Our Mission
To Know Jesus, to Grow with Jesus and to Go for Jesus.

Our Vision
St. Mark's Church is a community of believers in Jesus Christ who want to make a significant and relevant impact on Mount Joy, the region, and the world by becoming intentional leaders for God in all that we do.

There Are Five Elements To Our Vision
We feel that God has placed His unique call and commission on St. Mark's Church to carry out our vision in five distinct areas:

1. Main Street in Mount Joy - in order to be a “beacon” for Jesus Christ locally, regionally and globally. Historically, St. Mark's Church was “planted” here about 150 years ago. We want to recapture that original passion for sharing Jesus with expanding impact.
2. Music - Music has been a large part of our heritage and we feel that God wants to use these gifts again to speak a new “missional” language to the community. We believe in using the wide variety of musical worship expressions to connect the heart of the people with the heart of our Lord.
3. Food - We seem to do food really well here, so God is asking us to expand our “territory” of serving. We believe that God has called us to a bold initiative - namely, that no child in Mount Joy should go hungry.
4. Intentional Ministry to Children, Youth and Young Adults - We have a strong goal to be reaching out to a growing population of children and youth and to those in the 18-30 age ranges - in order to reach these generations for Jesus Christ. While we still passionately care for our adults, we want to create space for our next generations.
5. Raising Up a Generation of Leaders for God - No matter what age, God is calling us to become spiritual leaders in the world - in our families, workplaces, schools, neighborhoods, and wherever God would send us. God wants us to be people of impact within the arenas in which He places us.

Our Core Values
These are the foundational values upon which we base our ministries and mission. They express the very heart of our congregation.

• Living for Jesus first - Jesus is our Top Priority. He is the Reason we are here.
• Love, more than tolerance - The Bible doesn't teach us to “tolerate” one another; it teaches us to “love” one another. Tolerance equips us to co-exist. Love empowers us to engage. We want to engage.
• The gift of Song in all its diversity as a way to worship God - Music is a universal language. It is the “liturgy” of our day. We value expressing our worship in song.
• Learning and applying God's Word - It is God's Word that gives us the Truth and equps us to live in that Truth daily.
• The healing power of prayer - We love communicating intimately with our Heavenly Father. We believe that miracles happen when God's people pray in faith. We have seen some of those miracles here.
• Unity of purpose and mission - Jesus prayed in John 17 that all of His people would be “one.” We may not always agree on the details, but we value and pursue unity of spirit. We believe that the Holy Spirit navigates our course.
• Always having room around the table for one more - We believe that God multiplies our ability to serve those that God sends our way.
• The gift and balance of rest and Growing in Christ through subtraction - We are a people who take God's command of Sabbath rest seriously. Sometimes our greatest challenge is reordering our lives, to simplify, so that we may focus on what's really important.
• Generosity with gratitude - Everything that we have belongs to God. God has asked us to be ready to use it when He calls on us with a need. We believe in the gift of generosity.
• Building solid relationships within a safe community - Our ministries are about connecting people to God and to one another. We uphold high standards of treating people with love, respecting appropriate and healthy boundaries so that all may grow and thrive on the journey with Jesus.
• The exciting Journey of trusting God - We don't have all the answers to life's circumstances, but we believe in God's redemptive love of us, His children. Our trust in Him is based on His faithfulness.
• Inviting and welcoming others into the faith community - Jesus said that He came to “seek and save the lost.” We accept that mission - the Great Commission - and go willingly and boldly into our communities as representatives of Jesus. Our goal is to love, forgive and invite.

Our Purpose
We are a purpose-driven congregation emphasizing Worship, Discipleship, Mission, Ministry, and Fellowship / Community.

Our Focus
We believe that we are called to be intentional in building on our own relationship with Jesus Christ as well as going out into the world to make disciples of those who do not know Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. Our plan is to develop in each of us the leadership qualities and potential that God has gifted and called us to - in order to impact our communities for Him. Prayer is significantly important to us.

Our Environment
We believe that our faith in the Risen Lord should be reflected in our attitude and how we treat one another. Therefore, we seek to cultivate an environment of joy, where we actually try to “make people's day.” We believe that behind every face there is a story of a precious child of God.

Our Staff (View Biographies)
Staff are here to equip the people of this congregation to live out God's plan for their lives (see Ephesians 4:11). We have a staff of very competent and called individuals who value working together as a team in ministry, as well as leading with a team concept. We believe in “Servant Leadership” - in that we find it our job to help you carry out your passionate call in ministry so that you can find joy in serving the Lord.

Our Sunday Schedule
includes an 8:00 traditional worship service, 9:15 Sunday School / Discipleship hour, a 9:15 “Contemporary” style worship service (a new service designed to intentionally reach the “not-yet-churched” in our community), and a 10:45 Blended Service (a mix / variation of both organ led hymns and praise-band led praise and worship songs). Our Worship services focus on messages that are relevant and applicable to daily life and faith.

Our Heritage
St. Mark's Church was “planted” here on Main Street in Mount Joy almost 150 years ago… and we are reclaiming the passion and purpose of God for fulfilling that original plan for being a “light” for Jesus in the community.

Our Denomination
We are a United Methodist congregation - mainline in doctrine (i.e., we believe in the statement of faith found in the Apostles' Creed) and are in the Southwest District of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church. We are also evangelical in our theology - firmly rooted in the biblical understanding of personal growth in our faith as well as our commitment to the needs of our community, firmly rooted within the heritage of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.

Our Social Outreach Ministries
We have 2 children's outreach ministries - one, a Christian preschool called “Shining Stars,” the other, a Christian Before and After School program, called “Shepherd's Flock”; we have a thriving, community wide Food Bank that ministers in tangible ways to the hurting in our community; we have a 24hour, 7 days a week prayer chapel; we support and volunteer in multiple community ministries as well (e.g., Water Street Rescue Mission, LOVE, Inc, etc.); and we send congregation members out on short and long term mission projects, as the Lord leads … just to name a few.

We are on a journey to engage God on a deeper level and have Him engage us to build us into more solid Christians. We have about 400 in worship on Sunday mornings, but are intentionally always reaching out to the “not-yet-churched.” We love the Lord and want to honor Him in all that we do.