Dr. Mark Lounsbrough Accepts Call to Pastorate
February 5, 2024
This May, Dr. Mark Lounsbrough will conclude his collegiate teaching career after thirty years of ministry on campuses in Brazil and Ankeny, Iowa. He began teaching missions at Faith Baptist Bible College sixteen years ago in 2008. Before Faith, Dr. Lounsbrough taught for years at Cariri Baptist Seminary in Crato, Ceará, Brazil, where he and his wife, Becki, served as missionaries. He is completing his sixtieth semester between the two institutions, equivalent to 30 years of teaching in the higher education ministry.
In early December 2023, Dr. Lounsbrough announced to Faith faculty and staff that this academic year would be his last as associate professor and chair of the World Missions Department. After much prayer and many long conversations with each other and friends, the Lounsbroughs concluded that God was leading them on from Faith. Where He was leading remained unknown at the time. A little over a month later, however, God led the people of Community Baptist Church (Ankeny, Iowa) to extend a call to Dr. Lounsbrough to serve as Associate Pastor to oversee Christian education, discipleship, and outreach. The call was unanimous, and the Lounsbroughs accepted that call on January 21. He will begin his full-time pastoral ministry after the school year concludes in May.
Mark and Becki met as students at Faith in 1981 when Mark was a senior and Becki was a freshman. They were married on June 16, 1984, then moved to Washington State, where Mark completed his Master of Divinity degree and Becki her Elementary Education degree. In 1989, the Lounsbroughs began serving in Brazil as missionaries with Baptist Mid-Missions. In addition to serving as Bible professor at the Cariri Baptist Seminary from 1991-2008, Dr. Lounsbrough founded Maranatha Baptist Church in Crato, Ceará, Brazil in 1994 and handed it over to a national pastor in 2002. Becki supported Mark in these roles and the home. The two have four children, seven grandchildren, and two more grandchildren on the way.
In 2008, the Lord led the Lounsbroughs to serve at Faith, Dr. Lounsbrough on faculty and Becki on staff. Under Dr. Lounsbrough’s teaching and leadership, the missions program at Faith has flourished. In addition to the many students Dr. Lounsbrough has taught and prepared for vocational missions work, the department improved and rebranded several signature events and programs. The missions conference became the Global Reach Conference. Missions prayer band became Global Reach Connect, and short-term missions trips became Global Reach Encounter. The Lounsbroughs were also integral to the launch of Faith Abroad, a study abroad program that began in Spring 2023 available to college juniors and seniors in any major. In that same semester, they also initiated a missionary-in-residence program. The missionary-in-residence is a current missionary who stays on campus for a week or two or longer to interact with students and answer their questions about missions.
Reflecting on his years of service here at Faith, Dr. Lounsbrough recently said, “As an alumnus of FBBC, I returned in 2008 to a college that has maintained its doctrinal and philosophical posture through the years. Faith’s motto, ‘With the Word to the World,’ captures the heart of the school’s intention to prepare laborers for worldwide ministry. Colleagues and students alike have challenged my own heart and blessed me in ways that will make a lasting impact as I step into my new role as an associate pastor. I look forward to recommending Faith as a school of choice for anyone preparing to serve the Lord.”
Although we will sorely miss the Lounsbroughs and their ministry among us, we rejoice with them for God’s clear leading as they transition to this new role in the church they have faithfully served since 2008.