Guiding Values

Welcome

Saint Mark’s is committed to creating a place where youth are fully welcomed and valued as members of the church community. We recognize that all members of this community add a richness to our shared experience. This is why on any given Sunday morning youth participate in all aspects of the service including serving as acolytes, lectors, or greeters.  ALL are welcome to participate in “making” worship happen.

Inspire

We strive to be a place where youth feel not only welcomed, but urged and encouraged to let their voices, collective and individual, be heard and honored. We hope to create a space for youth to be a part of and help make community.  We also hope to inspire our youth to be a driving force in creating a welcoming and inspiring community for all. We hope that in doing so, our youth will help the other communities they are a part of to be welcoming and inspiring as well.

Transform

By showing, modeling and creating a healthy and safe community where all are welcomed, respected and honored, we hope to be a place a transformation.  A place where youth have room to consider how navigate a world that sometimes does not present as safe and healthy. We believe that by offering a glimpse of other cultural experiences and giving room to see other ways of being in the world as possibilities, allow for youth who can be transformed and see the world through the lens of Jesus.

Serve

We recognize that church is more than what we do when we gather on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. Although these times are important to creating and sustaining community, they also serve as a time to learn who we are called to be in the world, to practice this way of being, to wrestle with our struggles and to pray for each other as we journey together. When we gather, we support and prepare ourselves to be in the world serving those in any kind of need.