When Mark Snowden reflects on his nearly 45 years in Southern Baptist ministry — whether recalling standing in Red Square before the fall of the Soviet Union or a missions trip to the side of a volcano in Guatemala — he still can’t help but think, “who gets to do that?”
On April 15, Snowden will officially retire from his role as director of missional leadership for the Cincinnati Area Baptist Association, where he has led the past 10 years. When asked about retirement, he noted “the time is right.”
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But while Snowden looks forward to a move back to Lexington, Kentucky, with his wife Mary Leigh to spend more time with family, he’s quick to add that retirement will include praying for and serving where the Lord leads next.
Snowden is no stranger to travel, especially international travel, with well over 50 countries stamped in his passports through the years. During his career, he’s served with the International Mission Board, the North American Mission Board, two state conventions and a Baptist association (his current role).
Snowden noted it’s been a career where a love for communications, helping church plants thrive wherever he happened to live, participating in overseas missions and staying consistent in discipleship efforts have wound together tightly.
“It wasn’t just doing the communications to do production,” he said of his initial years in media. “It was to communicate a message … to bring the gospel to people — and I did not take that lightly.”
SBC entities, state conventions and more
Snowden’s roller coaster ride around the SBC began in 1980 as he served as an audiovisual producer for the Foreign Mission Board (now the International Mission Board). In 1983, he became media director for the Kentucky Baptist Convention. Within three years, he began serving with the ACTS Satellite Network as a Southeast regional manager with radio/TV communications. ACTS later merged with other ministry groups to become the North American Mission Board in the 1990s. Snowden returned to the IMB in 1989 as a global media consultant.
By 2005, he was off to serve a short stint as a consultant for Rick Warren with Saddleback Church’s PEACE Plan. A year later, he was back at NAMB as a missions education director/church planting consultant. In 2012, the Snowdens moved to the Show-Me State after he was named disciple-making/state evangelism leader with the Missouri Baptist Convention. And in 2016, he landed at the Cincinnati Area Baptist Association, where he has served ever since.
Snowden studied at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and holds a master’s from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.
Reflecting back, Snowden is especially grateful for those who poured into him and helped him develop a passion for evangelization, discipleship training and church planting. His voice quickens when talking about the ongoing potential for Cincinnati churches — and churches all across the SBC — to engage immigrant groups here and abroad.
What’s next?
Looking ahead, Snowden said one project he’s excited about is National Woman’s Missionary Union contracting with him to write 52 lessons for a devotional book on missions and the family, which is slated for release sometime in 2027. The focus of it, he noted, is a desire to “make mom and dad heroes” in teaching their children about missions and discipleship.
Snowden said he and Mary Leigh are praying about other opportunities that could include serving as chaplains through Kentucky Baptist Convention’s Disaster Relief and potential overseas missions trips.
“I’ve always kept my eye focused toward missions and being as close to missionaries as I possibly could,” Snowden reflected. “God blessed each one of these transitions. … I obviously stepped out in faith, but God met me there and provided new opportunities that I’m still grateful for today.”
