An Interview with Lamplighter Ministries CEO, Mark Hamby
Mark Hamby (M.S., M.Div., Th.M., D. Min. cand.) is founder and president of Lamplighter Ministries. Mark oversees five branches of this ministry: Lamplighter Publishing, Lamplighter Theatre, Lamplighter Guild, Lamplighter Life-Transforming Seminars and Lamplighter Moments Daily Radio Broadcast. He lives in Northeastern Pennsylvania with his wife, Debbie. They have been married for 33 years and have three adult children who were homeschooled. If you have ever heard Mark speak, you know that he loves to tell stories! If you have ever heard Mark on the radio, you have heard his passion for God and His Word. Interviewed on numerous national programs, including Family Life Today with Dennis Rainey, Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss, and Moody Bible Network's Prime Time America with Greg Wheatley, Mark shares the miracle story of how Lamplighter was birthed and how Lamplighter stories have had a redemptive influence around the world. God has opened—and continues to open—great and effectual doors for the spread of His gospel. What Mark is most passionate about is the Lamplighter Guild—a unique educational model which follows a rare principle of the early Renaissance masters called “Agon.” After finding this principle in Scripture, Mark has combined Renaissance training with Scriptural principles that has proven to motivate one toward the pursuit of master skills. For more information see www.lamplighterguild.com
Let’s hear from Mark…
WHAT LED YOU TO START LAMPLIGHTER PUBLISHING AND LAMPLIGHTER THEATRE? Serious decline in Bible knowledge. In the book, Public and Private, the authors state that the media's image saturation has become the most ubiquitous teacher since the beginning of mankind. Ubiquitous carries the idea of ominpresent..and if you were to go to some of the remote villages in Thailand and South America, you would find in those grass huts, a tv run by generators and hooked up to satellite dishes. No one seems to be escaping it's influence. And I think, just as Neil Postman did in the 1950's that there is a connection to our preoccupation to images and God's second commandment…thou shalt not have any graven images before me….why? Because images rob us of our own imagination…images rob us of faith…in his book, Culture Wise Family, Dr. Ted Baehr quotes a study that demonstrates how images clog the filters of a child's imagination so that he is unable to perceive the transandent…in other words, he can only believe what he sees…seeing is believing…what is invisible is no longer possible because faith has become inoperable…and without faith it is impossible to please God. Our economy, our politics, our churches, our schools, everything in this country, in this world is a direct result of faith and faithfulness to God…and the only way that faith will become operative again, is to put away the images and once again meditate day and night upon the Words of God….Chris, did you know that the very first verse that Jesus quotes is from Deut…man shall not live by bread alone but by everyone word! Josh 1:8 Psalm 1 Our youth are held captive by the continuous onslaught of propaganda they hear and see from the media. Without grounding in God's Word, young people are prone to be "tossed to a fro with every world view." We need to remember that Lot's righteous soul was vexed from day to day by the things he saw and the things he heard. Bad company corrupts good morals. WANDERER PSALM 32 WHAT IS THE MISSION OF LAMPLIGHTER? Lamplighter is weaving the Word of God back into the fabric of the culture through stories and dramas that bring children and adults face to face with a God in whom nothing is impossible--through heroic role models who inspire, motivate, and breath passion back into our souls. Our mission comes from Luke 1:17 which is a requote of Malachi 4:6 which emphasizes the turning of the father's heart back to his children and the heart of the children back to their fathers...to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Lamplighter is building inner Christ-like character and inspiring external career excellence...one story at a time. MARK TELL ME ABOUT THE CONNECTION OF Romans 5 AND 2ND PETER 1 TO THE LAMPLIGHTER MISSION: "Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope, and hope makes us not ashamed." Strong character has endurance as its foundation and hope as its crown. ROBBERS CAVE...HERE'S WHY: So when a person finds himself in a difficult situation, such as facing the loss of a job, a broken relationship, enduring a false accusation, or Experiencing the loss of a loved one, he never loses sight of the fact that ALL THINGS REALLY DO WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD…AND SOMETIMES WE MAY NOT UNDERSTAND THINGS FULLY UNTIL WE SEE JESUS:
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