Missions and Outreach

The Outreach Ministry at Saint Mark is as varied and diverse as the people who enter our doors each Sunday morning. Saint Mark has a long and vibrant history of social justice and advocacy, often on the cutting edge of social change. We have committed ourselves to reaching out and helping those people who, for whatever reason, find themselves in need.

From our Saturday morning Breakfast Club for the homeless to our ministry for people living with addictions and illness, we continually strive to give dignity to those whom others have chosen to disregard.

We have been blessed to share with the community in which we live for many years, and we will continue to do so for as long as we stand at the corner of Peachtree and Fifth.

A Note about our Outreach Ministry

Over the years, Saint Mark has been known for its outreach ministry. On your behalf, Rev. Phillip Thomason, who directs this ministry, has been able to help many people in our community as well as many of our own church family. Through our church budget and designated gifts to this ministry, we have provided financial assistance for housing, utilities, food, and transportation. Phillip also has helped folks obtain ID’s and birth certificates, as well as given aid in finding housing, rehabilitation, and employment. Saint Mark even becomes a temporary mailing address for some of our homeless friends.

With Phillip’s years of experience and knowledge of people, their situations, and possibilities, the staff has learned to direct all requests for any sort of assistance to him. He welcomes and encourages you to do the same. If you are contacted by someone in or around the church asking for or needing assistance, we recommend that you suggest that he or she contact Phillip or that you contact Phillip yourself before doing anything. Please know that neither Phillip nor the church staff will never tell anyone seeking assistance to contact you. Nor will they give your contact information to anyone for that purpose. If such a contact needs to be made, Phillip will make it himself.

As Phillip has other responsibilities here at Saint Mark, he has certain hours when he is available for outreach assistance. Those hours are: Monday 10 am –noon, Tuesday 10 am - noon, Wednesday 1-3 pm, OR by appointment. You can contact Phillip via e-mail at pthomason@stmarkumc.org, by phone at 404.873.2636 x12, or through the red doors on 5th Street. We are proud of the outreach ministry that we have at Saint Mark and are thankful for the ability and resources to provide assistance to others in times of need.

Ways to Be of Service

Here are some of the ways that we serve Christ by serving both our immediate community as well as the world:

• Appalachia Service Project (ASP)
  The Appalachia Service Project is a home repair and home building ministry through which volunteers and staff repair and build homes for low-income families in rural Central Appalachia.
• Honduras Mission Trip
  An annual week-long trip is planned with varying work projects usually involving construction.
• Breakfast Club
  Breakfast Club serves a hot meal to 60 homeless persons every Saturday morning. We provide a unique setting for the homeless. Breakfast Club is a non-threatening environment where a small group can relax and be served with love and respect.
• Supper Club
  Supper Club serves 50-60 homeless persons every Tuesday afternoon. Meals range from sandwiches to hot meals. Every meal includes fruit, vegetables and dessert. Every first Tuesday of the month is “Pizza and a Movie Night” where we serve pizza and popcorn and rent a movie.
• Wiggins House
  Many years ago Saint Mark started a night shelter for homeless women and their children. Today it still exists as transitional housing where mothers and their children can live while bringing their lives back to wholeness.
• Homeless Resource Center
  We are in the process of organizing a Resource Center containing items that our homeless brothers and sisters need and request on a regular basis: toiletry kits, snack packs, socks, t-shirts, etc.
• Elimination of Homelessness Task Force
  The hope of the Task Force is to further develop programs that address the issue of homelessness in our city, through education, outreach and providing a welcoming environment at Saint Mark. We also hope to become active within the city and state government as advocates for policies that will lead to the elimination of homelessness in our city.
• Midtown Assistance Center
  The Midtown Assistance Center (MAC) is a non-profit, inter-faith organization whose mission is to provide emergency assistance to the working poor of Midtown and Downtown Atlanta to forestall homelessness and poverty during periods of crisis. During Lent 2006, Saint Mark collected and donated 135 bags of groceries for the MAC food Pantry. For more information on the Midtown Assistance Center or volunteer opportunities, please visit www.midtownassistancectr.org, or call 404-681-0470.
• Common Ground
  On the first Thursday of every month, Saint Mark provides lunch for the participants of Common Ground, a program provided by the AIDS Alliance for Faith & Health (formerly Atlanta Interfaith AIDS Network).
• Habitat for Humanity
  Habitat for Humanity is a home building ministry through which church and trade professionals volunteer build a home for a qualifying family who is otherwise unable to have a home. The qualifying family also participates in building (if able) and pays a portion of the mortgage each month.
• Trinity Table
  On the fourth Thursday of every month a group of Saint Markers join the men of Trinity House for dinner at their new facility one block off Auburn Avenue. From 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. we all share a bit of our life’s journey over a wonderful meal.
• Wesley Walk for Others
  Wesley Walkers raise money for the Wesley Community Centers, which has a camp for underprivileged kids, a senior center, and a construction ministry for handicapped and underprivileged seniors.
• CHRIS Kids Rainbow Program
  Rainbow remains the only known safe haven in the Southeast (and one of 25 programs nationwide) for runaway, rejected and homeless youth who self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. CHRIS Kids has rescued hundreds of these young people from the consequences of street life: sexual exploitation, homelessness, unemployment and substance abuse. Instead, these often forgotten youth learn life skills, develop independence plans, graduate from school, and become productive adults. CHRIS Kids' Rainbow clients do not qualify for state support. Click here for more information about CHRIS Kids.

Click here to read about Saint Mark's 2008 Mission Trips.
Click here to read about Saint Mark's 2007 Mission Trips.
Click here to read about Saint Mark's 2006 Mission Trips.

For more information about Missions at Saint Mark or if you have suggestions, contact Rev. Josh Noblitt, Deacon in Residence and Chair of Community Outreach & Missions, jnoblitt@stmarkumc.org, 404.739.5162, or Rev. Phillip Thomason, Minister of Outreach & Pastoral Care, pthomason@stmarkumc.org, 404.873.2636 x12.