Three Sunday Mornings at 114 East Minges Road
St. Mark Lutheran Church sits on East Minges Road on the east side of Battle Creek, a 1957 congregation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod that has shaped its identity around a single phrase: "we lay down our lives so as many as possible experience Jesus." On any given Sunday, that mission shows up in three very different services under one roof.
At 8:00 AM, the sanctuary fills with the sound of an organ and traditional Lutheran hymnody. The 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM services trade the organ for a band and mix contemporary praise songs with classic hymns. All three services run about 60 to 65 minutes, and the dress code is whatever the visitor pulled out of the closet that morning - ties and t-shirts sit side by side. No one will be asked to stand, raise a hand, or otherwise identify themselves as a guest. The first two rows of the Bible, however, are open to anyone who would like to be there.
Worship is livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel, and a sermon archive of more than two hundred messages - including the long-running Greater Than series, the Two Types of People walk through Proverbs, the 1 Thessalonians study, and the recent Healthy-er Family series - is available online. The same teachings are republished as a podcast on Buzzsprout under the St. Mark name.
See, Hear, Speak with, and Touch Jesus
St. Mark organizes everything it does around a four-step picture drawn from the way the crowds in the Gospels pressed in on Jesus. Senior Pastor Chris Paavola uses the same framework repeatedly in his preaching, and it shows up in the church's ministry structure.
The first step is See Jesus, which the congregation describes as serving the surrounding community in his name. Service events, the food pantry collection, and the day-to-day operation of the preschool all live under this heading. The second step is Hear Jesus, which the church identifies with the preaching of God's Word on Sunday mornings. The third step is Speak with Jesus, which is the heart of the small-group ministry. The fourth step is Touch Jesus, which the church locates in the waters of baptism and the bread and wine of communion. Visitors who want to trace that arc for themselves can start with worship on Sunday and walk through the four steps in order: worship, newcomers' lunch, small group, baptism.
Lutheran, Missouri Synod, and the Book of Concord
St. Mark is a member congregation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and it accepts the confessional writings of the Lutheran Church contained in the Book of Concord of 1580 as a true and genuine exposition of biblical doctrine. Those writings include the three ecumenical creeds, the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles, Luther's Large and Small Catechisms, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, and the Formula of Concord.
In its own statement of belief, the church affirms the Triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and confesses that the Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, the sole rule and norm for Christian doctrine. The congregation teaches that all people are sinners by nature and in need of forgiveness, that God saves through faith in Jesus Christ, and that the church is the gathered body of believers called to demonstrate the kingdom by serving its surrounding community.
Two sacramental practices sit at the center of congregational life. The church practices infant and adult baptism, holding that baptism is a promise of God rather than a work of man, and it celebrates the Lord's Supper as a sacred meal in which Christ gives his true body and blood in the bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins. Communion is open to baptized Christians who agree with the doctrinal teaching of St. Mark as a Missouri Synod congregation and who affirm the historic Lutheran understanding of the sacrament. Baptisms can be requested through the church office, and weddings are available to members and non-members under the published fee structure.
Kids, Youth, and the Next Generation
One of the church's six stated vision points is to be "a church the next generation calls their own," and almost every program on the campus exists to deliver on that promise.
During the 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM services, Kids' Ministry meets in the classroom wing at the south end of the building, with check-in at the Our World for Children entrance. Nursery care is available for infants through two-year-olds, with music, Bible stories, and play. Children ages three through fourth grade experience age-appropriate learning built around the same Scripture being preached in the sanctuary, with small groups capped at eight children per volunteer. Every Kids' Ministry volunteer is background-checked and trained, and the church does not serve snacks in the children's wing. Parents who prefer to keep their children with them in the sanctuary can ask a hospitality volunteer for an activity kit. Children with allergies or other special needs are noted on the registration form at check-in.
Middle and high school students meet on the first and third Sunday evenings during the school year for Youth Nights. Middle schoolers gather from 5:00 to 6:30 PM and high schoolers from 6:30 to 8:00 PM, with group games, teaching, age-specific discussion, and a student worship band. The church partners with parents for a three-year Confirmation program that walks students through a Bible overview and the six chief parts of Christian doctrine - the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, Confession and Absolution, Baptism, and Communion - meeting monthly on Sunday evenings from September through March, with a retreat at Camp Arcadia in the fall. The youth ministry is led by Ashley Paavola as Youth and Family Ministry Director and Jessica Land as Youth and Family Coordinator.
Our World for Children
Since 2002, the south end of the St. Mark campus has been home to Our World for Children, an in-house early childhood program caring for children from six weeks through Junior Kindergarten. The program is staffed by Mary Huisinga as Director and Michelle Sprygada as Administrative Director, and Kristin Hook chairs the Our World for Children committee on the church council.
Families using OWC can walk their child from the infant room directly into Kids' Ministry as they grow, and the church considers the preschool a core piece of its ministry to young families in Battle Creek.
Small Groups Around Battle Creek Living Rooms
St. Mark is unapologetic about its small-group culture. The church teaches that, for the first two hundred years of Christianity, "church" meant gathering in homes for conversation rather than rows of pews for a monologue, and the small-group ministry is built to recover that picture.
Groups meet in homes throughout the area from September through May, shuffle up every fall so members can build new friendships, and follow an open-question discussion guide written by the pastoral staff. Each week's conversation is based on the previous Sunday's sermon. Groups are roughly age-based, run from seven to ten people, meet at least once a month for sixty to ninety minutes, and are led by volunteer hosts who simply open their home and keep the discussion moving. Bridget Olsen serves as the church's Small Groups Director, and parents typically make separate arrangements for their children so the conversation can stay focused - sometimes pooling resources for a shared babysitter.
One church member named Shannon described being "amazed by how easy it was to meet new people in a Small Group and how quickly I connected with them." Another, Keith, said that "joining a Small Group has been a small step to help me grow in my faith in big ways." A third, Marcy, shared that after surgery, she didn't know what she would have done without her group stepping up to help.
Midweek Formation and Prayer
Beyond Sunday morning, the church offers a handful of weekly rhythms for adults who want to go deeper. On Wednesday evenings, Prayer Night runs from 6:30 to 7:30 PM. On Friday mornings at 10:00 AM, a pastor leads a Bible study that previews the upcoming Sunday's text so that small-group members and other attentive hearers can prepare their hearts. On the second Friday of each month during the school year, parents gather in the youth room at 8:45 AM for refreshments and a 9:00 to 9:45 AM session of Parents in Prayer, lifting up the church's kids, students, and families.
Serving Battle Creek
On the third Sunday of every month, the church collects items for a local food pantry. Worshipers bring canned soup, tuna, flour, sugar, pancake mix, ketchup, paper towels, toilet paper, tissues, one-pound bags of rice, jelly, salt and pepper, and small containers of instant coffee and leave them in the Collection Corner.
Inside the building, Hospitality Teams, camera operators, and other serve teams offer additional ways to volunteer, and the Kids' Ministry and Youth Ministry programs regularly recruit new volunteers for the upcoming season. The church's Care Team reviews requests for non-financial help and meets on the first Monday of each month to evaluate financial assistance requests, with preference given to long-term over short-term needs within the Battle Creek area. Care requests, prayer requests, baptism requests, and wedding requests are all submitted through the church office.
Worship with a Band, Worship with an Organ
St. Mark's music is intentional about offering a choice. The early service leans into the Lutheran tradition of hymnody led from the organ console. The two later services feature a full band with contemporary praise songs woven into the same hymnal theology. The Worship Director, Xylinn Zubaly, oversees both expressions, and the youth ministry runs its own student-led worship band on Sunday nights.
Worship is structured around the preaching of the Word and the celebration of the sacraments, with communion offered regularly. The pastoral team is committed to messages that are biblical, applicable to daily life, and accessible to both long-time Christians and people exploring the faith for the first time.
Pastor Chris Paavola and the Pastoral Team
Chris Paavola became the eighth Senior Pastor in St. Mark's history in 2022. He and his wife Ashley married in 2005 and have five children through adoption and foster care. Before coming to Battle Creek, he and Ashley started a mission church in the heart of St. Louis, Missouri, and he has served as a worship director and, during his college years, as a youth director. He is a graduate of Concordia University in Austin, Texas, and Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, and remains an enthusiastic Texas Longhorns fan. Ashley Paavola serves as the church's Youth and Family Ministry Director.
The rest of the staff team includes Xylinn Zubaly as Worship Director, Bridget Olsen as Small Groups Director, Grant Bowdish as Connections Director, Jackie Okrasinski and Nate Okrasinski as co-Hospitality Directors, Oralia Garcia as Finance Director, Tara Barroso as Office Administrator, and Rick Mahoney as Property Manager.
Governance is shared between a Church Council, which oversees the business affairs of the church and holds the Senior Pastor accountable to the mission and vision, and a body of Elders, which oversees the spiritual affairs of the church and the teaching of doctrine. The council is led by Nate Kares as President, with Lisa Knoop as Vice President, Emily Keller as Secretary, Karl Dehn as Treasurer, Tom Beuchler as Property Chair, Kristin Hook as Our World for Children Chair, and Rob Howes as Head Elder. The Elder team also includes Jerry Porter, Tim Wetherill, Tom Timmer, Nick Kleimola, and Ben Bain. Council members serve two-year terms and elders three-year terms, with both bodies elected by the congregation on the recommendation of a nominating committee.
Weddings, Baptisms, and Pastoral Care
St. Mark hosts weddings for both members and non-members, with the sanctuary, multipurpose room, and café available for receptions. A published fee schedule covers facility use, the pastor, the worship director, audio engineering, custodial fees, and optional items such as bulletins and Prepare Enrich pre-marital counseling. Marriage is taught as a covenant made by God for one man and one woman to become one flesh for one lifetime.
Baptism is offered to anyone who would like to be baptized, with both infants and adults welcomed at the font. The church teaches that baptism is not something the believer does for God but something God does for the believer, marking entrance into the family of God and the body of Christ.
For pastoral care, the Care Team responds to non-financial needs as quickly as possible and reviews financial assistance requests monthly. Prayer requests are received through the church office and lifted up in the regular prayer rhythms of the congregation.
How to Get Connected
Visitors who want a guided first step can RSVP for a Newcomers' Lunch, where they will meet ministry leaders, hear about the mission and vision of St. Mark, and ask questions over a free meal. From there, the recommended path is to attend a Sunday service, join a small group, and consider baptism. Online giving is available, as are stock transfers and mailed contributions. The church also operates a podcast and an active YouTube presence for those who want to sample the preaching before walking through the doors at 114 East Minges Road.
St. Mark describes itself with three words - biblically based, culturally relevant, and historically grounded - and it is the historically grounded half that quietly anchors everything else. The hymns, the sacraments, the catechism-shaped Confirmation program, and the unapologetic confession of the Book of Concord 1580 are the inheritance that the contemporary worship, the small-group culture, the food pantry, and the preschool at the south end of the building are all trying to pass on to the next generation in Battle Creek.