WINONA LAKE, Ind. – Lamarr Lark of Libertyville received the Alumni Distinguished Service Award at Grace College on Oct. 4.

Each year, Grace College honors prominent alumni at its homecoming celebration. The Alumni Distinguished Service Award is presented to a graduate who has exhibited Christian leadership and displayed extraordinary service to the increased welfare of Grace College.

After graduating from Grace in 1987, Lark spent the majority of his career at Abbott, a leading global health care company, where he retired as vice president of human resources at the age of 50.

While at Abbott, Lark pursued his passion to pastor, serving as an assistant pastor and executive pastor at various churches as he and his family moved around the country for his job.

Lark knew when he retired that he wanted to pastor full time.

In 2014, Lark planted a church in Libertyville, and Connection Church – a culturally, generationally, economically diverse church – was born. Lark bought and converted an old barn built in the late 1800s into Connection’s worship center, and now he can be found preaching on Sundays to around 75 people.

In addition to pastoring full time, Lark is an owner/operator of a Chick-fil-A in Gurnee.

“Chick-fil-A gives me the financial freedom to invest in Connection Church,” Lark said

Lark also has invested tremendously in Grace College, where he has served on the Board of Trustees for 14 years.

His lengthy experience in human resources has benefited Grace greatly, and he was instrumental in the design of Deploy, Grace’s competency-based seminary program, and in connecting Grace with other key pastors in the Midwest.