A Congregation on the Hill Since 1873
St. Mark's Lutheran Church sits at 5 Brooke Manor in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, on the former grounds of one of the historic Brooke family estates. Founded in 1873, the congregation belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as a member of the West Berks Mission District of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod. Its mission statement - to celebrate Christ, to hear His word, to grow in faith, and to reach out to all with His love - is lived out through a packed weekly schedule, a campus that hosts community groups, and a partnership with the surrounding town of Birdsboro.
Worshippers arrive at the church "up the hill," as the congregation likes to say, and find plenty of parking behind The Shops at St. Mark's. Beyond the sanctuary, the campus includes Myers Hall, a busy fellowship space, and the classrooms that house Sunday school and Birdsboro Christian Preschool. A Welcoming Committee is ready to greet first-time visitors, and a Plan a Visit form is available for those who want the church to know they are coming.
Sunday Mornings at St. Mark's
Sunday worship begins at 9:00 AM and runs about seventy minutes. Ushers hand each guest a printed pamphlet that contains the entire service, the scripture readings, and the words to every hymn, so no one has to fumble through a hymnal. The service opens with announcements from Pastor Jim, moves into an opening hymn, and includes a Church Chat, scripture readings, the sermon, the hymn of the day, and holy communion. All baptized Christians are welcome at the table. A closing hymn sends the congregation out, and the pamphlet can be recycled in the lobby.
Children of all ages are welcome in the service. After worship, Sunday school gathers from 10:30 to 11:30 AM, with classes for preschool and kindergarten, grades 1 through 3, grades 4 through 6, confirmation students in grades 7 through 9, and high school. Parents register their children through an online form so teachers can plan ahead.
Children, Youth, and Confirmation
St. Mark's takes seriously the formation of children and teenagers. Sunday school, led by a regular team of volunteers, runs the full morning after worship and uses rebate dollars collected from Redner's grocery receipts to fund special materials and projects above what weekly offerings cover.
Confirmation is a two-year program open to students in seventh through ninth grade, built on the Here We Stand confirmation curriculum. In addition to weekly classes, students take part in retreats, outings, and service projects. Class meets on the fourth Sunday of each month from noon to 2 PM, hosted with Schwarzwald Lutheran Church in Exeter, so young people from both congregations prepare for the rite together. Any missed class carries a worksheet to make up.
Vacation Bible School fills a week in the summer with dinner, games, and Bible learning for children. The youth group takes its cue from 1 Timothy 4:12 ("Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity") and gathers for fellowship and service projects throughout the year. Recent summers have taken the youth group to Nashville, Tennessee, to spend a week working in food pantries, community gardens, and a medical supply warehouse through the Serve Boldly program.
Wednesdays Around the Bible
Bible study is at the heart of the midweek rhythm at St. Mark's. Pastor Jim and Charlotte lead a Wednesday morning study from 11:00 AM to noon, livestreamed on Facebook Live so members at home can post questions and follow along. The group reads the Gospel text for the coming Sunday and wrestles with the question, "What does this Gospel mean to me, today?" A study guide is emailed each week to anyone who asks the church office.
A separate Ladies Bible Study meets Wednesday evenings, in person and on Zoom, working through twelve-week book studies. The women's ministry, which also gathers as Katie's Ladies in honor of Katie Luther, offers fellowship, service, and spiritual growth across the congregation.
During Lent, the Wednesday services add a contemplative dimension, with a series of services that walk the congregation through the week before Easter. Music for these services has featured performances by the praise band, the ukulele band, and members of the church playing together.
Music in Many Keys
Music is one of the most distinctive parts of life at St. Mark's, and the church makes room for many styles. Threefold Blessing is the St. Mark's house band, the regular worship band that leads praise music during services. Strings of Praise grew out of a casual guitar gathering a few years ago and has become a bluegrass, country-gospel, and "old timey" group that brings a relaxed, strumming energy to the songs they play. The ukulele band, born from members who wanted to play together, performs classics like "Amazing Grace."
For those who prefer a more traditional sound, a chimes choir is being rebuilt and needs eight more players. No musical background is required; the church teaches newcomers. The next St. Mark's Choir is also in development, and anyone interested in lending their voice is encouraged to reach out to the office. The music ministry invites anyone with a guitar, mandolin, banjo, lute, or even a three-string cigar box instrument to join in, with practices generally held on Saturdays from 10 to 11 AM.
Mission Trips and Outreach
St. Mark's is a congregation that goes. Mission Trip Birdsboro and Beyond, an effort started by St. Paul's UCC in 2014 and now involving six congregations and more than fifty sponsoring organizations, sends volunteers into the wider Birdsboro community each summer to help homeowners with repairs and projects. In 2019, St. Mark's joined five other congregations and helped touch the lives of nearly three dozen homeowners. The work has continued to grow.
Beyond Birdsboro, the church has taken its mission further. In July 2018, twelve members traveled to Puerto Rico to put solid roofs on four homes and to build a cement wall, bucket by bucket, for another family. The youth group's annual trip has taken them to Nashville, Tennessee, for service weeks in food pantries, community gardens, and a medical supply warehouse.
A Community Outreach Committee organizes a steady stream of events - the Street Fair, parades, Trunk or Treat, Souper Bowl, and the Fall Fest - and welcomes new members, volunteers, and ideas. The Fall Fest brings a barrel train, a bounce house, games, fried food, a long list of raffle baskets, and live entertainment to the campus.
Hopewell Love and Our Daily Bread
Two feeding ministries sit at the center of St. Mark's service to its neighbors. Hopewell Love, which meets on the St. Mark's campus, runs food pantries three times each month, holds a community dinner once each month, refers people in need to local sources of financial help, and partners with community gardens. With roughly eighty volunteers logging about four hundred hours a month, Hopewell Love works to transform lives by building partnerships that stress working together for the common good. St. Mark's supports Hopewell Love's ongoing need for laundry detergent through the Laundry Love program; bottles of detergent can be dropped in the narthex.
Our Daily Bread is the church's food recovery and food ministry van, made possible through a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to keep good food out of the dump. The van picks up donations from local grocery stores and organizations and delivers them, along with meals prepared from those donations, to people in need. Members are encouraged to give a little honk if they see the van around town.
Women's and Men's Fellowship
Women's ministries are a long-standing strength of the congregation. Katie's Ladies is open to all women of the church and centers on fellowship, service, and growth, drawing inspiration from the influence Katie Luther had on the work of Martin Luther. The Fabric Ministry knits, crochets, and sews scarves, dishcloths, hats, prayer shawls, and infant hospital hats, with more than forty infant hats donated to St. Joseph's Hospital in Reading and a current call for red, white, and blue lap blankets for veterans.
Men's ministries center on Martin Luther's Bier, Brats, and Bible (BB&B) Klub, which meets the third Monday of each month for fellowship, a shared meal, prayer, and planning of service activities. The group has worked with the Native American Ministry at Reformation Lutheran to provide heaters, food, and winter shoes for a reservation in South Dakota, sponsored an Angel Tree project for a local single father and his two sons, and built raised garden beds for Hope Gardens in Reading. A Property Group gathers men and women who enjoy building and fixing things for projects around the church and the community.
Birdsboro Christian Preschool
St. Mark's is home to Birdsboro Christian Preschool, which operates on the campus from September through May and adds summer enrichment programs. The preschool shares the church's facilities and welcomes families from Birdsboro and the surrounding area into the life of the congregation.
Practical Details for Visitors
The church office is open by appointment on Mondays from 9 AM to 3 PM and on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11 AM to 4 PM. The office can be reached at 610-582-8167 or secretary@stmarkbirdsboro.org. Pastor Jim can be reached at pastorjimsmlc@gmail.com or 610-246-4278. Sunday service is held in the sanctuary at 9 AM, with Sunday school following. The Birdsboro Senior Group meets on the first and third Thursday of the month in Myers Hall at 9 AM, and transportation is available for anyone 55 and over in the Birdsboro area who calls the office to register. Worship is also livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel, and recordings of past services, Lenten services, and a series of videos from Pastor Jim's trip to Israel are available there. Giving is available online through the church's giving page, and the church's Amazon Wish List provides another way to support the food and supply needs of the ministries.