Mark Gessner was raised in Port St. Lucie, Florida and grew up attending First Baptist Church of Ft. Pierce. While attending The University of Florida, Mark was active at the Baptist Campus Ministry and served two different summers as a student missionary (in Key West in 1979 and in Singapore in 1980). Mark graduated from The University of Florida in 1982 with a degree in Music Performance (French Horn) and continued his education at Southern Seminary where he received a Master’s of Church Music degree in 1986. During his time in seminary he served First Southern Baptist Church in Clarksville, IN. In 1987 Mark was hired by First Baptist Madison as the Minister of Music. Mark has played Fourth Horn in the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra for twenty years, has taught private French horn lessons to many students in the Madison City School System, and has directed such musical works with our youth choir as Godspell, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.