The Impact of Mark Trotter on My Life
/
“...every word that came out of his mouth was a word that he believed deeply”
When I was 17, I attended my first youth group summer camp with the Kansas City Baptist Temple. I had only just recently started attending church there and everything I was learning and experiencing was so exciting. I was beginning to discover the beauty and authority of God’s word, learning that I could know it for myself. Little did I know that this camp would be the memorial that I would look back on for years—a time when I would put a stake down to follow Christ, no turning back. Little did I know that God would use this particular camp speaker to change my life and that one day he would become one of my best friends.
Mark Trotter preached at youth camp that year and while I don’t remember every detail of the messages, I do remember a few things...
I remember his ferocity. His booming voice; his large body pacing back and forth; his pointing. He was the embodiment of zeal and feverish passion. I felt the severity of every word he spoke. It was combustible and contagious. It was clear that every word that came out of his mouth was a word that he believed deeply, and it caused me to believe too. His obsession for the Word and work of the Lord cut me to my core.
I remember his gentleness. He had recently lost one of his best friends that year, and I remember there being a tenderness and vulnerability that came through in his preaching. I remember him making eye contact with me, though the room was full of a couple hundred kids. I remember the tone of his voice dropping to a soft plea for young men and women to share the heartbeat of God.
I remember his call. I remember him provoking us to not waste the life God had given us. I remember understanding I had a greater purpose than the one I was living. I knew at that moment that I had no choice but to humbly follow Christ, grow in his Word, and preach the gospel everywhere I went.
I recall sitting quietly after one of the night sessions, just taking in the implications of what I had learned. That youth camp speaker helped me to understand that my life had meaning, and I was forever changed.
Shortly after the camp, Mark was invited by KCBT to preach the Fall Bible Conference. This event was a celebration of God’s Word. The entire church would put themselves to work cutting, binding, and constructing printed Bibles to send all over the world. The Bible Conference had a unique energy: people were excited and busy. Everyone in the church adjusted their schedules and devoted themselves to participate.
As evening services began, I took my spot in the same place I always sat, the lower east side of the sanctuary. As Mark stepped into the pulpit and began to preach, the nervous energy of the busy week was forced out of the room and the entire church focused their attention on the very sober reality of the Judgment Seat of Christ. This was no normal preaching series. It was a three-day experience. Mark threw his heart, creativity, and energy into what can only be described as a preaching performance. He walked us through a vivid and detailed narrative of a Christian man who lived selfishly but was raptured and stood before the Living God to answer for a wasted life. It was so very powerful.
As I look back, I again remember Mark’s ferocity, his gentleness, and his call. I remember after those few messages being fully aware of my fragile and fleeting life. I can honestly say that up to that point I had never been so cognizant of what was required of me as a Christian. My life was not my own—it HAD to bring glory to God.
“I discovered that this person I admired so deeply was everything I had imagined him to be.”
Fast forward fifteen years. In that time, my wife and I got married and gave ourselves to the work of helping plant a little church in Kansas City (Midtown Baptist Temple). We ministered to high school and middle school students. I devoted myself to sharing the gospel at the high school I taught at. My life revolved around reaching and discipling young people. I wanted nothing more than to live a life of purpose, one with the Judgment Seat of Christ in view.
Throughout the years I would often think of Mark but I hadn’t seen him or heard from him until he reemerged, somewhat suddenly, as the guest speaker at Midtown Baptist Temple’s annual All Church Retreat. He was back and true to form. It was so exciting to hear his preaching again and to have his influence in our church family.
Over time the Living Faith Fellowship began to take shape and Mark became the perennial guest speaker at the conferences. He has consistently taught in our Bible school. He has led people in our churches on missions trips to Malawi and Israel. He sat on the Living Faith Fellowship Board. His presence infused passion and unity into a group of pastors who were learning how to work together.
Through all of this, somehow Mark became my friend. How? I am not completely sure. As many people have said of Mark, he had a way of making you feel loved and important. Everyone was Mark’s friend. He knew how to make people feel special.
I suppose our friendship began about five years ago. While speaking with Mark one evening after a conference, he mentioned that he had some preaching material that he hoped to publish one day. After hearing this, I knew immediately that this was something I could help with. I didn’t know anything about publishing, but I had a design background and knew other designers and copy editors who could help. It was a crime to me that Mark was sitting on a goldmine of Bible teaching and simply needed someone to help him find an outlet. So we went for it, and that is how Living Faith Books was born.
Once we had committed to 52 Weeks of Pursuit, I found myself conversing with Mark often. Obviously, there were details to work out about the books, but for me, I was just glad to speak with him and get to know him. It was a mutually beneficial relationship in that he was getting his material produced and released into the world and I was getting to be near him and watch his life up close. I was more than happy to serve him if I could simply peak behind the curtain.
Mark and I became close. We texted or spoke multiple times a week these last few years. In this time, I discovered that this person I admired so deeply was everything I had imagined him to be.
I have had many opportunities in life to get to know pastors and people I looked up to, but behind closed doors, they are rarely what they seemed to be. Not Mark though. He was exactly the same type of friend to me personally as he was to all of us publicly from the pulpit—full of passion, kindness, and purpose. He treated me like a father treats a son, pouring out unreasonable doses of affirmation, love, and gentle words. He was excited for my ministry, often asking about how preaching was going or what the “young folks are up to.” He prayed for me and my family. He was genuinely concerned for my well-being and passionate about the things that I was passionate about.
“He knew that life was short and that God was watching.”
Over the last week, I have thought quite a bit about my friendship with Mark. I have wept several times just scrolling over the text messages, fondly staring at his trademark fist bump and old man emoji combo (his calling card text). But I have also thought about C&YA. I have thought how precious it is that you have had the opportunity to share in Mark’s preaching and teaching, just like I did when I was young. The fact that many of you had the privilege of taking mission trips with him is of inestimable value. But one of the most sobering thoughts I have had recently is that there will be many people who get saved and come into our church in the coming years who will never get to see him preach, never get a first-hand account of his ferocity, his gentleness, and his call.
Even though Mark is with our Lord, we can very selfishly admit that we weren’t quite done with him. It’s for this reason we all must desperately ask ourselves, “What made Mark Trotter, ‘Mark Trotter’?” and “How do we manufacture and package it?” We still need what Mark had. We need to know just what made him so unique so we can lay hold on it, ingest it, and duplicate it.
While contemplating this for my own life, I have discovered something very simple.
The reason Mark was so passionate in the pulpit and in life, the reason he glowed with excitement and the reason he was so ferocious was because he ferociously devoured God’s word. He was utterly captivated with it. He was consumed by it. As Jeff Bartell said in Mark’s celebration of life, “...that is when the light bulb went on [for Mark], when God’s word to man… existed perfectly in one and only one book, in one language...that was it, that was the spark. And once that ember landed in the dry kindling of Mark’s sincere heart, a blaze was lit that would never be quenched. That singular fact gripped his soul, and he made the only reasonable decision that any Christian man with integrity could make, to fully surrender his life to do whatever God would ask him to do, whenever God would ask him to do it, and wherever God would ask him to do it. And once a man realizes that there is a final authority, and he actually has it in his hands, only then does he have the capacity to be very Christ-like.”
The reason Mark was so tender and kind in his communication, the reason he had the capacity to demonstrate love to me and countless other pastors and leaders, the reason he allowed us to be woven into his life was because he was familiar with the gentle touch of God’s grace. He knew how small he was in the sight of the Lord and yet how deeply he was loved and forgiven. He yielded his life to the Spirit of God. His humility made him exceptionally empathetic to every person he encountered.
The reason that Mark Trotter was so consistent and focused in his life, the reason he was an excellent steward of his ministry and family, the reason he invited all of us into the call of the Great Commission was because he was obsessed with the reality of The Judgment Seat of Christ. Those messages he preached time and time again about the Judgment Seat weren’t for us, they were for him. The act of dramatizing Daniel J. Matthewson’s encounter with the heavenly realm had everything to do with his own preoccupation with reminding himself of an eternal reality. He knew that life was short and that God was watching.
I will always want and desire to be in the presence of my friend Mark Trotter, but perhaps I don’t need him the way I think I do. Maybe God’s timing is perfect. Maybe His ways truly are greater than mine. Maybe what I really need to do is learn what it means to ferociously consume and communicate God’s word. Maybe what I need is to learn how to gently befriend others and compel them to follow Jesus. Maybe I need to call myself to live like heaven and hell are real and imminent.
As Mark and I texted the last couple months, he came to replace that fist bump/old man emoji with a verse. He pasted it again and again into our conversations as he would sign off. It felt ominous and powerful.
Acts 20:24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
“[This verse] communicated how he wanted to live.”
As I thought over and over again about this verse and what Mark wanted to communicate, I have come to believe it wasn’t intended to communicate how Mark wanted to die, I believe it communicated how he wanted to live. If we can embrace this truth for our own lives, Mark’s legacy will continue and more importantly, the fame of our Savior Jesus Christ will redound until his coming or until we too are carried home.
Thank you, Mark. I love you and will never forget your investment in me.
B.
Brandon Briscoe is the pastor over C&YA and oversees Living Faith Books publishing.