Town-Hall Follow Up - Survey and Information

Thanks for those who were able to attend our Town Hall on February 23rd to talk about our aging congregation and potential future use of our property. Information from the Town Hall is available below where you can find presentations, handouts, and links to the survey. If filling out an online survey would be challenging for you, paper surveys are available in the Narthex.

If you are interested in a study of the kind of revenue-generating redevelopment that might be built on our properties (church, Friendship House, and Parsonage), here is a link to a preliminary survey at https://forms.gle/xm5mrjdjMjdZixGj7 where you can express preferences and ideas about the kinds of facilities that might be included in a development. In the near future, we will provide additional information about the types of housing that serve a public purpose in such a development.

Here is a link to the TOWN HALL FULL BRIEFING DECK: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eI9iozap50uAg1ekeLLcTo3Vy_r0VngM/view

Town Hall—Sunday, February 23, 2o25—11:00 AM

The Town Hall gathering from Sunday, February 23 in the Fellowship Hall was to open further discussion on the need to plan for our future as a congregation. Given our age demographics, we need to consider how we can remain a vibrant congregation on Backlick Road well into the future, even if our congregation size continues to get smaller. Redevelopment of part of our properties could provide an important revenue stream, and we would like to acquaint you with modern church redevelopment trends and how a study could let us know our economic potential.

Is property redevelopment the right solution for St. Mark’s? Nobody knows yet, and we are just beginning to look at how this might work for us. Please let your voice be heard! Here is a short questionnaire associated with the meeting to see what YOUR thoughts are on the type activities/events that would be housed/take place on the property at:

English version: https://forms.gle/xm5mrjdjMjdZixGj7
Spanish version: https://forms.gle/LX4MMpj4FC5TRMm28

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Here are the handouts from the meeting:

Demographics table in English … and … Town Hall meeting slides in English

Tabla demográfica en español … y… Diapositivas de la reunión del Ayuntamiento en español

Faith-Based Affordable Housing in Virginia

Some information in the St. Mark’s presentation referred to the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, which has produced a book that speaks about faith-based affordable housing projects in Virginia. It includes short profiles of 14 congregations along with their unique situations, visions, projects to fulfill that vision, and project roadblocks. It includes photos or architectural images of the various projects. The Green/Yellow/Red list of projects in Virginia that was in the presentation comes from this book. Since every church’s situation is unique, there is no one-size-fits-all playbook for how do one of these development projects. 

Virginia Congregations Building Affordable Housing: A Match Made in Heaven is available HERE.