The Leadership Blog Interview: Mark Evans

Mark Evans

Bio: Mark Evans is the founder and Senior Pastor of The Church at Rock Creek, a fast - growing congregation of 3,000 in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Church at Rock Creek was recently featured in Church Growth magazine’s list of “The 100 Fastest Growing Churc hes in America.” He is also the author of “An Inning at a Time: Nine Base Hits to Get You Home in the Game of Life,” a book about the consistent strategies that successful people apply in their every day life.

Church: The Church at Rock Creek
Site: PeoplemattertoGod.com

The Leadership Blog Interview
1. What gives you the greatest joy in being a leader?
Mark: "I’m at my best and enjoying myself the most when I am leading a team of people to accomplish ministry that makes a real difference – ministry that meets the real needs of hurting people. Ten years after starting the church, I still find immense satisfaction and fulfillment in living out our mission to “take Jesus as He is to people as they are.”

2. What is your biggest pet peeve as a leader?
Mark: "Being around people with small minds and small dreams, who major in the minor and don’t see the big picture. I believe God invites us to live in large places, with a vision that would take our breath away if we fully understood all that He wanted to do in and through us! Too many people walk through life in shoes that are too small, afraid to step out in faith and risk it all in their pursuit of God’s best for their lives. "

3. Who made the biggest influence in your life as a leader?
Mark: "I’ve been influenced the most by working with people who have struggled with addictions – drugs, sex, alcohol, food, gambling, you name it. When you have the privilege of watching genuine change occur in their lives, and realize that these are the people who are fighting life’s biggest battles and winning – it just doesn’t get any better. Those people are my heroes."

4. What books have changed your life?
Mark: "Today Matters by John Maxwell. The Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren. Rediscovering Church by Bill Hybels. Maxwell taught me the value of thinking through every day, how to live it with maximum impact. Warren taught me new ways to think about the church in today’s culture. Hybels taught me the reality of starting a church, the myriad difficulties that you’ll encounter – and why the struggle is worth it."

5. What's your biggest challenge as a leader?
Mark: "Prioritizing the dreams. You have to remember that you can only tackle so many dreams at one time. You can – and should – still dream them; but you may have to delay some while you accomplish others."

6. What goals do you have as a leader?
Mark: "To finish out our ministry campus, with a home for abused and neglected kids, a residential minis try for teenagers who need help, and a medical clinic for those who have fallen through the cracks of the health care system. Because in the end, it doesn’t matter what else you do – if you don’t meet the real needs of the real people in your community, you’ve failed to walk as Jesus walked, ministering as He ministered."

7. Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Mark: "Dreaming new dreams about what God has in store for me as a leader at fifty. That’s one of the things I love about growing older: every st age of life is different and exciting – full of new things that God wants to do in and through us, things that are literally beyond our comprehension and imagination ten years earlier."

Thanks Mark for a great interview! This is a great quote, "Because in the end, it doesn’t matter what else you do – if you don’t meet the real needs of the real people in your community, you’ve failed to walk as Jesus walked, ministering as He ministered."