John Markum

The Vision is MUCH Bigger Than Me

You may have recently seen that I am trying to raise financial support, and I would like to explain why…

Last year, I was gently (yet firmly) challenged by a mentor. This dear friend knows my heart, and has seen me pour my guts into the ministry for many years. He’s also been one of my biggest cheerleaders along the way. His challenge to me was that the vision for what God wants to do through my life was much bigger than me. And because of that, I needed to find new and creative ways to propel the vision God had given me, namely by bringing more and more people into the vision. I am writing this to begin sharing that vision with you here…

When I planted a church in Silicon Valley 12 years ago, I knew the risk of failure was high, but I also knew that the San Francisco Bay needed more Gospel-centered churches than just the one I was called to start and pastor myself. Because of this, I didn’t just want to plant a church in the Bay Area – I wanted to be a catalyst for a church planting movement. And yet, the vision is even more than that… As Silicon Valley is the most diverse community in the U.S., with people migrating here from all over the world for work, the opportunities to spread the Gospel globally from this part of the world are enormous. I now have many friends and fellow church leaders all over Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines, Cambodia, Europe, South America, and so on.

So here are the specific vision goals I have, which I believe God has given me to pursue…

  • To bring about a church multiplication movement here in the Bay Area. Over the next year, I will share more, but I am already in the beginning phases of partnering with others to plant healthy, growing, reproducing churches in San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and every city in between. What happens in Silicon Valley changes the world.
  • Create and deploy a practical Discipleship System any church can use to grow new believers into mature followers of Jesus Christ. My Discipleship primer and Bible Studies are the beginning, and are part of an entire system I am working to create. In total, there will be the Intentional Discipleship primer for seekers and new believers, 12 studies walking through the entire narrative of the Bible, and supporting studies on key passages, theology, and so on.
  • Create encouraging and useful “Nuts-and-Bolts” tools any church leader can benefit from, tailor to their context, and deploy. This blog is one such resource, with others coming this year and early 2026. I’ll be further developing my YouTube channel, with a possibility to revive my podcast.
  • Unite, equip, and serve the worldwide move of the Gospel. This is particularly important for me among underreached people groups. My primary task with this currently, is mobilizing our international ministry connections to participating in Baptize All Nations – the global vision that began as Baptize SoCal, then Baptize California, and recently Baptize America.
  • Develop and deploy many new leaders into the work of ministry. I am partnering with other global organizations to create and unleash Bible college courses at near-free cost to the students to equip the next generation of church leaders internationally. These are the future leaders of the Church across the globe! Additionally, I am continuing to develop in house leadership tools that can be used in other contexts. The vision God has given me is only as possible as we release new leaders with our heart into Kingdom work.

This past Pentecost Sunday (June 8), our small (but growing) church of 200 baptized 18 people on a single day. That is almost 10% of our average weekend attendance! I am captivated by the idea: “What if God did the same thing in every other Gospel-preaching church around the globe?

If you’re a pastor reading this, what would it look like to see 10% of your average weekly attendance baptized in one weekend? And what if every Bible church in your city or state did the same? How would that change your community?… Now multiply that effect across the country… and across the world.

God has given me two extraordinary opportunities to be a catalyst for such a movement, and I am seeking your support:

  • This August, I have been invited to be one of 490 international delegates at the Jerusalem II Council, being held in Athens, Greece. This council will be working to discern the direction of God in the church as we close in on the 2,000 birthday of the church. Here, I hope to be a catalytic voice in uniting the global church around the Gospel and calling people into believer’s baptism in the upcoming Pentecost Sunday 2026.
  • And then in January 2026, I am returning to the Philippines in partnership with Global Surge ministries to cast the vision and equip pastors and leaders from over 30 church located across 7 different countries, coming together in Manila.

Because of all of these incredible opportunities that God has given me, there will literally thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, of people collectively receiving Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and becoming baptized into His family on May 24, 2026 next year. This is way bigger than me. And I do not fully understand why God would give me the privilege of leading such a global effort. But I know I cannot do this on my own. I need your help.

In total, I am attempting to raise $9,200 through GoFundMe, to cover the two major trips mentioned above. This will cover me, and one accompanying person on both trips, to maximize these efforts, and see them materialize. I need to raise this money between now and the end of 2025. Perhaps you would make a one-time gift of $100. Others may do $20/month. And perhaps some of you would see the vision with me, and give something truly sacrificial to this effort.

For all of you who have supported my ministry in the past, I hope you can see the fruit we have created (and continue to create) together for God’s glory. 18 baptisms in one day is still just the beginning. There are millions more I want to reach here in the Bay Area. And the world is waiting as well. I am asking you to send me, and I will go see to this work.

To all of you, thank you for your support and vote of confidence. Let’s see a global revival together.

Blessings,
Pastor John

18 Baptized in a Single Day!

As God has been blessing our ministry at Life Valley Community Church, we have been passionately and urgently calling people to give their lives to Jesus Christ and be baptized into God’s family. This past Pentecost Sunday (June 8), we were able to lead 18 people to take this public step of faith in Christ!

But what was particularly incredible was that we only had 12 people that we knew were prepared to get baptized! In partnership with Baptize America, we coordinated this baptism Sunday with thousands of other churches across the country, to proclaim the Gospel message and call people into believer’s baptism. Two people found us because of Baptize America, and another handful of people responded to the message, received Christ as their Lord and Savior, and were baptized that day, just like the first Pentecost Sunday.

I know that not every pastor or church is warm to the idea of “spontaneous baptisms” who come forward for baptism that day, but we have found that there is an appropriate way to do it. Additionally, every example we see in Scripture of baptism, it was what you might consider “spontaneous”. There are two major considerations for having successful baptisms for people who come forward Day-of a Baptism Sunday.

  1. Spiritually prepared. We want to make sure that everyone getting baptized at LVCC is doing so because they have trusted in Jesus Christ death and resurrection for their salvation. Because of this, we generally do an entire message on baptism for that day, so that we have given plenty of attention to the doctrinal concerns of people’s motives. We also have counsellors to talk to before getting baptized, so that we know we are all on the same page about why we are baptizing someone. The counselling process usually only takes 5-10 minutes after we had an entire message, and occasionally we do need to tell someone “Not today, but we would love to talk more with you so you can be ready for a future baptism day.”
  2. Physical considerations. If you’re going to offer baptism to people who did not come prepared to get baptized, at least you and your leaders should be prepared! For this, we have plenty of extra towels, a t-shirt they get to keep, as well as undergarments and gym shorts of every size. We also walk through how they will get baptized when they meet with our counsellors.

We had set a goal of 20 baptisms at Life Valley in 2025, and with an earlier baptism, we are already at our goal! What is particularly exciting to me, is that we are also only halfway through the year! And with others in our church who have recently received Christ or indicated a desire to be baptized, we have 10 more people currently needing to be baptized.

To all of you who partner with our ministry, thank you for serving Jesus with us. 2025 is shaping up to be our most amazing year yet!

Blessings,
Pastor John

A Biblical View of Mary

If you’d like to find the articles I’ve written on Marian dogma in the Roman Catholic Church, you can find them here.

The four core dogmas of RCC Mariology include:

  • Perpetual Virginity. This is the notion that Mary remained a virgin after giving birth to Jesus, and was never sexually intimate with her husband, Joseph.
  • Immaculate Conception. The idea behind this doctrine is that in order for Mary to have been the vessel for bringing God’s Son into the world, she too must have been sinless.
  • Mary as “The Mother of God”. This doctrine is based on the Greek title theotokos meaning “God Bearer” or “Mother of God”. Protestants generally reject this title, and I discuss why at the link.
  • The Assumption of Mary. This doctrine asserts that Mary ascended into Heaven – or, God “assumed” her into Heaven – like Christ, Elijah, and Enoch are described as having experienced.


So how should Christians view Mary in light of the Bible and early church history?

Mary is rarely mentioned again after the birth of Christ. So rare in fact, that we could briefly list all of them…

  1. When Jesus was 12 and Mary and Joseph accidentally left Him in in the temple in Jerusalem (Luke 2:41-52).
  2. The folks of Nazareth mention Mary alongside Jesus’ brothers and sisters (Matthew 13:55).
  3. While Jesus was teaching, Mary came looking for Jesus alongside His brothers and sisters (Mark 3:53-56).
  4. The wedding of Cana, where Jesus turns water into wine (John 2:1-5).
  5. At the cross with the apostle John (John 19:25-27)
  6. Likely at the empty tomb. (Luke 24:8-11).
  7. At the ascension of Jesus, and waiting in the Upper Room for the Holy Spirit. (Acts 1:12-14)

In every single one of these examples, Mary is a participant, and often hardly more than a footnote. Furthermore, if she had some divinely appointed role in God’s work of redemption or the function of the church, why does she not appear one single time in any of the epistles? Peter, James (also Mary’s child), Paul, John, etc. never mention Mary even once in any of their letters to the churches. But the death and resurrection of Christ is mentioned dozens of times, and heavily elaborated on over hundreds – maybe thousands – of verses. Prayer, singing worship, communion, baptism, sexual purity are each given far more attention than Mary. If Mary were important for the church to admire, “venerate”, etc. there would be clear evidence of this in the NT.

The best advice given by Mary was to do whatever Jesus said.

At the wedding in Cana mentioned in John 2, Mary tells a group of servants, “Whatever He tells you, do it.” I would humbly submit that this is still excellent advice. Later in the same Gospel account, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one gets to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6). Praying to Mary or any other saint is an exercise in futility. Jesus alone sits at the right hand of the Father and ever lives to make intercession for us. Mary is never referred to as a distributor of God’s grace in Scripture. She is described as “full of grace” in Luke 1, but this is best translated as “favored one.” Regardless, “full of grace” or “favored one” in no way implies some divine office in administering Christ’s salvation to repentant believers.

What most Roman Catholics don’t seem to understand, is that suggesting Mary is a necessary entity in the distribution of grace, makes Jesus insufficient by default. And if He is insufficient to distribute the very grace He purchased upon the cross, then He is not omnipotent God. No matter how you slice it, insisting on a Marian dogma as part of critical Christian theology creates far more problems than it supposedly answers. And all the “answers” from the RCC regarding Mary is either an argument from silence, a negative inference fallacy, or utterly dependent on early church history with mixed reports of Mary’s death and assumption, at best. And I could live with her being assumed, as she is neither the first, second, or third person in Scripture to be ascended in some fashion.

As far as the beliefs of early church fathers about Mary are concerned, this is where Bible Christians and Roman Catholics most clearly diverge, and not only regarding Mary. Roman Catholics interpret the Bible through the lens of church history, while Bible Christians interpret church history through the lens of the Bible. Yes, many early church fathers had a high view of Mary, honoring her – often in appropriate ways, and often in ways that made her more than the vessel of God bringing Christ’s corporeal form into the world. But they, like us, were flawed human beings.

This in no one is intended to minimize what Mary did do. If we will accept Mary as the Bible would portray her to us, then we must objectively hold her in high regard – blessed among women, yet not above women. She is the second Eve, flawed and in need of redemption (Luke 1:47), and yet chosen by God for a purpose and a promise. Eve received her name, meaning “mother of all the living,” after she fell into temptation. She was not named “mother of all the dying,” which in context would have made a lot more sense, shameful of a name as that might have been. And as Eve was promised that her offspring would crush the head of the Serpent (Satan), Mary was the descendant of Eve by whom this promise was fulfilled, bringing the Offspring of the woman who would crush the Serpent’s head, and defeat sin and death.

Jesus is the Savior of the world. And Mary is His mother – an obedient vessel who humbled herself to the purpose of God. She is also the result of God’s promise through Eve, prophetically bookending the “first Adam” and “last Adam” i.e., Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:45; Romans 5:14-21). Mary is worthy of honor, respect, and credit due her as the mother of our Savior. But we should never bow to an image of her (idolatry), pray to her, or create unreasonable and unnecessary beliefs and superstitions about her, for which Scripture clearly suggests otherwise. The best thing we can do regarding Mary is to take the advice she gave to the servants in John 2: “His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He [Jesus] tells you, do it.’” (John 2:5).

Blessings,
Pastor John

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