Q&A with Scott Stark, Resonate’s New Regional Mission Leader for the Great Lakes Region

Scott has been working in mission-minded ministry since he was a student at a public university. In his new role as the Regional Mission Leader for the Great Lakes region, Scott will be working alongside established CRC congregations, church plants, campus ministries, and individuals to equip them for mission. He answered a few questions so you can get to know him and his heart for spreading the gospel.

What’s your favorite icebreaker question and how would you answer it?
If there was a movie made about your life, what actor would you want to play you, and why? For me it is Samuel L. Jackson. I’ve never really been cool. But I think if Jackson played me, I’d look pretty cool. Just look at his hats! I aspire to wear hats at the level he does.

What’s your background?
For the past 12 years, I’ve served as a campus minister at Grand Valley State University (a Resonate partner ministry) where we have seen God working a powerful revival among students. A revival that has been supported in both resources and prayer by CRC congregations throughout this region.  

What excites you about working for Resonate?
I am a personal testimony of how the Holy Spirit has worked through Resonate to transform lives and communities with the gospel in our region. I am part of the Christian Reformed Church in North America today because of a Resonate-sponsored campus ministry that trained me to be a disciple who can make disciples while I was an undergrad student at a public university. This had such a profound effect on my life, that after college I joined a church planting team that was launching a new Resonate-sponsored church. Resonate has played a key role in my faith and my calling as a minister, and I am delighted to continue and expand the long legacy of faithfully following Christ in mission together. 

What are you most excited about for your role as Regional Mission Leader for the Great Lakes region?
When I moved to West Michigan, I served an established congregation. It was there that I discovered how much the wider CRC in this region wants to see the gospel shared in our communities and around the world. Our congregations support mission! I want to be a catalyst to deepen and widen our participation in God’s mission through our churches.   

What’s your hope for churches and ministries in the Great Lakes region?
I’m going to quote here from a communication that Resonate made to Synod 2023. This vision was a big part of what led me to apply for this role and what I deeply long for in our region:

The gospel is the good news of God’s power breaking into our world, to heal and restore all of life, to make whole all that is broken. Centered on King Jesus, the gospel is embodied by a community of people (congregations) living on mission who are being transformed by the Holy Spirit to bear witness to this good news in both word and deed and with the entirety of their lives.  We long to see this good news saturate every community and every crack and crevice of society. We will tirelessly work toward this end until King Jesus returns and makes all things well. (Agenda supplement for Synod 2023 p.763)

I’d invite every congregation to join me in praying for the gospel to saturate every community in our region.   

What do you like to do in your free time?
I’m a big Marvel and Star Wars guy. I love feeding people—we can have a few more people at our cookouts. I live in Holland so I’m a big Lake Michigan fan (though I have much love for the other Great Lakes as well). I like to tinker, fix, and repurpose things. And the older I get, the more I appreciate a well-placed nap. 

Want to talk mission with Scott and his team? Send him an email at sstark@crcna.org