Oct 6, 2019 story from our pastor, Tony Brinson:

Further background:

St. Mark’s United Methodist Church didn’t start as a church building. It was a house over on Middlebury St. in Goshen.

Although the history of her name is lost to time, the community that would become St. Mark’s church first began when a woman started a Sunday School in her house for kids with no home church. In time, parents started showing up, and eventually a small band of Methodists were formed.

In 1888, they outgrew outgrew the house and built a wood building at 502 Main St., which is the current address of St. Mark’s UMC in Goshen, IN. It’s not known why the name “St. Mark’s” in particular was chosen, but it is common for Methodist churches to do so. (Anecdotally, St. Mark the apostle visited the land of Goshen in Egypt when he visited Alexandria, thereby being credited with bringing Christianity to the Egyptians)

In continuation of the original mission, St. Mark’s in Goshen, Indiana continued to serve the children of the area – even having something akin to “a boy and girls club” for after school and also breakfast clubs before those programs even official came along as national programs (though St. Mark’s was not the founder of those programs However, out of those ministries, we’re still emergency evac for Chamberlin because of the after school programs established long ago.

After a time, tragedy struck. The wooden building of St. Mark’s burned around 1920. But during the rebuild, the current sanctuary and tower were built and the basement fellowship hall was added as well.

Courtesy of The Riley Case collection, found here, this photo is of the rebuilt church building. St. Mark’s UMC of Goshen, IN (circa 1910 or 1920):

In 1969 an addition was added that added the classes rooms, nursery, pastors office, and secretaries’ office all the way down to where Albertson’s Hall (AH) is now (but did not include AH).

In 1994 they added AH which expanded the upstairs floor as well.

By the early 2000s the congregation size was ~400-500 people – and two services were being held: a contemporary version in AH and a traditional version in the sanctuary.

In 2017, St. Mark’s underwent a recreation and re-found it’s mission. At that point, it was a dying church. The full time pastor had left, many members had left, and about 35 members were still in attendance. The congregation went without a pastor for 7 months but didn’t give up.

There were guest speaks and strong lay leadership. Membership started to rise again. By the time the current pastor (Pastor Tony Brinson) came on board, the church has doubled to ~70 members. Today our average is ~170.

How did that happen? God. And St. Mark’s embracing the Mission before them. St. Mark’s is uniquely located as a church – just a few blocks from the work release program in Elkhart county (external link to EC3). See that mission here.

Today, there are many exciting things in the works for St. Mark’s – and there’s simply not enough on this page (let alone our website) to fit all of the things God will do for us, in us, and through us. If interested, contact us with questions or check out the service information if you’d like to

Post script: For a history of Wesley and the Methodist movement, so the UMC website: link

More context: The History of St. Mark’s United Methodist Church