From stage to pulpit – How Mark was called to Ordination

The Revd Mark Wade has been at St Martin’s, Liskeard, for about a year now and is excited about what God’s doing in his church.

As a child Mark was quite shy, so he was certain he did not want to be a vicar after watching his father in the role within the Diocese of Truro.

It turns out, God still had a plan to use Mark to spread the Good News across the country through his work in theatre.

As a teenager, Mark attended youth gatherings with other young Christians to worship and explore his faith. It was also church that gave him a space to explore his passion for drama and where he heard about Riding Lights Theatre Company, a Christian theatre group. One summer, he signed up to attend a Riding Lights theatre school event in York.

He now sees this as a turning point in his Christian life.

“Halfway through the week I was prayed for,” he remembers, “and I encountered the Holy Spirit for the first time. It was then I began a personal relationship with Jesus. I was quite a shy kid, but this moment saw my confidence grow.”

“I was quite a shy kid, but this moment saw my confidence grow.”

He began signing up for activities for young people within the Diocese of Truro, including Youth Synod and going on mission to Orebro in Sweden.

Returning to the UK, he was invited to Stratford-Upon-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare, where he got involved in a youth group there.

Soon he was off to St Mary’s Catholic University for a three-year drama course before becoming a freelance actor in South London.

He says: “I never walked away from my faith, but at University I probably wasn’t living it with it as the centre of my life.

“After university I joined Holy Trinity Brompton Church in South Kensington which helped me reconnect to my faith.”

Career-wise, whilst in London he was working in theatre and education in primary schools before joining Christian theatre company Rhema. For nine months he toured with the company telling bible stories to children and attending Christian festivals.

During this time, he saw God perform many miracles, including answered prayers for new car tyres when stuck in a layby on the M6 – and on another occasion when someone anonymously paid for four new tyres for him when money was tight.

Mark says: “In those nine months I learnt so much about the power of prayer.”

He still chuckles at the fact that despite being graded an E in maths, God gave him a role as theatre manager where he had to organise finances and negotiate with HMRC.

“This must show God’s sense of humour,” Mark exclaims.

So how did Mark go from drama and the theatre to becoming a vicar? The voice of God.

Mark recalls: “I was sat on a swing in Ilkley in York, and I rarely hear God speak in a clear voice – but I heard him say ‘I want you to be ordained’. The 16-year-old me, the son of a vicar, said ‘no way’.

“…people kept saying ‘do you think you should be a vicar?’”

“I spent the next 18 months trying to run away from that. But people kept saying ‘do you think you should be a vicar?’

“Things were changing in the theatre company so I said I would go and work for a church – thinking ‘that’ll scare me off’. But I ended up actually wanting to be ordained.”

When he was offered a job as a Youth Officer at St Helen’s church in Manchester, he also received mentoring.

Mark says: “I said ‘I think God is calling me to be ordained but I am hoping not’.

“My mentor said, ‘what’s stopping you from being ordained?’ I disclosed I didn’t feel clever enough. My mentor replied, ‘if that’s the only thing stopping you, you should apply’. At that moment a heavy weight lifted from me, and I was like ‘yes, I want to do this’.”

Once, after being ordained, Mark went to visit his parents in Cornwall. Here they told him about a position at St Martin’s in Liskeard. He had seen the vacancy a while before but assumed it had been filled already.

He went for the role and now it has been about a year since he first stepped into the position at the church. He says he has seen God working in so many ways and is looking forward to the future.

“I feel a real sense of call here.”

“I feel a real sense of call here,” Mark says. “It is aligning with what’s happening with the quiet revival – recently we had four guys baptised in the sea and three of them were under 30. Things are happening and people are hungry to reconnect to God.

“People are turning up to St Martins looking and seeking.”