Mark DeVries
For over 20 years, Mark DeVries has served as the Associate Pastor for Youth and Their Families at First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, where he continues to serve on a part-time basis. Mark is the President and Founder of Youth Ministry Architects, whose mission is to help churches establish sustainable, deep-impact youth ministries, one church at a time. Over the last four years, Youth Ministry Architects, has begun to emerge as the standard for excellence in youth ministry consulting, effectively transforming struggling youth ministries to thriving ones.
Mark is the author of a number of books, including Family-Based Youth Ministry, (IVP, Revised and Expanded, 2004), and his articles and reviews have been published in a variety of magazines and journals, including The Christian Century, Theology Today, Group, and Youthworker Journal. Mark's writings have now been translated into Korean, Chinese, and Afrikaanse.
Mark served as the general editor for The True Love Waits Bible. He and his wife, Susan, co-authored (with friends Robert and Bobbie Wolgemuth) a book on the first year of marriage, The Most Important Year, a Gold Medalion Award finalist for 2004. The DeVries have appeared as guests on Family Life Today, a nationally sydicated radio program, and on the Christian Broadcasting Network's 700 Club television program. Mark has contributed to a number of training manuals and textbooks, including Youth Ministry Handbook (Word, 2000), Starting Right (Zondervan, 2001), Reaching A Generation For Christ (Moody, 1997), The New Interpreter's Bible Handbook for Preaching (Abingdon, 2007) and Jesus-Centered Youth Ministry (Group, 2007). Mark's new book, Sustainable Youth Ministry was released in November 2008.
Mark graduated Summa Cum Laude from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, with a B.A. in English and Greek in 1980, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1986 with a senior concentration in Youth Evangelism. Throughout the years spent in Waco and Princeton, Mark was involved in youth ministry, working with Young Life in both Waco and Montgomery, New Jersey, and serving on the youth staff at the First United Methodist Church in Waco. Upon graduation from Princeton, he was awarded the first Robert Boyd Munger Youth Ministry prize.
For the past few years, Mark has been a presenter both for Wayne Rice's "Understanding Your Teenager" and Youth Builders parenting seminars. In addition to partnering occasionally with popular Christian musician, Mark Schultz, Mark has trained youth leaders at both the National Youth Workers Convention sponsored by Youth Specialties and the national youth ministry training event sponsored by Group. Mark DeVries lives in Nashville with Susan, his wife of 28 years, and children (when they choose to be in town): Adam (26), Adam's wife, Sara (23), Debbie (21) and Leigh (19).
