We want more spirituality in our lives. We know that word means different things to different people. To us it means intentionally seeking a way to connect - to our inner selves, to each other, to something bigger than our individuality. A place to bring some of the aches and pains of our souls and try, to the extent we can, to answer the impossible questions - why are we here? What is the point of us? How can we make the world better than we found it, and maybe ease the path a little for those that come after us? It seems a church is a great place for those kinds of pursuits, but we've never encountered a church that centers around human creativity, so we decided to be the church we wanted to see in the world.
Our church is about human creativity in all its forms. Making things is the most reliable way we've found to tap into the universal parts of humanity. Creating things, specifically creating things in community, sharing our skills and teaching other people, sharing what we've made and putting new things into the world, those are sacred acts. Our goal is to get as many people as possible into a regular spiritual practice of exercising their creativity.
One day many many thousands of years ago, a person used a stick, or a rock, or their finger, or their foot, and made a mark. It was the very first time someone made a mark to try to express a thought, the first intentional act of human creativity. Our church is named in honor of that momentous day.
Come to a service
Our first Day of Making will be on March 7, 2026.
Join the Discord server
The church Discord server is a great place to connect with other church members.
Host an event
We're developing a calendar of events, and you can be on it.
Donate
We're a scrappy non-profit church and every dollar counts. Donations will help us pay for more and better future events.
Jennifer Kesteloot - Steward of Forms
Eneasz Brodski - Steward of Narrative
Hannah Aldern - Steward of the Hearth
Stewards are the clergy of the Church of the First Mark.
We're here to help with guidance and suggestions for getting more in touch with your creative spiritual practice. Stewards don't tell you what to believe or how to make things; they help you notice what's already working, and what might want more attention.
Each Steward carries a title: Forms, Narrative, Hearth, or Mechanica, indicating the Domain they feel most alignment with. We're here if you're curious about the church or stuck in a creative knot.
There are endless ways to express creativity, but we've noticed that people's interest seem to clump together in certain ways. To facilitate finding people with similar interests, we think about creativity in four Domains:
The Domain of Forms
Think of Forms as "art for art's sake" - making things that don't need to serve any purpose other than to be art. Painting, drawing, and sculpture are the classic examples.
The Domain of Narrative
Things that are more directly telling a story. Writing, dance, music, performance of all kinds.
The Domain of the Hearth
Making things that serve a practical purpose in addition to being beautiful - gardening, cooking, weaving, making jewelry, or candles, or clothing.
The Domain of Mechanica
Embracing new and emerging forms of creativity - graphic design, 3d printing, laser cutting, AI generated art, new forms of creation that we can't list here because they don't exist yet.
These Domains are purposely loose and overlapping, and are definitely not intended to be a strict taxonomy of creativity. Is photography a 'modern' form of creativity that belongs with Mechanica or is it a way to express personal Narrative? Yes. Is Jewelry just for adornment, and therefore feels like it falls into the Domain of Forms, or is it more of a domestic Domain of the Hearth thing? Yes.
We've found that most people can identify one domain that calls to them more than the others, but as a member of the church, we hope you'll explore creativity in every Domain.