Mark Queener

Before becoming a part of WCG/GCI, Mark Queener was an on-air radio and television personality. “I worked in radio as a sports anchor, disc jockey, newscaster, announcer and play-by-play sportscaster. In television, I was a news and sports reporter and a sports anchor.”

Mark, who now pastors the GCI church in Belleville, Illinois, has been married to his wife Rhonda (Staples) for 36 years. They have two sons, Scott (Cindie) and Brian (separated), and four granddaughters: Hannah, Sophie, Reagan and Brielle. All of the above attend the Belleville church. Mark mentions that having four granddaughters is notable in the Queener family: “My parents had three sons and no daughters. My wife and I had two sons and no daughters. Now, our two sons have nothing but daughters. My wife and my mother, finally, got their girls! (and the Queener men seem pretty happy about it, too).”

Mark grew up in Mascoutah, Illinois, but loved spending his summers at his aunt’s home in the hills of eastern Tennessee. “There was no indoor plumbing. But using the outhouse and taking a bath in a washtub were all part of the adventure, as my cousins, their friends, my brothers and I hiked all over the mountains, armed with BB guns and fishing poles.” As an older teen, Mark toured the country as a member of the Belleville Black Knights Drum and Bugle Corps, one of the top-ten horn lines in the country.

Mark enlisted in the army at age 20 and spent six years in active duty in Korea, Texas, Massachusetts and Germany. “After spending about 10 years of my adult life away from Mascoutah, I decided to return there in the summer of 1985. I’ve lived there ever since. I spent a couple of years as an administrator at a local community college. But I’ve worked for the Department of the Air Force at nearby Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, since July 1989.”

In the early 80s, while working on his bachelor’s degree at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Mark picked up a copy of The Plain Truth at a supermarket. “I subscribed to the magazine, ordered all the free literature I could get, and began to watch The World Tomorrow program on television. After I graduated from college, I took a job in Joplin, Missouri, where I attended a Plain Truth Bible lecture. I started attending Worldwide Church of God worship services and Bible studies in spring 1985, as part of the Joplin, Missouri congregation. Within a couple of months, I moved to the Belleville, Illinois church area and was baptized there in December of that same year.”

In the mid 90s Mark completed a survey WCG leaders were using to determine who might be interested in, and qualified for, pastoral ministry training. “I was ordained an elder in March 1996. Belleville pastor Jim Stokes and our district superintendent, Bob Taylor began training me in pastoral ministry for the next several years. Eventually, they discussed with me and confirmed with the congregation a plan to have me succeed Mr. Stokes as senior pastor when he retired. I became the assistant pastor of the Belleville church in September 2001 and its senior pastor in July 2004.”

When asked about mentors, Mark mentioned two people. “My district pastor, Karl Reinagel, is a great encourager and friend. I learn a lot from his example, just watching how he handles different issues and situations. But, perhaps, the person who has had the most influence on me in ministry is Jim Stokes. He groomed me to be his successor as a senior pastor. One of the ways he did that was by decreasing his role and allowing mine to increase. However, above and beyond sharing everything he could from his ministerial training and experience, he also poured his life lessons into me as a good father does with a willing son. Thanks a million, Pastor Pops!”

Mark enjoys being a pastor. “I really enjoy teaching others as I have been taught, especially when it leads to discussions about what God is doing and how he’s working in people’s lives. It’s very rewarding and encouraging to watch and hear people go deeper in their understanding of God and what he’s done and is doing for all people.” This fits right in with Mark’s passion: “I love to see people excited about Jesus – who he is, what he’s doing and how much he loves them. When God involves me in any part of that, even if it’s just to be a witness to it, I feel super blessed.”

Mark’s most memorable moment as a pastor came following a funeral he had preached for a woman in his congregation. “The woman’s niece gave me a tear-filled hug and told me what a comfort I had been to her throughout the entire process of her aunt’s death, visitation and funeral. I didn’t know the niece well and didn’t remember saying all that much to her personally. It was a tremendous lesson about how Jesus already was there, doing his work to comfort people in their grief. That was many years ago, but the convicting power of that experience still resonates deeply in me today.”

What Mark enjoys most about being part of GCI is that “our denomination seems committed to training and equipping us to be ready to participate with Jesus in whatever he’s doing and wherever he’s doing it. Also, our connectedness builds great camaraderie and positions us to work well together and to respond quickly to different situations across the country and around the world. And it’s exciting, as we embrace Trinitarian theology, to know that the gospel is such great good news for everyone!”

Mark says he feels closest to God in different ways. “I really connect with God through songs of praise to him, be it contemporary music or traditional hymns. And being outdoors in his creation really does it for me, too. But I also have to mention those times when one of my young granddaughters says something that reflects the mind of Christ. It may be simple, but it’s often wise enough to stop the rest of us in our tracks and marvel at what God has put in her heart above and beyond what she may have learned from someone else.”