Pastor Mark Mellen
Associate Pastor
I am currently the full-time Campus Pastor at the Substance’s Northwestern Campus and each week you can hear me unleash my repertoire of jokes and awkwardness to the masses. I love my job and am truly living the dream. I am the biggest geek in the coolest church, and I love getting to watch Jesus transform peoples lives as we advance the Kingdom every day.
Every day I meet new people and hear stories about how God has impacted their lives and brought them to Substance. I, just like many people in our congregation came to Christ and this church in an unconventional way. It is amazing to see how these stories can all be different yet still bring us to the same place.
The early parts of my life were very unstable. I moved around a lot and never had the opportunity to put down solid roots. I grew up in a good Christian home but at an early age I became disengaged and chose to walk away from my faith and my family. I chose my own path and its one that led me to some very dark and lonely places.
My late teens and early twenties were spent homeless or couch-surfing in the living rooms of friends. I was nothing; all that I had was broken, battered, and bruised. I held anger and resentment towards the world and a God I no longer believed in. After being kicked out of college three times, I was struggling just to get by. I worked dead end jobs to survive and to nurture my new found addictions to alcohol, cocaine, and methamphetamine.
One day when I was at my lowest I wandered into a Christian bookstore. I was angry and desperate so I decided to give God one last chance. I challenged him to reveal himself to me right there in that bookstore. I randomly took a book from the shelves and began reading. Through that book God began showing himself and the unconditional love Jesus Christ had for me and the rest of the world. God met me where I was and altered everything that I was. For the first time it felt real and made sense, and in that moment I gave my life to Christ.
My life instantly began to change. I turned from the drugs and other darkness in my life and for the first time I started to live in the light. I enrolled at Metro State University and started attending a local church where I began discovering my love for theology and apologetics. This spurred a dream to one day attend seminary and get involved in ministry.
As all of this was happening I was also fortunate enough to reconnect with my childhood crush, Bonnie. I called her to tell her about my rediscovered faith and not too long after that we began dating. God blessed me by bringing her back into my life at a strategic time and after almost 20 years the pieces were finally falling into place.
On May 2, 2007 I graduated from Metro with my degree in Finance, and three days later Bonnie and I got married. I finally was starting to see stability in my life and everything was on the right track. I was able to get a great job in sales and soon after purchased my first home. This once homeless kid was now living the American Dream.
I achieved all this success, but still felt led to do something different and more eternally significant. I decided to leave my lucrative job and enroll at Bethel Seminary to pursue my Masters of Divinity. Soon after I started an internship with Substance Church (where Bonnie and I had been attending) and I quickly fell in love with the people and the staff. A year into the internship I was brought on staff as an Assistant Pastor.
Besides being a Pastor and a husband, I am now also a father. On January 2, 2011 Bonnie and I welcomed our first child, Conner Timothy Mellen, into the world. Despite others who claim similar, I am confident that he would win the cutest baby award.
I am beyond blessed and amazed at what God has done in all parts of my life. No matter what the future holds I know that He will be there with us through it all.
Facebook: Mark Mellen
Twitter: @MarkMellen