Pastor Mark and Grace founded Mars Hill Church in Seattle in October 1996. The church started as a small Bible study in their living room and has since grown to include over six thousand people. The church meets in seven different locations throughout the Puget Sound region, with twenty weekly services broadcast via satellite from the Ballard campus. In 2008, Outreach magazine named Mars Hill Church the second most innovative church in America.

Pastor Mark co-founded and is president of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network, which plants churches in the U.S. and internationally. Outreach magazine has ranked Mars Hill Church as the second most prolific church planting church in America.

Pastor Mark also founded the Resurgence, an organization that hosts conferences and provides theological training for pastors, church planters, and other Christian leaders. The cooperative’s website, theresurgence.com, has become a major source for news and theology within the missional, emerging, and reformed communities.

He has received accolades from a variety of sources. Seattle magazine named Pastor Mark one of the twenty-five most powerful people in Seattle, ironically one of the least-churched cities in America. The Church Report and Christianity Today have recognized Pastor Mark as one of the most influential pastors in America.

Media coverage of Pastor Mark varies just as widely, including such outlets as National Public Radio, The Bible Answer Man, Mother Jones magazine, the Associated Press, USA Today, the New York Times, Blender music magazine, Outreach magazine, Preaching Today, Leadership magazine, and ABC Television.