Meet Our Intern

The early years

My name is Mark Carter and I grew up in with four siblings in White Rock, BC. My parents began their family in White Rock, but then bought five acres of land in South Surrey in 1990 and built a home there. A major turning point in our family occurred in 2002, when my parents decided to sell their property (before the real estate boom ) and move to a 400 acre ranch in Macalister, BC. Neither of my parents had experience in animal husbandry, but that did not stop them from figuring it out as they went.

Education and work experience

From 2002 to 2012, I worked, completed some basic Bible school education by distance education, and attended a disaster relief academy in Texas. I also spent two winters in Fort St. John working for a logging contractor. I wanted to settle into a career and chose to enter into a Carpentry apprenticeship. I finished my technical training in 2012 and began a construction company. I have just recently completed my Journeyman certification. 

Call to ministry

Shortly after that, I felt God calling me into pastoral ministry. At the time, I was attending a Presbyterian house church. After consulting with my pastor there, I applied to presbytery to become a candidate for ordination and was accepted. I began working on an undergraduate degree at Thompson Rivers University. In order to expedite the process, I applied to the Master's of Divinity degree program at Regent college in 2014 as a mature student and am now finishing my second year. Due to complications with my education along with personal convictions, I am no longer seeking to be ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church in Canada. 

Married Life

I met Alicia in the fall of 2013 and we were married in the summer of 2015. We moved to Vancouver in the fall of 2014 and I began my study at Regent while Alicia, who is a nurse, got a job at a diabetes out-patient clinic. 

Why House Churches?

 I was introduced to house churches through a divine stumble of sorts. A house church was meeting in my rural neighbourhood (and still does) and so I joined to find out what it was. Since then, I have come to cherish meeting in small groups for worship and teaching and want to continue the house church model as the focus of my ministry. I believe it is a viable model because small numbers of believers meeting together in their homes retains a sense of intimate community that a large gather cannot provide. It also negates the significant overburden of buildings and a large staff and the costs associated with them. Finally, the small group model with oversight by a council is - Simple. 

Internship

I am beginning my internship with Simple Church as part of my education, but more importantly, I am seeking to serve the church as I pursue God’s call.I am looking forward to getting to know everyone at Simple Church better and appreciate the opportunity to learn and grow in this community of believers.