Christian Formation

Promoting spiritual growth is one of our top goals. St. Mark's is committed to offering Christian Education that transforms our lives and moves us into ministry. Formation is not just a Sunday School activity. Formation occurs in everything we do, our worship, our service, and our fellowship.

Our adult Christian Formation classes on Sunday morning provides a variety of topic ground in the basic Christian areas of study, Bible, Theology, Ethics, History, Liturgy, World Religions and many others. Most of our classes are designed to speak to the needs of today’s Christians. 

All Christian Formation programs, for children and adults, are held from 9:30 - 10:15 a.m. before the 10:30 a.m. worship service (during the traditional school year.) We do offer a Bible study during the summer at 9:00 a.m.

We have excellent Christian Formation programs for our children, youth, and adults.  

Our youngest age group, preschool through kindergarten, study Bible lessons using a program called "Godly Play." Godly Play teaches children through story telling, religious language, sacred story, silence, and invites them to wonder about the mystery of God’s presence in their lives. More about Godly Play>

Our 1st through 2nd graders study in a similar fashion drawing our lessons from a program called "Catechesis of the Good Shepherd." In this class room the children experience God in a more personal and deeper sense.

Our older young people in classes, grades 3rd to 5th, 6th to 9th, and 10th to 12th all study Bible passages and life stories through the Episcopal Children’s Curriculum  More on Living the Good News> 

Our Vacation Bible School is an extremely important part of our Christian Formation program. It’s a week-long experience at a nearby Girl Scout camp. Participants spend nearly all day at the camp, learning, swimming, singing, eating, working on arts and crafts and generally having an extraordinary time. This year's camp will be August 6-10. To see pictures from VBS, please go to our Photo Gallery.

Education for Ministry (EFM) classes have been a part of our parish life for more than twenty years. We currently have one class that meets on Thursday evenings. More than 30 members of our parish are EFM graduates as are members of other churches in our community who have participated in EFM under the aegis of St. Mark’s Church. More on EFM>