Growing in Faith
Faith is a tricky thing - it’s like trust. Trusting God. St. Luke's knows that learning to follow Jesus is a life-long process and offers a variety of opportunities for spiritual growth for people of all ages.
Nursery
We've arranged two parent-baby or toddler play areas (one in the back of the sanctuary, one downstairs with a changing table near classrooms) for maximum flexibility. The downstairs nursery is wired for sound (volume adjusts), so that care givers don’t need to feel excluded. During the school year, we offer nursery attendants during the class time and service time.
Worship Center, age 4 to 2nd grade
Worship Center, during the school year on Sundays at 9:30 a.m, is a joyful, worship-based formation opportunity for the children of St. Luke's. The curriculum is based on a Montessori style teaching, with Bible stories told. Another way to describe it is age-appropriate liturgy of the word which includes prayers, singing, story telling and art response. Then, approximately 10:40 a.m. the children join their parish family for worship at the passing of the peace, and participate with the community celebration of Eucharist.
Upper Room, 3rd grade - 12 yrs old
Upper Room provides a Worship Center learning opportunity for children in upper elementary and lower middle school and expands on the formational opportunity first offered in the Worship Center. It provides more in depth education of bible stories, liturgical traditions of the Episcopal Church, and some discussion on values of caring for each other.
Journey To Adulthood, ages 13-19
The Journey to Adulthood is a complete youth ministry program of spiritual formation for teens. It encourages relational ministry and uses Bible study, prayer, rites of passage, outreach ministries and both serious and playful activities to underscore the two guiding principles of the program: 1) Manhood and womanhood are free gifts from God; and 2) Adulthood must be earned. Because we have a mixed-age group of youth, we combine the Rite-13 and Journey to Adulthood (J2A) curriculum for our youth. We will work towards Young Adults in the Church, (YAC) as our teens grow. Most Episcopal churches that use J2A work towards a team pilgrimage by fundraising, class work, community building and planning.
Confirmation Prep
At some point in our journey, we all make decisions about our faith commitments. Confirmation is ritual in which we make a mature public statement that we intend to follow Jesus, in company with Episcopalians (or Anglicans). We recognize this commitment with a unique church service, and the Bishop asks God’s blessing on the person making this promise. To prepare to be confirmed, parents, teens and priest decide together, is a teen mature enough to make a faith commitment? Then a teen must take responsibility to prepare by joining a group, reading, praying, visiting another church and a monastery, exploring ways to serve the church, and responding to the worship service. Topics we read and discuss include: baptism, confirmation, the Bible, history, worship, sacraments, spirituality and prayer, church government, and our own calling. The decision to be confirmed is made by the teen (if the priest agrees).
Adult confirmation is sometimes appropriate, if a person was baptized as an infant and never made a mature public faith commitment. Discuss this with the priest.
Growing an adult faith
When Jesus was asked what is most important on the spiritual journey, he answered….“the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength… You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” [The scribe replied.] “When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’” (Mark 12:29-31a, 34a.)
Consider
heart - what and whom do we love?
mind - what do we know about God, our faith tradition, how are we informed?
strength - how strong is our will (to carry out our good intentions), how integrated is our spiritual with our physical self? How disciplined are we, in our spiritual practices?
soul - where is the space in our lives for beauty, silence, simplicity, solitude, and the voice of God?
(For more information about yourself and your own inclinations, Corrine Ware’s typology is useful here: http://www.episcowhat.org/ware-spirituality-type-indicator.html. Scroll down for the diagram.)
Anglicans say, we believe what we pray. Attending church services, over time, shapes our faith life and relationship with God. Our parish service schedule is on our homepage, and sermons are available.
Most of our adults enjoy opting into a learning commitment on a short term basis. So we regularly offer a series of 6-8 week shorter term classes or book groups. Recent topics have included Forgiveness, the Advent Conspiracy, Why did Jesus, Mohammed, the Buddha and Moses Cross the Road?, Bible studies on various Epistles (which are themselves letters written to various churches about how to live as a Christian), Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.
St Luke's frequently offers the Living Compass wellness program, in which we assess our own satisfaction with these four areas listed above. (See www.livingcompass.org)
We currently have a group studying Christian Healing prayer, generally Wednesdays.
In addition to the opportunities listed, the Episcopal Diocese offers Christian Development Institute (CDI), Community of Hope, Safeguarding God's Children, Diocesan Teen Retreat Opportunities, Camp Webb, and more.
Faith is a tricky thing - it’s like trust. Trusting God. St. Luke's knows that learning to follow Jesus is a life-long process and offers a variety of opportunities for spiritual growth for people of all ages.
Nursery
We've arranged two parent-baby or toddler play areas (one in the back of the sanctuary, one downstairs with a changing table near classrooms) for maximum flexibility. The downstairs nursery is wired for sound (volume adjusts), so that care givers don’t need to feel excluded. During the school year, we offer nursery attendants during the class time and service time.
Worship Center, age 4 to 2nd grade
Worship Center, during the school year on Sundays at 9:30 a.m, is a joyful, worship-based formation opportunity for the children of St. Luke's. The curriculum is based on a Montessori style teaching, with Bible stories told. Another way to describe it is age-appropriate liturgy of the word which includes prayers, singing, story telling and art response. Then, approximately 10:40 a.m. the children join their parish family for worship at the passing of the peace, and participate with the community celebration of Eucharist.
Upper Room, 3rd grade - 12 yrs old
Upper Room provides a Worship Center learning opportunity for children in upper elementary and lower middle school and expands on the formational opportunity first offered in the Worship Center. It provides more in depth education of bible stories, liturgical traditions of the Episcopal Church, and some discussion on values of caring for each other.
Journey To Adulthood, ages 13-19
The Journey to Adulthood is a complete youth ministry program of spiritual formation for teens. It encourages relational ministry and uses Bible study, prayer, rites of passage, outreach ministries and both serious and playful activities to underscore the two guiding principles of the program: 1) Manhood and womanhood are free gifts from God; and 2) Adulthood must be earned. Because we have a mixed-age group of youth, we combine the Rite-13 and Journey to Adulthood (J2A) curriculum for our youth. We will work towards Young Adults in the Church, (YAC) as our teens grow. Most Episcopal churches that use J2A work towards a team pilgrimage by fundraising, class work, community building and planning.
Confirmation Prep
At some point in our journey, we all make decisions about our faith commitments. Confirmation is ritual in which we make a mature public statement that we intend to follow Jesus, in company with Episcopalians (or Anglicans). We recognize this commitment with a unique church service, and the Bishop asks God’s blessing on the person making this promise. To prepare to be confirmed, parents, teens and priest decide together, is a teen mature enough to make a faith commitment? Then a teen must take responsibility to prepare by joining a group, reading, praying, visiting another church and a monastery, exploring ways to serve the church, and responding to the worship service. Topics we read and discuss include: baptism, confirmation, the Bible, history, worship, sacraments, spirituality and prayer, church government, and our own calling. The decision to be confirmed is made by the teen (if the priest agrees).
Adult confirmation is sometimes appropriate, if a person was baptized as an infant and never made a mature public faith commitment. Discuss this with the priest.
Growing an adult faith
When Jesus was asked what is most important on the spiritual journey, he answered….“the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength… You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” [The scribe replied.] “When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’” (Mark 12:29-31a, 34a.)
Consider
heart - what and whom do we love?
mind - what do we know about God, our faith tradition, how are we informed?
strength - how strong is our will (to carry out our good intentions), how integrated is our spiritual with our physical self? How disciplined are we, in our spiritual practices?
soul - where is the space in our lives for beauty, silence, simplicity, solitude, and the voice of God?
(For more information about yourself and your own inclinations, Corrine Ware’s typology is useful here: http://www.episcowhat.org/ware-spirituality-type-indicator.html. Scroll down for the diagram.)
Anglicans say, we believe what we pray. Attending church services, over time, shapes our faith life and relationship with God. Our parish service schedule is on our homepage, and sermons are available.
Most of our adults enjoy opting into a learning commitment on a short term basis. So we regularly offer a series of 6-8 week shorter term classes or book groups. Recent topics have included Forgiveness, the Advent Conspiracy, Why did Jesus, Mohammed, the Buddha and Moses Cross the Road?, Bible studies on various Epistles (which are themselves letters written to various churches about how to live as a Christian), Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.
St Luke's frequently offers the Living Compass wellness program, in which we assess our own satisfaction with these four areas listed above. (See www.livingcompass.org)
We currently have a group studying Christian Healing prayer, generally Wednesdays.
In addition to the opportunities listed, the Episcopal Diocese offers Christian Development Institute (CDI), Community of Hope, Safeguarding God's Children, Diocesan Teen Retreat Opportunities, Camp Webb, and more.
