“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC
- Covenant Theological Seminary, MDiv
- East Carolina University, BS Business Administration
- Certified Practitioner with numerous Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessments for individuals and groups
- Trained Facilitator for several inventory and skill-building programs for families through Prepare & Enrich: Pre-Marriage, Marriage, Pre-Adoption, Pre-Foster Care, Parenting
- Created4Good, Founder & Director
- Builders Mutual Insurance Co., Corporate Trainer
- Covenant Theological Seminary, Visiting Instructor/TA/Placement Director/ACCESS Mentor
- Grace Community Church, Church Planting Intern
- Old Orchard Church, Pastoral Intern
- SOLO “Single Light”, Conference Director
- Cru FamilyLife, Research Director/Conference Administrator
Mark Dawson
Founder & Director
Mark Dawson pioneered Created4Good in 2010 with a heart for connecting people to calling. From the beginning, Mark designed a process for coaching individuals and teams that was born out of his experience as Placement Director at Covenant Theological Seminary, as well as training he received under the teaching and direction of Dr. Phil Douglass (Professor of Applied Theology, Covenant Theological Seminary).
Through Created4Good, Mark has developed several proprietary works that are designed to provide coaching, counseling, consulting, training, and teaching for individuals, teams, and groups. This material is the result of thousands of hours of research and development.
Mark has served as interns with churches within The Presbyterian Church in America, as well as in various roles at Covenant Theological Seminary. He has coached people within Cru (Mid-South Region), the NC Study Center, All Saints Anglican Church, the North Carolina Baptist Convention, and the corporate world. He has also served as a corporate trainer, spoken at seminars and retreats for ministry leaders, as well as in other ministry environments. Over the years, he has impacted many people through coaching, mentoring, training, consulting, preaching, and teaching.
Meet My Family
Married in 1989, Mark and his wife Robin delight as each other’s best friends. God answered the deepest desire of their hearts by becoming parents to their daughters through adoption. Simply said, the girls are two of God’s greatest gifts. After a lifetime of homeschooling, both attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Julia-Scott, a 2015 UNC graduate, enjoys her work as a news desk editor. Elissa, also a UNC graduate in 2018 where she was a student-athlete, plans to continue training for the 2020 Olympics as a diver. Together, Mark and Robin have weathered the storms of job changes, being caregivers for their parents, the loss of many family members, as well as Robin’s 30-year chronic illness and her 2010 journey with uterine cancer. Whether their circumstances are beautiful or broken, they know that God is their good, good Father.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
Thank you to Christ Presbyterian Church, Nashville, for this beautiful, comprehensive statement of the essentials of Historic Christianity:
THE BIBLE
The Bible is the inspired word of God. It is without error in its original manuscripts and contains everything we need to know about having a right relationship with God and our fellow human beings. The Bible is the basis for all of our essential beliefs (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
GOD
God is one (Mark 12:29), yet mysteriously exists in three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), who are to be equally loved, honored, and surrendered to (Matthew 28:19).
JESUS CHRIST
Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human. He is the sole Mediator able to restore the broken relationship, and the resulting alienation, between God and people (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).
THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit is God, the third Person of the Trinity. He is alive and active. He indwells followers of Christ, working in unison with the Word of God to guide them in all truth. He is the power that enables Christians to live as new creations in Christ and empowers believers for service (John 16:7-14; Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 6:17).
PEOPLE
People are created by God and in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). On this basis, all people must be treated with dignity, honor, love and respect (James 3:9-10). At the same time, in their quest for independence and the centrality of self, all people begin their lives alienated from God, and in this condition are without hope and under judgment, a condition that can only be cured through God’s loving, gracious, and saving intervention (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:1). As the image of God, we are most alive when our trust, affections and allegiances center on Him.
RESTORATION
Restoration between God and people (also called ‘salvation’) happens when the Holy Spirit gives people a new heart, leading and enabling them to trust in Jesus alone for salvation (John 1:12-13). Because God loves His creation, He will also restore the entire universe to a condition of beauty, rest, joy, perfection, and freedom (Romans 8:18-30). God’s world, which began as a promising Garden (Genesis 1:27-31), will find its fulfillment in a perfected, life-giving City in which there will be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain (Revelation 21:1-8).
GOOD WORKS
Good works do not and cannot make us acceptable to God (Ephesians 2:8-9), but are the natural outcome of authentic faith in Jesus (James 2:17). We become more fully human—the very best and most healthy version of ourselves—to the degree that we follow God’s loving commands. His commands, properly understood, are neither limiting nor oppressive but life-giving. Obedience to God’s commands is an essential prerequisite for true human flourishing.
THE CHURCH
The Church is the family of God and consists of those who place their functional trust (faith) in Jesus. God wants all members of His worldwide Church, together with their children, to be active in a local church which meets regularly to worship God, serve each other, and be a life-giving presence in their local community and world (Acts 2:42-47; Hebrews 10:24-25).