Meet Mark Purser, your Baptist World Aid Australia State Representative.
Mark is a man who’s passionate about his faith, his family and a good game of footy… And he’s a real answer to prayer too!
Mark joined the staff of Baptist World Aid in July this year, a happy end to a long search for the right candidate.
As the former Senior Pastor at Clovercrest Baptist Church in Adelaide, he brings with him a wealth of experience to this role.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your own faith journey.
A: I’ve been involved in church life for many, many years. My parents were always very active role models and real servants in the life of their church, Kilsyth South Baptist Church in Melbourne, which they still attend today.
I’ve always fed off their role modelling, but in terms of vocational ministry I was a bit of a late bloomer. I had a Business Degree, and I worked in my family business for quite a number of years after I graduated – I ended up becoming State Manager for them.
At the same time, though, I was leading the high school youth ministry at Heathmont Baptist Church. I had been doing that for 3 or 4 years when a part time paid position of youth pastor came up, which I was fortunate enough to get.
And that’s when I started going to the Bible College of Victoria, in 1997.
Q: Your last ministry position was as the Senior Pastor of Clovercrest Baptist Church in Adelaide. As a Victorian, how did you come to find yourself there?
A: After I finished up at Heathmont in 2003, I moved to NewHope Baptist Church in Blackburn North as their associate pastor. I was there for about 7 years.
I grew and developed under Alan Demond’s leadership – he was Senior Pastor there then (and still is now). I was given a lot of opportunities to have a wider scope of ministry in that church, which really prepared me for Senior Pastoring.
Before I arrived at Clovercrest in Adelaide, the church had been through a pretty rough patch and it had been without a pastor for a couple of years.
My wife and I always sensed that we had been sent to Clovercrest for a season. We were very clear in our minds that, in many ways, we were being sent to help the church rebuild. And it’s been wonderful to have been part of quite a fruitful season in the life of Clovercrest.
Q: How did you make the decision to move on from your role at Clovercrest?
A: In the middle of 2015, my wife and I had a real sense that our time at Clovercrest was up. We felt that we’d achieved the things we’d been sent to do. So, when we got to the end of 2015, we officially informed the Church Council.
Then we asked, “God, what next?” And we just left it open. We both had a heart to go back to Melbourne, to be with family, but we didn’t want to box ourselves in by searching for only for Senior Pastor role for instance. We had no preconceived notions of what I would go on to do.
Q: And how long were you in that space before you came across the role at Baptist World Aid?
A: When we notified the Church Council at Clovercrest that we would be leaving, I guaranteed them six more months. I had wanted to give plenty of notice, to allow time hand the baton over to the next Senior Pastor.
So, we told them that in December 2015, and it just so happens that Baptist World Aid approach came probably around late January. It came in that six-month window.
Some Baptist World Aid staff happened to be visiting South Australia and they mentioned that there was a job going, they were just meeting with me as a Pastor. But I guess it was probably a God moment where a seed was planted.
Q: Did you have any previous involvement with Baptist World Aid prior to this position?
A: In 2010 I was invited to go on an exposure trip to Nepal with Baptist World Aid. Before that, my involvement had been quite minimal… and the trip was my first real introduction into the organisation.
I was introduced to a number of the projects in Nepal, and it just really opened up my eyes to global poverty. As you would hear from most people, when you go and smell it, taste it, see it for yourself, you can’t help but be influenced and affected by it.
So, it had a huge impact for me personally, and I was just so impressed by the work of Baptist World Aid that I saw while I was there. How it wasn’t a band aid solution, how it was about sustainable living – particularly for struggling women and children – and just the way it was making a difference for whole communities. It really grabbed me.
It showed me: this actually works! You can change lives by being a blessing.
That was a bit of a revelation on that trip, I’d have to say.
I remember, I came back to Clovercrest and said, “OK Church, we need to be involved. Not just with this organisation, but also with global poverty.”
Q: How important is a personal response (and a wider church response) to global poverty?
A: As a pastor, I think it’s a biblical mandate. There are so many scriptures, both old and new testament that give themselves to blessing the poor and looking out to the needs of others. And the opportunity that Jesus gives us to be Jesus to others.
A gift that God’s given me is to speak up front, and I’m looking forward to having a variety of messages that I can take into different contexts around Victoria and speak into the life of the church. I just want to get people thinking about what the right and proper response to global poverty looks like. In their own lives… in the life of the church… what can we do?
So, the question would be for a church and for individuals: “What one thing could I, perhaps, change in my life so I can start to walk a little closer to the heart that Jesus has for the poor?”
Q: Finally, it would be remiss of me to fail to ask you about your chaplaincy role with the Adelaide Crows. How did that role fit in to your own convictions about church, faith and community?
Sport has always been a big part of my life. I played in the national hockey league for a number of years and district cricket as well (in the highest grade).
When I retired back in the early 2000s, I stepped into sport chaplaincy. I became an accredited Chaplain.
When we went to Clovercrest, I approached the Adelaide Crows – I knew a couple of the players from my Victorian underage days – and I became their inaugural Chaplain. They were the only AFL club, at the time, that had ever had a Chaplain.
And God’s timing in that has just been amazing, because in that time we’ve had some absolute tragedy at the club. And it’s been a real privilege to walk those journeys with the team.
As a pastor, I think it’s really important to actually live evangelism. My whole existence could be within the four walls of the church, there’s that much need, but it’s important that I get outside the church and sow into the local community. So, I can understand the community better. So, I can find conversations with people that don’t know Jesus… and challenge myself in all of that and be out of my comfort zone.
That’s what chaplaincy has done for me.
by Samara Linehan
Source: BUV News