Dr. Mark Smith is a native of the Northeast, having been born in New York and raised in Pennsylvania. He grew up in a culturally religious home and attended church throughout his high school years, but abandoned church and adopted an atheistic philosophy of life in college. Meeting people there for the first time who professed to have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, something he’d never heard of while growing up, eventually brought him to investigate their claims. This led him into a personal relationship with Christ early in his senior year.

Pastor Smith graduated from Denison University in Granville, OH with a degree in Physics. He followed that up with graduate study in physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. After serving four years as an Air Force officer, Pastor Smith was called to preach and attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX, graduating with a Master of Divinity degree. He later earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA.

He became the pastor of North Park Church in 1979. He is married to the former Katherine Hibbard of Winnetka, IL. Katy attended Denison University and graduated from Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT. They have two adult children and six grandchildren.

Besides his work at church, Pastor Mark enjoys woodworking and taking top-down drives in his ’99 Mazda Miata.