Welcome

Especially if you are new to St Mark’s.

• The Get Connected card is the easiest way to tell us you’re having a look, if you’re wondering whether or how to get involved.
• The Intro Course on three Monday evenings starting 10 November is a brief introduction to our vision and values.
• The next Alpha Course to investigate the heart of the Christian faith will be starting Wednesday 21 January.

Our vision is to grow:

• Deeper with God
• Closer to one another
• Further out in society

Olympic Run-Up

Now the attention turns to London 2012! At St Mark's we have a sense of our own Olympic preparations over the next four years. Since the beginning of 2008 we have been exploring the future through a process ‘painting a picture’ of the way ahead:

Planting fresh churches? Yes! Developing new initiatives? Yes! Building new resources? Yes!
Making an even greater impact abroad? Yes! Equipping new people and ministries? Yes!

Over this autumn you will see some of our training preparations:

• Marriage: by demand, we are doubling the provision of Marriage Preparation Courses, and held a Sunday for re-dedication of marriage on 28 September.

• Developing Leaders: we are running the Growing Leaders Course for the first time over the next year and hosted the Willow Global Leadership Summit once again on 3-4 October.

• Vision Reloaded: we renewed this year's vision at Vision Reloaded on Sunday 12 October. This was an opportunity not to be missed, for those who have joined us since April, and for all of us, to refresh the vision!

• Compassion Sunday: our global concern intensifies, and we got behind Compassion Sunday on 26 October.

• Adult Baptisms: for all adult believers who have not been baptised the adult baptisms on 23 November will be a great source of strength.

• New Wine: the number of us enjoying this summer's conference was greater than ever. We are aiming for 250 of us at Step Out the week of 25-31 July 2009. Check out www.new-wine.org for more information.

• Week of Prayer: in preparation for all this, above all, we need to train in prayer. Thanks to all who joined in our special Week of Prayer from 1-8 October.

We would love you to be a part of our life together this autumn, to grow stronger in faith and vision, in marriage and family life, in leadership, in community and in wider influence.

With love,
Paul and Christine Perkin