Mark is the Chief Executive of Keswick Ministries having previously been a pastor, worked in cross-cultural mission in Asia, and led teams in student ministry.
1. How did you become a Christian?
I was bribed. I was three years old, and my older brother said I’d get a sweetie.
Though the fuller answer is that I grew up in a home where Jesus was always loved, talked about, real and precious. So I don’t remember a day I didn’t know Him and that He died for me.
2. What lessons have you learnt since that you would want to pass on to a younger Christian version of yourself?
That as well as filling my head with knowledge about Jesus, what matters most is having my heart won to Jesus. That I can know Him, not just about Him.
And that the more I know Jesus, the more precious and lovely He will become to me. And that’s what will change me from the inside out, making me hate sin more and want to become more like Him, because I won’t be able to bear there to be any distance between me and Him. That this daily sense of “communion” is based on unshakable “union” with Christ.
That I’ll fail in all the above and below. But that God is still a God of spreading goodness; full of grace and more kind than I can ever imagine.
3. How would you describe your prayer life?
I wouldn’t dare describe it in print.
4. Which two or three Christian books apart from the Bible have most influenced your faith?
A few books that helped me understand creation and the beauty and earthy reality of the new creation, and the way this theology feeds back into living all of life for God’s glory. So Maximum Life by Julian Hardyman, Heaven is a Place on Earth by Michael Wittmer, and The Things of Earth: Treasuring God by Enjoying His Gifts by Joe Rigney.
5. Who or what have been your biggest Christian influences?
My parents’ faith, and growing up in Indonesia in a mission household, so that both the gospel and the global church were embodied and real.
My wife Joanne, whose clarity and passion for Jesus, and her desire to make sure everything is about Him, is a constant joy and inspiration.
6. What are the main challenges you believe Christians face today?
At heart, have they changed over the millennia? Human nature hasn’t. But if I had to pick one, I’d say joy is particularly hard to spot in UK Christians these days, including in me. Because the more joyful we are in Jesus, the more we’ll live boldly and distinctively for Him; the more thankful and less self-absorbed we’ll be; the more courageous we’ll be in mission; the more beautiful the aroma of Christ will be to those who don’t yet know Him.
7. What encourages and what discourages you?
I love it when God’s Word is being proclaimed and you can almost hear the pennies dropping; seeing people’s heads and hearts lifted for another week. Having worked for a long time in student ministry, I am so encouraged seeing the next generation growing to become future leaders for the church.
It drains me when the gospel is made boring; when we communicate it as a predictable formula. When we iron out the beauty and variety and texture of the gospel of Jesus Christ that is on every page of the Bible, and come out with clichéd truths, rather than spend time uncovering what jewels this particular passage has to show us.
8. What makes you laugh?
Foil Arms & Hog. Google them. (And for those who can’t, they are an Irish sketch comedy group comprising Sean “Foil” Finegan, Conor “Arms” McKenna and Sean “Hog” Flanagan.)
9. What would you want to say to the wider evangelical world?
Don’t just tell me about Jesus; show me Jesus. Whenever the Bible is opened – preaching, in Home Groups, personal devotions – don’t just tell me about Christianity. Tell me about the Father, Son and Spirit – and about who I am – in such a way that my mind is engaged and my heart melted.
So for those of us who have the privilege of preaching or leading Bible studies, this calls for more time and energy in preparation. It never means dumbing down, nor being satisfied with just explaining the passage. But like Paul, it is holding out Jesus Himself (Gal. 3v1).
10. Which Biblical person (other than Jesus) do you most look forward to meeting in glory and why?
Jonah, because I like fishing. But more because I think I’m so much more like that scratchy prophet than I care to admit, and I want to know what Jonah chapter 5 would have been.
