We continue our introduction of our new chair, Mark Sheard, who joined us on 1 January. Last week we learned about his work in the commercial and international development sectors. Here we bring his story right up to date, beginning with how he came to join BRF Ministries.
19 January 2025
BRF Ministries
Mark first met Richard Fisher, chief executive of BRF Ministries, five or six years ago through Lucy Moore, founder of Messy Church. After getting together a few times each year, last summer Richard approached him about the chair of trustees role. As when he was approached by the NGO working in Uganda, he said, ‘Let me think and pray about it.’
And now he’s here, not least because of his long-standing affection for BRF Ministries.
‘I was very fortunate. I had a very faithful godfather who would send me New Daylight Bible reading notes throughout my teens and that got me into the habit of daily Bible reading, a habit which I pretty well follow even now – though not quite every day. Sometimes, the day overtakes you or I fall asleep before I’ve completed the reading in the evening. But perhaps I’m giving too much of my weakness away!’
Mark has also witnessed at first hand the growing impact of our new ministries, in particular Messy Church. ‘At St John’s we had a Messy Church which was doing great work, reaching unchurched young families and giving them exposure to the good news of Jesus, the stuff that Messy Church does brilliantly.’
He’s excited too by Parenting for Faith and Anna Chaplaincy and despite the challenges facing the charity sector, he doesn’t believe God has put Messy Church, Parenting for Faith and Anna Chaplaincy into BRF Ministries’ care if he doesn’t have a future for them.
‘I’m starting to talk to “we” now,’ he says. ‘We have been entrusted with these ministries and they are an enormous blessing to the church, and through the church, to many, many people. I believe God’s plan is for those ministries to grow and reach further and touch the lives of more people. And – this is my advertising background coming out – not just to grow the numbers but for us to reach the parts other organisations, including the church, aren’t reaching.’
To underpin his hopefulness, Mark takes heart from the fact that all three ministries have more than survived the moving on of their pioneer founders. ‘How on earth do you replace Lucy?’ he says, ‘Well, God sends Aike. Debbie Thrower moves on. How do you replace Debbie? God sends another Debbie. Rachel Turner moves on, and God sends Anna. All these are signs that God has not finished in any way with BRF Ministries.’
He does see rough seas ahead, however, and despite his huge attachment to the daily Bible reading notes which have been such a blessing in his life, that is one area which he believes needs particular attention. ‘Christian publishing is a challenge at the moment so we need to wrestle with that. I don’t know what it will look like in the future, but I do know it’s something we’ve got to wrestle with and that, for me, is part of the excitement of the role: working out what the business model will look like in the future. How will it work?’
‘I believe God’s plan is for Messy Church, Parenting for Faith and Anna Chaplaincy to grow and reach further and touch the lives of more people.’
A business model or a Christian model?
Twenty years ago John Maitland’s Uganda charity wanted Mark’s business acumen and objectivity. Now he brings the same expertise to BRF Ministries. But how does he balance the business mind and the charity mind, the commercial mind and the spiritual mind?
‘I don’t think it’s either/or,’ he says. ‘I think it’s both/and. If you read the gospels, just look at the parable of talents: it’s the shrewd businessman who is praised. Go make the investment, take the risk and so on.
‘Risk taking is part of it, and we have a really great expression for it in the church: it’s called faith. And faith is trusting things hoped for but not yet seen. That’s not reckless: there’s a difference between being faithful and being foolhardy. We’re called to be faithful, and to be cautious and to be wise.’
One of the things Mark rejoiced in when he was on the World Vision board was being able to pause and pray. ‘World Vision was an £80-million-a-year organisation in the UK and often we’d be wrestling with the same type of issues that all charities face – our costs and our income don’t seem to match! – and it was lovely to be able to just pause and pray. Commercial boards tend not to pray!’
So he’ll be right at home in BRF Ministries, where prayer is at the heart of everything we do and staff meet to pray at the start of each afternoon and the senior leadership team prays together weekly as a matter of course.
One of the things Mark rejoiced in when he was on the World Vision board was being able to pause and pray.
Where to begin
So, where will our new chair begin?
In the same place he began when he joined the Uganda charity: with learning. ‘Before I start trying to work with the team to formulate any answers, I’ve got to do some learning and some listening!’
‘I’m an inherent optimist. I think my optimism is built on hope in God, and I hope in God for BRF Ministries. I see no evidence that God has finished with BRF Ministries. On the contrary, I see so much evidence that God still has lots more for us to do. I relish a challenge; challenges for me are always things to be overcome, rather than defeated by. There’s a particular couple of verses from Romans that I treasure:
We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us… just at the right time when we were still powerless.
Romans 5:3–6 (NIV)
‘So, I look forward to working with BRF Ministries with a great sense of anticipation and the absolute conviction that “hope does not put us to shame”.’