Pastor keeps smiling

Pastor Marcus Sage leans on drywall board that will soon go up in the sanctuary of the expanding Fountain of Life Family Worship.
Pastor Marcus Sage leans on drywall board that will soon go up in the sanctuary of the expanding Fountain of Life Family Worship.

One of three "preachers' kids," Marcus Sage decided in high school in Oregon he wasn't going to be a preacher himself.

"I was going to be a professional, a businessman - make lots of money, attend the church and serve and give, and be that family that every pastor hopes to have in their church," he recalled. "I had scholarships set.

"I was ready to go to Oregon State University."

But, before setting off for college, he attended one more church summer camp.

"The speaker was talking about being called to the ministry - and I tuned him out," Sage recalled. "I wasn't trying to be disrespectful, but I knew I wasn't being called to the ministry. ...

"At the end of the message, I felt a prompting of the Spirit - I felt a prompting of God - to go to the front, and when I say prompting, I felt I had to go. (And) that night God spoke to me, specifically - I know, without a doubt in my mind - that I was called to full-time ministry, to pastor, to preach."

Part of his ministry is helping people understand "God speaks to us in a lot of ways" and in a lot of circumstances.

Fountain of Life is part of the Pentecostal Church of God, the same denomination as Jefferson City's Solid Rock Family Church.

Sage said he and his wife met in college, and moved to Jefferson City a little more than 10 years ago, after Joe Skiles Jr. - son of Solid Rock's pastor and a long time friend - told them about the pastoral vacancy at Fountain of Life, "and about a week later, I became senior pastor here."

After his college graduation in 1998, he "went back to Oregon and pastored my first church there, in Eugene," Sage explained. "Then, from there, we moved back to Joplin - which led us here to Jefferson City."

Dawn Sage grew up in Joplin and, for awhile after they returned from Oregon, both of Marcus' sisters and their families, and their parents, also had moved to Joplin.

His parents now live in Jefferson City, and help run the Fountain of Life church.

Being a pastor is a "very diversified and very challenging job," he said. "Preaching Sunday morning is of utmost importance - I need to be ready, because that's my biggest opportunity to affect the "crowd.'

"But I think that connecting with people throughout the week is, also, vitally important."

One of their biggest missions is serving the community and being active in it.

One of Dawn's interests always has been working with children.

"When we came here, there was no money and few people - the church was struggling, and had a lot of improvements that needed to be done on the facility," he recalled. "So, we decided together to start a (licensed) day care here."

God's Little Tykes Child Care has been running for almost nine years, helping serve the community and raising some money for the church operations.

"That's a driving force for the new building," Sage said. "We went from 30 kids to 46 kids.

"And, with 46 kids, we had to use our current Sanctuary. It's a day care Monday through Friday - we take it down for Wednesday night service and then put it back."

The congregation had been talking about expanding even before the Sages arrived in Jefferson City - and will realize that dream this summer.

"With our new building, our capacity will be (almost) 100 kids - and we're specializing in infant care, which is a huge need in Jefferson City," Sage said.

The new Sanctuary will open in August, with a capacity of 300 - triple the size of the current Sanctuary.

And, like many churches, Sage's congregation does a summer Vacation Bible School - which begins Wednesday and runs through next Sunday.

To juggle day care, construction and Bible School, the Bible School is an evening program, from 6-8:30 p.m., starting a half-hour after the day care ends for the day.

Sage said every church pastor does the best he can - in previous pastorates, he also had to do non-church work to support his family.

In addition to his normal workload, the new building construction and the Bible School, Sage said he has several interns living with his family of two adults and six children.

"(I told someone) it feels like I've got 50 balls I'm supposed to be juggling, and I've gotten really good at handling five or six," he said. "Some days, I have to choose which five or six I'm going to juggle."

But he rarely loses his optimism.

"Somehow, God always helps me meet my deadlines," Sage said. "It's hard work - but it's also life."

And Sage and his wife make sure they spend time together and with their children, "to make sure that family is priority - I think, if you're not working at it, you're asking to fail.

"I enjoy life," he said, "and I think the most fun is building relationships with people and seeing them move forward and improve."

He's been a minister for nearly two decades, and Sage has no regrets about answering that call he hadn't planned on pursuing.

"Even though there's a lot of tedious, day-in, day-out stuff," he said, "I focus on the big picture. ...

"The big picture at the end of the day is, my family is forever, and God will help me pastor the church and reach people here."