Our Team

Pastor Mark Thompson grew up on a farm three miles west of Detroit Lakes. He was called into ministry as a vocation at youth Bible Camp in Alexandria, Minnesota. He graduated in 1982 from North Central University in Minneapolis.
Pastor Mark began his ministry at Canyonville Bible Academy, a Christian boarding school in Oregon, where he taught Bible, music, and math; and coached Junior Varsity Basketball. The following year, he married Lauranne and moved to Illinois where he spent six years as Youth minister at First Assembly of God in Aurora. Pastor Mark has been a  lead pastor since 1991  (21 of which were at Christian Life Assembly in Diamond, Illinois). Mark has  been the lead pastor at Sunrise Church in St. Peter since September of 2016.
 Mark and Lauranne have two grown children and four grandchildren. Pastor Mark has a passion for missions and has traveled extensively to 6 countries on multiple mission trips. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family, fishing, hunting, and construction.

Pastor Tim and his wife Rachel have a heart to see God move in the Next Generation!  Pastor Tim’s story starts in college.  He gave his life to Jesus as a Freshmen at college in Mankato.  They graduated from Mankato in 2007, and God called them back to Mankato in 2010 and have been the Directors of Chi Alpha Campus Ministry at Minnesota State University – Mankato for the last 7 years!  They love the challenge of reaching students in high school, and seeing them stay connected when they go off to attend college, and then seeing them plug into Churches after they graduate college!  
 They love their large chaotic family!  They have three girls and two boys.  Madelyn, Noah, Zachariah, Emily, and Rebekah.

Tyler joined the Sunrise Team in 2019.  Tyler is “raised from within” (he and his family have been members at Sunrise for over 10 years).   Tyler got a call one day asking him if he'd ever thought about taking pastoral classes.  From there the rest is history....he could sense the call that God had on his life, and he hasn't looked back and loves speaking and engaging the youth weekly!

Megan became our Director of Children’s Ministry in October of 2020! She and her husband Caleb were married in 2019 and have a huge heart for kids and raising them up to be strong disciples. Megan graduated from MSU Mankato in December.  She was Certified with Assemblies of God in 2023!  In her free time, Megan loves to spend time with her family, sew, crochet, and hang out with kiddos. She is really excited to be onboard with Sunrise and to see kids grow spiritually. 

Lauranne keeps us organized on the day to day, and keeps everything else in check!  Sunrise Church would be in chaos without her!