Rev. Mark Killam, retired Covenant pastor, died in Wilmore, Kentucky, on March 29, 2026. He was 85.
Mark Eugene Killam was born on April 27, 1940, to parents Mark and Edna Killam in Hickory, Mississippi. Mark’s father was a Navy veteran of World War I who relocated to nearby Meridian to give his children a better education. While in Meridian, Mark accepted Christ as Savior at a Methodist church revival. After graduating high school, he attended Mississippi State University.
Mark met Carol Jenkins in an afternoon select choir during his senior year of high school. They married on June 11,1961, before his senior year at MSU. They often said they married young and God grew them up, forging a strong bond together that never broke. They had three children, Suzanne, Gregory, and Jason.
Mark graduated from MSU in 1962 with a bachelor of science degree in business, while serving as a student pastor for a circuit of four churches. Later that same year he began his studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. In September of 1963, Suzanne was born. By 1966, Mark had graduated from ATS with a master of divinity degree. At graduation, he also received the President’s Award in Preaching.
Mark and Carol partnered in pastoral ministry in his home state of Mississippi from 1966 to 1981. During that span their son Gregory was born in 1967, and their son Jason was born in 1970. Mark
transferred to the North Texas Annual Conference, where he served at First United Methodist Church in Carrollton, Texas, from 1981 to 1985.
In 1985, Mark transferred his ordination to the Evangelical Covenant Church as part of his call to First Covenant Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he served from 1985 to 1989. He also served as an interim pastor at Evangelical Covenant Church in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1990, and as a church planter at Resurrection Covenant Church in Lilburn, Georgia, from 1990 to 1991.
In 1993, Mark answered a call to Grace Covenant Church in Arlington, Texas, with his stated goal “to help the congregation focus on her reason for existence, namely, to glorify the eternal Triune God by making contemporary disciples of Jesus Christ.”
Mark had a great heart for missions. He served in short-term mission work in Korea, Ecuador, and India. He also served on the board of World Relief and had extensive involvement with a variety of local and regional organizations including the Twin City Ministerium, the Good Neighbor Fellowship of Churches, the Greater Minneapolis Association of Evangelicals, and the Evangelicals Ministers Fellowship.
Mark is survived by his wife of nearly 65 years, Carol Jenkins Killam; their three children, Suzanne Carol Killam Kiesling (Chris), Gregory Mark Killam (Brenna and their children Jared, Jacob, Jonathan, and Jarah Hayes), and Jason Scott Killam (Caroline); five grandchildren, Daniel Christopher Kiesling (Nicole), Samuel Mabry Kiesling, Joshua Scott Killam, Abigail Marie Killam, and Jacob Steven Killam; and two great-grandchildren, Hannah Elisabeth Kiesling and Judah Daniel Kiesling.
A private graveside service was held on April 11, 2026, with a service of remembrance at Wilmore Free Methodist Church.
Peace be to his memory.
