In this survey of the contributions provided through church organizations there has been a reporting of a few of the benevolences which have been performed.  There is obviously no record of all the help given members of the congregation by their church acquaintances or groups.  Funeral meals at the church for the bereaved family are common.  In recent years, the parish Life Ministry chairperson has been Peggy Bullock.  The Social concerns Ministry has instigated an August emphasis of remembering the sick and shut-in.  Names and addresses from the weekly prayer list are distributed — two to a page — with the Sunday Church bulletin.  Response to this has been good.  Bill Walker is presently chair of this ministry with a different emphasis each month.  The Prayer Circle makes certain that any specific needs and concerns are brought to the Lord’s attention.  Shirley Robinson and Sara Gohlke bring leadership not to this activity.

Contributions to the missionary concerns of the national church body have also been serviced by St. Mark’s.  Through the years the church council has met the benevolent sharing of offerings with the national church and its domestic and foreign program of services.  As previously noted, the women’s Home and Foreign Missionary Society and its successors have studied and contributed to the home and foreign mission activities of the Lutheran denomination.  For many years, one Sunday a year was designated Thank Offering Sunday to permit the entire congregation to participate with the women in their outreach of missionary effort.  In 1947 in response to a story told by Mrs. Harry (Mary) Kline to the preschool children in the beginner’s department, the children spontaneously chose to bring a special offering for mission work each Sunday.  As a result, this department of the Sunday school began supporting a student in India.  During Pastor Weihl’s ministry The Lutheran Couple’s Club of St. Mark’s sent a gift of a polychrome chancel cross to a Lutheran congregation in British Guinea.

For nearly 30 years this congregation has participated in Fairborn’s Adopt-a-Family Christmas program.  Food is collected in November; the funding comes from the Thanksliving dinner free will offering to provide a Christmas dinner and gift for each member of the “adopted” family.  Names are secured from a community Adopt-a-Family Christmas registration.  Each year St. Mark’s increases the number of families it serves.  Through these years, many children and senior citizens have received a Christmas dinner and a gift through this program.  Debra Geier is currently St. Mark’s Christmas coordinator.

Occasionally God has placed upon St. Mark’s some major responsibilities.  There have been spiritual demands such as putting together a special worship service at the time of President John Kennedy’s assassination and a community service at the time of Dessert Storm war began.

During world War II when there were so many young lonely servicemen brought into this area for assignment at Wright or Patterson fields, St. Mark’s downtown location made it an ideal place to house a Service Center.  The Lutheran Inner Mission helped to fund the Service Center, but the women of the church volunteered each evening to hostess in the social rooms (under the sanctuary) so that these young persons could find a home away from home.

There have been local community needs to fulfill as well.  A major fire in 1947 destroyed the building in Central park which housed the community library, the USO, and the YMCA, St. Mark’s housed the library in its social rooms for the next four years.

In the school year 1960-61 when the Fairborn City Schools could not build fast enough to house all their soaring enrollment, St. Mark’s rented the first floor primary room in the new Parish Education wing for the East Elementary kindergarten.  The congregation through council action has regularly made its facility available to community organizations.  The American Association of University Women, Recovery, Inc.  Alcoholics Anonymous are among groups who have been permitted to use the church rooms for their meetings.

Community involvement and service was important to pastor Donald Brown and his wife, Regina.  The pastor’s involvement with the Fairborn Ministerial Association led to St. Mark’s becoming involved with the founding of the Fairborn Neighborhood Center established during the years 1965-69 at Rice Blvd. and Kauffman.  This facility is still serving Fairborn’s poor.

The FISH (Friends In Service Helping) organization was also developed through the cooperative efforts of Fairborn’s churches, its ministers, and laymen in the late 1960's.  The FISH movement began in 1961 in a church near Oxford, England.  The idea of a group of Christian expressing love and concern through service for their neighbors at no charge and with no lecturing quickly spread throughout the world.  In 1964, the firs U.S.A. FISH was stared in Massachusetts.  Fairborn FISH was activated in February 1971 with volunteers from 13 Fairborn churches.  One of St. Mark’s members made significant contributions to its beginnings in Fairborn.  Everett Zupke, a St. Mark’s member, brought FISH to the attention of the group working to establish such a community organization.  The meeting happened to be held in St. Mark’s lounge.  From this St. Mark’s feels a close connection to FISH and has made an effort to support it in some manner each year.

In the mid 1970s the congregation sponsored a Vietnamese immigrant, Tran Quang Dung, following the war in Vietnam.  It is recorded that Paul and Dallas Shade met him at the airport on Nov. 8, 1975 and that Shirley Gardner was his host “Mom.” Contributions of household items, food, and other necessities were made to help him get started in his American adventure.  The Gardners had Tran in their home for a while.  Mrs. Gardner reported: “We were able to give him room and board from Nov. 8, 1975, through March 10, 1976 in homes where he was accepted as a family member.  We furnished a nominal amount of spending money, some clothing and individual gifts.  We assisted him in obtaining his Ohio driver’s license.  We took him to look for employment, and from Dec. 4, 1975 through Jan. 23, 1976 we drove him to and from his work.  We signed with him for a bank loan to get the car he wanted.”  Eventually, this car was destroyed; the church paid off his loan; Clermont Brown drove the 22-year-old refugee to work each day for several months; and some time later the women of the church even held his wedding rehearsal dinner in the church lounge.

Another ministry which as been sustained regularly for more than 20 years is St. Mark’s monthly worship service at a Fairborn nursing home.  Robert Homberg, Cliff Kelto, and John Mocko began offering a worship opportunity for the residents of Christel Manor one afternoon each month.  After John left to go to seminary and Robert and Cliff also moved, the total responsibility for this effort was assumed by Richard Johnson who has faithfully invited others to assist him and has regularly preached God’s word at these services.

What does a Christian church do?  It worships and serves the Lord.  This has been a quick survey of some of the ways in which the congregation of St. Mark’s Evangelical Church of Fairborn has served.  Whether the service has been the vision of an individual or a group, the service has been unto God Himself, for His Glory.

Each year since 1950 the church council selects one member of the church to be honored as Layman of the Year.  These names are recorded on a plaque hung in the west narthex.  The following is the listing of those so recognized for their servanthood: