John Mocko and his family joined St. Mark’s on Nov. 16, 1975, in a transfer of membership from House of Prayer Lutheran Church in San Antonio, Texas.  John, an Air Force officer, had been transferred to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Mocko served on the church council and was director of the Sunday church school.  He was one of the key men in organizing the St. Mark’s Brotherhood in the late 1970's for fellowship and service to the congregation and the Lord.  One of the first activities of the Brotherhood was sponsorship of a mother-daughter banquet in May 1977, which was the forerunner of the present day spaghetti dinner.  Mocko and fellow members Cliff Kelto and Bob Homberg started a monthly ministry to residents of the Christel Manor Nursing Home, a program which continues today.

In 1981 the Mocko family moved to Gettysburg, pa., where he entered Gettysburg Seminary.  Following his graduation from the seminary in 1984, Pastor Mocko received a scholarship to study at the Goethe Institute in Boppard, Germany.  He accepted a call to Christ Lutheran church, Johnstown, N.Y., serving there until 1987 when he began a ministry to St. Matthew’s Lutheran church, Hanover, N.Y. In 1988 he returned to Christ Lutheran in Johnstown.  He remained there until the summer of 1996 when he accepted a call to lead Zion Lutheran church, Montrose, Colorado.  Pastor Mocko continues his ministry there today, and his wife Suzy, serves as the activity director of the San Juan Nursing Home in Montrose.