Emerging Ministry at Lewis and Clark College

Mark Stuckey shares amazing stories about ministry at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, his history with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and makes a surprising announcement about his family. Mark is the Campus Ministry Director for ICF at Lewis and Clark as well as the Associate Pastor of Worship at Eastridge Covenant Church.

Mark Stucky along with his Student Leadership Team at Lewis and Clark College

Subscribe to Mark’s Prayer Letter

Email Mark to schedule an appointment to learn more about his ministry at Lewis and Clark

Follow this link to learn how to financially support Mark and the ministry of Intervarsity at Lewis and Clark

Learn more about Intervarsity Christian Fellowship

Video Transcript:

Erik Cave: Hello everyone, Erik Cave here, your director of NextGen Ministries for the Pacific Northwest Conference. I'm really happy and excited to welcome my friend Mark Stucky. He's the campus staff minister at Lewis and Clark College with InterVarsity, and he recently joined the staff at Eastridge Covenant Church as the associate pastor of worship. Mark, you're here to share about the exciting ministry happening at Lewis and Clark, but first I'd love for you to introduce yourself and share a bit about your personal and ministry background.

Mark Stuckey: Sure. I actually grew up at Pasadena Covenant in California, so I'm really familiar with the Covenant denomination. I became a Covenant pastor about 14 years ago, ordained in the denomination, and served in different Portland-metro Covenant churches. Personally, I live in southeast Portland with my wife Hana and my son Sawyer, and — Erik, I don't know if I've shared this — baby Stucky is on the way, due next spring. So we're excited about that.

Erik Cave: Oh, this is awesome — we don't often get to break a story like that! That's great. Okay, so for the last couple of years, your most recent job — after kind of doing a circuit, working at every Covenant church in the Portland area, it seems — but most recently your job has been with InterVarsity. Tell us how you got connected with InterVarsity.

Mark Stuckey: Sure. I actually grew up in an InterVarsity household — my dad worked for InterVarsity. But my main connection was being involved with InterVarsity as a college student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. In my sophomore year, I became a Bible study leader as well as the worship leader in our group, and I've carried those two things forward for the last 24 years. I've seen how my faith and my passions — my love of the Word — kept coming together. So yeah, IV has been deep in my blood for quite a while.

Erik Cave: That's pretty cool. It's been really fun for me, as we've met and connected, to hear how you've reconnected with InterVarsity. This last year was your first real year on campus, getting connected at Lewis and Clark. So tell us, what was that like, and how was God at work through you and your ministry there?

Mark Stuckey: Sure. Lewis and Clark is a wonderful school with a couple of unique dynamics. Portland is a sort of post-Christian space — seven college campuses, 50,000 students, and not a lot happening as far as campus ministry goes. So there's a really big need for hope in this space. IV assigned me to Lewis and Clark because they've had a long history of being on and off that campus since 1965. The campus itself was just rated by Princeton Review as number two for least religious students in America, and we found that to be true — not a lot of Christian presence in the last couple of years post-COVID.

So I showed up at new student orientation, and one of the amazing stories from that day: a couple came in from Minnesota. The room was full, and I overheard the mom say to another couple, "I recognize you — our church supports you in Africa. Don't you live in Africa?" My ears were ringing at that moment. It was this God moment — two people who'd never met recognized each other as medical missionaries their churches supported in Tanzania. Their students ended up connecting too, and one of the first students I met was actually the medical missionary's daughter. Just a funny moment, out of all the places, that God put that there. It was really sweet.

Another story from later that same day: I was hosting a cereal bar social for the freshmen that evening — you know, the classic late-night cereal thing college students do. I met a student there who came up to me and said, "I had a great high school ministry experience — it meant the world to me, it was so pivotal in my life, and I want that here in college." There was no group formed yet, so I told him, "Well, you're it — this is great, you can help me put this together." He said, "I'll do anything it takes." About three hours later, he came back with a buddy of his, another Christian from Texas. The two of them quickly became best friends and started being incredibly invitational across campus.

Those two, plus the young woman connected to Tanzania, became the core group at the beginning. They helped form a club, and week after week we saw more students coming to Bible study. It grew from three to 12 students, and kept growing. I hosted one Bible study in the fall, and by the end of the year there were too many people to manage in just one, so by spring we had three Bible studies.

It was awesome to see students take leadership. Some of our student-athletes couldn't make the existing studies, so on their one day off they asked, "Can we host a Bible study this day?" — and that opened the door for even more students whose schedules matched better. Alongside the Bible studies growing, our student leadership team has grown too. Students kept asking how they could get involved, and now we have nine student leaders, which is wild. The goal is for them to become Bible study leaders next year. So this coming September, we're planning five Bible studies on campus, each led by a student leader.

Altogether, our group has grown to a core of 32 students. But beyond the numbers, one of the most beautiful things is how ecumenical it is — students coming from a wide range of faith backgrounds, from all over the world and all over the country, from different denominations, spreading the word together.

Erik Cave: Thanks again, Mark. What are some ways people can partner with you in the work God is doing on your campus?

Mark Stuckey: Three easy ways. First is prayer — I'd love your prayer as we head into this next year, to see how God is moving. I also send out a monthly newsletter, so feel free to connect with me and I'll add you to it. Second is financial support — there's a lot that goes into this ministry: programming, making space available for students to attend camps and retreats, and supporting me and the intern next year. And third, if you know people who'd love to hear this story, please share it — it's an amazing story of how God is at work. Those are some ways you can support and partner with us.

Erik Cave: Thank you, Mark. We'll put links in the blog post below for how to connect with you and with InterVarsity, along with any resources you'd like to share — right below this video. Thank you again, Mark, for taking the time to share your story, for being faithful to God in following Him in this ministry, and for the impact you're making at Lewis and Clark.

Mark Stuckey: Thanks.