St. Marks Evangelical Lutheran Church
the Ruta Beggars
St. Mark’s was blessed with the great music played by the Ruta Beggars on Sunday, January 26.
Photo Directory
St. Mark’s will be preparing a new church Photo Directory! Mark your calendars. The photo dates are Tuesday & Wednesday, March 25 & 26. You will be contacted next month to sign up for photo shoot time.
In the Spotlight
There are several servants of the Lord who have been contributing to the Homebound and Shut-in Ministry at St. Mark’s. Robbin Hoge, Sandy Swaney, Julie Miars Golden, Kristin Doll, Marian Schlegel Kreger, Cindy Klosterman, Jeanne Clark, and Carol Rogers are assisting Pastor Doug with providing short worship services each month at The Gardens and at Otterbein-Cridersville. They attend once or twice a month at one of the assisted living sites and pass out bulletins, read scripture, assist with communion and greet the residents. Members Janell Lochard, Jean Landry, Jean Thompson, Faye Sorensen, and Anne Grove love seeing familiar faces and still feeling tied to the St. Mark’s family.
This list doesn’t include the different members who participate in a card ministry to shut-ins. Thank you, Laura Heitz who provides this important ministry!
See Pastor Doug if you are willing to bring home communion to those who are no longer able to join us at worship. Also contact him if you would like to assist with the worship services at The Gardens or at Otterbein-Cridersville.
Online Statistics
Our technology coordinator Dustin Jeanneret Reports:
Here are some interesting statistics for 2024, these are always so much fun to discover and report to you! Thanks to everyone for making 2024 a wonderful year on social media!
YouTube Interesting Stats:
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We're hovering at 2.2K in total views (down 9% from 2023), 365 watch hours (down 7% from 2023), and we gained 8 subscribers (an increase of 60%).
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65% of our viewership are not subscribed; 35% are subscribed.
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100% of our viewers are between the ages 55-64 years of age. (This is not always accurate because people use their family's YouTube accounts).
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72% of our viewers are all about the live streams while 28% watch afterwards.
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Our most popular video by far (412) views this year was the Sunday School Kids Choir posted on August 30th.
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21% of people found us with YouTube searches, 18% were from browsing, 18% were from our website or are unknown.
Social Ministry Committee
The Social Ministry Committee will be meeting for the first time in 2025 on Tuesday, February 11, at 5:30 pm. They are seeking new members to help plan the church birthday party, Mother’s & Father’s Day gifts, visiting shut-ins, and all other new ideas. If you feel called to participate in any of these plans, please join the meeting!
the ritual of the Thanksgiving for Baptism
Evelyn Oen pours water into the baptismal font as Pastor Doug reads all the promises God gives us in baptism in the ritual of the Thanksgiving for Baptism.
Sound and Video
Our sound and video setup in the balcony. Pictured: Chad Doll, one of our sound techs, and Dustin Jeanneret, main video tech, with his daughter Bella.
Website Interesting Stats
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We are sitting at just over 1K for site visitors for the year (1,158).
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The most surprising stat was that 95% of our site viewership are new visitors (817) versus only 5% (42) were returning. On one hand it means the congregation doesn't necessarily visit the site all that much, but on the other, we're receiving a great amount of exposure.
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We are split around 54/44 on devices, with 622 users using a desktop computer and 507 using mobile phones.
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Our top sections of the site are the homepage (or course), contact, staff, events, and our church history.
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Our most popular visiting cities are Columbus, Maumee, Dayton, Washington D.C., and Charlotte.
