Peak Experience:
Mark McCampbell’s Odyssey to Passionate Discipleship

By Roberta Caponey

How one man’s encounter with the book Man in the Mirror transformed his life and turned him into a “mountain man” for Christ.

A believer since the age of 18, Mark McCampbell was a follower of Christ -- had even been a youth pastor. And as President of Northwest Hospital Foundation in Seattle, WA, he had 20 years of fundraising and development under his belt. He was the very definition of “success” in a worldly sense. But over time, he’d wandered from the Truth. His dedication to his career was competing with his commitment to his marriage and family.

As Mark describes it, “While everything in my life looked good on the outside, inside, my priorities were all wrong. I was spending little time with my wife and kids. My prayer time was non-existent. I had no intimacy with God.”

On Father’s Day of 2000, Mark’s church gave him a copy Patrick Morley’s book Man in the Mirror. But it was almost a year later before he cracked it open during a San Diego business trip.

“It [the book] knocked me on my tail,” recounts Mark. “The book could have been called Mark in the Mirror, it seemed to be so much about me.” While sitting in his hotel room in San Diego, inspired and convicted by what he’d just read, Mark made the decision to surrender his life fully to Christ.

He credits the book for turning his marriage around. “Man in the Mirror confronted me about areas in my life I wasn’t walking with Christ. From that moment, I wanted to be a better parent, a better husband. I wanted to honor my wife,” Mark says.

“The change in me was immediately apparent. When I got home, I was standing at the baggage carousel with my wife, who commented that a different man had returned from San Diego.”

Then in Autumn of 2003, while perusing the Man in the Mirror Web site, Mark read about the Fellowship of the Red Bandanna and the inspirational 9/11 story of the man who’d repeatedly led people to safety from the smoky stairwells of one of the World Trade Center towers -- before perishing himself in its collapse. Mark was moved by the challenge set forth by the founders of the Fellowship:

We’re looking for people willing to go up while everyone else is coming down – to rescue men and lead them to the safety of the cross of Christ.

“After my surrender in 2001, I began to share the Gospel with other men. It was nothing formal. I just sought out men who were struggling and reaching out for help – in their marriages, their personal lives.

“But when I learned about the Fellowship of the Red Bandanna, I was so moved by the dramatic picture of men rescuing other men of Christ, I knew I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to commit myself formally to the goal of discipling other men. In a private meeting with my pastor, I was “inducted” into the Fellowship of the Red Bandanna.”

A PEAK Experience

Mark had long been a fan of mountain climbing in the Cascade Range near Seattle. After his induction into the Fellowship of the Red Bandanna, he began to take his red bandanna on every climb. He saw parallels in the challenges of the climbing experience and the transformation that takes place inside a man as he’s reborn and renewed in Christ.

He’d already scaled several big peaks in the Cascades. Now it was time to tackle the mother of them all – Mt. Rainier. In conjunction with this goal, he developed an acronym that summed up his philosophy of being a discipler of other men: PEAK.

Pray
Encourage
Accept
Kindle

He drew this charge from the following verses:

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you. (Ephesians 1:18)

My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love…in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ. (Colossians 2:2)

Accept one another, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (Romans 15:7)

They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while Jesus talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’(Luke 24:32)

Mark and his four climbing partners prepared for months for their scheduled climb of Mt. Rainier. Mark kept a journal during the many training hikes leading up to their attempt on the big mountain. During the training process, God was revealing important truths about what it takes to be a true leader of men. He wrote in his journal:

Leadership requires transformation, a new way of thinking, renewing our minds. Our culture accepts just about anyone as a leader – from athletes and rock stars… to CEOs driven by money and power… but leaders who follow Jesus are different because they have been transformed.

Lessons Learned from an Interrupted Goal

On July 18th, 2004, Mark and his team began their ascent of Mt. Rainier. They camped at 10,000 ft., and began stage 2 of the climb the next day. Sadly, the weather quickly deteriorated. At 12,000 ft., buffeted by 60 mph winds, they were forced to suspend their attempt.

What did Mark learn from the disappointment of failing to reach the summit?

“I learned that we can make plans, but God holds the outcome in his hands,” says Mark. “As men, we tend to be goal-oriented. Achieving the goal is not the only thing. The intimacy and sense of brotherhood I gained from sharing a difficult experience was just as meaningful.”

Mark continues, “I also learned that your body will do a lot more than you think it can; you just keep putting one foot in front of the other. The pain of the start is erased by the pleasure of the finish.”

What else differentiates a leader who follows Jesus from one who doesn’t?

As Mark wrote in his journal during the ascent of Mt. Rainier:

Leaders who follow Jesus are different in the way they are regarded, the way they handle relationships, the way they use money… How’s it going with your wife? Your kids? Your money? You may not be the lead dog in everything you do, but you do have opportunities to lead others at some point. Lead by following Jesus, through being transformed by the renewing of your mind.