History of St. Mark's

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church is proud of its first sixty years of proclaiming the Good News throughout Brandywine Hundred and beyond. Beginning with a small community of visionary Lutheran neighbors meeting in a fire hall in 1942, St. Mark’s has grown into an established Lutheran Church in the Delaware-Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in North Wilmington. The church has grown to a membership of over 500 individuals, with an average of 200 persons in worship at one of three services.

Thirty years ago, the church was challenged by a fire that destroyed most of the worship area. Empowered by the Spirit, our members responded by rebuilding the church. After sixty years, the Spirit has empowered us to renewal to guide this church through the coming years.

Since the middle 1990's, we have worked hard on a new vision to meet the future spiritual and physical needs of our members and the surrounding community. The most visible sign of that vision is our newly renovated building that allows all people to participate in the life of celebration everywhere in our church. Even before we began our building program, we expanded the diversity of our worship by introducing a contemporary service to compliment our traditional worship services. We have also become a Stephen Ministry Church to provide individual spiritual and emotional support to those in crisis. We have created new and exciting educational opportunities for all ages; and we continue to welcome new friends to join our ministry.

We are excited about our new worship service, our new programs, and our new building. We are proud of our history. We are working towards the future.

More History - Bronze Medallions

As you come up the stairs to the Upper Narthex, you will see a set of twenty chased bronze medallions. For the history of those medallions and what they symbolize, go to Symbolism in Bronze.