theCross Mount Dora
Staff & Leaders

  • Mark Crossman

    Mark Crossman
    Campus Pastor

    Mark Crossman is the Campus Pastor here at theCross Mount Dora. He is part of the pastoral staff that teaches on Sunday mornings. He is married to Linda (theCross Vocals Coordinator) and together they have three amazing daughters: Amanda, Vanessa and Victoria. Mark was asked to do a little write up on himself but he said, “It’s so hard because there are so many great things I can say about myself! So where do I start???” Having moved all the way from South Africa to the USA he is thrilled to have ended up in beautiful Mount Dora. It was in South Africa that Mark served as a youth pastor for many years and completed 3 years of theological training and he is currently in the SMP Program through Concordia Seminary St. Louis. Mark is an exceptionally gifted communicator. You will find him most Wednesday nights breathing life into our youth and most Sunday mornings making the congregation bust-up in laughter during the announcements, but don't let his comedic skill fool you. Mark's heart for ministry and his passion for reaching the lost is what makes Mark such a solid man of God and an integral part of theCross.

  • Zach Zehnder

    Zach Zehnder
    Lead Pastor

    Zach completed his undergraduate work at Concordia University Wisconsin. It was there that he met his wife Allison, married in July 2004. From there, Zach earned his Masters of Divinity from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis in May 2010. In the same month Zach accepted a call as Associate Pastor/Church Planter at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Lake Mary, FL. As part of that call he has planted theCross in Mount Dora, FL. Through Zach's leadership, creative ministry, and community outreach theCross has seen tremendous growth since its inception! Zach and his church have twice made international headlines for doing ministry differently. First, in March 2014, Zach jokingly in a sermon offered to pay up for anyone to get a tattoo of the church logo. To date, 21 people have gotten tattooed with the logo of theCross. On November 7-9, 2014, Zach preached 44 consecutive sermons as he preached through the entire Bible and broke a Guinness World Record for the Longest Speech by an individual at 53 hours and 18 minutes. Over $103,000 was raised for a new non-profit that helps men going through recovery. When he's not doing ministry, his hobbies include playing with his boys Nathan and Brady, travel, reading, volleyball, golf, basketball, ping-pong, eating Chipotle, cheering on Cleveland sports teams, and entrepreneurial ventures. In 2017, Zach wrote his first book called the Red Letter Challenge, which is a 40-day challenge to put Christ’s words into practice! You can check it out and order a copy at www.redletterchallenge.com.