Dr. Clay Hallmark began serving as Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Marion, Arkansas in 2001. Unanimously elected at the November 2009 Arkansas Baptist Convention annual meeting, he also presently serves as President of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. He is a conference leader and consultant for the FAITH Evangelism strategy as well as an evangelist and speaker throughout the nation. He and his wife Leslie, have two daughters, Cassie and Kayla. His wife, Leslie, is a 5th grade teacher at Marion Intermediate School. Cassie is a Sophomore majoring in Education at Union University and Kayla in the 9th grade at MJHS. Follow Pastor Clay Hallmark on TWITTER
Pam Doherty has been on staff as the Ministry Resource Manager for 3 years. Pam received her bachelor's degree from Belmont University. She and her husband John have two children, Bradford and Megan, and have been members of First Baptist Church for 8 years.
Jake Robinson grew up in Marion and was called to ministry while in the student ministry at First Baptist Church. He has since served as a summer intern twice and after receiving his bachelor's degree from Williams Baptist College joined the staff in August 2007. Jake is currently working toward his master's degree at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. Aside from his job description Jake is also the staff gopher.
Shirley Forrest known as Mama Shirley has been on staff since 1999. She began her ministry here at FBC as Office Assistant/Children's Minister. As the church began to grow, her position became full-time Children's Minister. Mama Shirley oversees the children programs for bed babies to fifth graders. She enjoys loving the children of FBC and the community. She is very involved with the Tri-County Baptist Association and a conference leader for the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. Mama Shirley is married to David Forrest, no less well known as Papa David. They have two children Julie and Eric. Julie is attending Seminary in Forth Worth and plans to follow in her mother's foot steps working with children. Eric has one daughter, Emma.
Michael has been on staff as the Student Minister since 2005. He received a bachelor's degree from Ouachita Baptist University and a master's degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Kati, have one daughter, Liliahna.
Lee Barnett, Minister of Worship since 2004, lives with three women (a wife, Elizabeth, and two daughters, Garner and Cadence). He leaves the house and heads to First Baptist Church wearing one of the following hats: minister, musician, graphic designer, video editor, web guy, or gadfly. He received a master's degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for the first hat and a bachelor's degree from Ouachita Baptist University for the second hat. He picked up the other hats along the way.
Mary Watkins came on staff in January 2004 serving as Church Receptionist and Administrative Assistant. Mary is married to Mike her husband of twenty seven years who is the Chairman of Missions and Evangelism. They have two sons, Bradley and Nathan.
John Rech is the pastor of New Hope Baptist Church, a mission of First Baptist Church. Under John's leadership New Hope has become a leading church in Tri-County Baptist Association for baptisms and evangelism.
