From high atop a mountain in Western North Carolina, Mark Charles Powers shares glimpses of grace revealed in ordinary lives. Go to MarkCharlesPowers.com to be uplifted and inspired by his weekly blog "Glimpses of Grace" and his book "Going Full Circle: Worship That Moves Us to Discipleship and Missions." Powers' novel "His Eyes: A Novel of Hope from Tragedy" released on Amazon and other platforms in October 2025. Mark is a choral director, church musician, and a little-better-than-bogey golfer. His wife, Kay Ward Powers, lifelong educator and mentor to many, serves as Mark's encourager and unofficial editor. Stormy the Cat chimes in.
MARK CHARLES POWERS - Writer, Blogger, Director- Mountain Song Chorus
Welcome to 12-Minute Converse with Jesus Believers.
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God chose first to have a conversation with us, His creation.
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Our prayer is that this listening space brings growth and transforms your life forever.
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Praise God for you, my child's powers.
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Tell us, what part of the world are you in today?
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I'm in western North Carolina up in the mountains.
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I served my ministry as a music minister, worship pastor in Baptist churches, mostly large churches in South Carolina.
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And then four years ago, my wife and I built a home on top of a mountain, and we moved up here to get away from the heat.
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Was that always your dream?
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It really was.
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We talked about it for years, and then God blessed us with an amazing place, an amazing privilege to live here and touch more lives in this area for Him.
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And He gave us a beautiful view on top of a mountain.
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We thank Him every day.
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What's been the difference between where you are now and where you were before?
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About 15 degrees and about 20 percent of humidity less up here.
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Would you say that you're someone that's very keen to nature and like what surrounds you?
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Does it really affect you that much then?
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It does.
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Every morning we wake up, we look out on this beautiful view out across the mountains, and we can see 60 miles in one direction out across through a gap into the plains.
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And we can see mountains on either side, and it just fills up our spirits.
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Yeah.
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Tell me, how has it impacted your relationship with God moving up there?
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Well, it's given me more time and more appreciation for the wonder and power of His creation.
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I've always walked very close to God, so I can't say that I'm any closer necessarily.
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But yes, it feels different, and it just gives us a beautiful, fulfilling life.
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You keep saying we, right?
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Yes, my wife and I.
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My wife, Kay, she's a retired public school educator and administrator for 38 years, and then she retired and became a guardian ad litem in the court system to help children going through the court system with foster care.
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And together, we teach a connect group at our church on Sunday mornings, and she does the deep Bible study, and I do the engagement and discussion.
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How long have you been married?
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48 years.
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Wow.
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You definitely have the powers.
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Well, I'm a 70-year-old debut novelist after all those years of worship leading.
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Where did that spark come from to go for the novel?
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I had written a book in 2013 about worship called Going Full Circle and had a really good experience with it and used it as a resource in my ministry through the South Carolina Baptist Convention, resourcing churches and doing events that help people, help churches in worship.
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And so as I looked toward retirement, I told my wife, I want to try writing a novel.
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I had no idea how hard it was, what I was getting into.
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It took five years, but we got an idea from looking back across all of the different class photos that she had and seeing how many of those had been touched by gun violence, because we discovered that the number one killer of children and teens in America is handguns.
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And so I wrote a story about an accidental shooting of a 12-year-old little brother through his 16-year-old brother's eyes, and it's called His Eyes, a novel of hope from tragedy.
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Did gun violence impact you other than what you did with the pictures to even create this energy that would have went with actually pursuing this?
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No, not in our lives directly, but in our ministry, her in the public school and me in large churches through the worship and music ministries, we encountered gun violence along the way, especially in her career through public schools.
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Of course, she's bringing home those stories to you, and you would have been back and forth with that as well through the years.
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Is that correct?
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That is, that is correct.
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Yes, that's how it happened.
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Would you trade it though, when you look back over time, would you trade the broken hearts, the disappointments, the trust broken for where you are today?
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I would not, because I really feel like God has had his hand on us, and my wife and I both, and he's guided us, and we've stayed obedient and trustful of him.
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And through it all, we've told people all of our lives over and over again, Christianity is not a religion.
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I mean, it is a religion by definition, but it's way more than a religion.
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It's a relationship, and God wants to walk with us and talk with us and laugh with us and love with us, cry with us.
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And that motivating factor in our lives has always caused us to be open to people and reach out, and we're very outgoing anyway by nature.
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So that combined with God's calling and what he has done in our lives to have a relationship with us, we just want so badly to see everyone experience that through Jesus Christ.
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I believe that.
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Before I was speaking with my mother and something popped up, it popped up that Jesus would decide that the last meal he would have would not be in any other place, but a place where there was this level of fellowship, similar to what you explained, right?
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Where the home is open, we serve the people.
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And Jesus said, hey, yeah, go check these guys in the upper room and let them know that, yeah, prepare.
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We're coming through, right?
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In my words, right?
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Paraphrasing.
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And it's signatory throughout the entire stories where you're seeing that, right?
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Like God comes down, he walks with man.
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Jesus comes, he walks with man, yeah?
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The relationship, even when Jesus was resurrected, he got the fishes, yeah?
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And they had a meal, yeah?
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Exactly.
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That's a great insight there.
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I appreciate that.
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Because throughout history, relationship has been the context for the gospel.
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It's why God created us to live with us and walk with us.
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And so I think the saddest words in the Bible, when Jesus said they separated the goats and the sheep, and many would look at him and say, but we did great things in your name.
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And the saddest words, he said, but I never knew you.
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God wants to know us.
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Doing great things is good, but that's secondary to the relationship and the opportunity to know our creator, Father God, personally on every level as we walk with him every day through the power of Jesus Christ.
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For the person who's listening and thinks to themselves, these guys are talking about something that I feel.
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I feel something.
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I felt a move.
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I felt something in my body.
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What's the best thing you would suggest they do next to develop their relationship with Christ?
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Well, God says, if you seek me, you will find me.
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What a promise.
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So seek him.
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Buy a Bible and read just the gospel of John to begin with.
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It's in the New Testament, second, third of the Bible back there, and find John's book about Jesus and read it.
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And then talk to God.
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Talk to him through Jesus Christ.
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Share with him your troubles and your needs and let him speak into it through his word and through other people.
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And it's more than just a feeling.
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It's a total experience to be in God in relationship.
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So give it a try.
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Seek him.
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He says you'll find him.
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Mark, five years from today of listening to this conversation, you'd be 75 years old.
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What's the message you'd leave for future you?
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Keep walking, keep talking, keep loving, keep loving God, keep loving people, keep understanding myself, my shortcomings, my sins, and keep giving it all to God.
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Is there any question that I could have asked that would have helped you serve us better?
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You've done great, Angella.
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What a great conversation.
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I would like to tell people that my website is markcharlespowers.com and it has my 2013 worship book and my novel with links to be able to order it.
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And I also write a blog every week called Glimpses of Grace.
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I have over 500 subscribers and it comes out on Thursday, but through social media and other means, it's got a lot of readers.
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And I just try to show what we've been talking about today in a very quick little blog every week.
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So markcharlespowers.com, you can find me there and communicate with me.
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If I can ever serve anyone, I'm here for you.
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Of course, amazing audience links are in the show notes.
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Mark Charles Powers, a pleasure, a treasure.
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Thank you for being on What Is Inspired by 12 Minute Chronicles.
