BISHOP MARK TOLBERT

Bishop Mark C. Tolbert, a native of Kansas City, Missouri, is the fifth of six children born to Lee A. and Lorene V. Tolbert.  At the tender age of seven, Mark was baptized in the name of Jesus.  Two years later in a Sunday evening tarrying service young Mark Curtis was filled with the Holy Ghost. Mark began playing drums for the church at the age of 8 years old, and by his 13th birthday he was driving the church van picking up church members for evening service and dropping them back at home after night service ended most of the time after 10 pm at night.   In 1973, Mark graduated from Central High School.  Having an entrepreneurial spirit, Mark found it more rewarding to go into the work force.  He later attended Penn Valley Community College. 

1974 became an interesting year for Elder Mark, when he chose to move to Chicago, Illinois to further his business experience under the instruction of Al Potter, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all times. Al Potter from Baton Rouge Louisiana was one of the first blacks in America to receive a half a million dollar Small Business Administration loan.  Returning home in 1976, Mark owned and operated his own photography company, contracting with over 40 schools in the greater Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas area.  Mark also purchased a Fast-Food franchise on 31st and Indiana.  For the next five years, business flourished until the SMAKS parent company was bought out by the Jack-In-The-Box restaurant chain, and forced the sale of all SMAKS stores.

In 1976, Elder Mark met the girl of his dreams, Emelda Faciane. It did not take him long to realize this was the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.  Three months later, she finally agreed to give him a date.  That first date was the beginning of the rest of their lives together.  In April of 1978, Mark and Emelda were joined in Holy Matrimony by his father, District Elder Lee A. Tolbert and District Elder James Alford.  To this union two children were born, Mark C. Tolbert, Jr. and Britton Elliot Tolbert.  Mark Jr. went on to glory in December of 2000 and Britton is following in his father’s business savvy footsteps.

The entrepreneur spirit in Mark inspired him to venture into more opportunities.  Richard Freeman, with Johnson Products, was in need of a regional sales representative. When he met Mark Tolbert, he knew he had the right man for the job.  For the next five years, Mark traveled a 14-state area and produce millions of dollars in revenue for the Johnson Products Company. During his tenure, Mark had the privilege to lunch with George Johnson, owner of Johnson Products, and later became a speaker at their national sales meeting.

After Johnson Products, Elder Mark went to work for Blankinship Distributors in Kansas City, Missouri.  Because of his business experience in the national hair care industry, the project to create the advertising agency for Blankinship was given to Mark Tolbert.  Over the next few years, Mark designed full page ads which were featured in prominent publications such as Jet, Ebony, Black Enterprise Magazine, the Globe Newspaper and the Call Newspaper, etc.

Throughout his business career, Mark Tolbert never ceased to have a fervent relationship with God.  He filled various positions in Christ Temple Pentecostal Church, his local assembly; the Northwestern District Council; the International Pentecostal Young Peoples Union and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. Mark first felt the call of the ministry at the age of 18.  Like many ministers, he fled from his call until God got his attention on Interstate 29 at midnight, while his car sat on the edge of a cliff.  From that day forward, the gospel has been preached throughout the nation and the world by Bishop Mark Tolbert. 

Faithful service to his local assembly gave Mark experience as the church drummer, bus driver, janitor, youth president, choir president, kitchen helper, assistant pastor, co-pastor, and now the Pastor of Victorious Life Church.  On the district level he served as Vice chairman of the Youth Department, Chairman of the Youth Department, Council Chairman, and District Elder.  On the national level, Bishop Mark served as an assistant convention coordinator, lay director of the Midwestern Region of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Suffragan Bishop, And general treasurer of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World.  He is a member of the Board of Bishops of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World and was Diocesan Bishop of the Canada Council for 5 years.  Now Bishop Tolbert serves as the Diocesan Bishop of the Heart of America Council of Churches formerly (NWDC).  He also serves our National Pentecostal Assemblies of the World as the 1st Assistant Presiding Bishop. 

 As part of his community involvement, he served the City of Kansas City Mo. as a Commissioner of the Kansas City Missouri Police Department Appointed by the Governor of Missouri.  Six years in total as a commissioner and two of those years he served as the president of the KCPD Board of Police Commissioners. 

During his father's tenure as pastor, Elder Mark Tolbert operated in the capacity of business manager and administrator, and assistant pastor.  In 1989, Elder Mark C. Tolbert, Sr. and 

Sis. Emelda were selected to be the Pastor and First Lady of Christ Temple Church.  In 1989, a majority vote was cast in his favor, and Pastor Tolbert was officially installed in July of 1989, by the late Bishop Samuel A. Layne of St. Louis Mo. 

After participating in the city-wide clergy organization for one year, Pastor Tolbert was elected First Vice President to the Kansas City Coalition of Concerned Clergy, founded by the Rev. Wallace Hartzfield.  Two years later, he was elected President.  As a result of the new ideas and synergy presented among the clergy, Pastor Mark was the first president elected to serve two 1-year terms, consecutively.

Bishop Tolbert has served on several boards in our community: Friends of Sacred Structures, Y.M.C.A., United Way, as well as the Kansas City Coalition of Concerned Clergy, to name a few.  He is also president of the Sparrow Community Development Corporation, Founder of the Lee A. Tolbert Community Academy Charter School, and president of its school board.

In addition to being a full-time Diocesan Bishop & CFO , he and his wife, First Lady Emelda operate a health and nutritional distributorship under the Neo-Life brand.  Their business operates in 27 United states and eight international countries. 

One can only get excited in working under the leadership of Bishop Mark Tolbert. As Pastor and Bishop, he gave his all to soul winning; expanding outreach ministries; upgrading the building facilities; and, promoting church growth.  He is easy to entreat and always has a little laughter in his heart.  He is enthusiastic about preaching Jesus and encouraging all to live our God-ordained ~ Victorious Life!

Bishop has traveled nationally as well as internationally including, Mission trips with the Jewish Community Federation to develop better business relations between Israel and the Kansas City business community. 

An African Medical Mission trip to over 14 cities including Lubumbashi in the Congo and Johannesburg in South Africa where he preached, delivered food and water to rural areas and dug wells over the course of 15 days with Dr. Bishop Horace and Dr. Susan Smith.

His travels have taken him to: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Niagara Falls in Canada; The countries of Venezuela, Spain, Columbia in South America The Antilles, the countries of Aruba and Mexico as well as the city of Hong Kong, the People's Republic of China.

The following excerpts from an interview with Bishop Mark Tolbert reveal his passion for doing God's work:

"Some of the trips were mission trips, some were business. Most of the time we try to do some kind of church while we’re out,” Bishop said. “My life is entrepreneurial and church. I wish we had more church people who would be entrepreneurs because, even when Jesus was walking on the earth, his disciples sometimes made tents, and had to do other things… As religious people we get so caught up in religion that we forget we have to live,” Bishop said, stressing that Christians need to do something to sustain themselves, that keeps bread on the table and keeps you viable as a part of life and a part of society.

“Our church is unique,” said Bishop. “I think that part of my goal is to develop people along the way. Some people just go to church as a social outing or religious social outing, but I think people have to develop and the church has to purposely put on programs to develop people.”

Bishop Tolbert considers the development of the Lee A. Tolbert Community Academy as one of his biggest accomplishments. The school started with 191 children in 1999, and now has more than 500 students enrolled. Additionally, there is the educational wing, the Lee A. Tolbert Community Center, and a partnership with Local Investment Commission (LINC) that provides before- and after-school care for not only students in the Lee A. Tolbert Community Academy, but also for the children in the surrounding neighborhood. Bishop sees the naming and establishment of the Lee A. Tolbert Community Academy as a part of his father’s legacy. “What my father had gone through with an 8th grade education – raising 6 kids, 6 successful children, along with my Mom.  I really wanted to name this school after my father.”  

In 1995 Bishop Tolbert built the gymnasium on the corner of 34th and Virginia.  In 2003 Bishop Tolbert led the congregation in a major building undertaking. He designed and built a forty thousand square foot three story educational wing that attached to the original building that his father bought in 1969.  This building would change the fabric of the neighborhood and give space for the charter school to expand its footprint on 34th and Paseo rather than continuing to rent space at a satellite location. The VLC educational wing was completed in 2005 and now is the home to over 500 students, faculty and administration of the Lee A Tolbert Community Academy Charter School. 

Under Bishop Tolbert’s tutelage, the church also expanded the ministry of Jesus Christ to the surrounding neighborhood and the entire city, through a variety of programs and events. “We used to have a church outing and people would come - or not come. We would provide free food and games and sometimes people wouldn’t show up, so I started the block party – something that allows the church folks to have free food and have fun but also allows us to come together with people in the neighborhood,” said Bishop. “It has been one of the most successful community stabilizers and outreach services we have ever had.

There is also the Hope House for Men, a place where men can live for 6 months as we help them find employment & stabilization for their lives. 

Bishop also considers the church’s productions as a service and outreach to the community at-large. “It’s something that the community can come to watch and participate in. It’s ministry in another form. It gets people who might never come to church, to come and see that church folks can do more than talk about people,” Bishop said with a chuckle. One production was To Hell and Back 2, which featured a young man who, through a near-death experience saw others go to hell for different sins, decided to give his life to Christ. 

When asked about his own personal legacy, Bishop Tolbert said, “I don’t ever really think about that.  I am fortunate that I was able to follow my father so that I could help establish his legacy because, unfortunately, society really does not give people their props until they are dead. And then, most of the time they’re only going to give you a little bit and not what you deserve.” Bishop Tolbert is looking forward to developing his own successor “because I don’t think that a preacher should stay in office until he’s incapacitated. My goal is to develop a successor, retire and continue to organize community events and be on different boards and things of that nature in the community.” He also envisions himself playing golf and doing yard work when he retires.

“My hot button is always trying to help people improve themselves. With the school, Black Expo, Sparrow Community Development Corporation, all of my effort is really spent trying to develop opportunities to help people in our community live better: visions and goals and all the necessary supports to accomplish those dreams, visions and goals. It is all vision driven. That’s why the Bible says, 'without a vision the people perish'. If for one minute I thought that I could not help people develop into being the accomplished people that God wants them to be, I would quit,” he said. “When pastoring, you’re developing people & systems. You are developing a vision that does not just include the accomplishment of the church. The accomplishment of the church is the accomplishment of the people.” 

The fact that the church has birthed other ministries and churches is a blessing and an example of how this church has been growing more and more 'Victorious' each year. Since 1938 Christ Temple / Victorious Life Church, has made it our business to help people help themselves.