a few months ago, kevin got an e-mail from capitol hill baptist church‘s secretary informing him of a master plan to surprise pastor mark dever for his last 15 years of pastoring chbc. kevin normally doesn’t like to travel very much, so i was very surprised when he expressed his desire to take the family to D.C. for the surprise. basically, they were inviting former interns and members who are now pastoring other churches to join the chbc congregation in surprising mark and honoring him as their faithful pastor. it was a massive endeavor, as there were families coming from the u.k., dubai, the cayman islands, and all over the states, so props to all the many people who were involved in putting this together. i was afraid i was somehow going to ruin the surprise, because i kept telling people about it, and kevin thought somehow mark was going to find out, because he knows a lot of people. thankfully, he was surprised! when he walked into the church where all the people were waiting to surprise him, amidst all the clapping and noise, i saw him mouth ‘i had no idea’ to his wife. after everyone sat down, thabiti (a former associate pastor, and now pastor of the cayman islands) began the program and introduced the many interns who have now gone on to pastoring and serving at other local churches. here were men that were heavily influenced by mark’s preaching and discipleship and had gone forth from chbc to faithfully preach God’s Word elsewhere.
the whole celebration was an incredible encouragement to me, as i heard several men share about mark’s influence on their life. mark has an incredible heart for raising up leaders and to send the best of his congregation to serve other needy areas, so that the gospel would not just thrive and grow the church he’s pastoring, but there would be many churches that would thrive and grow. one man thanked mark and connie for their unselfishness, in investing and loving so many people, knowing that they would leave, and even encouraging them to do so. every pastor (former chbc intern/pastor) that shared, emphasized how much they learned about the priority of studying and preaching God’s Word, and trusting that it is the faithful preaching of the Bible along with the Spirit that will grow His people. one pastor remembered one of mark’s analogy of preaching, how every sunday sermon, the pastor’s duty is to shepherd the flock uphill to the foot of the cross and to lead them in beholding Calvary, and then to slowly step away. wow. i am so appreciative of mark and his family for pouring into kevin’s life, as well as many others, as it has helped form kevin to be the man that he is today.
oh, and i have to share the two gifts that were presented during the celebration. one, the church secretary, mark’s wife and daughter helped put together a massive scrapbook that contained photos of the many interns and pastors that have passed through chbc as well as personally written letters by each of them. the second was done by mark’s wife. one of mark’s favorite hymns that he wants sung at his funeral is, the sands of time are sinking, but he doesn’t like the tune of it very much. so, mark’s wife re-wrote the melody to the hymn and we all sung it together at the end of the celebration. the melody was incredibly beautiful and to have 500 voices singing the last verse acapella was a glimpse of heaven.
