St. Luke's Episcopal Church

Youth Groups
Salt and Light at St. Luke’s
Embrace Your Faith & Live Out Loud!

We are the youth groups of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. Salt includes students in grades 5 to 8, and Light is our Sr. High group, grades 9 to 12. Salt meets on most Friday nights from 7 to 9 p.m., and Light meets on most Tuesday nights throughout the year, from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m.

Jr. High Salt
Besides having a Christ-centered meeting, with games, prayer, worship music, and food, many of our Friday night Salt meetings also include joyful shouts of ARGH!, lots of music, belly laughter, some form of chocolate, cramming 15 people into the smallest hiding places in the church, “SOTWP,” and fabulous fellowship with some of the coolest students ever! We love greeting new faces, and friends are always welcome. For students who RSVP by Wednesday of each week, we meet at 6:45 to 7 p.m. for dinner, following the Youth Choir rehearsal.

What can someone expect when they come to Salt? After dinner, when our meeting starts at 7 PM, we all join together for about 45 minutes of game time. There’s nothing quite like exploring your church — quite literally — to find 20 of your best friends hiding under a pew in the sanctuary!

Following our game time, we come together for worship and praise. As Episcopalians, we desire our worship and praise to not only be glorifying to God, but to also unify and edify who we are as members in the Body of Christ. Our worship and praise time is led by rotating Ministry Teams each week, made up of fabulous students!

Salt wouldn’t be “salty” without some lesson time. Our lessons dig into real life issues, primarily using Bible study, as well as examining our tradition, and exploring reason. Come with an open heart, a working mind, and let’s seek Christ together!

The last half hour of our meeting is reserved for small groups. Our small groups in Jr. High rotate between Ministry Teams, Service Teams, and Prayer and Support Teams each week.

Ministry Teams are divided into Music, Drama, Art, and Technology. Led primarily by Sr. High volunteers, our Salt members get a chance to use their gifts, talents, and creative energy in a creative, spiritual response to the lesson. That effort prepares for following weeks of worship and praise, and gives back to the whole church community.

Service Teams are led by volunteering adults from the whole church community. Salt members learn about various “behind the scenes” ministries in the church, see how God is working in other Christian adult lives, and offer hands on support to those ministries. One month, we could be cooking for the Soup Kitchen or crafting cards to support the pastoral care ministries.

Prayer and Support Teams are the traditional style of small group, offering a safe and confidential environment to pray with one another. We practice different forms of prayer, by using both the Book of Common Prayer and extemporaneous prayer. The use of prayer journals is also encouraged!

Salt travels for Christian youth conferences, is involved with outreaches, and also has fun and fellowship filled excursion nights.

Sr. High Light
Students in grades 9 to 12 are welcome to join Light meetings on most Tuesday nights. We meet at the Rectory, from 7:30 to 9:00 PM. The Sr. High students are fully involved with the development of Tuesday meetings, from music to studies and discussion, and are excited to be such a vital part of our church community. Students can expect a spiritual and intellectual group discussion, in a respectful and loving environment. We strive to find our Spiritual gifts, dig into why we believe what we believe, challenge one another, and seek Christ and truth. After our discussion, the group prepares for Sr. High led contemporary worship services that are schedule throughout the year. Lastly, underclassmen and upperclassmen divide into Small Groups for prayer and support. The group is led by a team of St Luke's adults. The group shares fellowship, prayer and fun together and works together to raise funds for the Senior High Mission Trip each summer.

On the last Sunday of the month, the Sr. High gathers for Mission and Outreach meetings and excursions to help prepare for the coming summer’s mission trip. The young men and women of our church are deeply committed to one another, and look forward to empowering our church and community with their gifts.

We have led trips to Logan in WV, Mohawk in upstate NY and will be going to coastal Maine in summer 2007.

Some highlights of our past year have been attending Autumn Blaze at Continental Airlines Arena, our involvement in the annual St. Luke’s Fair, attending Break Out 2006, the Sr. High 4 Square Tournament, Walleyball, the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Dinner, Contemporary Worship through Music and Drama Night, Dinner and a Show Night, our Lock-In’s, day trip to Six Flags, and the Sr. High’s life changing summer mission trips.

To be added to the weekly Salt and Light e-mailing list, please contact kristin@sands.net or
parish@stlukesgladstone.org.

Back