n e w c h u r c h l i f e : m ay / j u n e 2 0 1 5
“I left sunny, warm South Africa in mid-summer at 19 with my sister,
Leann (18), two days after matriculating from high school. Two days later
we were sitting in classrooms in freezing mid-winter in Bryn Athyn, having
missed the first two weeks of winter term 1984.
“I gave no thought to becoming a minister while in South Africa. After my
first year in Bryn Athyn, on the invitation by the Dyck family, I went up to the
northwestern part of Alberta, Canada, for the summer. We were invited there
to attend the Convention Church Camp at Paul Haven, where I was asked to
lead a group of young people – about my own age. I had no experience with
teaching and felt way out of my depth.”
But the pastor, the Rev. Dave Sonmore, told him: “You’ve had two terms
in Bryn Athyn. You know more than they do!” And that was the beginning.
Mark adds: “I found through that experience that I truly enjoyed teaching.”
After that summer in Alberta, he returned to Bryn Athyn and switched his
major from math/science to the humanities and philosophy. Through his
philosophy courses he met Mr. Charlie Cole, a professor of chemistry and
philosophy and Dean of the College.
“This sage and gentle man would have a profound influence on my decision
to become a minister,” he says, but it was not a “burning-bush” decision. “There
was no immediate and overwhelming experience. It was more of a very slow
and gradual coming to see that this is what I wanted to do with my life.”
Mr. Cole’s philosophy classes “were a big part of an early path to
ministry. Bigness and smallness were in harmony. The atom and the universe
looked so alike, with stuff spinning around other stuff, and I began to see the
Great Connection between all things – everything in harmony and in perfect
order. Contemplation of the operation of a Divine Hand began to pervade my
thinking.”
By the end of his third year in Bryn Athyn, “I was pretty sure I wanted
to become a minister but still had some doubts. I was never a good student
academically and struggled throughout my high school and college years. With
mild dyslexia (b, p and d’s would flip, and I often transposed numbers – in fact,
I still do), I wondered if I was cut out for the academics of Theological School.
“Long chats with Charlie Cole and the Rev. Willard Heinrichs convinced
me there was more to ministry than the rigors of academic learning. I resolved
to try to help people the best I could, and ministry seemed like the best way I
could do that. So in my fourth year I applied for Theological School and held
my breath.”
He was accepted and among key experiences there that affect how he
approaches the ministry, he lists:
1. Hanging out in early Theological School days with the Rev. Grant
Schnarr. He had an infectious enthusiasm and affected and inspired me with
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