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Show Notes: Seven Questions With Pastor Mark Spence
Summary: In this episode, I interview Pastor Mark Spence. Mark is the Pastor of Mississippi Avenue Baptist Church in Aurora, Colorado, where he has been serving since July of 2016. Before that, he was the Campus Pastor at Cross Church in Fort Worth, Texas. Over the years he as served in many areas of ministry, including missions, discipleship and education.
He grew up in Colleyville, Texas and is married to Janet. He has two great kids, Parker and Jonathan. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Fuller Theological Seminary – where he earned a Doctor of Ministry (in being awesome). In spring of 2018, he will begin teaching as an adjunct professor at Gateway Seminary’s Rocky Mountain Campus.
Mississippi Avenue Baptist Church
http://www.mabc.us/
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Some Highlights and Links From Today’s Show:
Mark served with, and was greatly encouraged and influenced by the ministry of Pastor Tommy Teague, who passed away in 2011.
When Mark was discouraged in ministry early on and felt like quitting, he reached out to Pastor Tommy – who encouraged him and helped him navigate the challenges he faced at the time. Mark credits this experience with keeping him in ministry to this day.
Tip to young ministers: Don’t hesitate to reach out to older, more experienced Pastors for encouragement and support.
“We have to, as Pastors, remember that we are all on the same team, and that we are not competing with each other for church members.”
What he would do differently:
He would not go into things “under-prepared” because he was relying on his own knowledge, education, intelligence, and personality to get him through it.
“Getting by” is not enough, we need to elevate the idea of hard work in order to excel and do all things for God’s glory.”
“We need to tie these three things together: Knowledge of the subject, Personality and Preparation in order to really do our best.”
Resources Mark Is Currently Using:
Book:
“From Weakness To Strength” by Scott Sauls
Websites:
Google – as a “concordance” and for sermon illustrations
http://www.Google.com
“Desiring God” – for additional study/exegesis on passages of Scripture
https://www.desiringgod.org/
Social Media & Graphics Resources:
Hootsuite for scheduling church social media posts
https://hootsuite.com/
Graceway Media for high quality, HD graphics and images
https://www.gracewaymedia.com/
PicMonkey for Easy Photo Editing
https://www.picmonkey.com/
The PicMonkey Blog for Free Stock Photo sources
https://www.picmonkey.com/blog/
On Keeping His Family Relationships Strong:
Mark volunteers in his kids’ classrooms and their sports.
Volunteering in the school provides insight into what’s going on in the classroom – with the teachers and the other kids in the class.
Volunteering in the classroom also provides an opportunity to be “salt and light” in the school.
His church provides a monthly “date night” with three hours of cheap childcare ($5 bucks! And free for visitors) that he utilizes to make sure that he is at least taking his wife out on a date monthly.
Join the conversation on this topic by commenting or leaving questions below. If you have a question that you’d like to have heard on the podcast, record your question, and upload it to Google Drive, Dropbox, Box or some other cloud based site and send the link to Hello@MinistryBackpack.com
Music Provided by “Artist Unknown” – https://artistunknown.bandcamp.com/
& “Rasputin1963”
