The Journey: Mark Staples

by Laura Joy Griffith

            Mark Staples graduated from Multnomah with a degree in Bible and Youth Ministry in 1993.  Now he is the senior pastor at Emmanuel Bible Fellowship in Olympia, WA.  With twenty-one years of life and ministry experience since graduation, he reflects on his time at Multnomah and how it led him to where he is today.

            Rather than pinpointing one event or person at Multnomah that influenced him, Mark credits the overall experience with the life change he experienced.  Describing his passionate pursuit of intimacy with Christ, he says, “I embraced the spiritual side of life as much as the intellectual.”  This passion for spiritual maturity overflowed from the chapel and the classroom onto the basketball court.  Mark played Multnomah basketball for four years under Jim Skagen and credits Coach Skagen and the program for much of his spiritual growth at Multnomah.  “It wasn’t just an athletic endeavor,” he says of the basketball program.  “It was a ministry experience.”  He describes the closeness of the team and the cheerleaders, saying that their regular ministry involvement impacted him tremendously.  In addition to Coach Skagen, Mark names Prof. David Needham as a powerful influence during his time at Multnomah. 

            After graduating from Multnomah, Mark moved to Olympia to become a youth intern at Emmanuel (then called Emmanuel Baptist Church).  Although he only intended to stay there for a year or so, he ended up becoming the youth pastor and staying more than nine years before moving back to Portland—to the church at which he grew up—to work as a youth pastor there.  He then moved with his family to Arizona, where he served at another church and completed his Master’s Degree at Phoenix Seminary.  Finally, almost two years ago, he returned to Emmanuel as the senior pastor.

            During the past two decades, Mark’s main connection with Multnomah has been through the friends he made while there, like athletic director Lois Vos.  Though the “wrapping” has changed, he says, the principles on which Multnomah was built remain.  He encourages current Multnomah students to believe in those principles and the embrace the overall Multnomah experience.  Whether or not you are planning to enter full-time ministry, he says, soak up whatever you can from your education, but don’t let it become cold and impersonal.  “It can become an academic pursuit, instead of a real life pursuit,” he said. 

            Mark also advises students to ensure that they are involved in ministry: “It’s critical for a follower of Jesus to have an outlet in their life and not just always take in.”  Mark feels that there are too many consumers in the church and not enough givers, and it is important to form these habits as soon as possible.  Multnomah is an ideal opportunity to create habits and build a foundation for life.  If you learn to be a servant at Multnomah, you will be a servant for the rest of your life: “I think that’s what life is about: investing and giving.”