My name is Mark Tittley. I am a married, 40 year-old, father of two young children. My wife, Debbie, studied at the Bethesda Full Gospel Bible College in Chatsworth, Kwa Zulu/Natal for one year. We were married on the 5th of December 1987. My oldest child is a boy: Keegan, born on the 27th May 1993, and my youngest is a girl: Ashley, born on the 21st of June 1995. Debbie and I grew up on the Bluff in Durban. I was born and bred in Durban, while Debbie moved down to South Africa from Zimbabwe. I got involved in youth ministry during my early high school days under the ministry of John Gardner, the youth leader at Fynnland Baptist Church on the Bluff. He formed small groups of teenagers into leadership teams who ran programmes - he even had me preach my first sermon at age fifteen. John taught me about involving youth in ministry.
I graduated from the Baptist Theological College in 1989 with a Licentiate in Theology.
I had two student youth pastorates during my College days. The first was in Sandton, Gauteng, at Sandown Union Church and the second at Valley Baptist in Bezuidenhout Valley, south of Johannesburg. The exposure to working first in a wealthy, upper-class area and then in a lower-middle class area was good experience for ministering to young people from all backgrounds.
I spent three years in KwaZulu/Natal as director of regional Baptist youth ministries (NABY - Natal Association of Baptist Youth). During this time we began a process of integrating Black and White youth ministries. South Africa had just come out of the apartheid era, culminating in the release of Nelson Mandela, and Debbie and I felt the Lord calling us to get involved in a township church. Through the Westville Baptist Church we got involved with KwaDabeka Baptist Church in Clermont, outside Durban, where we attended services, taught guitar on a Wednesday afternoon, and learnt and taught about youth ministry. This ministry led to the start of the process of integration within the regional youth ministry in KwaZulu/Natal. During my time with NABY we launched a regional ministry among children and it was here that I wrote a manual on ministry among children. During my time with NABY I was a member of the Pinetown Baptist Church and I also got in involved in setting up the initial training that would later form the foundation of the School of Worship ministry. See further details below.
I came across the writing of Duffy Robbins in 1993 and discovered the value of ministering with a commitment level philosophy. I have developed the Commitment Level Model of Ministry website in order to develop this understanding of ministry.
I have a diploma in training from the Damelin Business Management School in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. This three month diploma challenged me to re-evaluate the way in which people learn and design training so as to maximise learning.
From 1993 to 1998 I lectured in youth ministry at the Baptist Theological College in Randburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. I started work on developing the major in youth ministry back in 1993, sponsored by Baptist Youth of South Africa (BYSA). The College now has a four-year programme which includes an eight semester major in youth ministry. We graduated our first set of trained youth pastors at the end of 1996 - ten youth pastors were sent out into churches in South Africa. Each year a group of youth pastors are graduating from the College.
During my time as Training Director with the Baptist Youth Department, I was involved in setting up the School of Worship. This involved weekend training seminars to teach local churches about worship and worship leading. I have always had a passion for developing the ministry of worship in local churches.
From 1996 to 1998 I served in a local church in a voluntary capacity as a youth director in order to ensure that my lecturing grew out of a practical context. I was responsible for the development of ministry among pre-schoolers, children, teenagers, young adults and young mothers. The church was the Windsor Fellowship which was planted by the Honeyridge Baptist Church.
In July 1998 I accepted a call to the Honeyridge Baptist Church as pastor of youth and discipleship. I developed an age-based approach to structuring youth ministry during my first year at the church and set about implementing the new approach to organising youth ministry.
In November 1999 I accepted a call to return to Baptist College and resume lecturing in youth ministry. During my time at Honeyridge I came to the realisation that my passion and gifting has wired me for training and development more than for pastoring.
In February 1999 I hosted the first training event with Sonlife trainers from the United States of America. I have been highly impressed with the biblical and practical quality of their material and from then on began facilitating Sonlife training for youth leaders around the country.
In November 1999 I was afforded the opportunity to spend three weeks in the UK. It was made possible through sponsorship that was raised by an American youth ministry organisation. In February 2000 I again hosted training with Sonlife trainers from the United States and completed the Advanced 1 seminar which deals with vision for ministry. In June 2000, I hosted an Advanced 2 seminar wich deals with leadership multiplication and went through accreditation to teach the first two levels of the Sonlife training: Foundations and Strategy. At the end of 2000, in response to an invitation by Sonlife International I resigned my position at BTC Southern Africa and began to work full-time to establish Sonlife in Africa. Since then it has been my responsibility to oversee the ministry of Sonlife in Africa.
Email me: mark@hispeoplejoburg.org