Former Iowa Parkan named new
General Overseer of Church of God
(8/2/12)

Former Iowa Park resident, Mark Williams, has been nominated General Overseer of the Church of God, a denomination with 12 million members world wide.

Mark, a 1982 graduate of Iowa Park High School, is the son of Rev. and Mrs. W.F. “Bill” Williams. His father and maternal grandfather were both Church of God ministers, and his father is a former pastor of the Iowa Park Church of God.

Mark enrolled at the University of Denver in 1982, then transferred to the Church of God college in 1983, eventually receiving a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He received the Master of Divinity from the Pentecostal Theological Seminary in 1989, and is currently nearing completion of work toward the Doctor of Ministry degree from the seminary.

Mark served in numerous posts, starting as an evangelist traveling on weekends while a student at Lee University. After graduation, he continued ministering across the nation in camp meetings, church camps, prayer conferences and conducting local church revivals.

He met his future wife, Sandra Kay Collins, at a Texas youth camp in 1985, and they were married four years later. They have two sons, Austin and Ryan.

His first pastorate was at the South Cleveland (Tennessee) Church of God.

After four years, Mark and his family moved to Tampa, Fla. where he assumed the pastorate of the Riverhills Church of God. While in Tampa, Mark was elected to the Florida state council and was a chaplain with the Tampa Fire and Rescue.

Mark was elected to the Council of Eighteen at the 2000 General Assembly in St. Louis, and in 2004, church officials appointed him state overseer of California-Nevada. During the General Assembly of 2008, he was elected to the position of second assistant general overseer at the age of 44.