Mark Koop, Executive Director of Greater Vancouver’s Youth Unlimited, joins us on the podcast this week to help us understand what it means to live as “off-centred” Christians. Also, how can we, as Christians, live “incarnate” lives? What does it mean to live like Jesus when it comes to relating to others?

Episode Links

youthunlimited.com (Youth Unlimited’s main site)

yfccanada.org (Youth For Christ’s main site)

Read It

*Below is an edited transcription of the audio conversation.

Well it’s great to be with Mark Koop today in the studio. Mark is the Executive Director for Youth Unlimited in the Greater Vancouver area. Thanks for coming on the show!

It’s great to be here. Thanks for having me Isaac.

Yeah definitely! I don’t remember exactly when it was, but we got together a few months ago and we just started to chat. You started to get into this idea of living this Christ-like life very intentionally – living this incarnate life. I really enjoyed what you had to say. So, I’d like to get into that conversation. Before we get there, though, why don’t you first share a little bit about who you are as a person. And also tell us what it’s like to be the Executive Director of Youth Unlimited in the Greater Vancouver area.

Great. Well first off, I’m a follower of Jesus. I’m also a husband and a father. I have two boys. I have a 13-year-o. I have a teenager in the home now which is quite a wild ride – and fun. I’ve worked with teenagers for so long – now I actually have one that lives with me. And I have a 9-year-old son. So I’m pretty busy with that. The whole plan with my wife and I was to not be outnumbered, so we’ve managed to achieved that. We can divide and conquer our children. And, I live on the North Shore in a community called Deep Cove. I’ve been there for probably about, I guess about 8 years. I grew up in Winnipeg and started working with an organization called Youth for Christ there. That led me to come out here and work particularly with skateboard kids initially. And now I’m the Executive Director of Greater Vancouver Youth Unlimited, which is a Youth for Christ ministry.

And for those haven’t heard of Youth for Christ, it ultimately started way back with Billy Graham didn’t it?

Yeah, way back! Our chapter was established in 1947.

Yeah. So this is an established, historic ministry.

It is, yeah. We’ve been around for quite a while. The work’s evolved over time. It started initially with these huge rallies where young people were encouraged to invite their friends, and they would come and hear people on stage share about the gospel and come to Jesus and meet Him in that way. And that was exciting. And there’s still some of that that kind of happens through different things. But, essentially it’s become a lot more relational. A lot of smaller groups and one-on-one with large group expressions as well.

Yeah, that’s awesome. I grew up in a Christian home, and when I was in probably grade 9 or 10 I started to struggle a little bit, and there was this guy in my church who my mom connected me with. His name was Calvin and he was working with Youth Unlimited for a while at that point. And he took me under his wing, and started taking me to all these different group session things. We even played with action figures together! Here was this grown man who was married and we were playing with each other. It was weird! He went skateboarding with me and all those kinds of things too, which was so strange. But, he is a huge part of my life and of my faith. Even just within a year, in January, it was a privilege having him standing next to me as I got m...