part of the next generation of leadership for Heritage, focusing on preaching, vision, leadership development and discipleship.

Dean’s note: Mark has been an outstanding student. The title of his Master’s Thesis for RBS is “Holy Worldiness: The Path Toward Faithful Evangelism Through the Local Church.” It stresses the importance of the church’s role in engaging the lost and proposes a biblical strategy for implementing evangelistic outreach in the church’s community.