Children's Programmes

Babies
At St Luke's we have geared things up to be as baby (and as parent) friendly as possible. There are babies and small children everywhere at St Luke's, we're used to them and understand the dynamics that come with trying to navigate a Sunday morning with kids. You can relax at St Luke's.

We understand that while sometimes babies make cute noises, they are also known to scream the house down. We can handle this. Though we would recommend that with noisy or unsettled babies that you make use of our parent's room. Especially during the sermon.  This allows other folk to concentrate on what's unfolding in our Sunday gathering. Our parent's room features a live video and audio feed of the main auditorium and is a space set up for playing with, feeding, and changing baby. 

If you'd like your baby dedicated at St Luke's we do this regularly. Some traditions practice infant baptism and charge parents to raise their children in a way that they would come to understand baptism for themselves. Our practice at St Luke's is different to this. Instead we pray a prayer of blessing over babies and their parents and acknowledge together, that children are a gift from God. We recognise the challenges and the joys of parenting and the responsibility of parents, extended family and the church community to champion children and help them to grow to a place of maturity in their faith where they would choose to be baptised themselves latter on in life. If you'd like more information about this, please e-mail us. info@stlukeschurch.org.nz 

Creche
The Bible tells the big story of our loving God at work in human history, and who loves and appreciates stories more than kids? We want our kids to fall in love with Jesus as they learn to appreciate the good news of the Jesus and the Bible as the story out of which we make sense of life. At Kid's Church our hope is to introduce kids to Jesus and an understanding of God's love via a wide array of fun activities, games and exciting lessons. 

All our kids begin in big church with their families, a chance for mums and dads to model worship and for our whole community - young and old - to be together. They then move through to their own exciting programme.

Our 1 and 2 year olds have their own room where they play together building relationships with each other and the adults who are with them. Parents are required to sign their children in and out of this programme.

Our 3 and 4 year old children have a space dedicated to them too. They gather to spend time playing, listening to bible stories, discussing, singing songs, and making crafts. All with the aim of teaching them about God who created them and loves them and Jesus who wants to be their friend forever. Parents are required to sign their children in and out.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Like all facilities set up as a place of public gathering, our building is required to have fire exits that are easily accessible. With this in mind it is important to remember that like a mall, our Sunday gatherings, are a space where you need to keep an eye on your child the whole time. While they are supervised in their respective programs, before and after these, before and after church, please don't switch of from parenting. (Unless the grandparents are at St Luke's, then just pass them straight over to the grandparents and relax!).  

Kid's Church
Our Primary School aged children have their own Kid's Church space one building over from the main church. The kids make a walking school bus with the teaching team and walk over to their own space where they spend time playing, singing, making, thinking, talking, laughing, discussing, questioning, and learning. The aim is to create a culture where children and their leader’s grow in faith as they journey together following Jesus. We use the Liturgical Calendar to shape our lesson planning and have a whole lot of fun together every Sunday. Parents are required to sign their children into the walking schools bus and then, afterwards, to collect and sign their children out from the Kid's Church at the end of the service.

Intermediate Youth
Our Intermediate Youth (school years 7-9) start the Sunday in the main gathering for the worship time and then move to their own space and program during the sermon. The focus for this time is to continue to build on the foundation from Kid’s Church at a level that is engaging for their age and stage in life. We have a heap of fun and enjoy hanging out while always being aware that church is not a big entertaining show, rather a community on a journey together, growing deeper in love for God and others - over a lifetime.  Similar to Kid’s church we follow the seasons of the Liturgical Calendar, and also spend time studying individual books of the bible, biblical themes and topics (e.g. fruits of the spirit and parables) and the big story of the bible. We also have fortnightly social events which remind us that being together and celebrating friendships is meaningful in and of itself and a precious part of growing into a whole and flourishing life; this often looks like - spotlight and bonfires, laser tag and ten pin, quiz and pizza, snow trip and bush walks and acts of service.