A Legacy of Kindness, Faithfulness and Compassion

When Pastor Mark Williams delivers his final sermon at United Church of Marco on July 9, the former NCAA Division I baseball player won’t be swinging for the fences. But you can bet he’ll connect.

“That is going to be my last official day as United Church of Marco Island's minister,” Williams said wistfully. "As my mentor in the ministry once taught me, when you're preaching a sermon, you want to try to get a hard base hit up the middle. It’s when you try to hit a home run that you end up striking out. If you can get a hard base hit up the middle and let God get them home, that's the right approach. So on July 9, I'm not sure there are any words in one sermon that could summarize what's happened here over the last ten years. So what I'm going to do is just hit a hard single and hope that God comes through.”

Williams is grateful for his church family.

"I am feeling a deep sense of gratitude,” Williams said, "for what has happened at United Church of Marco over the last nine years and who United Church of Marco has become as a congregation. There's a deep sense of gratitude and fulfillment that I feel as I move toward my last Sunday at United Church. And I also feel a sense of enthusiasm about a new calling at Naples UCC coming in August.”

Williams is justifiably proud of what’s been accomplished at United Church of Marco Island since he joined them almost 10 years ago.

"I would describe this church today as very different from the one I arrived at on January 1st of 2014,” Williams said. "The church has grown in membership. The Bargain Basket has grown in retail sales."

Saying the church has grown since Williams’ arrival is an understatement. Since 2014 the church has received 364 new members, and the Bargain Basket's retail sales moved from $721,000 to just shy of $1.4 million. Essentially both United Church and the Bargain Basket have doubled their numbers in ten years.

But numbers alone are not what Williams is most proud of.

“What I'm most proud of in looking back is the spiritual growth,” he said. "The growth has been in numbers, yes, but it has also been in faith and in mission. And that growth of the intangibles, the things that you can't put a number to or a price tag on, has been most rewarding for me to consider in these last few weeks of my ministry. Whereas the numbers make me smile, the intangibles are what I'm most proud of. You're more likely to be remembered for who it is that you've touched. The relational part is a bigger part for me."

Tears form in Williams’ eyes.

“Sorry, I’m getting a little choked up,” he said. "I feel that sense of the intangibles really fulfilling my heart.”

Pastor Williams has a wife, Emily, and three children.

"I had one child when I came here,” Williams said. "Nolan was one and a half. I have two more children now and a lot more gray hair,” he said with a laugh. "We've been so blessed to raise our three young children in this community with the people in this church and the staff in this church who have embodied such kindness, faithfulness and compassion. I think my children have been touched by that.”

Williams lists Hurricane Irma, the Pandemic, and Hurricane Ian, as three colossal occurrences in his time at United Church.

"So many of the biggest moments of my tenure were unplanned,” Williams said matter-of-factly, “and they ended up being major events in my own pastoral ministry and in this congregation's life. I was preaching hope into those situations of hardship and despair. I was with people during their pain in those moments. I was seeking to bring good news and life into a lot of darkness and bad news. It was from those three unplanned events that some of my best ministry came to life. It's ironic how sometimes that happens. Those were the three whoppers.”

The Bargain Basket, the church’s thrift store ministry, is an integral part of United Church’s ministry.

“The successes of my pastorate over the years has been thinking about the church and the Bargain Basket being like peanut butter and jelly, going hand in hand. The Bargain Basket and the church moving down the path of faith together has created some opportunities for this church to be very generous in knowing that it has a steady revenue stream, an alternative revenue stream.

“Because of the Bargain Basket, we're able to do huge offerings for our local community from our church members that we would never do if we didn't have that blessing as part of our organization. Since I've been here, somewhere between $3.1 and $3.4 million of generosity has moved from this church into the local community. It's extraordinary."

"I like to say that the Bargain Basket is the mainline Christian version of what Chick-fil-A or Hobby Lobby is to the evangelical community. What the Bargain Basket is to United Church of Marco Island is a mainline Christian version of what a business ought to look like.”

Williams said a turning point in his ministry was when he hired a young, energetic Samantha Arago, who had just graduated from the University of Central Florida.

"In the last ten years,” Williams said, "one of the most significant relationships that God orchestrated in my pastorate was sending in my direction Samantha Arago. That happened in April of 2017. At the time, she was 22 years old, and I took a risk in bringing on board a person who I saw was deeply passionate and who wanted to make a difference. And just as every Ernie needs a Bert, just as every salt shaker needs pepper, just as Michael Jordan needs Scottie Pippen, Mark Williams had Samantha Arago.”

"She is a colleague who's pushed me professionally to be at my best,” Williams said. "Samantha works harder than everybody else. She has very high expectations for the church and Bargain Basket. For Samantha, mediocre doesn't cut it. And I think she was always pushing me with new ideas. She was pushing me to consider being even better at some of the things that I already thought I was good at. She really pushed me in the direction of thinking about how this church would communicate itself to the community using marketing tools that I would have never imagined that this church would embrace. We live stream, we have a website that conveys the warmth of who we are."

Williams’ departure is an emotional one for Arago, too.

"I've cried a few times since we had the talk of him leaving,” Arago said. “It's going to be tough for me. He pushed me into this role when I thought it was way outside my realm of experience and what I was capable of. He believed in me.”

Many of Marco United Church's seasonal residents have already said their heartfelt goodbyes to Williams.  

"That's been hard,” Williams said. "There have been people for whom I remember preaching their spouse's memorial service or who I visited in the hospital or who I've seen lead up a committee or a ministry in a powerful way. And those goodbyes have been challenging. I've been very emotional in recent months. I’ve loved this congregation. I've loved this staff.  It’s only natural that I'm grieving and I'm allowing myself to do that. It has been emotionally hard for me because in the last ten years, I've bled United Church Blue."

When Williams delivers his final sermon as United Church’s minister, it will be - as always - without notes. And he probably won’t be trying to hit a home run. He’ll try to deliver a sharp single past the shortstop. He’ll count on God to bring him home.