A Mission Church in Lindenhurst
St. Mark Lutheran Church sits on a four-acre property at 1822 E. Grand Avenue in Lindenhurst, a Lake County village in the chain of lakes region of northeastern Illinois. The congregation was founded in 1956, when a small committee began exploring the possibility of planting a new Lutheran church in the community. Four years later, in 1960, the committee purchased the site. In May 1961, the group called its first pastor to help organize what was then a mission church. The cornerstone was laid that August, and the first worship service in the new building was held in December 1961. More than six decades later, the same address still anchors the church's ministry, and the congregation describes itself as a Christ-centered, service-driven, love-sharing, Bible-believing church in the Lutheran tradition.
The campus includes the original sanctuary building and a separate Education Center across the parking lot, where most Sunday school classrooms, Bible study meeting rooms, and the church library are located. The grounds also hold a granite columbarium surrounded by a Peace Garden that was added as a newer ministry of the church. The office is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, and a Council President, Office Manager, and staff of ministry leaders keep the congregation running throughout the week.
Two Ways to Worship on the Same Campus
St. Mark offers a Saturday traditional service at 5:30 PM and a pair of Sunday services that are distinct in style: a traditional service at 8:00 AM and a contemporary service at 10:30 AM. During the standard schedule that runs from the Sunday after Labor Day through late May, Sunday school is held between services at 9:20 to 10:20 AM, giving families with children a natural rhythm of morning worship, education hour, and a second worship service.
In the summertime, from late May through Labor Day, the church shifts to a single combined Sunday service at 9:30 AM, alternating between traditional and contemporary worship on a rotating schedule, with the Saturday 5:30 PM traditional service continuing year round. Both Sunday services are livestreamed, and past broadcasts are available on YouTube for anyone who wants to follow along later in the week.
The traditional service follows a more formal liturgical pattern with hymns led by the St. Mark Singers senior choir and the St. Mark Ringers handbell choir, and cantors who help lead the liturgy. The contemporary service is led by a rotation of worship bands and draws on a mix of rock, fusion, pop, and country arrangements. Visitors are welcome at either service. The traditional service tends toward business casual attire, while the contemporary service is casual, with shorts, jeans, and t-shirts common in warmer weather.
Grounded in the Lutheran Confessions
St. Mark's doctrinal foundation is laid out in Article II of the congregation's constitution. The members accept the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments as the divinely inspired, revealed, and inerrant Word of God, and they regard Scripture as the only infallible authority in matters of faith and life. As brief and true statements of the doctrines of the Word of God, the congregation confesses the three ancient ecumenical creeds - the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian - along with the Unaltered Augsburg Confession and Luther's Small Catechism. The congregation also receives the other documents in the 1580 Book of Concord, including the Apology, Luther's Large Catechism, the Smalcald Articles, and the Formula of Concord, as normative for its theology.
The church describes its mission in a single sentence: Loving God and All His People. The phrase is drawn from Deuteronomy 6 and Mark 12, where Jesus identifies the two greatest commandments as loving God with all that one is and loving one's neighbor as oneself. A series of vision statements extends that calling into specific rhythms: providing opportunities for people to grow in Christ, attracting young people and meeting their needs, combining faith and relationships, sharing both spiritual and material gifts, maintaining a safe supportive place for people, and being in the world but not of the world.
St. Mark is a member congregation of the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ.
Children, Sunday School, and a Safe Place to Grow
Children are a central focus at St. Mark, and the congregation takes seriously the call to help young families put down roots. Sunday school serves children from preschool through eighth grade and meets from 9:20 to 10:20 AM on Sunday mornings, September through May, in classrooms downstairs in the Education Center. Families register their children each year. The program pairs Bible-based lessons with games, arts and crafts, music, and opportunities to learn to pray, with the goal of helping each child grow in a safe and loving environment.
Vacation Bible School is held the week after Father's Day each summer, running Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to noon. It is open to children from age three (potty independent) through sixth grade, and families do not need to be members of St. Mark to participate. A separate VBS registration is offered each year.
A staffed Sunday nursery is available for children from birth through age four during both Sunday services and the Sunday school hour from September through May, and during the single summer service in June, July, and August. The nursery is led by Deb Heidi and a team of experienced volunteers, and first-time guests are welcome to use it without registering in advance. The church also hosts Parents' Morning Out on the fourth Friday of each month and Parents' Night Out on a quarterly basis, both of which require advance registration and give parents a scheduled break.
Safety protocols are visible and explicit. Each service has a First Response team made up of members who are certified in CPR and AED. Security cameras monitor both parking lots and all entrances. A background check is required for any staff member who works with children or youth. The Lake Villa Fire Department leads an annual fire drill, first aid kits and portable AED units are available in both buildings, and a Safety and Security Committee meets regularly with local police and fire officials.
Youth Ministry from Confirmation to Mission Trips
St. Mark's student ministry walks alongside young people from middle school through high school. Confirmation is open to anyone in sixth grade through adulthood and is structured as a three-year program that develops a deeper sense of God through worship, the study of Scripture, and shared life together. Classes meet on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30 PM during the school year in the Education Center.
During the school year, the high school youth group gathers on Sunday evenings at the Education Center for about two hours, with time to catch up, eat, play, pray, and dig into a devotion. In the warmer months the group moves outside around a fire pit for what the students call a Holy Smoke evening - outdoor games, a devotion, prayer, and s'mores. Trips to the zoo, escape rooms, corn mazes, and video scavenger hunts are woven into the rhythm, and every other summer the group embarks on a mission trip that has reached as far east as upstate New York, as far west as Montana, and as far south as Louisiana.
There is also a college and military care ministry. Volunteers reach out to young adults who are away at college or serving in the armed forces roughly four to five times a year, primarily through email, cards, and one to two care packages, to let them know the congregation is thinking about and praying for them.
Bible Studies and Small Groups Throughout the Week
The congregation's small group life is built around the conviction that iron sharpens iron. Sunday mornings host two adult Bible studies between the worship services: a Women's Bible Study led by Pam Preston and a study called Growing in Love with God led by Barb Ewert, both in the Education Center. A Women's Bible Study also meets Tuesday mornings from 10:00 to 11:00 AM in the Library, and a Wednesday morning women's study meets from 9:30 to 11:00 AM, also in the Library. A Thursday Bible study gathers over Zoom.
Sunday mornings include coffee, donuts, and fellowship in the Fellowship Hall after the 8:00 AM service, leaving time before Sunday school or Bible study for connection with other members. Visitors are welcome to linger.
Men's, Women's, and Singles' Ministries
The men's ministry, called H.I.S. Ministry, meets on the second Saturday of each month. Its three key principles give the group its name: Humility, Integrity, and Spirituality. The vision is simply to create an environment where men sharpen each other, just as Proverbs 27:17 says, and the group is open to men age fifteen and up.
Women's ministry gathers ladies together for open discussion about Jesus and the Word, with several weekly touch points through the Bible studies described above. A separate DivorceCare program, a Biblically based thirteen-step recovery curriculum, meets Monday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 PM in the Library, and a widows and widowers group called WINGS meets on the first Wednesday of each month.
For unmarried adults, the Joyful Hearts singles group meets once a month at a local restaurant for friendship and fellowship, with optional outings to the movies, farmers markets, and local concerts throughout the month. The group is not focused on dating, but on building Christian friendships among people who share the common experience of being single.
Music, Bells, and Bands
Music is woven into nearly everything St. Mark does. The St. Mark Singers senior choir rehearses on Tuesday evenings at 6:00 PM in the Sanctuary, September through May, and sings once or twice a month during traditional worship, with additional appearances at Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday. They often collaborate with brass, bells, and vocal soloists.
The St. Mark Ringers handbell choir rehearses Tuesdays at 7:00 PM in the Bell Rehearsal Room, located in the left side of the Sanctuary balcony. The group is open to anyone high school age and up and performs once or twice a month during traditional worship. Cantors lead portions of the liturgy at traditional services, and there are occasional opportunities for vocal or instrumental soloists and small ensembles to serve during worship. Director of Worship and Music Paul Cramer oversees the music ministry.
At the contemporary service, three worship bands rotate. Made New brings a rock sound with driving beats and melodic tones. Arise blends powerful rhythms with strings and rich vocals in a style that will feel familiar to fans of K-LOVE radio. McGill & McGill is a husband and wife team that offers a simpler, more acoustic take on contemporary favorites.
Caring for One Another Through Hard Seasons
Stephen Ministry is one of the longest-running care ministries at St. Mark. Stephen Ministers are lay members of the congregation who are trained to provide one-to-one Christian care to people going through a difficult time, such as grief, divorce, job loss, chronic or terminal illness, or relocation. The congregation's Stephen Ministry leadership team, which includes Judy Dunfrund, John Florip, Marilyn Florip, and Deb Zuchowski, oversees training for new Stephen Ministers and matches caregivers with those who request support.
DivorceCare, a thirteen-step Biblically based program, runs on Monday evenings for those experiencing separation or divorce, and a widows and widowers group, WINGS, gathers on the first Wednesday of each month. Gamblers Anonymous meets at the church on Thursday evenings at 7:00 PM as a recovery resource open to the wider community.
A Church Without Walls
The congregation uses the phrase church without walls to describe its outward focus, and several long-standing partnerships put that conviction into practice. Ten percent of the church's allocated benevolence budget goes to Open Arms Mission, a local food bank on Highway 83 south of Antioch, and the congregation also holds monthly food drives to keep the pantry stocked. The youth group and other volunteers pack meals through Feed My Starving Children on a recurring basis, and the church hosts Kindred Life Ministries, a Christian organization that walks alongside teen mothers and fathers, their children, and the children's grandparents, providing child care assistance, life education groups, mentors, and personal and financial counseling.
Members also serve through PADS Homeless Ministry in Lake County, and through Bill Glass Behind the Walls, a prison ministry that puts on events in correctional facilities around the Chicago area. A garden club tends a Garden of Eatin' on the property, with seasonal produce that is shared at gatherings and with the food pantry. The congregation also hosts Harvest Fest, an annual community event featuring food trucks and a long row of local crafters, along with events like Parents Night Out, Parents Morning Out, BUNCO nights, crafter's weekends, blood drives with the American Red Cross, and an annual Trunk or Treat.
The Columbarium and Peace Garden
Behind the church stands a granite columbarium, surrounded by a circular patio of golden tan paver bricks accented with tri-color red pavers, granite bench seating, lighted paver pathways from the church and both parking lots, and flowering perennials, shrubs, and trees. The columbarium is a single granite column, six feet, three and a half inches tall, with a polished mahogany finish, a polished capstone with a rock pitch face, and a base with a sanded top edge. Each of the eighty niches can hold two urns, with space for 160 inurnments in all, and the granite face of each niche can be inscribed with the names and dates of the deceased, with optional emblems available in themes that include military service. The columbarium is available to active members of St. Mark and their extended family, and a Peace Garden and Columbarium Ministry Team oversees the structure, the garden, and the escrow fund that supports perpetual care and the construction of future columbaria.
Visiting St. Mark for the First Time
Plenty of parking is available next to the church and by the Education Center next door. Sunday morning visitors are greeted by the Welcome Team, whose members hand out gift bags to first-time guests and follow up with a personal note later in the week. Coffee and fellowship follow the 8:00 AM service in the Fellowship Hall, and there is time before the second service to attend Sunday school, drop children in the nursery, or join one of the Bible studies in the Education Center.
The church's online campus carries both Sunday services on YouTube, and past services are available to watch on demand. Online giving is available through the church's secure giving portal, and a mobile app, Vanco Mobile Faith Engagement, allows recurring and one-time gifts from a smartphone. Prayer requests can be submitted online and are prayed over by pastors, staff, and a prayer chain. A monthly newsletter called The Voice keeps the congregation connected to what is happening in every ministry, and printed annual devotions, written by members, are available for personal study.
For those ready to take a next step, the church offers a membership process, baptism by request, and a confirmation program that welcomes anyone in sixth grade through adulthood. Visitors with questions can call the church office at (847) 356-8140 or reach the office manager at officemanager@smlc.info.