Meet Mark Peach

Meet Alumnus Mark Peach (MDiv '09)

Mark Peach (MDiv ’09)—after four years of ministry preparation—received a call back to his sending church: New Song Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City, Utah. In this crossover interview from Covenant magazine (Spring/Summer 2010), Mark talks about the blessings and opportunities presented to him in going home.

Mark, can you tell us a little bit about how you got to Covenant Theological Seminary?

After graduating from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in ‘96, I began attending Covenant Presbyterian Church of Chicago—which was my first exposure to the PCA. While volunteering with the urban ministry of the Navigators, I began to see the need for formal theological and ministry training. I sought to have a more thorough understanding of the biblical story and began to ask more and more theological questions as I also became a member of Covenant Presbyterian. After several years of being involved with para-church ministries, leading Bible Studies, and seeking to communicate the gospel to those who didn’t express Christian faith, further underscored my need for formal theological training. My pastor at the church recommended I attend Covenant Seminary. So, in the fall of 2000 I started the Master of Divinity program at Covenant Seminary.

I seem to remember you were here, left for a season, and then returned. What was that about?

During my first year at Covenant Seminary, I began to struggle with articulating my call to vocational ministry. After a long year of struggling academically, I was unable to continue my studies because of a lack of finances. During this difficult time, questions regarding my call to full-time vocational ministry surfaced. I thought that perhaps this was the end of the story for me at Covenant Seminary. However, by God’s grace, I was able to return to Covenant in 2006—this time with my wife, Melissa (married in 2004). The way that God lead me back to Covenant was through the influence of what is now called the Utah Leadership Initiative (ULI), a ministry training initiative of New Song Presbyterian.

After my first period at Covenant Seminary, I returned to the Salt Lake City area where I had grown up. I started working as an intern with ULI at New Song. During the internship, I began to sense God confirming my call to vocational ministry. This sense of call became clear as I was given opportunities at New Song to preach, lead a small group Bible study, and be more immersed in the everyday functioning of the church. My call to vocational ministry was affirmed by many at New Song. The leadership and people at New Song encouraged me to return to seminary—with the hope that I would eventually serve full-time in pastoral ministry.

 

How did you end up receiving a call from your sending church?

 

Over the past four years, Melissa and I have been amazed at the way God has provided and shown his grace to us through the encouragement of people at New Song--great friends, finances for seminary, and an excellent training for ministry. While at Covenant, God's grace was evident over and over as he provided for us during a long and difficult pursuit of a dream. In October of 2008, during my final year at seminary, Melissa and I were encouraged to devote a weekend to evaluate and set goals in several areas of our lives from finances, to marriage, to ministry. During this time, God confirmed to both of us a passion and call to see the gospel transform Salt Lake City. After praying about future ministry opportunities it had become clear that our hearts were burdened with the people of Salt Lake City and the people of New Song.

In May of 2009 I graduated from Covenant Seminary with a Master of Divinity. In June, we made the trip west, back to Salt Lake City, where I am serving in a full-time assistant pastoral role at New Song as a Fellow with the Utah Leadership Initiative. I am also serving there as a church planting apprentice with Mission Utah (Utah’s church planting network for the PCA). Since June, I have also been studying for my Licensure and Ordination exams. In March of this year I passed my ordination exams and have been given an official call as assistant pastor at New Song. My hope is to faithfully serve God as an assistant pastor with the hope of developing a core group from New Song who will go with me to plant a new PCA church in Salt Lake City.

What are some of the distinctive of New Song’s “leadership preparation"?

New Song’s unique leadership preparation has been developed out of the need for indigenous leaders to serve the church in Utah. The developing of indigenous leaders is vitally important for gospel ministry in a city like Salt Lake City where the entire Christian population is less than 10% and where Christianity has never had a significant presence. Professors Harvie Conn and Manuel Ortiz state, “Utilizing indigenous leaders is the most effective way to reach urban communities for Christ, but it is imperative that anyone chosen to lead first be brought to spiritual maturity through adequate training.” If there is any place in great need of indigenous leaders trained for gospel ministry, it is Utah.

In 2004, New Song took this challenge seriously by launching an internship program to train indigenous leaders for gospel ministry. The internship program, known as The Utah Leadership Initiative (ULI), exists to train ministers from Utah for Utah. It has three phases—from initial candidate identification to ministry preparation in Seminary.

Currently, the Utah Leadership Initiative has three leaders involved, including myself. The other two are at the seminary phase and are interested in continuing in the program. New Song is a small (but growing!) church of about 100 on Sundays, but we are a church with vision for the city. Just this past summer we sent three families across town along with church planter Daniel McKinney to plant West Side Presbyterian. The Utah Leadership Initiative has played a significant role in developing vision in its leaders in order to see the gospel advance in Utah. Our hope is to raise up leaders from Utah for Utah in order that the gospel might advance in this place for future generations.

Tell us how your family has experienced the model of ministerial preparation taking place at New Song?

Melissa and I began our journey together as a married couple in May of 2004. Since that time I have had the privilege of seeing God at work in Melissa’s life in many ways. She has been a great encouragement to me throughout our marriage and ministry. During a difficult time academically at Covenant Seminary, God used Melissa’s constant faithfulness to encourage me to keep pursuing my dream of ministry. God has gifted her as a woman of prayer and as a woman who loves discipling our daughter, Noelle, while seeking to encourage the people at New Song with me. Currently, Melissa assists in the leadership of New Song’s ministry to moms called Mom to Mom. She also is involved with a discipleship group made up of Salt Lake PCA pastors’ wives called City Wives. During the entire time of my ministerial preparation, Melissa has been encouraged in her faith through the congregation and leadership at New Song.

Meet Alumnus Doug Merkey