Mark is originally from Pennsylvania and grew up in the Episcopal Church where he accepted Christ as a teenager. He attended Penn State University and met his wife, Charlene, in 1980. They married in 1983 and moved to northeast Pennsylvania a year later where Mark began his career in the private sector. While living there they helped start several independent Bible churches that continue today.

In 1987 Mark developed a mentoring relationship with an experienced pastor and spent several years studying Systematic Theology. He began a teaching ministry in the early 1990 covering a variety of topics, and in the late 90 became interested in Biblical aspects of the American founding.