Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to be blogging about a couple different things, including a little bit about each of our Staff at The Journey. You may or may not know who our staff team is and more importantly what they do.
Today, I'm talking about Mark Rhodes, our Pastor of Connections at The Journey.
Mark & I have known each other since college and I love his heart for people that don't know Jesus, his passion for his family, and the character with which he lives his life. He's from a farm in Illinois and still is a Chicago sports fan. Mark works hard and is a strategic thinker and planner. He creates systems but is also very relational.
When we hired Mark he came on staff but also helped raise his own salary for the first three years!! When we could finally pay him a full salary, he still had some money left in his account & that has helped pay for his family to lead a couple of our trips to Kenya.
Mark spends most of his time helping people take next steps with Jesus or in their leadership. Mark brings oversight to all of our Journey Groups, our Night Classes, and our Networks. That's a huge job!! On top of that, Mark watches over the systems we have for connecting with new people or with people looking to take steps - often that means he's also calling people to connect and hear their story and figure out how we can help them take a next step into a Beginnings Group, a Network, on an opportunity to serve at The Journey. Mark spends a lot of time working with Network leaders and Journey Group leaders, and he specifically coaches the Fruitport Network, which is the Network his family is in.
That is a really big job. And it never quits. There is no punch clock. When you get the chance, I want to encourage you to drop Mark a note, high five him, or jump in and help :-)
We're thankful for all Mark does & he adds huge value to the team at The Journey and to the ministry here!!