Nathan, a lifelong Methodist, grew up in Monticello, where he attended Twin Lakes High School. Nathan did the typical high school things – he played basketball and was in the band. Sarah was in the band as well, but she was a couple years younger.
Even as a youngster, something was nudging him.
“I would say probably in middle school I started feeling called to the ministry,” he recalled. “Some of my Sunday School teachers said, ‘You’re going to be a great pastor.’ At that point I said, ‘No, I don’t think so.’”
After graduating from Indiana Wesleyan University in 2004, Nathan enrolled in Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. He was married to Sarah by then, and the couple wanted to stay local. While he was attending seminary, Nathan pastored a small church in Colfax, Indiana. Several assignments followed. He pastored churches in Munster, Fort Wayne, and Frankton before he was assigned to Wabash First United Methodist Church in 2019, his final church home before being appointed to St. Mark’s.
It’s safe to say that Nathan enjoys being a pastor, but certain aspects of the call really make him excited. For instance, he has a special place in his heart for performing baptisms.
“It’s always an important moment to me,” Nathan said. “I’ve always enjoyed being able to work with the parents and other people who were being baptized.”
He’s also passionate about community involvement. Nathan currently sits on several local boards in the Wabash area, including the YMCA, the local chamber of commerce, and Waypoint Wabash, a transitional home for women who are recovering from substance use disorder.
“I think that if the church is going to have an impact in the community, the church has to be in the community. That means if we’re going to have a faith influence in the community, we have to bring our faith to every aspect of the community,” he said.
He anticipates doing a lot of listening when he arrives at St. Mark’s. He wants to find out what’s important to the St. Mark’s family, and what we want to be in the surrounding community. He’s a natural networker, and he anticipates helping people make the appropriate connections to share St. Mark’s heart with the people around us.
“The vision we have and set will drive us forward,” he said.

I was born and raised in Lafayette and attended Purdue for undergrad, where I met my husband, Pete, the summer before our senior year. We moved around quite a bit early in our marriage, living in Minnesota and South Dakota, before settling in Chesterton, Indiana, where Pete was the sports editor of the local newspaper while I attended law school in Chicago. After law school graduation, we spent several years in the Washington, D.C., area where I worked as a labor & employment litigator for a national law firm and Pete worked as a sports writer for a suburban Virginia newspaper.  
Family brought us back to the Indianapolis area when our oldest son was about to start kindergarten, and our younger two boys were born here. I worked for many years in a private law practice before moving to the corporate world where I last served as CEO and General Counsel for a national company based in Noblesville prior to my call to ministry. Pete transitioned from sports journalism to teaching English at the college level and is now a professor at Anderson University. 
I answered the call to ministry in 2018 and began seminary classes shortly thereafter, ultimately transitioning to full-time vocational ministry early in 2020. I was blessed to be appointed to first to one and then two wonderful congregations in Tipton County before returning to southern Hamilton County as St. Mark’s Associate Pastor in July of 2022.  
Pete and I have now been married longer than we were not! Our oldest son, Ben, lives in Louisville with his wife Janay and their three dogs where Ben is currently completing his first year of medical school rotations. Our second son, Zach, is in his senior year at DePaul University in Chicago, where he lives with his pup, Georgia. Our youngest son, Sam, is in his freshman year of high school at HSE, loves all of his brothers’ (and his own) dogs, and is a budding cross-country and track runner. 
I’m a genealogy junkie, insatiable reader, can connect many, many conversation topics to songs, and rarely encounter a movie I can’t relate to a sermon in some way. I am passionate about Jesus Christ and helping others discover and grow their relationships with him, especially those that may be lost or lonely or hurting in the world. I’m also passionate about finding new and fresh ways to engage the community, especially our younger generations – like my own kids and their peers – in Christ’s mission here on Earth. 

I was born in Thibodaux, Louisiana, but grew up all along the Mississippi and Louisiana Gulf Coast. I graduated from what is now Louisiana Christian University and then attended the George W. Truett Seminary at Baylor University, where I earned my master’s in theological studies. After returning to Louisiana, I pursued and received my MBA from Louisiana State University.
For the past five years, I have worked as a licensed financial advisor and stockbroker at a major brokerage firm. Prio to my financial career, I have served as a youth director in various churches and briefly taught high school religion at a private school.
I am married to Elizabeth Melvin, and we have three children: two girls and a boy.

My name is Melissa Smith. I’m originally from Lapel, IN. I now reside in Westfield with my husband Greg and my 5 children. Gabe is 16, Evan is 13, and Leo, Henry and Charlotte turn 10 next month. We’ve been attending St. Mark’s since early 2011. All my kids went to preschool here, and I’m so excited to be joining the staff! I was previously a preschool teacher and assistant director at Beth’s Blessings Childcare in Lapel for 3.5 years. Before that, I stayed at home with my babies. I graduated from Marian University in 2003. I’m a huge football fan, and I love to read, go to movies, and travel with my family.
It seemed like an easy transition to go from a member of the congregation to a member of the staff. I look forward to deepening relationships with people I’ve already known for years, as well as getting to know some new faces.

I am excited to be on staff here at St. Mark’s! I have a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Utah and previously worked as a Preclinical Scientist for a biotech/pharmaceutical company in Westchester Co., New York. 
David & I were married in 1995 at Lone Oak United Methodist Church (where I grew up) in Paducah, KY. Our first daughter Caroline was born in 2003 and 10 months later, David accepted a job with Eli Lilly in Indy. We moved to Fishers and joined St. Mark’s a few months later. 
Our second daughter Ava was born in 2007. Later that year, my parents (Joe & Diane Newton) retired, moved to Fishers from Lexington, KY, and also joined St. Mark’s! I love to read, play with my 3 dogs, watch movies, and am very passionate about issues of social justice.    

I grew up in Tennessee but call the Midwest home after living 15+ years in Ohio and Indiana. I have an Engineering Ph.D. (Industrial and Human Systems Engineering) from Wright State University and two B.S. degrees (Professional Communications, Industrial Engineering) from Tennessee Tech University. I love combining my degrees to improve communication and streamline processes in church environments. Before our move to Carmel from Ohio, I was our church’s business administrator and have served in small group leadership, consulting, and volunteer roles for our previous churches.
My husband Jason and I began dating freshman year of college, married after college graduation, and spent five years of our marriage living in separate states to finish grad school and med school. We’ve loved settling into Indiana with our elementary schooler, Amelia, and our dog. We became active at St. Mark’s UMC because of the Grow Groups and The Current worship service, where I sing with the band.

I grew up in the Cleveland Ohio area and in the United Methodist church my parents still attend.  I was a leader in my youth group and sat on the youth board.  As a high schooler, we went on mission trips through Group Workcamps and during college, I worked as a Summer Staff leading mission trips for two summers.   
After graduating with a degree in Middle Childhood Education I decided to follow my passion for missions and youth by continuing with training through Tentmakers Joshua training for youth ministry.  Following that training I spent 3 years as the Youth Director of Wesley UMC in Muscatine Iowa.  While in Iowa I met Chad and got married before moving for his career. I was enjoying staying home with our first child Victoria and expecting our second child, Conrad, when the church in Wisconsin we were attending needed a new youth director, so I stepped in as interim youth director running youth group, creating a youth council, and on the board to create the Safe Sanctuary procedures.   
Now that my children are both in grade school, I am thrilled to be able to go back to my passion of working with youth! 

I am originally from upstate New York but moved to central Florida in the 6th grade. I attended college at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama and stayed there until 2000 when I moved to Indiana. I am married to my soul-mate, Ed Rowell, and we have two amazing children, Sofia and Jacob. Before working at St. Mark’s I was in advertising as a graphic designer, and then a stay-at-home mom. I have felt the nudge to enter some form of ministry for many years, but only God knew I would end up here! I am so thankful for His wisdom in guiding me to Children’s Ministries. 

My name is Jennifer Cawthorne and I’m the Children’s Ministry Assistant. I have always lived in the Midwest. I was born and spent many years in Illinois before my family moved to Ohio. I moved to Cicero, Indiana when I was a sophomore in high school. I attended Ball State University with a degree in Education. My husband Richard and I met during my freshman year in college. Richard is from England. We lived in England after we were married and still travel there yearly to be with our family across the pond. I previously held this role at St. Mark’s several years ago. In between, I worked at Oak Trace Elementary before staying home to homeschool my daughters, Elise and Lucy. I love working with children and teaching them the word of God and watching them grow in the love He has for all His children.
St. Mark’s is a wonderful place to work because of the loving caring environment and the wonderful people I get to share my days with every week. VBS always is the most memorable week for me at St. Mark’s. The excitement of the children and the power and love of God radiates here that week every summer.  St. Mark’s always feels like a warm loving home to me and my family. I get excited for the future of St Mark’s because I see that feeling be extended and grow across the community.

Joyce Click grew up in southern Indiana. She graduated from Butler University with a degree in Music Education and received a Master’s from Butler and an MS from Indiana University and is Nationally Board Certified. She has taught music in MSD Washington Township since 1978 and retired from North Central in 2022. She has won several awards for her teaching including MSD Teacher of the Year, Hoosier Educator of the Year, and Grammy Music Educator Semifinalist top 25 in Nation. At St. Mark’s, Joyce leads Kidz Church worship arts, Kidz Music and Praise, Sacred Drama and Puppet camps and coordinates the VBS Music team.
Joyce is married to Steve Click, longtime teacher of St. Mark’s Lectionary class. They are parents to adult children, Nathan and Tessa who both attended St. Mark’s growing up. Steve and Joyce enjoy traveling to sunny California several times per year to visit their children, family and friends.
Joyce is proud of St. Mark’s commitment to providing opportunities for children to experience praise through music and is honored to work with the wonderful children in our church community.

Eric is originally from Upstate NY where he grew up in the Adirondack Mountains. He studied vocal performance at SUNY Fredonia, West Virginia University and The University of Texas at Austin. He has had the good fortune to have sung in opera and musical theater nationally and internationally. He is currently the Voice Studio Director at Franklin College in Franklin, IN. Eric has served in Music Ministry most of his life as a choral singer. He began his ministry as a choir director in 2011 in Cincinnati, OH. He has been serving as the Music Director at St. Mark’s since July 2016. 

I grew up in Westfield, went to Indiana University and graduated with a business degree. I worked for EDS for 19 years as a computer programmer then project manager. While working in Anderson with EDS, I met my husband, Charlie. We were married in 2002 at Union Chapel United Methodist Church. We moved to Westfield and began looking for a new church home. We found that home when we came to St. Mark’s. When our son Matthew was born in 2009, I “retired” from my career. While Matthew was attending St. Mark’s Preschool, a position came open on the St. Mark’s staff. I was happy join staff as the Pastor and Project Support. I am now back to using my technical skills as the Information Technology staff for St. Mark’s.  

Patricia Uthoff (Tish) grew up in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Patricia had a career in banking from 2003 until 2014 and has been a stay-at-home mom until this position found her in 2022. In 2008, she married her husband Dale. They moved from Iowa to Indiana in 2014 and now have four children. Having moved to Indiana, the family found a friendly and welcoming community at St. Mark’s, which began with kids attending preschool and then later joining the church.

St. Mark's is blessed to have Juan Mercado as Facilities Manager. He has been on staff since 2011. He knows our building inside and out and has an expert eye for things that need his attention. He doesn’t wait for someone to request a fix, if he sees a need, he is on it. He is also responsive to requests from others. For example, one of Juan’s current projects is to modify a room to make it appropriate for creating podcasts—a Podcast Studio, if you will—as St. Mark’s continually enhances our online capabilities and offerings. This involves adding flooring that is more acoustically friendly and lighting appropriate for online video captures.
Juan and his wife, Claudia, have been living in Indiana for 25 years. Here, they raised their three kids, Gustavo, Grecia, and Esmerelda, and now enjoy their grandsons, Uriah and Emile, and have another grandson on the way.

Ryan started out in Carmel, IN before moving to Fishers, IN in fifth grade. After graduating from Hamilton Southeastern High School, he decided to pursue communication and theatre at Huntington University both of which were passions of his in high school. Shortly after meeting his wife, Amy, during the first week of school, Ryan’s focus and time changed. This meant giving up on theatre as a minor while investing more time with all things communication including the local TV news show HCTV, the school newspaper and yearbook, and finally HCR (the college radio station). He still found time for theatre over a couple of summers between school acting in local community theatre spots. Ryan married Amy in 2000 after graduating from Huntington University with a bachelor’s degree in Communication. While starting out in communication, Ryan eventually found his way towards education eventually adding an MBA degree to his resume fifteen years last attending school. Amy and Ryan began attending St. Mark’s with his parents, Bruce and Kat Howe, along with his grandma, Mildred Dickey, due to their wonderful kid’s programs for their daughter, Kira. It was his love for communication that led him back to volunteering in AV Booth and eventually accepting the role of AV Coordinator for St. Mark’s.

I grew up in South Dakota, and married David, my high school sweetheart. We moved to Denver, Colorado where I received my Bachelor of Music Education degree and my Master of Arts degree in Piano Performance from Denver University, while David received his Master of Divinity and Doctor of Theology degrees at Iliff School of Theology. After graduation, we moved back to South Dakota and joined the faculty at Dakota Wesleyan University. I also did advanced organ study at the University of South Dakota.In 1983 we moved with our two daughters to Illinois, where David served as Vice President for Development and I served as organist at Garrett Seminary in Evanston. I also served as organist at Glenview United Methodist Church and as a piano teacher and accompanist.
We moved to Indiana in 2022 to be near our daughter, son-in-law, and two granddaughters in Carmel. Our other daughter lives in Texas with her three sons.
I first became acquainted with St. Mark’s when Casey, your former organist and pianist, invited me to substitute for him in the summer of 2023. I was warmly welcomed by the congregation at that time. When I returned in the summer of 2024, I immediately felt at home. I am impressed with the excellent musicians in the church and look forward to getting to know the congregation.