Prelude: Our History on Running the Race of Life
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.
Florence Christian School
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.”
Lincoln, Nebraska
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, and pastor Carl Godwin, 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.
We are glad that He leads us step by step.
Atlanta, Georgia
We
left Lincoln and moved to Atlanta, Ga. This is where I became intimately
familiar with the principles of Sunday School taught by Leon Kilbreth – a
pioneer of ministry in the Southern Baptist circles. 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 nurture the youth group from 4 (the
first week we met) to 65 (the 6th week we met).
Jacksonville,
Florida was a similar story. We began with 13 teens and quickly grew to
over 50. We accomplished this with a teen leadership training I fashioned
called Zeta Alpah Pi (ZAP – which mean “seek Him first” in the Greek), which
was accompanied by a relevant soulwinning ministry. When it was time for
us to leave Atlanta in order to minister in Melbourne, Fl., we had an established
ministry of over 65 teens. Again, God was adding more rungs to the ladder
of our understanding so that we could be effective in our attempts to impact
lives here, during the times in which we live.
Melbourne, Florida
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 – with a team that had barely had a winning record the previous
year - the regional championship and placed fourth in the nation. Four of my players placed on the All National
Team at the National Tournament in Brevard, NC.
I
have close relationships to this day with the guys on that soccer squad. It
was difficult to leave the activities on the beach and the beautiful weather
(not the constant hurricane threats, though), but God was progressively
preparing us for the future. This was yet another step on our journey
toward relevant ministry in today’s world.
Jacksonville, Florida
It
was in Jacksonville, Florida that God really began 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 a coalition six churches came together and produced a Youth Camp
that had over 250 teens in attendance. It was a great success in souls
saved and life commitments made.
Charlotte, North Carolina – Church Plant
After
five 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 (although I thought
I did), 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 worlds of influence – where we live,
work, and play.
The
pivotal moment of our lives happened in July of 1996. We were
establishing our church in Concord, North Carolina by winning people to Christ,
but I was still unprepared to truly equip people to faithfully and consistently
engage Satan in his territory. I was leading people to Christ and getting
them involved in the four walls of the church, but … I didn’t know how to get
them to the next levels of spiritual growth (I didn’t know the seven spiritual
phases of growth at that point). 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.
Current
In
2002 God led me to resign the church I had helped build and merge with
individuals in the secular workforce. It has been amazing; God has taught
me so many wonderful principles about life and living that I would have never
learned had I not left the pulpit. Rest assured, 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 secular workforce.
God has used ministry inside and outside the auspices of the church to give us
a clear and unshakable understanding of the times in which we live. This book
is my attempt to encourage others to impact their worlds of influence – where
they live, work, and play – with the love of Christ.
When
I resigned in 2002, my prayer was that if God wanted me to minister in the role
of a pastor (to do this one must have
attained to, at least, level 6 of spiritual growth) again that He would
make it clear. I remember saying to God, “You know where I am; have them
contact me, please.” I never sent out a
single resume to another church; I totally immersed myself in I Cor. 4:1
ministry in the secular workforce, trusting that God was in control.
In
April of 2011, while on my way to officiate a high school soccer match on the
south side of Charlotte, I received a call from the assistant pastor of the
historic Northside Church in Charlotte, NC. He began explaining to me about the
phone call he had received from a deacon at a small, dying church in Oakboro,
NC. Steve said, “You were the first
person that popped into my head.”
I
preached 5 times, and on July 28th, of 2011, I accepted the call to
lead this once dying congregation to a place of relevance. We are just two years into that journey and
God is doing amazing things. I just ran
a half marathon to turn our (unused for twenty-five years) warehouse into a Youth
Center; we are calling it – The Youth Garage.
Additionally, we are making plans to begin a U-12 soccer and t-ball
recreation league, and have plans to renovate our fellowship hall into a community
Coffee Shoppe Connections Center that will be open during the week and before
and after our meetings. This once dying
church is becoming a thriving beacon of light and purpose to Stanly County and
beyond! This is happening because of the
principles outlined in this book.
I
thank God for every situation in which He has allowed us to pace ourselves in
this spiritual race of life. It has been a life-long equipping process to
understand the times and know what we
ought to do … and do it. Our desire, at RU FIT! Ministries, is to Get FIT! and use our experience to help
others become relevant to their worlds of influence. It’s one thing to
lead someone to Christ, but quite another to develop a relevant spiritual
warrior who can make an eternal difference in the life of another human being while
running the race of life.
We
all have a slice of time to make an eternal difference in the life of
another. The question for all of us is: What are we doing with the
slice of time God has given to each of us?
The nuts and bolts of this book are to give you an accurate gage by
which to determine where you stand spiritually and pace yourself in the
spiritual growth process.
Are
you relevant? By that I mean… are you
really equipped to impact your worlds with the truth of the gospel? By the time we take a short jaunt through
this book, you will know if you need to “Get FIT” today. In the last chapter I will give you all the
information you need to begin your journey into relevant ministry to our
relativistic world.
