Go
Saints!

Thursday
March 28th, 2024

mark cress and familyMark Cress is pictured here with his wife, Katie, and their sons, Gavyn, Elijah and Ricky. Mark was recently hired as the new pastor at Liberal’s First Southern Baptist Church. He comes to Southwest Kansas from Woodbridge, Va., and brings a great passion for Jesus, people and introducing people to Jesus. Courtesy photoROBERT PIERCE • Leader & Times

 

At the end of 2010, Mark Cress left a job with the Sedgwick County Fire Department to begin planning, preparing and praying for a church he and his wife, Katie, would start in the town of Wellington in Sumner County.

In September 2011, the couple launched Church Ignited, but before a building could be purchased and renovated in Wellington, the church met for four years in a one-screen movie theater.

“Over the six years in Wellington, we had a front row seat to witness God radically changing lives, restoring marriages, healing relationships and illnesses and overcoming addictions,” Cress said.

A total of 222 people were baptized in a portable horse trough over that same time. The next move for the Cress family came as Mark and Katie were praying at the end of 2016 and the start of 2017.

“We began to sense God’s leading away from Wellington,” he said. “I was 25 when we launched the church and did not have any formal theological education, so the hope and prayer was that I would have the opportunity to pursue theological education along with gaining experience in a larger church setting.”

In February 2017, the Cress family picked up and moved to Woodbridge, Va., just outside of Washington D.C., where Mark said God opened the door for him to serve as the connections pastor at Grace Baptist Church.

“I gained invaluable experience in national and international missions, had the opportunity to learn about leadership from high ranking military officials at Quantico, Fort Belvoir, the Pentagon, Capitol Hill, as well as White House officials,” he said. “I also had the opportunity to complete my bachelor’s degree in biblical counseling and a master’s degree in religious education from West Coast Bible College and Seminary.”

While helping to coordinate an outreach activity at an elementary school in Woodbridge, Mark was introduced to a man, Al Forsythe, who had just moved away from Liberal to Northern Virginia.

Forsythe was a teacher at the school where Mark was serving, and the two had a great conversation about their experiences in the Sunflower State. 

“The fact that trees are an endangered species here, we talked about long bridges over tiny streams of water and wind – lots of wind,” Mark said. 

A week later, the Forsythe and Cress families got together for dinner at a local restaurant, where Mark said Forsythe began to tell him about his experience at Liberal’s First Southern Baptist Church.

“He said he found acceptance, a loving community and a safe place to ask hard questions and grow in his faith,” Mark said. “As he was talking, I remembered my college band had led worship at a Disciple Now event at FSBC in 2006.”

Mark said he and Forsythe had a great conversation, but he really didn’t think much of it until a month later when he stumbled across a pastoral vacancy listing for First Southern, where he was recently hired as the pastor.

“I didn’t immediately do anything with it, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it would be good to pray about and start talking with Katie about this unique set of circumstances,” he said. “We absolutely loved our experiences in Northern Virginia, but ultimately knew our hearts had never really left Kansas.”

So, after praying about the situation for a couple of weeks, Mark and Katie decided to put a resume together and see what would come of it.

“It was a long process with plenty of ups and downs, but in the end, we genuinely believe God was leading us here,” Mark said.

Mark said he initially thought about getting into ministry at the age of 17.

“I began to think maybe God was calling me into the ministry, but at the time, I assumed it would be into youth ministry,” he said. “I responded to what I believed was a call to ministry from God by walking down front during an invitation at the church I was attending in Derby, where I grew up.”

Mark said at the end of that service, church members lined up to shake his hand and offer congratulations, but no one ever told him what his next steps were.

“Maybe everyone assumed I already knew, maybe they didn’t know themselves,” he said. “Either way, I didn’t end up doing anything with this calling for the next eight years. I went to community college, earned a couple associates degrees and pursued firefighting as my career and was content with all of that until July of 2010.”

That’s when Mark said he and Katie were attending Aviator Church, a church plant in Derby.

“I remember meeting my wife at church one Sunday morning after a 24-hour shift,” he said. “I’m ashamed to say it, but I actually fell asleep during the message that day only to wake up at the end and hear our pastor say, ‘Sometimes you have to give up good things in order to pursue God things.’”

When the service was over, Mark recalls driving home and having a conversation with Katie and realizing firefighting was a good thing, even a great thing, but for him, it wasn’t the God thing he had been called to do.

“After months of prayer, conversations, prayer and more prayer, Katie and I decided to have a conversation with our pastor,” he said. “I called and set up a meeting for the next week, and while we waited, Katie and I prayed that if God was calling us away from our current situation and into church ministry, he would impress it on our pastor’s heart before we ever spoke with him the following week.”

When the couple finally had the opportunity to speak with the pastor, Mark said it was a quick conversation.

“As crazy as this may sound to someone who doesn’t believe God answers prayers, without us opening our mouths when we met, our pastor was able to tell us he God was calling us into pastoral ministry, and it was his role to help prepare us to that end,” he said. “The rest, as they say, is His story.”

As far as goals Mark has for FSBC, he simply referred to scripture found in Matthew 28:19-20, commonly referred to as the “Great Commission.”

“We are going to passionately pursue God’s will and calling on our lives to be radically obedient to make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded,” he said.

And while he is preaching at a Southern Baptist church, Mark said at the end of the day, he is simply a “Jesus guy.”

“I don’t get wrapped up in denominational difference or quarrels,” he said. “My greatest hope and desire is to see Jesus lifted high and lives changed for His glory.”