Reaching Students for Christ he akonga ki nga akonga hei ara whakawhiti mo te Karaiti

Mark Grace

Personal Profile

Mark and Emma have been married since 1998. They have three children: Hannah, who is eight, Benjamin, who is six and Zoe, who is nearly two. They live outside Palmerston North in the rural community of Colyton along with seven sheep, a pony, two dogs, and a cat. Mark and Emma are a part of the Fielding Bible Chapel community.

Mark celebrates his Maori heritage being of Te Arawa decent and his Pakeha heritage being of Scottish ancestry. Mark was a Baptist Youth and Young Adults Pastor for almost six years before beginning with TSCF in late 2001. Mark started as a Regional Staff Worker at Massey University in Palmerston North. He was Regional Team leader from 2006 and since 2010 has taken up the national role of leading Catalyst, TSCF's ministry to graduates in the workplace, postgraduate students and academics.

Mark speaks around New Zealand on the gospel and treaty, the New Zealand story and faith and work issues.

Role Profile

Each year significant numbers of TSCF students graduate. Some head into the marketplace here and abroad, some go on to further study, and some begin academic careers.

Mark is working across New Zealand to see those graduating students who intend to work impacting their professions, industries and workplaces with the gospel. We want to grow a generation of graduates who can express the gospel in word and deed, who can apply the Bible to their lives and professions, who live with integrity and participate fully in God's mission in the world.

At the same time Mark is working with TSCF staff throughout the country to develop groups of postgraduate student groups committed to living and speak ing for Jesus in industry and academia, applying the Bible to themselves and their disciplines, living with academic integrity and discovering how their research can contribute to the world-wide mission of the Church.

Mark is also beginning to encourage the development of networks amongst Christian academics as a way of seeing the gospel at the heart of the university.