Mark Acuff - Pastor
Mark is known to many in the Chapel Hill Durham area. Mark graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a BA in Philosophy. He then worked for Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship at Duke and NC State for 7 years developing the Inter-Varsity work on those campuses. The next 3 years were at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Hamilton, MA where Mark got his Master’s of Divinity. He then started Grace Baptist Church in 1985 in Hudson, MA. He was a church planter with the Southern Baptist Convention. He came back to Chapel Hill in November of 2000 to be the Teaching Pastor at Chapel Hill Bible Church. He was there for 8 years, resigning in December of 2008. He is now been called to a new work in Chapel Hill, the Gathering Church.
Mark is married to a wonderful lady named Libby. They have 4 children. Jon is married to Jenny, and they have two children and live in Alpharetta. Will is married to Tiffany and living in Nashville. Bennett is married to Sally and living in Tallahassee. Molly is a rising freshman at UNC.
Mark is starting a new church in Durham/Chapel Hill called the Gathering Church. Its mission is to reach out to those who may seem far from God, and to love one another incredibly well, as Jesus did. The first four books of the New Testament, usually referred to as the Gospels, include much of Jesus’ teaching while he was here. People didn’t go to “church” then, they gathered to learn from Jesus. We hope you’ll gather with us as we learn about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.
“I’m haunted by the New Testament reality that people who found religion totally irrelevant, or worse, found Jesus totally irresistible. I love seeing people wake up to God, and I love seeing followers of Christ involved in that process.”
Follow @markacuff.
Chris Breslin - Associate Intern
Chris and his wife Rachel live in Chapel Hill. A Native Floridian, he moved to North Carolina in 2006 to pursue Rachel as she pursued her Doctorate of Physical Therapy at UNC-CH. Chris is in his second year of the Masters of Divinity program at Duke Divinity School.
Before serving as the Gathering Church’s Associate Intern for this academic year, Chris interned over the summer at Allensville/Trinity UMC in Roxboro, NC and worked for 2 years as a field associate for the Triangle Office of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He enjoys learning, reading, sports, music, and sipping tea with Rach.
His goal for this next year is to learn from the Gathering Church not just how to be a servant and a pastor but to learn how to love others and help build a faithful, welcoming and intimate church community.
He blogs, sometimes more frequently than others, here.
Follow @cebreslin.
Jeff Crawford - Music Director
Jeff is a local musician who moved to the area in 1998 to pursue an English and Music degree at UNC Chapel Hill. Along the way, he interned and performed with the Southeastern United Methodist Church worship team Kadasha, learning about modern church song repetoire and postmodern multi-sensory worship planning.
