St Mark’s Anglican Church Pennant Hills is about growing people, about lives filled with the hope, purpose and community that Christ brings. We have a pretty laid back style, but we take the Bible seriously, we care about your questions and issues and we’re passionate about Jesus.
You can watch a brief welcome and introduction from our Pastor Craig Schafer here:
At the heart of our parish life are our Sunday services where we gather as ‘spiritual family’ to listen to our heavenly Father speak in his word and to encourage one another in various ways as we follow Jesus together. Guests are always welcome at these gatherings, even if you don’t yet trust Jesus yourself. Each Sunday gathering has its own style but all of them aim to be focused on Jesus, clear and welcoming.
Our Sunday services are held at the following times:
8.15amA Prayer Book service for those who are nourished by rich traditions that have stood the test of time.
10amA contemporary, relaxed, straightforward ‘all ages’ gathering that includes a creche and programs for children and junior teens. Cry room facilities are available.
6.30pmA contemporary, laid back, no mucking around, ‘let’s learn about Jesus’ kind of a gathering. When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper at 6.30pm church there is a ‘gluten free bread’ option for those who love Jesus, but aren’t loved by gluten.
There is also Church on Wednesdays at 9.15am each Wednesday for those who find Sunday’s a bit of a struggle. Church on Wednesday features ‘Formal informality’ which involves singing favourite hymns, a simple but traditional format and a cracker morning tea!
The St Mark’s property is located on the corner of Rosemount Ave and Warne St. Pennant Hills:
Want to know what our building looks like? I’m not sure why you would, but just in case, here is the Google Street View.
Craig Schafer is our pastor. Craig and his wife Julie moved to Pennant Hills in July 2008. They have two young daughters Emma and Zoe. Prior to joining the family at St Mark’s, Craig ministered at Springwood – Winmalee Anglican Churches. Craig loves talking to people about Jesus, playing a mediocre game of tennis and SCUBA diving with sharks. He drinks way too much Pepsi Max. You can contact him here.
Rick Hall is our Associate Pastor: Youth & Young Adults. He is mainly involved at 6.30pm Church and our youth groups – Koinonia and YC. He loves playing with his daughters (Elise, Ashley and Laura), hanging out with his wife, Helena and drinking good coffee (often all at the same time!). He also loves to play touch footy when he can. Rick is especially excited about seeing people come to know Jesus and have their lives changed by Him.
Jennifer Flower is our Children’s Pastor. She coordinates our Sunday programs for children and some great mid-week programs. Somehow she also manages to bring together HAWK our mega mid-year holiday program that caters for around 200 children. She has a cat. She plays the flute (Jenny, not the cat).
Paul Whiting is our Associate Pastor: Seniors Ministry. He is involved in sharing the good news about Jesus with Seniors, including arranging ministry in local retirement villages. He has a bunch of letters after his name because he used to lecture in Education at Sydney University. He has been married to Jenny for 4 decades and has three children and four grandchildren. Paul plays the piano and the organ.
Briony Nurcombe is our Pastoral Assistant. Briony is married to Tim and has 2 sons. She spends a day a week caring for women, particularly at the 10am service and sharing the good news of Jesus. Briony has various half-marathon aspirations, and is currently struggling to learn how to build Lego Star Wars spaceships under the watchful eyes of her boys. She also can’t quite believe that her job is to have coffee with fabulous women and talk about faith and Jesus!
Adam Scott is one of our Student Pastors. He and his wife Edwina are involved in young adults ministry and Sunday ministry at St Mark’s as part of their training at Sydney Missionary and Bible College. Adam is a big fan of encouraging people to live Godly lives. He also enjoys fishing, eating and spending far too much time on the computer – he’s currently devising a plan to do all four at once.
Robbie Hayes is one of our Student Pastors. He is married to Sandy and they have a young son Cameron. He likes watching and playing pretty much any sport, reading fantasy novels, spending time with family and encouraging people with the amazingly good news about Jesus that we find in the Bible (although not necessarily in that order).
St Marks is Evangelical and Anglican.
Being evangelical means being committed to the ‘evangel’ – the ‘gospel’ – the ‘great news’ about Jesus. How does that work out in practice?
Being Anglican we value the stand taken by the Anglican reformers of the 16th century and the sacrifices they made. We consider the documents they hammered out (the Book of Common Prayer and the 39 Articles) to be excellent expressions of key Biblical truths.
We regularly celebrate the Lord’s Supper and practise baptism and confirmation.
Our church has been around for a while. The Anglican Parish of Thornleigh – Pennant Hills was established in 1909. The original church building was on Pennant Hills Rd (which was a bit less busy in those days) in Thornleigh and was known as St Luke’s Church Thornleigh. Originally the parish extended all the way down to Ermington on the Parramatta River and west to Carlingford.
We actually have a couple of historical works on the parish available, some old photos of the original Thornleigh church and some keen local historians so if you’re a history buff who’d like to know more, give us a call.