Mark Pratt-Russum

Writing a biography is way harder than it seems. Folks keep telling me I am allowed to say things like “‘I am a pastor, a photographer, and a writer” with utmost seriousness. I have passed some of the official prerequisites, but mostly (because of a lack of financial resources), I have cobbled together my vocational identities by hanging around long enough for people to say, “hey you are pretty good at this now!”

And it isn’t because I’m a particularly disciplined person. I am loyal, which is different (I think). I’m good at sticking around.

And, stuck around I have. My journey as a Christian was initially marked by passionate dedication. I was the oldest son in a “good Christian family.” I went to college to learn how to be a youth pastor. It was all looking like an American dream.

But it was mostly hollow. I mean, the Evangelical church of my adolescence had the structure to support a single mother for a few years, and I honed my call to ministry there, but it couldn’t stand up to reality. Like, how, I was supposed to see the love my first Queer friend had for their partner as inherently sinful and the reason they would be forever separated from God? No amount of theological/biblical conjecture would convince me that Queer love was anything but holy and sacred.

I suppose to some I got lost then. Again, that doesn’t square with my experience. I was finding the Divine all over the place, and despite the odds, I stayed a follower of Christ, I was sticking around. I was too far in though at this point, the youth ministry world didn’t seem to have much space for a LGBTQIA+ loving, mystic leaning, oddball.

But, I’ve stuck around, and I’ve mostly been carried around by whatever things seem to come together. My life has hardly ever felt directed (in the human sense of strategic career planning). I suppose I have natural, free-Spirit, Quaker inclinations. And, here I am again, having landed on this shore of recording, having suddenly found myself the only released minister at West Hills Friends.

I started out as the part-time youth/children’s program guy. After a few years the Meeting graciously offered me a full-time position, and I began expanding my role outside of the youth/children box. Over the last five years we have navigated a few leadership changes, and a global pandemic, and for right now, I’m it.

My Meeting, in early 2023 affirmed that. So, now I am directing my energy towards helping this creative and beautiful experiment God is doing at West Hills come into even more fullness. I’m trusting that as a released minister I will be faithful to that release...to live and operate somewhat outside cultural norms, to pay attention to the ways in which Spirit is moving us. I feel an incredible sense of responsibility and commitment to the West Hills Friends community, as they collectively pull together resources to support me in this calling.

I come to you seeking to have my ministry recorded, and to hear from all of you what skills, interests, and insights I have to offer to our collective efforts as Friends. I look forward to shaping our future together