NEWS

Leap of faith: MSU scientist transitions to small-town pastor

Steven R. Reed
Lansing State Journal

LANSING - On the last day of August, cell biologist Mark Aupperlee performed surgery on mice as he often had done during a decade of breast cancer research in a campus lab at Michigan State University.

Mark Aupperlee's career transitioned from science to faith this summer when he resigned his position as a breast-cancer researcher at Michigan State University to become the venue pastor at Potterville United Methodist Church, which is exploring a merger with Sycamore Creek Church in Lansing. Aupperlee has been a volunteer at SCC since 2006.

The next morning, Aupperlee’s daily commute from his East Lansing home took a more circuitous route, landing him at the door of the pastor’s study inside the tidy, white-frame building that has been home to Potterville United Methodist Church since 1877.

Aupperlee, 38 and a Ph.D., had not come to the pastor’s office to seek spiritual guidance. Nor had anyone at the church solicited his presence to discuss the causes of breast cancer or progress toward a cure.

Sept. 1 was a day of transition. A day earlier, he had been a scientist. Now, he was a pastor, ministering to a faith community whose members were so hungry for change they had prayed to God and petitioned their denomination for help.

In response to those appeals, a gifted scientist and person of faith showed up to schedule the church’s Labor Day weekend activities. And, as it turned out, Aupperlee had been yearning for fulfillment beyond the research laboratory for years.

Some people might not have seen the change coming, Aupperlee said eight weeks into his new role. “But people who have known me for years have not been surprised at all,” he said.

“Over time we started to sense this (scientific research) wasn’t the best use of his gifts and talents,” said Jana Aupperlee, 37, a Ph.D. psychologist and Mark’s wife of 16 years. “I would describe it as a feeling of discontent. He was unsettled.

“We had this sense that his ties at the lab were loosening. In the back of our minds we knew he was called to further the kingdom of God, but we just didn’t know in what area that was.”

Mark’s career transition is in its early – if not quite honeymoon – phase. Getting to this point tested his patience. Now, with two kids, continuing responsibilities in a faith community in Lansing and with new congregants in Potterville looking for leadership and inspiration, he and Jana are working through changes on multiple levels.

“We’re still working to find rhythm and routine during the week,” she said, noting her husband has worked more nights and weekends in the last two months “than ever before.”

“I don’t have any reservations about Mark following his calling, but I do think there are costs to obedience and costs to following God’s will and I think we are all experiencing that,” Jana said.

The future is always uncertain, but his is “not an uninformed leap,” Mark said.

Silhouetted against a stained-glass window at Potterville United Methodist Church, venue pastor Mark Aupperlee preaches on how to go from over-scheduled to organized on Oct. 30, 2016.

“There’s faith, there’s trust that in making this career change I will be successful and I’ll be effective in my pastoral ministry and along with that there will be financial support for it.”

Forgiveness, acceptance

The Aupperlees were high school sweethearts in Grand Rapids and attended Calvin College. Science got his attention in high school and by his sophomore year at Calvin he was drawn to research through which he hoped to build understanding of diseases and how to treat them.

He and Jana married a year before graduating from Calvin and heading off to East Lansing. She earned her Ph.D. in 2007 and works at MSU as a clinical assistant professor in school psychology. He completed his doctorate in 2008 and worked in breast cancer research in the Department of Physiology until Sept. 1.

They attended Trinity Church in Delhi Township before moving in 2006 to Sycamore Creek Church, a Holt United Methodist Church spinoff that held its services in Lansing Christian School for 14 years before buying the vacant Calvary United Methodist Church building on South Pennsylvania Avenue in Lansing in 2014.

The Aupperlees’ connection to SCC was immediate. They became active in the small faith-building groups SCC sponsors for people to share their experiences and concerns through candid, sometimes confessional but always confidential discussions. One group experience had a profound impact on Mark.

“In that men’s group, I admitted mistakes I had never admitted before and encountered God’s grace and forgiveness through the men in that group,” he said. “I also encountered God’s acceptance. That’s really big for me because it’s so easy to live with shame and guilt through your mistakes. Forgiveness helps remove the guilt. Acceptance helps to remove the shame.

“That encounter changed me. It made me more humble and gracious and accepting of others. … Something shifted for me and that’s probably when the call to pastoral ministry started. That was probably 9, 10 years ago. It’s been a journey since then.”

Balancing faith, science

Early in the journey, he volunteered to lead the small-groups ministry at SCC. A year later, he asked about being a lay preacher who occasionally would lead worship services. The Rev. Barb Flory agreed and Aupperlee’s intermittent preaching continued under the Rev. Tom Arthur when Flory retired in 2007.

Arthur, 41, left divinity school at Duke University believing that pastors who ignore the intersection of science and faith open the door to doubt and disbelief.

“One of the big challenges for the faith community is the question of evolution and navigating that whole issue,” Arthur said. “It’s always one of my great joys when we do one of those sermons, I can hand off the evolution sermon to Mark.

“He has integrity as a scientist and integrity as a person of faith. I can sit back as a pastor and learn from my volunteer preacher. I love that I’m on a staff with someone like that.”

Meantime, Aupperlee’s scientific career was flourishing.

Mark Aupperlee studied cancerous tumors as a cell biologist in MSU's Department of Physiology before leaving science Aug. 31, 2016, to become a pastor.

“He was quite valued in our research team, very productive,” said Richard Schwartz, associate dean of graduate students and professor in microbiology and molecular genetics at MSU. “I would say he had some real leadership qualities … (and) was certainly a go-to person in the lab and actually a pretty creative young scientist.”

Richard Schwartz, associate dean of MSU's College of Natural Science

Aupperlee advanced to senior research associate and published more than 20 scientific papers.

“For years I was trying to balance a career in science with my faith,” he said. “That’s a really important balance. There are people who are pursuing a science career at a high level and who are people of faith. However, the longer I continued in my science career the more a career in ministry and a calling toward ministry became clear.”

Flory and Arthur recognized Aupperlee’s potential to handle more responsibility, but they were frustrated in their efforts to provide a greater – and paying – role.

“Just like Barb, I was stuck with not having the resources to make that happen,” said Arthur. “Mark was a well-paid scientist and he needed to take care of his family. Over the years I pitched various things to him. My favorite idea was having him fund-raise his own salary. To his great spiritual integrity he didn’t dismiss that outright, but eventually he said no. It was a little too much for him and his family to take on.

“I don’t know if I recognized it at the time but Mark already was bi-vocational. He was making a living as a scientist and he was working a part-time job at our church without anything” in monetary compensation.

As the grip of science loosened, Aupperlee sought ways to help people more directly. A paid position at the church was his first choice, but years of volunteer service had not provided such a role. He did not have the ministerial credentials required to open doors to the larger United Methodist churches in the Lansing area.

As an alternative, he applied for grad school in clinical psychology at MSU last fall.

“Jana and I prayed with our kids starting last fall when I was doing the grad school application that I would find a career or job that would use my gifts and talents to honor and glorify God, to further His kingdom and to be able to provide for my family,” Aupperlee said.

The grad school screening process lasted for months. Aupperlee wasn’t notified of the decision until March. He was not accepted.

‘Called to be a pastor?’

It’s a safe bet almost no one who worships in the white-frame church in Potterville knew Mark Aupperlee was spiritually unfulfilled and had found himself back at the proverbial square one last spring.

What they knew was their prayers and petitions had not produced the changes they desired. It was April. Two months had passed since they had reached out to the denomination's leadership for help in charting a new cutting-edge course – whatever that might mean in 21st century mainstream Protestantism.

“We didn’t hear anything,” said Mike Walker, who chairs the church’s leadership council.

In fact, a creative solution was being stitched together quietly by Kennetha Bigham-Tsai, superintendent of the Lansing District of the United Methodist Church. She proposed that Potterville and Sycamore Creek explore a merger.

A lot of details had to be worked out, but, broadly, Potterville would be another venue for Sycamore Creek, which already hosted “church in a diner” and was adding “church in a pub” toward fulfillment of its vision of services in seven venues across seven days.

Bigham-Tsai pitched the idea to Arthur, SCC’s pastor, who reacted favorably.

“Potterville wasn’t a dying church,” Arthur says. “They have a lot of life and a lot of energy and a solid core of leaders. They were tired. Things weren’t working well. They felt stuck, but God had been at work at Potterville for a long time.”

And, Arthur realized, “Here were the resources to bring Mark on as full-time staff person.”

But Bigham-Tsai said she had someone else in mind. And there it was, the hold-your-breath moment: Answered prayers versus close but no communion wafer.

“Why not work with someone who knows the Sycamore Creek culture and hire from within?” Arthur countered. “I’d rather do it with Mark than somebody from outside.”

The Rev. Tom Arthur, pastor of Sycamore Creek Church in Lansing, supported Mark Aupperlee's efforts to find a career in the ministry.

You already know Aupperlee showed up at the pastor’s office four months later. But for the record, Arthur called Aupperlee and said, “This is a window of opportunity for you to come on staff and I’d love to have you and I can’t think of anybody I’d rather do it with.”

Arthur posed the key question: “Are you called to be a pastor?”

“Jana and I quickly realized there was alignment of prayer and circumstances and what other followers of Christ had been seeing and discerning in me and I said, ‘Yes, I am called to be a pastor,’” Aupperlee said.

“It was almost breathtaking how fast this went from that point on,” Arthur said.

In Potterville, Methodists listened, prayed, discerned and agreed merger could be the right course, according to Walker.

“Then we found out Mark would be our venue pastor and we were blown away just from his professional background,” said Walker, a GM employee at the nearby Delta Township plant. “He’s a scientist. Wow. He’s willing to give that up to serve the Lord.

“For us to be his first church is an honor and a privilege, but we also felt pressure. We want the experience to be the best we can make it.”

Adjusting to change

Aupperlee’s schedule has him leading services in Potterville three weeks a month. He preaches one Sunday per month at Sycamore Creek, where he retains responsibilities for adult small groups and youth programs. On the Sundays he preaches at “church in a church” in Lansing, he also leads the weeknight services held in a pub and a diner.

From a practical standpoint, he is a United Methodist pastor. Technically, he is a district superintendent appointee awaiting training and licensing. Arthur retains the executive pastor title at SCC and Potterville.

The merger of the Lansing and Potterville churches is on track but not complete, pending votes of both congregations in early December.

“I absolutely love what I’m doing right now,” Aupperlee said. “I love the interaction with people. I feel like I am living out my calling. I have a tremendous sense of purpose in what I’m doing. At the same time, I’m still a huge supporter of science. It’s definitely accurate to say I will miss that.”

Jana said the Potterville congregation has welcomed her family, which includes Drew, 10, and Kate, 8, with open arms.

Jana Aupperlee, left, teaches "Potterville Kids," the children's Sunday school class at Potterville United Methodist Church on Nov. 6, 2016.

“We have experienced an outpouring of love and support,” she said. “My experiences in that community have been overwhelmingly positive.

“We intend to spend the majority of our time in Potterville. It’s important that our family sets down roots in that community and that we form relationships with our faith community.”

Amid joy and optimism there is the realism of adjusting to change.

On the last Sunday in October, Mark wrapped up a sermon series on simplifying our lives so that stress, anxiety and worry are replaced by an organized commitment to family and faith with some time for self.

“Each moment we have is a gift,” he said. “How are we going to use the time God has given us?”

Amid the demands of his new role and the roles he retained at Sycamore Creek, he said he is turning off his phone on Fridays and not checking email. He is spending four nights a week with his family and meeting with Jana for a weekly date lunch.

Mark and Jana Aupperlee, with Drew, 10, and Kate, 8, at Potterville United Method Church on Nov. 6, 2016. Mark serves as pastor after a mid-career move from Michigan State University scientist to the ministry.

His words were gentle in tone and subtle in meaning. Drew and Kate still have to be transported to and from activities that typically take place 20 or more miles from his new office. That’s one example of how Mark’s career change has left Jana stretched thinner.

“We’re framing this as an adventure,” she said. “Helpful to me is the idea that what separates an ordeal from an adventure is attitude. We’ve worked hard to see the positive and we’re being realistic.

“In the midst of this transition we’re looking at life week by week and I’m working hard to keep my expectations flexible. I think if I have black and white goals for what I want this to be, that could interfere with God’s will for what it should be.

“I feel like God has amazing things in store for Mark, but I’m not sure what form that will take.”

Contact Steven R. Reed at (517) 377-1015 orsrreed@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter@StevenReed_LSJ