On Wednesday, Oct. 7, novelist, pastor and advocate for Bible design, J. Mark Bertrand, shared about his faith and career with Union students in chapel. This was in addition to a coffee talk he gave for members of the English department the previous day.
“Here was my plan. As soon as they set me loose and let me come up to the podium, I was going to rush over to the pipe organ and immediately set off the alarm, something I’d done several times before, and then rush to the microphone and declare, ‘chapel has ended,’ and let everybody go,” Bertrand said during chapel.
Bertrand spoke on Matthew 16, which deals with themes like the identity of Jesus, the foundation of the church and the cost of discipleship.
“As a pastor, it’s always fascinating to me the way that people, who say they believe in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, want from me action steps, the things they need to do to please God in order to earn his favor,” Bertrand said.
To close out the chapel service, Bertrand said, “Sometimes you can’t get to where you’re wanting to go on the road that you’re taking, and the only thing you can do is retrace your steps, find out where you took the wrong turn, and get on the right path.”
Bertrand, a Union alum, also holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from the University of Houston and a Master of Divinity degree from Heidelberg Theological Seminary and since 2017, Bertrand has been an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.
“He was the kind of speaker that you just kind of stop and listen to, like you don’t even need to take notes to have to listen to him,” junior volleyball player and business major Sarah-Kate Savage said.
In addition to his book, “Rethinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World,” published by Crossway, he is the author of three crime novels: “Back on Murder,” “Pattern of Wounds” and “Nothing to Hide.”
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