Madison’s Door Creek Church finally has a senior pastor again, two and a half years after the sudden death of former pastor Brad Smith. The church has announced that Mark Maillefer, 47, will join the church staff on August 1st. He’s scheduled to give his first sermon on Sunday, September 3rd.
Maillefer (pronounced like "My Fair") has been on the pastoral staff of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois, for the past 23 years. College Church was recently designated as #37 in the top 50 evangelical churches in America. Maillefer joined the church as a youth pastor. After seven years in that position he held other ministry jobs and served as senior Associate Pastor and Executive Pastor for the past four years. He is also the author of the book "God in the Storm," published by Crossway Books.
Maillefer is married. He and his wife Lori have five children, ranging in age from 8-20. They are in the process of buying a house in Cottage Grove. He attended Bethel College as an undergraduate and received his Master and Doctor of Divinity Degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.
Door Creek, located on the far east side at 6602 Dominion Drive, is one of three Madison churches of the Evangelical Free Church denomination. Weekly attendance, including children, averages between 1100 and 1200, according to executive pastor Bill Arvold.
The church was shaken by the death of pastor Brad Smith in January of 2004, after he succumbed to a sudden and devastating illness. Arvold said Door Creek had come close to hiring several strong candidates over the last two years but for various reasons didn’t complete the process. "We were in no hurry," he said. "It was a matter of finding the right person." He said the church is pleased that the process has now been completed.