Our Journey to Relevant Ministry
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.
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.”
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 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. For one I am glad that He leads us step by step.
We left Lincoln and moved to Atlanta, Ga. This is where I became intimately familiar with the principles of S.S. taught by Leon Kilbreth. 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 grow the youth group from 4 (the first week we met) to 65 (the 6th week we met). Jacksonville was a similar story. We began with 13 teens and quickly grew to over 50. We accomplished this with teen leadership training (ZAP) and an aggressive soulwinning ministry. When we left Atlanta to minister in Melbourne, Fl., we had an establish ministry of over 65 teens. Again… God was adding more rungs to the ladder of our understanding the times in which we live.
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, the regional championship and placed 4th in the nation. I have close relationships to this day with the guys on that squad. It was difficult to leave the activities on the beach and the beautiful weather, but God was progressively preparing us for the future. This was yet another rung on our journey toward relevant ministry in today’s world.
It was in Jacksonville, Fl that God really started 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 6 churches attended representing 250+ teens. It was a great success in souls saved and commitments made).
After 5 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, 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 world.
The pivotal moment of our lives happened in July of 1996. We were establishing our church by winning people to Christ, but I was still unprepared to equip people to engage Satan on his territory. I was leading people to Christ and getting them involved in church, but… I didn’t know how to get them to the next levels of spiritual growth. 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.
In 2002 God led me to resign the church I had planted and merge with individuals in the secular workforce. It has been amazing; God has taught me so many things that I would have never learned had I not left the pulpit. 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 workforce. God has used ministry inside and outside of the auspices of the church to give us a clear and unshakable understanding of the times in which we live. Let me give you a few examples of how I have put the principles brought forward in my ministry, V2T Ministries, into practice in everyday life.
àEx. 1: John – I led John to Christ and as we were meeting for discipleship he said, “Take it easy. I don’t know anything about Christianity. I am totally a blank page waiting to be filled.” That helped me to understand the importance of relevant modeling.
àEx. 2: Bill – Bill is a customer that came to our business to pick up some building supplies. He was helping me load his truck and was cussing up a storm. He asked me what I did. I told him I was a pastor of 20 years, but that I was working this job until God gave me clear direction as what to do next. He began to apologize profusely. He said he worked on a navel yard for over 20 years and just can’t break the habit of cussing. I gave him a copy of my book and asked him to give me his thoughts. Two weeks later he came to our business again and thanked me over and over for writing the book. He said he hadn’t cussed in a week, and that the information in the book gave him answers to questions that he had always had on his mind… and some he hadn’t ever thought about. It is 7 months later, and he still has not cussed, and he is witnessing everyday about Christ. He seeks me out every time he comes to our business just to say thanks for being there for him and accepting him as he was.
àEx. 3: Russ – Russ graduated from Liberty University over 20 years ago and is a church leader. He is the lead teacher in the Sunday School class that I attend. Well… after about a year of helping him teach the class he came to me and said, “Mark… I’ve never heard anyone apply the Bible to our daily lives quite the way you do. I want to learn how to study and apply the Bible that way.” We have been meeting together for four months to go over the discipleship (MI – Modeling I) material in my “Get Real” equipping modules, and he is growing at a rapid rate. He is taking the “ball” and running with it in his life. It is rewarding the see the “lights” come on as it applies to understanding what God is saying in His word. Nothing tops it. His teaching is powerful now that he KNOWS every word is hand-picked by God and is put in the Bible for a specific purpose.
àEx. 4: (A married couple) – I will not give their names for obvious reasons. Recently a married couple came to me and asked if I would provide marriage counseling. I said that I would… but that it would be different than what they had experienced before. I told them that I wanted them to both go through the discipleship material with me as a couple. They agreed, and we began to meet for two hours every Sunday afternoon. It is one year later and they are getting along amazingly. They are in the word together, and seeking to apply the “for this cause” that Ephesians sights as the reason for a man and woman to marry in the first place. We are still in the discipleship process and it is a wonderful time each week.
àEx. 5: Mark – Mark is a driver for a vendor that does business with our company. He brings a load of material about every other week. One day we were talking as I was unloading the material off his truck with my forklift. The subject of eternity came up and I asked him if he knew where he would spend his forever time. He said, “I don’t think anyone can KNOW that.” I gave him a copy of my book and asked him to read it. He said ok and left for Greensboro. He came back in two weeks and before I could ask him about the book he said, “You’re book isn’t the same ole take on what it’s all about, is it?” I told him that when I started a church that I wanted to give people the truth, and that the hardest part of sharing truth is breaking down traditional barriers of belief. I told him the Bible is true if it makes every man a liar… including me. He said he was very interested in talking to someone who gave answers to questions as specifically as I did in the book. I gave him the Romans road by email and asked him to consider trusting Jesus as his personal savior. He returned in two weeks and I was able to lead him to Christ. We are now praying for his daughter to be saved, and I helped him pick out his first Bible.
àEx. 6: Efrem – Ephraim is also a teacher in the Sunday School class that I attend. I recently took the whole class through a five month study of the 16 keys that unlock the Bible. We are now team teaching verse by verse through first, second and third John. They are doing an incredible job of exegeting the verses accurately. Again… my reward is seeing them fall in love with the Word of God. They come at the passages from a different point of view and the people are the beneficiaries of their handiwork. Ephraim is probably the best teacher I have ever heard as it relates to breaking down a passage to its word for word meaning.
àEx. 7: Jim #1 – I was talking to Jim recently as we were waiting for our kids to get out of Awanas when He said, “Mark… I gotta tell you… I’ve never met anyone who loves doing the hard spiritual work as you do. I think about you practically everyday. It is inspiring to see someone sacrifice the way you do to help others grow in Christ.” I said thank you, and he said, “I really mean it. I don’t know anyone who willingly does what you do for others.”
àEx. 8: Jason – The name of my boss (branch manager) is Jason. Not long ago they were talking in the office about going out to drink and party. Of the six in the office, four claim to be Christians. Well, Jason was talking about all of them going out to party and then he looked and me and said, “I mean everybody but Mark… he actually lives what he believes.” I said thanks and went back to doing what it was I was doing while they were talking about partying after work. I pray that I’ll be able to lead Jason to Christ before I leave my current job to go full time as an equipping evangelist.
àEx. 9: Jim #2 – About a year ago I was sitting in a Wednesday evening service and at the end the speaker asked for a show of hands as to who did not know Christ as their Savior. I noticed a gentleman raise his hand, but he did not respond in any other way. After the service, while people were filing out, I walked over and struck up a purposeful conversation. He was from Scranton Pennsylvania. He was moving his family down in a few weeks and was looking for a church to attend. He was an M.D. at the Rowan hospital emergency room, and was being transferred to Charlotte. I asked him if he would allow me to show him how he could know he was a Christian and he said, “I said the words a couple months ago, but I am having problems believing what I did was genuine.” I asked him if we could meet for discipleship so he could nail that down, and he said that would be fine. We recently finished the process and he is very confident of his salvation, and is excited about fulfilling the purpose as to why God placed him on this earth.
àEx. 10: Andrea – My daughter is catching the burden of ministry that Karen and I have. She is involved in teen soulwinning in every facet, goes on multiple missions trips every year and is a model employee at the Chick-fil-A where she works. In fact, the regional managers just came to her branch and told the store owner that she exemplifies all the qualities they are looking for in an employee. Saying I’m proud is the understatement of the year. She still talks regularly to the girl she was able to lead to Christ during the mission’s trip last year.
àEx. 11: Connor – My son is following our example also. A year ago he was playing basketball with a neighbor in our driveway. I peeked out and saw them lying on their back looking at the stars. When Connor came in I asked him what they were doing. He said that his friend asked him where all the stars came from. Connor told him that he knew the answer, and proceeded to lead his friend to Christ while lying on the driveway. Cool, if I may say so for myself. What Good is my ministry if it doesn’t filter into the fiber of my own family?
Ex. 12: Johnson – Johnson was a unique case a couple years ago, but… not so unique today. In fact, witnessing to individuals like Johnson (an oriental American) is becoming quite the norm with the rise of eastern religions in the “American way of thinking.”
Johnson specifically told me that, “I will not trust only in Jesus. He will be one of my ways to truth, but He will not be The Truth.” I asked him where he would spend his forever time and he said, “Based on my present life, when I die the energy of my unclouded spirit will be used to perpetuate the universe.” That was a new one on me. I thought to myself, “What in the world am I going to say to that?”
He wanted to know about Jesus in order to add Him to his eclectic belief system. I decided to begin the discipleship process with him. The first lesson is salvation, and the second is eternal security of the believer. I knew I could not go to lesson two until we got somewhere with lesson one. We went over ever word in every verse of lesson one for six weeks (12 hours of Bible study). He was sticking with me, although he didn’t understand, the Word of God was doing its work in his life. I was going to a pastor’s conference in Kansas City and he asked if he could go with me on the trip. I said okay, and we left for the conference. I told one of the churches missionaries about Johnson, and he (the missionary) changed his message on Thursday night just to speak to Johnson. There were 2.000 people there… but he directed his message to Johnson alone.
You could tell he was under conviction for the remainder of the conference. We met for our discipleship meeting after getting back from Kansas City and he said, “I can’t do this anymore.” I asked him why, and he said, “I’m not a Christian. I can’t continue this without being a believer in Jesus.” Well, I knew he already accepted Christ in his heart, so I said, “Let me show you what you’ve already done in your heart.” After finishing, he said he agreed and I told him that it is Jesus plus nothing else. He said, “I only want Jesus,” I asked him to pray and thank Jesus for the free gift of eternal life and it was awesome. We both had tears in our eyes.
Johnson’s conversion was a team effort. His wife lived it, I spread the seed a little more, the missionary joined the mission, but the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, changed Johnson’s life for eternity! There is power in the Word of God and the testimony of faithful believers!
I could go on, but this should help you see that I am currently involved with touching the lives of people that come from diverse backgrounds. I am currently witnessing to a Roman Catholic who believes God used Theistic Evolution as His means for creation, and a fellow from Asheville that believes the Gnostic way of thinking is the only way to understand God.
I thank God for every situation in which He has allowed us to take part. It has been a life-long equipping process to understand the times and know what we ought to do… and do it. Our desire is to “Get Real” 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. We all have a slice of time to make an eternal difference in the life of another. The question is: What are our people doing with their slice of time?
The following pages will, I hope, give you a glimpse into how we plan to act upon the “blessing of a burden” that God has laid upon our hearts to equip people to be relevant ambassadors for the truth. Our mission is to encourage the local churches to fight the good fight of faith while in an increasing relativistic world, and give specific tools to accomplish that mission.
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