Pastor Mark Gilliland has been with First Baptist Church of Plymouth since January 2023.
He grew up in small town Alabama, where he was blessed to be brought up by Christian parents. He became a Christian at the age of 10. In 1996, he married his high school sweetheart, Kelli. They have four sons together.
Pastor Mark began volunteering in churches as a teacher in the late 1990s and started preaching in the early 2000s. In 2004, he received his ordination to preach. Since then, he has served in a variety of positions in churches, including youth pastor, elder, interim pastor, and serving on the association VBS leadership team.
After many years of bi-vocational ministry, Pastor Mark felt the call to trust God in serving full-time. This led him to packing up and moving from suburban Alabama to rural Illinois, in January 2023.