Welcome to Pine Grove Where Church Truly is All About Community WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY THERESA ST. JOHN
I love meeting new people along life’s journey. Everyone has their own story, and I find myself grateful when they decide to share parts of it with me. Mark Kehrer, Pastor of Pine Grove Community Church in Saratoga Springs, grew up on a farm in Michigan. “We’ve always been a close-knit family,” he says of his two brothers and parents. I ask if he always wanted to be in the ministry, and Mark chuckles. “Becoming a pastor was never on my radar,” he says. “I mean, never.” I’m kind of surprised. Obviously, when he says it like that, I’m compelled to learn more. “I grew up wanting to be a marine biologist,” he continues, explaining he’d joined the Navy in 1982, sharing 24 years between being onboard four submarines and serving with three shore commands before retiring as a Master Chief in 2006. Mark met his wife Jody on a double-blind date. They fell in love and married in September 1986. The couple raised three kids – two boys and a girl, in the Catholic Church but left when sexual allegations arose against priests in the faith. “It was a difficult time for parishioners everywhere – the truth was brutal, nearly impossible to wrap your head around.”
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Like many other married people, Mark and Jody had put most of their focus on making the children a top priority. But little ones grow up, eventually leave home, have families of their own, and then what? These two parents grew apart. They even separated for a short time. “My mom and I had a conversation at one point,” Mark candidly tells me. “And she told me things could work out. She encouraged me to concentrate on fixing my marriage.” His honesty is refreshing – you don’t always hear ministers, pastors, or priests speaking so matter-of-factly. I appreciate thinking of Pastor Mark as a human being first, a person of the faith second. In 2012, while home in Michigan for a funeral, Pastor John Vermilya pulled Mark aside. His message was clear; “God wants you to know he’s not done with you yet,” he stated to the young man. “He wants you to believe he has plans for you, that everything’s going to be just fine.” Jeremiah 29:13 came to Mark’s mind. “You will seek and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Not surprisingly, the marriage’s relationship began to heal quickly. “Now it’s stronger than ever.”
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