Mark Willard ('97) always loved music and felt called to ministry from the age of 16 when he led worship at his church's Wednesday night youth group meetings. Today he is answering that call as senior associate pastor of music at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia, and through a unique ministry of the church, his talent for composition that he discovered and developed as a music major at Samford is reaching a far wider audience for the glory of God.
He entered Samford as a vocal performance major, but quickly found that his true passion was theory and composition. "I loved attending Samford," he says. "The professors, Dr. L. Gene Black, Dean Milburn Price, Rebecca Remley, John Parks, IV, Dr. Jim Jenson, Dr. Bill Bugg and Dr. Timothy P. Banks all were great influences on my musical development."
Then in 2000, he came to Sherwood Baptist with his wife, Katy (also a Samford music alum), to be orchestra director. Eight months later, he was asked to be worship pastor, the position he holds today, overseeing all aspects of worship for "those from age 3 to age 93."
In recent years, the pastoral staff and congregation at Sherwood felt a burden to try to make a wider positive impact on mainstream culture than was possible ministering in church alone. A poll by the Barna Research Group released in the early 2000s found that media such as movies and television were more influential on culture than any other means of communication. So after much prayer and deliberation, the church decided to start a Christian film production ministry. Because Willard was the musician on staff at the church, he was asked to write the scores for the films. "It was a challenge, but it was a way to use the compositional training I had received at Samford. This also fulfilled a dream I had been holding on to since high school," he says.
So far, Sherwood Pictures has released three films, Flywheel, Facing the Giants, and Fireproof, all with scores by Willard. He says that he created the music for the first two films electronically, playing each instrument's part individually on a keyboard, recording them all and then mixing them together. For Fireproof, the church was able to hire the Nashville String Machine, a professional orchestra, to record the score. Willard says he found it gratifying to work with the orchestra because live players add nuances to the sound that electronic instruments cannot replicate.
Fireproof opened at number four in the nation in September 2008 showing in 839 theaters and was the highest grossing independent film of that year, earning $33 million and having cost only $500,000 to produce. The film's message of hope through Christ for troubled marriages has had widespread impact. According to the film's blog at http://fireproofthemovie.blogspot.com, director and co-writer Alex Kendrick (also on the pastoral staff at Sherwood Baptist) says that he hears testimonies every day from viewers whose lives have been changed by the story.
Fireproof's message also inspired Willard to write and record a collection of songs on a CD titled Choose Love. "I wanted to state my commitment musically, both to encourage others and to offer Katy assurance of my desire to love her unconditionally for the rest of my life. We have to choose to love, even when we don't feel like it, to make our marriages last," he says.
Willard says he is grateful to have been part of the process of composing for Sherwood productions. "Although my compositions are not being played...in concert halls, God is using [them] to underscore a message of hope that will change people's lives, and that, in my view, is far more valuable."
"Dream big," he says. "God fulfills the desire of your heart when you make Him your delight."
