Mark Russell - Chief Executive

Mark Russell was appointed as Chief Executive of Church Army at the age of 31 in 2006. In this role he leads a society of over 300 full time evangelists and is an advocate for evangelism in the wider church. He is a sought after conference speaker for events such as New Wine, Alpha Home Focus, Soul Survivor and other national conferences. He has been a contributor on the BBC TV Heaven and Earth show, Sky News, BBC Radio 4's PM and various BBC regional Radio shows. Mark is a natural evangelist and has led evangelistic missions in many countries around the world such as China, Finland, USA and Sweden.

Mark is a member of Archbishops' Council and General Synod of the Church of England and chair of the Youth Panel of the Board of Education. He is a member of the Archbishops' College of Evangelists, a Reader in the Church of England, and sits on the Council of Evangelical Alliance. The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu says of Mark, "he has an infectious love for Jesus Christ and the refreshing commitment to evangelism that the Church needs right now!"

Backstory

Mark grew up in Northern Ireland and at 21 was one of the youngest licensed local preachers in the Methodist Church in Ireland. After 2 years of trouble shooting management in industry he served for 3 years as Youth Pastor of Lurgan Methodist Church in Northern Ireland. Mark developed a creative schools ministry, and became chaplain to a high school. He was a member of the Methodist Conference.

In 1998 he helped develop ONEder an ecumenical youth congregation, a forerunner fresh expression of church. In 1999 Mark was awarded the British Gas Tomorrow's People Award for his cross community work bringing Catholic and Protestant young people together across Northern Ireland. In 2000 Mark was appointed as Youth Minister of Christ Church Chorleywood and helped grow an exciting and dynamic youth ministry.