About The Author: Mark D. Harrell

 

Our Journey to Relevant Ministry

My name is Mark Harrell; I have devoted the last 30 years of my life to the honor of impacting lives for eternity. I led my first soul to Christ in 1979 as a Sr. High counselor at a Jr. High youth camp while attending the Florence Baptist Temple in Florence S.C. Since that day… not a year has passed that I have not had the privilege of leading at least one individual to Christ, and not a month has elapsed, since 1996, that I have not been engaged in biblical discipleship.

I graduated from FCS (Florence Christian School) in 1983 and then earned my B.S. degree from BUA (Baptist Univ. of America) in Pastoral Theology in three years. While in college I traveled in a select music ensemble for three years that ministered in hundreds of churches all across America. I met my wife (Karen) in that ensemble; she was my singing partner. Little did we know that God would use that experience to help us understand “church-life” in America for such a time as this. It would be one rung in our maturation process to become “men of Issachar.”

Upon graduation I immediately began my ministry career as part of a church staff in Lincoln, NE. I had multiple responsibilities, and, it too, was a rung in the ladder to help us gain an understanding of what God would want from us at a certain point and time in the future. It was in Lincoln that God used the leadership of that church to mature me in the area of spiritual leadership. I thank God for the foresight of Pastor Godwin. We are learning that God does EVERYTING decently and in order. For one I am glad that He leads us step by step.

We left Lincoln and moved to Atlanta, Ga. This is where I became intimately familiar with the principles of S.S. taught by Leon Kilbreth. I used them with great success while a youth pastor in Georgia and Jacksonville, Fl. In Georgia we were part of God leading us to grow the youth group from 4 (the first week we met) to 65 (the 6th week we met).

Jacksonville was a similar story. We began with 13 teens and quickly grew to over 50. We accomplished this with teen leadership training (ZAP) and an aggressive soulwinning ministry. When we left Atlanta to minister in Melbourne, Fl., we had an establish ministry of over 65 teens. Again… God was adding more rungs to the ladder of our understanding the times in which we live.

Melbourne took us in a direction that was new. I was the Athletic Director, taught Bible and History, had oversight to the young adult ministry of the church and coached varsity soccer. God used this experience to help us understand college age students, and help me develop leadership and organizational skills that, up to that point, were still dormant. It was a wonderful year… especially in regards to varsity soccer. We won the Florida state championship, the regional championship and placed 4th in the nation. I have close relationships to this day with the guys on that squad. It was difficult to leave the activities on the beach and the beautiful weather, but God was progressively preparing us for the future. This was yet another rung on our journey toward relevant ministry in today’s world.

It was in Jacksonville, Fl that God really started putting two plus two together for us. The pastor gave us the opportunity to lead in a multiplicity of ministry facets. Our primary responsibility was the youth, but I was also given the leadership over the entire S.S. ministry (Minister of Ed.), the young adult ministry, the Jr. Church and the youth camping ministry (I organized a youth camp in which 6 churches attended representing 250+ teens. It was a great success in souls saved and commitments made).

After 5 years of ministering at East Pointe Baptist, God began moving on my heart to start a church. We moved to Charlotte, NC on January 5th of 1995. It was a total step of faith; as I look back it could be classified as blind faith. I really didn’t know what I was doing, but… God knew that already. It was part of his plan for us. We needed to learn some things, and this was going to be His way of teaching us those needed lessons about becoming relevant to our world.

The pivotal moment of our lives happened in July of 1996. We were establishing our church by winning people to Christ, but I was still unprepared to equip people to engage Satan on his territory. I was leading people to Christ and getting them involved in church, but… I didn’t know how to get them to the next levels of spiritual growth. I was about to meet a man that would Jeremiah 1:10 me; and believe me, I needed it. It was through this meeting, and thirteen years of fleshing these principles out that brings us to this point and time in our lives.

In 2002 God led me to resign the church I had planted and merge with individuals in the secular workforce. It has been amazing; God has taught me so many things that I would have never learned had I not left the pulpit. I never left the ministry… just the pulpit as a professional pastor. My ministry (as far as relevance) has grown exponentially since following the leadership of the Holy Spirit into the workforce. God has used ministry inside and outside of the auspices of the church to give us a clear and unshakable understanding of the times in which we live. Let me give you a few examples of how I have put the principles brought forward in my ministry, V2T Ministries, into practice in everyday life.

Revealing the SECRETS,

Mark D. Harrell