St. Paul’s Lutheran Church Welcomes Rev. Mark Swanson, Looks Ahead to Youth and Community Growth
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church Welcomes Rev. Mark Swanson, Looks Ahead to Youth and Community Growth
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Ellicottville has welcomed the Rev. Mark E. Swanson, a Western New York native with decades of ministry experience, as the congregation grows and plans new community-focused initiatives.
Located at 6360 Route 242 E. in Ellicottville, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church - the Family Church, recently welcomed a new pastor: the Rev. Mark E. Swanson. Pastor Swanson brings many years of experience to the congregation, and his warmth and focus on family and community connection are a perfect fit with the values of a church that’s served the community for over 100 years.
“It has been absolutely fantastic,” he said of his first few months at St. Paul’s. “It’s a great place that allows me to work and reach out to the community, because that is what this congregation is really about. It is the family church.” All are welcome at St. Paul’s, a growing church looking ahead to a promising new year!
While Pastor Mark may be new to St. Paul’s, he is hardly new to the ministry or to western New York. Born and raised just 45 minutes southwest of Ellicottville in Jamestown, he graduated from Jamestown Community College and SUNY Fredonia. He attended seminary in Philadelphia, where he met his wife, Laura, who was also studying to become a minister in the Lutheran church. After graduating from seminary, the couple served together in Queens, New York for three years, and it was there that they had their first child. After Queens, the family moved to nearby Dansville, where they served at St. Paul’s Church.
The Swansons’ work led them back to Pennsylvania, where Laura put her impressive fundraising skills to work in the advancement office of the seminary from which they graduated. Meanwhile, Pastor Mark served at St. Paul’s in Coopersburg, PA for 18 years. Serving in an interim capacity for various congregations after that, the couple moved back to western New York, as Laura was called to be chaplain at Lutheran Social Services in Jamestown in the fall of 2021. The bishop called Pastor Mark to serve at Clay’s Immanuel Lutheran Church just north of Syracuse, one of the oldest NY Lutheran churches west of Albany. After a year in Clay, Swanson found himself having a much easier commute when he was called to Jamestown’s First Lutheran Church in 2022.
“When I was at First Lutheran, our goal was to reach out to the homeless, to the sick. In fact, they’re going to begin opening the doors to their shelter for homeless women that we initiated when I was there,” he noted. “I would not have gone to St. Paul’s if they weren’t just as open and progressive and moving to help those who are in need in the community.”
So what is St. Paul’s of Ellicottville all about? “Our mission is, whatever we do - even if we’re raising funds - is how we are doing this: to help people in the community, to reach out to God’s people, and we’re committed.”
Unfamiliar with Lutheranism or church in general? St. Paul’s welcomes everyone - inclusivity is at the heart of the church community. “We’re not going to tell you what you have to believe,” Pastor Mark said. “We want you to come and find out what this place is like, to make you feel at home. Come check us out! We’re not going to ask you to check your brain at the door. We want you to come and ask questions. We want you to come and feel that it’s okay to be filled with doubt, because doubt is not the absence of faith, but rather a part of it.”
Pastor Mark invites all to attend Sunday morning service at 10:00am, which is preceded by Sunday School for kids of all ages at 9:00am. Sacraments including baptism and Holy Communion are regular parts of services. Just as in the earliest days of Christianity, Holy Communion is celebrated every week. “Our liturgy and our forms of worship are very much like the Episcopal and Roman Catholic churches,” Pastor Mark explained. The church also hosts a weekly Bible study on Thursdays at 10:00am.
Pastor Mark is thrilled to welcome new faces each week. “We’re growing, and we just had a baptism on Sunday,” he noted. “Since I’ve been here in just four months, we’ve had four baptisms and a whole slew of new members. It’s a great sign.”
Indeed, the church’s Christmas Eve service was standing room only! The church’s local ministries are continuing to grow, as St. Paul’s partners with the Great Valley Food Pantry and the local school district to collect food and clothing for those in need.
Looking ahead to future projects, Pastor Mark pointed to the church’s former worship area, which was replaced by a new nave in 2008. “We have this big, big area down in our basement that is huge, and we’re looking to make that into a youth center for our community, not just for our sake, but for the youth in general who are looking to just gather in a safe place,” he explained.
Learn more about St. Paul’s, including Emmaus Guest House next door, by visiting www.stpaulsellicottville.org or calling 716-699-2265. Follow St. Paul’s - Ellicottville on Facebook, where services are broadcast live each week.