Pastor Mark grew up in southern Missouri, where he came to the Lord at the age of 9. He graduated from Missouri State University with a B.S. in Business Administration in 1993 and moved to Kansas City shortly after, where he met his wife (Astrid). They were married in 1996. While in Kansas City, Mark was trained for the pastoral ministry in a 4-year Bible institute through their local church and was ordained to the pastoral ministry in 2002.  That same year, he and his family moved to Ocala, FL where he served on staff at a church for 9 years. After spending 2 more years back in Kansas City at Midtown Baptist Temple, Mark was sent out by MBT to plant Living Faith in Tampa. Mark and Astrid have 3 children, Syera, Dylan and Nykki. The Schaffer family came to Tampa in 2013.