(taped by phone 08/09/07)

BIO: Affectionately known as the “Bible Geek ®,” Mark passionately echoes the Good News to all he meets. He reaches tens of thousands of people weekly in his “Spread the Word” e-mails as he breaks open the Scriptures with humor and relevance, showing how they still apply to our modern lives. Mark is a former teen, CORE member, and youth minister, and now proudly serves as Vice President of LIFE TEEN, overseeing Evangelization & Media.

QUOTE TO NOTE: Disciple is “one who sits at the feet of.” I think, often times, we fall into traps that it becomes “the what” instead of “the who.” It becomes about laundry lists of doctrine that we want to impart to other people catechetically but often times we are trying to get to formation with trying to first ensure that they have had that transformational experience.

OBSCURE FACTOID: As an aside, I asked about the German kids who he reported had attended the LifeTeen summer camp.  Were they US military kids?  The answer was no!  12 German young people came with Father Roland who had previously attended a training convention.  The Church in Europe continues to face its challenges and he wanted to see if LifeTeen could make a difference.  Father Roland served as a translator during the sessions. Attending the same camp were young people of Haitian decent, so at one point Mass included English, Spanish, German, and Creole (for the Haitians).  Truly, a “catholic” experience!

BEHIND THE SCENES: More and more, I’m interviewing folks that I have not met face-to-face, but admire greatly.  The phone call started with us mutually trashing Gene Monterastelli who had recommended that I call Mark for the interview.

BLOG REFLECTION: can be read here for August 29th.