MARK ALLEN / SENIOR PASTOR / LIFE FELLOWSHIP / ATHENS, TEXAS
A dream comes true:
the vision of two
By RaeAnn Slaybaugh
Senior Pastor Mark Allen’s path to starting a church
in Athens, Texas, began in 2005 — though it certainly
wasn’t his plan.
“Athens doesn’t need another church,” he laughs. “It’s an
exaggeration, but I’ve heard people say there are about
12,000 people who live here and, like, 1,500 churches.”
But, God had something else in mind.
In 2005, Senior Pastor Mark Allen’s father — also a pastor, in
Florida — was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Though Mark was
pastoring a small church in Oklahoma City, he promised his dad he’d
help with the Florida church’s transition. Mark resigned his position
and traveled to Florida from Oklahoma every week for a year.
After his father’s passing, Mark kept his promise, staying with the
church for six months. Even so, he says he didn’t feel it was where
God wanted him and his family to be long-term. By early 2006, he was
regularly asking for God’s guidance.
His answer was a recurring dream about starting a church in Athens,
Texas. In one way, it made sense: Mark’s mother had moved there, as had
two of his siblings and their families. His brother frequently encouraged
him to do the same: move there and start a church.
But Mark was hesitant.
“I’d wake up and think, That's crazy. " And he had two good reasons
for thinking so.
“First, who would start a church in the Bible belt, where there are
already so many churches?” he asks. “Second, who wants to pastor his
brother? I love my family — they're wonderful — but I wanted to keep
the relationship.”
“Then the Lord told me: If you do it, it will be the best decision you've ever
made,” Mark recalls.
Following in blind faith
With his marching orders in hand, Pastor Mark started Life
Fellowship in Athens in 2006.
The church met in a temporary space for the first 5.5 years. By 2012,
it had acquired an astounding 100 acres of land.
“I had no intention of building right away,” Pastor Mark explains.
“We were just focused on growing the church. My approach was ‘buy
early; build late.’”
After 4.5 years, the church was welcoming 225 across three services
each weekend in its small, rented space. Plans were made to build
Life Fellowship's first building, seating 340. A draftsman from the
community was enlisted. A year later, the church moved into its
building.
In just five months, attendance doubled, growing to 450. The church
added a third service. Within a few years, it was hosting four services:
two on Saturday and two on Sunday.
By 2015, the need to build again became clear.
Pastor Mark’s first concern was financial; he didn’t want to put the
church in a position where it could never retire its debt. Therefore, his
goal was to pay 50 percent cash upfront for the $11.5-million project.
His second big concern was the daunting process of actually
designing and constructing the facility.
“This building was on a much larger scale than anything we’d done
previously,” he says. “I knew that Life Fellowship needed to engage a
highly specialized church architect who not only shared our vision, but
who could actually guide us and shape it into reality.”
14 CHURCH EXECUTIVE | JULY / AUG 2020