About Marshall

Marshall’s Ministry Background…

Marshall Heppner grew up in the small rural community of Waldheim Saskatchewan.  At a young age through the guidance and encouragement of family, friends and local spiritual leaders, Marshall quickly got involved heavily in ministry both in and outside of the local church community. From teaching and leading worship, leading the charge at various Camps and Retreats to spending his summers as a leader at Camp Kadesh, ministry has always been a vital and very important aspect of Marshall’s life.

Through the education and influences that Marshall’s post secondary school brought at Briercrest Bible College, his internship years at Cornerstone Community Church (Saskatoon) and Trinity Baptist Church (Kelowna) and the week in week out desire to serve in whatever context God provided, Marshall’s calling to ministry grew strong. His love for the local and global church communities, his peer group and his constant desire to see the bride of Christ live a lifestyle of Authentic Worship has never been stronger. (Romans 12:1-2) Marshall desires that his life will indeed be set aside for God’s glory to be revealed and has dedicated some 15 years of his short journey so far to this calling.

God’s calling of the ordinary to the extraordinary…

As you now know I, Marshall, have been living out in Kelowna on and off for the past 3 years. Through this time I have seen God move in wonderful and mysterious ways within this city, and have been so thankful that He has chosen to use me in many of them. But it wasn’t always puppies and kittens for me out here.  Let me fill you in on how God brought me to this city.

In the winter/spring of 2004 while I was at my second year of Bible College my roommate handed me contact information to a Bible Camp here in Kelowna. As I prayed and pondered my future summer plans and chatted with the Director here at Green Bay Bible Camp I decided that I would make the drive from the prairies, through the mountains and into the Okanagan Valley. As I established myself at Green Bay I quickly grew a discontentment towards the mindsets and lifestyles of the people in this city. I rapidly noticed an attitude of consumerism to a degree I’ve never seen before, a sense of selfish, universal lifestyle of leisure that eluded to me the belief “if it feels good do it.” This was something I have never experienced before; maybe due to a sheltered conservative up bringing but it left such distaste that I began to loathe this city. And this was the Christian population of this city.  I found myself spending my days off on campus rather than leaving and going into the city due to the fact that it usually left me frustrated. I’m a firm believer that God has a sense of humour because regardless of the fact that I told myself I would never come back, nor live in Kelowna, God had other plans and brought me back to Green Bay and this valley for another Summer.

After my second summer at Green Bay here in the Okanagan valley, a friend who I grew up with in Saskatchewan was living in Kelowna called me up one day.  As Daniel and I chatted about the good old days of growing up in Saskatchewan he was telling me of the struggles he was having with roommates, with his frustrations with the Christian young adult population who lived lives separating the sacred from the secular here in Kelowna and we quickly recognized that we had a very similar disposition.  At the end of our conversation Daniel sheepishly asked if I would ever consider taking the year off school and live in Kelowna with him. At the time I didn’t see God’s hand in why I said yes, but I said yes primarily due to the love of a friend and the mutual dislike of school and I. Through that year I got hired on working at Trinity Baptist church working with the youth and young adults within the city, working with the very people that at that time frustrated me.

Through that year at Trinity and living in Kelowna God did an amazing working in my life and in my heart. One night after coming home from a young adults event, I sat down on my couch and my heart broke. God took my bitterness, my confusion, and my sin and turned it into brokenness for this valley, for this city.  I grabbed my Bible and opened it up to the book of Nehemiah and began to read.  The prayers of this righteous man, broken for his city, broken for his people stirred up something in me that night. Undone I prayed the prayer of Nehemiah in Chapter 1.  (This is still a prayer that I pray today)

“O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands,  let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Kelowna. I confess the sins we, including myself, have committed against you.  We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands; we have forgotten your son, Jesus. “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’  God our hearts are so scattered. We have lost all hope and trust that you are the author and perfector of our faith. We have succumb to idolatry, we have worshiped ourselves instead of you. Forgive US, Change US. “They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name.”  Lord you have given me eyes to see, ears to hear and hand and feet to go. Use me if it is your will.

It was after that night that my outlook, my attitude and my heart was completely changed for the Okanagan. I began to see the beauty of relationship again, I began to see the majesty of God’s creation and I began to see good fruit within my ministry here in this city.  I still to this day have a love/hate relationship with John 15. Even though we all need pruning and we all need to chop off dead limbs to produce good fruit, it is painful.

By the end of the following summer to my year in Kelowna I began to establish solid networks within the local churches and their settings as well as the secular community through various ministry opportunities and organizational events that I had the privilege to have my hand in. I began to build up a repoire within the local college setting as I was taking a few courses to finish up my Bachelor of Arts in Music. And I began to see God work in the lives of many college and career and youth alike through the various ministries I was involved in. Unfortunately, my time in Kelowna had to come to a end and I had to say goodbye to my second home.

There and back again…

As I finished up my BA in Music at Briercrest Bible College I assumed that when I graduated that I would end up in some rural community working part time in the church and part time flipping burgers or something. I never would have guessed that God’s plans are so much greater than my own. Through my year and a half back at college, Kelowna was constantly on my mind and in my prayers as I kept in contact with many friends and church leaders out there. Completing my schooling in the Christmas of 2007 I began earlier that semester handing, emailing and faxing resumes to various church within Western Canada and even some Northern States hoping that something would happen that I could shortly after being done school walk into a full time position in a church doing what I love and live for.  I never realized how perfect God’s timing is until I got a phone call from Pastor Mike Klassen of SunRidge Community Church in…You guessed it… Kelowna.  3 weeks after Christmas I got hired on as the new Associate/Worship Pastor and was packing my car and heading towards the mountains once again to the city, the people and the calling that I have such a passion for.

Excited. Nervous.

Over confident. Inadequate…

In a good place….

What a year it has been! I started February 12, 2008 and ended my term at SunRidge Feb 22, 2009. Walking into SunRidge it was fully the intention of the Leadership and myself that I would be a part of that church family for the long haul. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

I spent a year investing and growing with SunRidge, learning once again what it means to establish a heart for the ones you serve. Learning how God calls the inadequate to do the impossible. I spent a year watching God move in confusing and mysterious ways in the lives of people through relationships, leadership, tension and love. I spent a year learning and honing my calling to this city, learning about who I am, but more importantly who I am not. What a humbling and once again pruning experience. I spent the later part of that year realizing that in many ways, the pastor that SunRidge needed and the Pastor that I am were two different people. I spent a year recognizing God’s sovereignty and his calling me back to Kelowna was not merely for 1 year but for a ministry that I was unaware of at that time.

The House…

A few years ago I met Ed Weiss through Green Bay as he was a speaker one week and I was on staff as the worship coordinator. We built a relationship indirectly through his sons and I was surprised to find out that He and his wife move to Kelowna shortly before I moved back to begin working at SunRidge. Over the past year our relationship has grown into a friendship and a mentorship and a partnership in ministry. Ed is one of the main leaders of a satellite church/venue/campus ministry base called “The House.”

Throughout the past year I have gotten more and more involved serving and leading worship there during their weekly services on Sunday nights. One of my hearts passions is to lead my peer group into the presence of Jesus through authentic worship and the opportunity for this is so evident at “The House.”  I have been so impressed with the ministry of “The House” and the future potential that it possesses within the college and university campuses, the midweek secular community that it has established, and the Sunday night church service that I personally have been so blessed to be a part of.

Club Penguin…

In April 2009, I landed a job working for Disney Online Studios Canada here in Kelowna. I am feeling very blessed to be able to see what God has in store for me there. Uncertain of my long term future as my call is towards full time ministry I know that God timing is perfect and that I need to adhere to it. I enjoyed 2 amazing years with this company and resigned on July 1/11. God is calling me forward back into the full time ministry.

The Furnace…

As of late, I am forming a non-profit ministry called “The Furnace” with the purpose of raising up young worshippers, worship leaders through a season of refining. The goal is to establish great musicians together and mentor, train and teach Biblical examples of worship to in turn release them into environments and churches to minister and to become culture influencers/changers.

Back with Trinity Baptist….and other churches

I have been serving for the past few years along side Trinity, the House, Metro and various other churches in the area of Worship Ministry. Serving as a on call Worship Leader, contractual musician among other roles. It has been an absolute privledge to glean off some of the best leaders in the area of pastoral, servant, production and practical ministry. Who knows what God has in store for this great church. I am just glad I get to tag along for the ride as of right now.

As my life continues to get more and more full with well…Life I will keep you posted. Thanks for coming and joining me in this journey of Authentic Lifestyle Worship, Loving Each Other Deeply and Living Together Freely.

Bless you all!