Interview: Former ISM Student Condemns Pastoral Corruption at Ignite Life Center
A shorter report with quotes from Susana can be read here
Editor's Notes | Names have been replaced with random letters to conceal identities.
Yesterday, former Ignite School of Ministry (ISM) student Oscar Susana came forward to publicly condemn Gainesville church, Ignite Life Center (ILC) of the Florida Multicultural District (FMD) of the Assemblies of God (AG).
This is his finalized interview with minor cuts and edits for safety and clarification, respectively.
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Q: When’d you start going to Ignite?
A: Back in, I wanna say 2017-2018, I was going through a really hard time; I didn’t have a high school diploma, I was struggling with school, I lacked purpose, all that stuff. I was house-hopping at the time. One day I’d gotten invited to my uncle’s church, which is Mariano Rivera’s church in New Rochelle, and it just so happened that Ignite was there.
Jafet Rivera was doing his little spoken word stuff, and I was like, "Wow, this is awesome, a school of ministry; that’s cool; maybe if I join, I’ll be able to deal with this sin and whatever I was going through at the time, and maybe my life will head in another direction.”
After the sermon, they go and invite you to talk to whoever, I think it was Gabriel Flores. I spoke with him, and he’s like, "Yeah, we’ll help you get your GED here. You can like sign up with this college and do school work and take the Ignite curriculum,” which was basically just disciple shit.
I was like, “That sounds great. Imma pray about it or whatever.” At the time, I was in constant communication with pastor Mark through Facebook. He was encouraging me to go, and I’d ask questions and set everything up with Mark while also communicating with Gabriel Flores.
I was promised all these things when I got there: I’d get a job and be able to get my GED at the same time…. Every time I got paid, I’d send them money to pay my entrance deposit . I took the Amtrak train to get there, and when I got there everyones saying hi, and there’s balloons everywhere. They’re like, “Welcome to whatever.” I’m like, “Nice, nice.”
Then we had orientation, and they told us the rules, “no talking to females for one year” and all this stuff. I’m looking around, and there’s a lot of females here, and I’m like, “This is going to be interesting.”
Q: How old were you all when they were telling you that?
A: I was one of the oldest there; they’d mix ages; I think the youngest was W, like 16. S was pretty young too.
It was a whole different story when I got there. I actually had to look for a GED program myself because the school didn’t offer it. Another thing is that the church is [districtly affiliated] under the Assemblies of God, but the school is not. The school is part of Mark Vega’s Evangelestic organization, it has nothing to do with the Assemblies of God.
Q: What was the time frame between you going to Mariano's church and ISM?
A: I wanna say a year. They’d force us to do stuff when we got there, and it was hard to keep a job. I worked like six different jobs in Gainesville; mind you, I had nowhere to go. I was stuck here, I’d left where I was staying. I actually dropped out of this college program I was doing because I felt “God” was calling me there, but it was truly them manipulating my mind because of my need.
Q: Do you think they saw the position you were in?
A: And took advantage of it, yeah, definitely, and they didn't really care.
Q: Did they discourage you from full-time work?
A: Yes, but then they wanted me to pay rent, which was very hard to do. Lisa called me into the office so many times, like, “Oh, you backed up on rent.” How do I owe you money if every time we do an event or go with Mark Vega’s Evangelical Ministry and he goes on stage to preach or work the superbowl, Kentucky Derby, where that money goes?
Q: Where do you think it goes?
A: They say it's for tuition, but like, how do I owe you money?
If I worked and the hours of the job were in conflict with the hours of ISM, I would have to leave the job. I worked at Chipotle, the mall, Dunkin, and Boost Mobile. The best job I had was at Lowes. I even tried to work two jobs. I had to ask students for money to buy groceries because they don’t supply food and you’d have to buy your own stuff. I went days without eating sometimes because I didn’t have any food, and they didn’t really care.
Q: They knew, and they didn’t care?
A: Yeah, they knew about that; I spoke to pastor Mark, Nicole, and others. Some people from the church would also try and help, but it still wasn't enough. Adolfo kind of tried to disciple me or be on my side, but he's so brainwashed that he doesn’t know how to handle certain things. I would get in trouble at the time because I was a little rebellious, like talking to girls at work or sneaking my phone because they’d take it. I’d be texting girls or whatever. For lack of a better word, Imma keep it real: we are in an apartment full of dudes, and there’s another apartment full of girls. There are hormones flying around, and we would find a way to talk. We found ways.
Even pastor Mark would play around with relationships and tell people, “This person is for you,” and hook people up; it’d be a mess. The first year students couldn’t even ask to date anyone.
Pastor Mark was always angry for some reason. It was hard to speak to him; he'd always have an attitude. We were basically servants. We were the church maintenance volunteers, or they’d make us do boxing. And if we didn’t want to go, we’d make up excuses like “Oh, my neck hurt.” They’d make you run around the block, but it was like, one day a week, people were hyperventilating. You’d wake up mad early to do that.
I remember when they took my phone, they saw this picture of this girl I was talking to, we were exchanging nasty pictures. What they’d do is steal your phone and go through it, showing everyone and your mama what they did?
Q: Wait, they showed them the pictures?
A:Yeah they’d show everybody; they’d show the staff, and they’d look down on you. You're going to pray, and Esther will be up on the pulpit talking crap about you, talking about the judgment and anger of God, and all that stuff.
I remember I was talking to this one girl, and they took my phone again and saw the pictures again. Mark called me out in front of everyone, saying, “You’re too horny for this ministry.”
I was like, “What? You serious?” That bothered me; everyone was sitting there. He was so arrogant. At the time, he was building a house because they got money to build a house and was about to move out. He bought a new truck. I’m sitting here like, "Dang, you make all this money; you don’t even pay your staff, all the pastors work for free; we work for free; and you have the audacity to ask me for rent.” I’m here with no food, tryna get a job, and having to find a place to get my GED.
Let’s talk about Jafet for a second. Jafet is Mariano Rivera’s son. Jafet had a problem where he popped pills; depression, blah blah blah. They sent him to Ignite, and he’d get treated like royalty. It didn’t matter what girl he had sex with on campus. It didn’t matter because that’s Marianio’s son. He was cool, but then his cousin, Jeremy, from Panama, came. He was some gangster guy; he ain't care; he was so rebellious. He’d slap anybody; he had anger issues or whatever, but it was okay because he was related to Mariano. He used to bother me a lot until he became cool. It got to the point where he realized he could get away with stuff and started smoking weed.
Q: Like at Ignite?
A: Yeah, he’d come in smelling like weed. He’s like, “I’m related to Mariano, I'm here for free.” Until he got tired and ended up leaving. The fact is that there were a lot of coverups, and they didn’t really care. If I’m struggling with a sexual sin, the Bible says that I should be able to confess my sins to one another so I may find healing. But if I confess something to them, I didn’t get healing; I got judgment.
Even though they were preaching trash, when I would go into prayer, God would tell me, “Be careful with that, that's not biblical. Then I’d be like, “Hey Pastor Mark, did Jesus really say that?” I tried to challenge him. Me and my friend N, we’d challenge him. Because I have a Biblical mindset, I’m a student of the word. When he’d say something way off, like “little God’s” or “We have the power,”
I’d be like, “Ohhhhhhhh, okay,” and name a Bible verse that’d contradict that. He’d get real mad to the point where he’d just keep talking.
When I’m trying to get to work, Mark says, "Oh, ask your brother to drive you.” I didn’t have a car. They’d get mad and tell Mark, and he’d say, “Tip $5 for gas.”
I bought a bike, and I’d just go to Lowes and ride to work. I told Lowes, “Give me as much hours as yall want, cause I ain’t leavin’. I lived in Lowes. I could’ve been employee of the year, and I was making money, but you know what I was doing? I was planning my getaway. I’m gonna make money and buy an airplane ticket, and I’m outta here.
Q: It's like an abusive relationship; you gotta make an exit plan.
A: Yeah, like run from the narcissist. Like, “He hits me, he hits me.” During the Summer time I couldn’t go anywhere, so I just worked. We got a break, and everyone was gone. Every time someone would leave, they’d end up doing something bad and come back and get in trouble for doing that. Sometimes we all got in trouble.
They also do this little cult thing that's kind of scary. When you first join the program, they wake you up in the middle of the night. They line you up in the middle of the parking lot. They start banging pans, waking people up, they lined you outside while we were half asleep in our PJ's; and the first time we did it, they took us to the cemetery. Someone would preach some sermon, and from there they’d take us to the church. It's all decorated, and we’d go to different little slots. One of the staff would be preaching something very emotional that would make you feel crazy. You’d do little stupid things like put your sin in a paper, and the next section would be like a campfire; the next section would be like a crucifixion. I was like, What in the cult is going on here? Are they gonna come out wearing cone heads? Are they gonna kill the goat? What’s next?
Q: This is a new one; I hadn’t heard about the cemetery trips.
A: Yeah, it was on the first night, and it’d be random; they wouldn’t tell you. The 3rd years would know about it because they were treated like staff. It was extended hours; we were in the church maybe five hours sometimes. “God was moving,” according to pastor Mark. “Revival was coming to Gainesville.”
I’m in prayer, like, "Lord, are you moving?” Is this really going down? Are people getting healed? Is this a move of God? I’d be getting inclinations of God’s word, and it’d be a “No” from Heaven. I wouldn’t hear it, but it's like, “Yeah, I’m not moving.”
Mark would be like, “Yeahhhhhh. Revival is here.” He layin’ hands, people droppin’. I don’t feel nothin.
They’ll force you to tell your story in a poetry-type of style. I didn’t know how to share my struggle when I was still in it. How could I share my struggle when I was still in it? It was hard to believe in that stuff.
Then they bring in C who you would probably have heard about.
Q: Wait, C?
A: Yeah, C; they used to call him my twin. He’d have mental issues like OCD, anxiety, a whole bunch of stuff. He even talked to himself and would do little weird things before going outside. He’d open the door five times or count his fingers. I used to scream at him so much, to the point where I hit him. But C, I questioned it. He was struggling, and they kicked him out of the program or something.
One day we went to West Palm from some “Call of Duty” conference, and we saw C there. Next thing you know, he's in the van with us, going back home. This man couldn’t hold a job and had know money. Ignite kept saying he owed them money, but they brought him there. He didn’t ask to come there, and you’re asking him for rent. Y'all can lay hands all you want, but he needs a therapist or medication.
Q: How would Ignite treat him?
A: Real bad. They’d make fun of him a lot. I came alongside C because they said he was my twin, so he’d look up to me. He was really trying to change, but Mark wouldn’t let him do some stuff. He’d sneak out and talk to everyone; he didn’t care who you were. He used to sneak out of the house and be on campus, talking to people.
Q: The college?
A: The University of Florida. He’d be there talking to girls—talking to everyone. Next thing you know, he’s in the club, on top of a table, dancing. The problem with Ignite is they’re not trained to help people that are struggling with mental illness.
They’ll have people struggling real bad. They had suicidal people there. I remember B at the time was going through a lot. B was really trying; it was the first time she put on a dress and let her hair grow. She was really coming out of that lifestyle until whatever happened with her and pastor Nick. It was weird; she was a first-year student. Why was she with a pastor?
Q: What did you mean by lifestyle?
A: Homosexaulity.
Q: So she was a lesbian and came to Ignite, and they were against that? Do you think Ignite pressured her?
A: No, I feel it was a decision of hers. I feel like God was truly moving her. I believe that God is able to deliver homosexuality, or anything—drug addiction, mental illness, I really believe God could free C if he really devoted himself.
We had this prophet man who came, I was doing parking lot duty. I directed cars where to park. I got to meet this prophet man, he came up to me and C. He says, “You two have an amazing ministry together. You’re gonna win souls for the kingdom and all this stuff.”
I’m like, “Gee, thanks; I’m stuck with this guy.”
C starts laughing like, "Yeah, I’ll be with Oscar, a man of God.”
I’m like, “Don’t get into that, bro; God has a plan for you.”
He’d be like, “Amen.”
The Prophet man would go around; the stage is dark; they’ve got the spotlight searching all over the sanctuary; this man walks around, and the music gets louder. He’s like, “God is calling is someone right now with a purple shirt. With a purple shirt right now, her name is E. I’m like, Are you serious, bro? Are they feeding this into an earpiece? The person came up to the front, and they fell to the floor, whatever.
Another thing the Prophet said. He calls Mark up, and Mark starts doing the little twitchy stuff. He’s like, "YO. Your ministry is gonna be world wide. I see it in New York. I see it here, I see it there. I’m sitting there wondering why he is lying to this man.
Mark has said off the pulpit that he can’t have kids. Lisa did too, like a battle or whatever they call it. The prophet put a hand to her stomach, “opened up her womb,” and said she’d have a kid, and blah blah blah. Mark went crazy, Lisa fell back. I’m still waiting’ till this day for something to happen. That’s when they adopted what's his face; that kid who did that.
Q: [Mark Vega's son] Christian [Vargas]?
A: Yeah, that dude was weird.
They had a legit orphanage there. They got money from the government to take care of these kids with no other place to go. As a job, they would hire people to help in this orphanage. I think V did it for a bit, and some other people got paid to sit there and work with those kids. They would be like social workers or counselors. They’d force some of them to join Ignite or its summer program.
My uncle went to that church, and he actually warned me and told me to not go to Ignite. He said he didn’t like pastor Mark and that the place was weird. He said, “Don’t go there, Oscar; don’t go there.” Half of that church sounds like pastor Mark. I don’t even think he’d been there that long after he tried to do Ignite New York, which failed. There's was also an Ignite school in Arizona as well, and from what I heard, it was just as bad.
Q:Where was Jose Cruz from?
A: Yeah, the guy who also had his son get in trouble. He was moved from the Bronx. He was an awesome Pastor over here and very well known in New York and in the Spanish churches. I guess Mark sold him a dollar and a dream. He told him he could make it if he came to Florida and worked for him. Joey left everything to go to Florida, low and behold, now, from what I heard, he’s looking for a way to get out of Ignite, or maybe he has already left because he realized Mark was weird. He’s bought a house over there and is established, but has no way out.
People are scared to leave because they feel like if you leave, you leave God’s will. Once you leave, they tell people to not talk to you, and that makes you feel worse. That’s what I feel happened to most of the people who left.
This other girl had a whole scholarship for a year, and they were still asking her for rent. But when she left, she hurt. She was prophesied over that she was gonna become a prophet and all that stuff. She said that it hurt her so much she can’t even go into another church anymore. This other girl became an alcoholic. The only person who came out good was K. He got in trouble, and he took his girl and left. They married and built a house, having a kid. They told him he’d have the curse of God upon him if he left Ignite. Look at him now. He’s doing better than me; I came back to the struggle in New York. It's now that I’m really getting out of what happened at Ignite. I had a little social anxiety and trust issues.
I was told before I left that I was gonna meet a girl within a month. In my head, I was thinking how it’d happen in a month if we couldn’t talk to girls. I was confused. This lady got made close, nose to nose; she’s holding my hand and praying. I’m crying because she's speaking things that make sense. “You’re lonely, Oscar; God is with you.”
I’m thinking, "Girl, you are about to kiss me or something, your boobs are on my chest.”
She said I’d meet my wife, and people would listen to me. I left a month later and actually did meet a girl, and because it happened in that sequence, I thought it was true. It ended up being hurtful, it wasn’t even a relationship. I was being used by a girl who left her man when she was engaged. She used me as a rebound to heal. When she healed, she left me because I wasn’t 10% Jewish, among other things. From there on out, I didn’t wanna hear it. I became a reformed charismatic.
You have to be careful when someone says "the Lord told me" or "I hear this in the spirit." I didn’t believe it, but then as the Lord started working in me and tried to heal me from what happened, and as I talked to other people, I changed my perspective. I didn't realize how much damage they did to me verbally. They belittle you and make you feel like nothing. We were slaves, basically. Working for this guy, Mark, to buy himself a house and a new car. It was all in the name of “God.”
Mind you, Mark used to be a Five Percenter in the New York streets in the area I grew up. That’s where he lived and he was arrested or something. According to him, Five Percenters love knowledge, so they study a lot and educate. He said the day he got saved, he locked himself in his room for three days. He said he prayed in tongues and allowed God to reveal himself to him. His head is so big that he feels like what he says is law. Like when Jesus said, “I speak when my father tells me to speak,” Mark would say, “I speak what I know I’m gonna speak because I studied it.” His circle of influence was like Kenneth Copeland and all prosperity preachers, who are horrible. I saw the author, and I don’t wanna follow this American doctrine that’s gonna lead me to hell.
I would challenge it a lot, like, “Why are we reading this book? I don’t wanna read this book. It's not biblical. No, we are not little gods. No, we don’t have power. No, we cannot create out of nothing. No, the Holy Spirit will not move if I scream into the mic louder. Me screaming, laying hands, and prophetic worship is not gonna move heaven.” I argued what they taught. If you’ve seen Afolfo preaching, he looks like he’s gonna bust a vein.
Q: What happened when you challenged Mark?
A: He’d get mad. He has anger issues. He’d curse like he’s in the hood, I’d seen it. He screamed at C a lot. He screamed like he was about to fight the dude. You then got other church staff who are guys and look up to pastor Mark in droves. When everything got exposed, he wasn’t there for them, even though they were so close to him. This man didn’t care. He just covered himself up. Ignite paid the police, and they don’t talk about Chirstian. Why is it they blew up Gabriel [Hemenez'] situation but didn’t talk much about Christian? Christian was forcing little girls to have sex in the prayer room upstairs. That’s ridiculous. I’m in New York hearing that, and I’m like, “Wow, I was a part of this church.”
They don’t have the qualifications to deal with things they don’t understand. Like C has a mental illness, but to them it's a spirit, and because he didn’t wanna submit to God, his mind is being controlled by demons. When they told him, he’d freak out. I’d have to sit down and read the Bible with him to calm him down and convince him he’s not crazy. Like God made him energetic and weird. He was a special dude; he’d dance randomly in the street, like a weird sexual dance.
The Ignite School of Ministry is harder than Marines basic training. It shouldn’t be a school. We weren’t learning; we were just doing everything pastor Mark wanted us to do. Why was I paying?
Q: Were you able to get a real accredited degree that could be used to get a job?
A: For me, I didn’t have a high school diploma and I failed a test, but I think it's like being affiliated with an online college who they associate with.
Weird things would happen. One girl went on vacation and came back pregnant. Another tried to kill herself. It was a mess there. Through it all, I wonder why I came there. No offense, but Florida sucks. The weather there was terrible, it rained randomly. I was like, “Oh, I’m finna put shorts on and go to work,” and halfway there, it’d be pouring. I really struggled; that whole year was a waste of life. I could’ve stayed here, finished school, and maybe I would’ve been a doctor. It was a waste of life and very abusive, mentally, spiritually, and physically. I had hair when I went there.
Q: They made you lose your hair?
A: I’m bald. I started losing my hair there. I was about 30, and I went in with a full head of hair and left bald. They say it's in the genes. I say nope; it's the stress level.
Q: Did you feel like Ignite held your life back.
A: In the beginning, yes, and for about a year or so, I was at my lowest, But God, it was also because of the pandemic. I ended up getting my high school diploma, and I’m way better now. I work for Google. They said I was gonna be a bum because I left Ignite, but the Bible says, “I’ll never see the righteous forsaken or begging for bread.”
God always kept me and provided for me, no matter what pastor Mark or Esther said. The man was straight comedy, he’d say that when God gives him a revelation, it makes him run to the bathroom to poop. You’d see him run off stage to use the bathroom. The disciples walked with Jesus; they ain’t say, “Hold up, Jesus, I need to go poop.” When Jesus left to be alone, it was to talk to his Father, not to poop.
We also had this ugly, broken-down bus that would break down whenever we traveled to Kentucky, the Super Bowl in Atlanta, or anywhere. It’d be made hot or cold, stuck on the road; they didn’t care about us; we slept in churches; we had to take three minute showers to clean the 3 B's, as Mark would say. They didn’t care, they gave us Wendy’s for dinner, like little stupid two burgers and fries.
Ignite is a poor excuse for Christianity. I speak for all Christians in saying what they’re doing there is not Christianity at all. Mark isn’t glorifying God, he’s glorifying himself and his pocket. Who does pastor Mark answer too? You can’t go to an elder and report him. Ignite Life Center is pastor Mark, and what he says goes. A lot of people there struggle from sexual issues, and I believe it's because it's flowing down from pastor Mark. Something is not right about this man, and it was weird energy with his wife Lisa. You can feel the darkness.
Q: Was Christian weird too?
A: Christian was a little geeky-looking, dude. He looked different in the mugshot, he had little glasses, a haircut, a hunchback, very spoiled. I didn’t think much of him, like “Oh, pastor’s kid,” but he’s a very geeky looking guy. He kind of looked like, who's that dude from the Simpsons? Old man, something? The owner of the nuclear plant?
Q: Mr. Burns?
A: Yeah, he looked like that. Pastor Mark kind of looked like American Dad.
Mark was very arrogant. You couldn’t talk or have a vulnerable conversation with the man. He’d brush you off and walk away. Then you have Adolfo, who was a lot. He was weird. He screamed at me sometimes. He called me over to his apartment one time, and he and his wife were screaming at me. They found my phone, I was talking to someone, and they had a staff meeting where pastor Mark brought it up. He was like, “When are you gonna learn Oscar.” Whatever.
Adolfo worked in the mall too, in some perfume stores. He doesn't pay his staff, so they gotta work other jobs. Lisa tried to teach us business because she is trying to run a little business too. We all need to work to bring them down. The other day, I was watching this documentary that reminded me of Ignite?
Q: Was it called Dancing with the Devil?
A: Yeah.
Q: A lot of whistleblowers have all independently said that movie reminded them of Ignite.
A: Ignite is a Shepard movement where he can hear from God and tell us what to do, but we can’t hear from God. I’ll be like, “God told me to go left,” and he’ll say, "No, God said go straight. You go left, you get in trouble.”
He likes to delegate. He’ll tell Nicole to scream at me. Esther would really get on my nerves because she can’t even sing, why is she leading worship? Why is she holding this power position over me? None of them know me.
We used to live in a three-bedroom apartment with ten guys; it was like bunk beds, sharing one fridge. People would eat your food, and I’d say something, and they don’t care; nobody in staff replaced it. I’d be hungry, and nobody cared. Church members would sometimes help out, but it was so much brain washing, Mark had puppets. This guy Joel would make me so mad because this dude Mark said “jump” and he said “how high?” Afolfo and a couple of them were weird. When it was my turn to give devotions I tried to guide them away, and they’d come out for a little before getting back to it. Mark must’ve studied some sort of psychology and masked it as Christianity. Maybe some people were freed, but it was God, not Mark.
Mark would have meetings and say to not talk to whoever because they left the program and you’d get in trouble if you reached out. That’s the thing that really hurts the most. The shaping of someone’s mind and perspective of one person without knowing the full story—that’s what messes up the person.
Q: Have you ever met AG CEO Doug Clay?
A: No, never heard of that man; Mark doesn’t really claim Assemblies of God.
Q: They do it a little weird, the last person I interviewed explained it.
A: The Ignite School of Ministry is not affiliated.
Q: I meant the church, but I guess the school is different.
A: The church is registered and affiliated, I think, but It's so weird, man. It's just more cover for him to get more money. You know Kenneth Copeland; he follows guys like that, all these “prosperity” millionaires.
Mark loves to show off Mariano. Mariano doesn’t like to be hearing he’s on the Yankees. If you go to his church, I don’t agree with how it goes down. but it says, “don’t come here for the Yankees, come here for Jesus.” Mark was his best friend, and I think that was because of money. Going back and thinking about it, it was so sus. Coming from NY struggling to come down there and struggle more. I understand in Christianity we need to submit to our authorities and follow and obey the pastor, but when it's something that's unbiblical, it's different. I tried to the best of my capacity to do right, but there’s so many rules and different personalities that I wasn’t used to. Mark wasn’t a pastor, he was a dictator. I felt like it was straight up communists in there. Like, “Pasta Mark, please, may I have a piece of bread?”
He’d be like, “Go on, Peasant.”
Lisa is the assistant of the Mariano Rivera Foundation, so they try to keep him close. A lot of people at Mariano’s church don’t like Mark because they see this. Something happened with Ignite NY, as he doesn’t preach there anymore. My source tells me from what happened with R and W.
Q: Yeah, I heard about that, the chef.
A: He’s lucky he’s a Christian, or he probably would’ve shot everyone up in there on some news.
Q: Maybe Jerry Springer?
A: They breaking into Mariano’s estate, like Drake's mansion or something that would wind up on a Kendrick diss.
My uncle is 100% against Mark. He’s like, “Oscar, I told you, man, I’m happy you left.”
There shouldn’t be an Ignite School of Ministry at all, and it should be boycotted and shut down. Mark goes on his little crusades at different churches and draws people in because the more students they have, the more they get paid.
Q: Mariano and Mark were just hanging out a little while ago, so if Mariano’s church doesn’t like Mark, why are they still buddies?
A: Because there’s a division in the church between those who do like Mark and those who don’t.
Q: Is it about half-and-half?
A: Yeah and that’s common in some churches where people don’t like a certain preacher, but at the end of the day, that’s Mariano’s friend. Mariano doesn’t have much say in the church. Even though he paid like $3,000,000 to build it, his wife is the head pastor. Maraino only sometimes takes the mic.
Q: Like a celebrity guest star?
A: Exactly. People go there like it's his church, but it's to bring people out.
Another thing I remember from Ignite is the Unbound conference.
Q: What happened there?
A: A guy who had HIV came back to the church a couple of times to the program, and I think that’s why they made it. I like the concept of it, it wasn’t bashing the homosexual community. They believe in truly having an encounter with Jesus from people who came out of that lifestyle and gave their lives to Christ.
Q: Not trying to argue, but if you feel like they weren’t bashing the gay community, why were there a bunch of protesters outside?
A: I mean, I’m not one to speak, but they protest a lot. With the way it was advertised, I guess the LGBT L-M-N-O-P community didn’t know what it was all about. Some of them believe you cannot be free from that and you’re born that way. I guess it riles up their anger, and they were protesting against the church, but those that didn’t receive, I believed, were really moved. I believe people can come out of it, but not because of Mark.
Q: At the Unbound conference, did they ever make anyone testify about any traumatic experiences or denounce their sexuality or anything like that?
A: They had guys from the Pulse club shooting sharing stories about how God showed them the truth. It wasn’t like, “Oh, you’re going to hell.” It was like showing them the kingdom.
Some stuff Ignite preached was on point about the love of God and the cross, but every time Mark was teaching, he taught it with such arrogance. He would teach his church stuff that doesn’t make sense about the creation and the beginning of sin. He has his own viewpoints and stuff that doesn’t make sense. If you challenged that, you’d get in trouble, but I’d love challenging him. Like “Yo time out.” He wouldn’t look at me anymore.
God sees your struggle, but he can still use you. Your struggle doesn’t keep you hostage from the calling God has in your life. Moses in the Bible had anger issues, was a murderer, and had a stuttering issue. When he climbed the mountain, God said “Yo you gonna go back to Pharrel and tell him to free my people.
Moses said, “Me? Wait a minute? I killed an Egyptian, and they tryna kill me. I had married a minutiae outside the woods and married her, and she worshiped like 8 Gods. I can’t even talk.”
God was like, “I got your brother A ron to talk for you.” God didn’t care that Moses wasn’t qualified. Nobody is qualified to earn God’s favor and love, it is given to us. They don’t teach you that dare, and you come out more damaged than when you went in because you come out of there thinking God is mad because of your "disobedience,” but it is the opposite.
Q: One of the civil lawsuits alleges that Mark and Mariano had a business relationship because Mark would make money by using his prominence there to convince parents to send their kids to ISM. Do you think that's true?
A: Yeah, but it's not just Mariano’s church; it's a lot of churches. We’d go to churches when we were in New York or New Jersey, or a state we’d make stops in churches he was scheduled to speak at. That’s what evangelicalists do, but to say it helped Ignite is false because we didn’t see any of that money.
There was some fun stuff; we went to the movies and did a mud race. I have good memories, but I also have bad memories, and the bad ones outweigh the good ones. The head pastoral staff were the weird ones, but you could see the others tried to be free.
Q: Do you think GPD is doing an investigation or sitting back?
A: There was a Spanish cop in the church. I don’t know if he left. I think Mark has some connection with GPD.
Q: There is a picture of Mark with former GPD Chief Lonnie Scott. Mark paid homage to Swat.
A: Off topic, but look at P Diddy.
Q: What’d he do?
A: He did a lot; how old are you?
Q: I'm 20.
A: Oh, so you don’t know about old hip-hop? Back when Biggie Smalls was alive, Puff Daddy was with Bad Boy Records. Tupac and Biggie were beefing. Biggie kind of made Diddy famous, but Biggie was who he was. They called him the gatekeeper of hip-hop, so Puff would do sexual stuff or whatever to these artists to make them famous, and it all came out recently. Jay Z was also involved in covering it up, but he was quiet when all these lawsuits were going through. Jay Z knows he has a lot to lose, but because he’s a Five Percenter and full of knowledge and knows how to maneuver, and I also believe he’s involved in witchcraft and a whole bunch of stuff. Being a Five Percenter, you study knowledge, and that’s why Mark is so smart; he reads a lot of books, but with that, you get a big head and come up with unbiblical concepts because it sounds good in your head.
There is debatable, non-essential doctrine, but there are also things that are not debatable, which as the Christian faith’s foundation. When Mark attacks something essential, I’d raise my hand, and he’d continue and get mad.
Q: If you could say something to GPD Interim Police Chief Nelson Moya, what would you say?
A: I’d be like, "Officer, take it from me, man. Open your eyes. The Bible says don’t trust no one. This guy is a master manipulator, and manipulation is just like witchcraft. He’s doing his own thing; tryna work everything through himself; tryna build his own empire, and he’s playin’ all of y'all for suckers.”
Q: Should the FBI or CIA get involved?
A: That’d be crazy. I think as more stuff unfolds, something big is gonna happen.
I do wanna add a message to the hurt and confused still at Ignite:
Jesus Christ is ready to heal and restore what has been lost. People may let you down and exploit your vulnerabilities, but that is not the true gospel. Salvation is a gift, freely given, not something to be earned. You don't need to be perfect, improve your life, or fulfill a list of religious duties to receive it. Forget about traditions and human expectations. Simply open your heart, immerse yourself in His Word, and invite God into every part of your life. Cultivate a genuine relationship with God, who loves you beyond measure. That is true Christianity.
It's not about seeking signs or demanding miracles. Jesus comes in His own time. It's about encountering Jesus Himself, not just His titles or His blessings. What you experienced at Ignite Life Center under Mark's ministry was not authentic Christianity. I urge and plead with you to return to your first love. Surrender everything to Him, embrace His love, and discover the abundant life He offers. I came to Ignite seeking hope and left feeling even more empty, lost, and confused.
Someone brought to my attention that Mark used to be in the Navy and that the tactics he uses at ISM are designed to break a person.
