Mark Halla

Board Member

I became a Certified Nursery and Landscape Professional in 1985, but my career in landscaping and horticulture actually began at 12 years of age when I became Head Weed Puller at Halla Nursery, Inc., a business my Grandparents had started in 1942. Due to differences in management philosophy, I left the family business and moved to Maryland with my future wife, Kay, in 1985.

My formal education in the industry really took place on the East coast, when I worked for one of the most recognized Landscape Garden Centers, Metzler's, in Columbia, Maryland. In 1988, Kay and I wanted to move closer to home as we considered starting a family. I came back to work for Halla from 1989-2003, and the company grew from a small landscape firm to one of the largest retail garden center and landscape companies in Minnesota. I enjoyed my time with Halla and what I learned couldn't be purchased at the finest University. My most important lesson, however, was the importance of allowing God to have control of my life, and the value in making Him my first priority! Although I didn't know it at the time, the beginning of my true relationship with Christ was also the beginning of my departure from Halla Nursery. I thank God that He gave me the courage to trust and abide in Him, and that the death of my tenure at Halla Nursery became the birth of The Mustard Seed!

I have been working full-time in the Nursery, Landscape and Garden Center industry since 1986. I am active in my community, having served as Board Chairman for the Chamber of Commerce, a member of Rotary International, and holding various roles at Westwood Community Church.

I have three main goals in life:

1. Grow closer to God and become more like Christ, walking in intimate fellowship as He grooms me, refines me and changes me to be the man He created me to be! This includes following Him wherever He leads.

2. Love and serve my wife, my family and others as God has loved me!

3. To be the best I can be at whatever I am doing, being defined not by what I do, but rather whose I am!

My vision for my life is to bring honor and glory to God in all that I think and say and do; to enhance the lives of my family and friends, my employees and my customers, spiritually, relationally, and financially; to share the love of Christ with others to the very ends of the earth, and to love the Lord my God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength!!!

Long, long ago, in the early 1990’s, before I even knew Jesus as my Lord and Savior, God gave me a dream about some land.

After starting The Mustard Seed, I found my “promised land” along Hwy 212 and we bought it in 2005. We built a brand-new garden center, and, as we graded the land and put up the buildings, I had a nagging feeling that perhaps someday The Mustard Seed would be a church…perhaps it was the many miracles that just kept happening around us? In 2012, we bought back the old Halla Nursery property, and I knew in my spirit that God was up to something, that The Mustard Seed was going to transition…perhaps even bloom. In 2015, I had another encounter with God in which He gently rebuked me as I held tightly to my “promised land”. He reminded me that it was His land and He could do with it as He wished…ouch, so true! In the same moment, however, He invited me to build His Church. My spirit responded, “Wow, God, I don’t even know what that means, but I’m in!” In many ways, The Mustard Seed gave birth to The Outpost Center on July 9, 2015…or at least we planted the seed, nurtured it, watered it, and then God made it grow.

Since that time, I have been actively involved with The Outpost and I have participated in the Marriage Ministry, Bible Study Fellowship, Financial Peace, Men of The Outpost and so much more. As a Board member, I get to follow God wherever He leads, incorporating the dreams He has given others as we seek to build His Church together, a band of warriors focused on bringing the fight to the enemy as we prepare for our Lord Jesus to return and claim His rightful Kingdom.

We teach, train, equip and restore others so that we, His Church, every nation tribe and tongue, one body with so many parts, can live the abundant life Jesus offers us, fraught with turmoil, sacrifice and hardship, but overflowing with pure joy as we link arms with God to become all He intended us to be…already, but not yet!