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Small Town - Busy Pastor
By Craig Pinley
RAINY RIVER, ON CANADA (April 16, 2002) - The community may be small, but Mark
Mast still may qualify as one of the busiest pastors in the Evangelical
Covenant Church.
Mast is co-pastor at the Rainy River Evangelical Covenant Church of Rainy
River, Ontario, along with Gordon Armstrong. The two have shared the
position since September 1997. Mast is also a home missionary for Canadian
Sunday School Missions (CSSM), having worked under CSSM for 15 years. Mast
leads Bible clubs at six public schools, runs a canoe trip and other camps
in the summer, and does other outreach and Christian education events in
and around Ontario.
While a student at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois, Mast became
acquainted with Canadian Sunday School Missions (CSSM) through service at a
summer camp in Michigan. There, he met a pastor who asked him to do
ministry at his church the following summer. Mast agreed and the next five
summers he worked through CSSM as a pastor in Chetwynd, Ontario.
Mast earned a Master of Bible Theology at Columbia Bible College in South
Carolina, in 1987 and decided to work for CSSM full-time in Rainy River, a
town of 1,000 located in western Ontario. He soon discovered that, unlike
the United States, the separation of church and state
wasn't as pronounced in Canada and he could start Bible clubs in public
schools.
"When we arrived, the Canadian Education Act had mandated religious
instruction to all students (two 30-minute periods per week)," said Mast.
"For three and a half years, I went to all of the public schools and was
the Bible teacher."
Canadian church and state legislation changed in 1991, and Bible clubs are
no longer as prominent in the public school system. However, Mast has
managed to make the most of his ministry both in local schools and in
camping and Vacation Bible School ministries that he runs each summer.
Mast and his wife, Tina, have plenty to do in raising five children.
However, Mark still has found time to aid his community in a variety of
ways. When the church's pastor left five years ago, he and Armstrong, the
part-time mayor of Rainy River and a shoe storeowner in town, were asked to
share the pastoral duties for the congregation of more than 100.
"Our previous pastor, Doug Stapleton, had been here for 11 years and when
he left it was obvious that there would be no one immediate to take over
the reins," said Mast. "At our quarterly business meeting, it was suggested
that Gordon Armstrong and I serve as part-time interim
pastors. We went for a while and the church was active in seeking a pastor
full time. But they were very pleased with how things were going between
Gordon and myself and they've sort of dropped the 'interim' part. We renew
our lay minister licenses every year with the Covenant
church."
When he's not doing church ministry, Mast spends time in volunteer work
with his town's ambulance service - 35,000 hours so far. During the past
year, he and another Covenant pastor, Scott Christensen of the Evangelical
Covenant Church in Baudette, Minnesota, found a way to help another
denomination's ministry. They currently share the pulpit for an area
Evangelical Free Church congregation. Christensen said that Mast's bass
voice was a big hit at the local Christmas concert last December.
The Evangelical Covenant Church of Rainy River is one of five Covenant
congregations within a 60-mile radius. The Baudette Evangelical Covenant
Church helped the Rainy River Covenant congregation start its ministry in
1946 - the two towns are U.S./Canada border towns located one mile apart.
The others include Off Lake Covenant Church in Emo, Ontario; the
Evangelical Covenant Church of Fort Frances, Ontario; and the Evangelical
Covenant Church of International Falls, Minnesota.
For more information about the church and its ministries, call the church
staff at 807-852-3873.
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