Celebrating Creativity is a small group of people believing that God will glorify Himself through gifts of song, poetry, art, films etc. We meet three times a year to share what we believe He has given us.

An open and informal group of men, of varying ages and fitness, who meet to encourage one another to reach their full potential through spiritual and physical adventure. Conveying the idea of our being on both a physical and spiritual walk through life, the group’s desire is to provide men with the chance to discover more about themselves and the God they serve. They also encourage one another in the greatest and most exciting challenge, our spiritual walk day by day in our families, work and play.

The media group produce a number of presentations for the church family, most notably church news videos fortnightly. A real buzz has been generated by the positive feedback and members of church are welcome to actively get involved, and with each edition, the team are learning together and making improvements with all aspects of the production process.

This group has been meeting for a number of years and was formerly known as the Men’s Dining Group. Meeting informally once a month at the Grange Moor Hotel, time is spent sharing what has been happening, often sharing specific testimonies of the things God is doing in our lives or as a forum to ask questions in a relaxed atmosphere.

The photography group supports communication in St. Luke’s. You will find the group’s photographs in Connect magazine, on the website, on the screen during services and even in the Canterbury Diocese newspaper. All levels of ability are catered for; our membership consists of absolute beginners right the way through to professional photographers.

The 60s+ group is a well attended and lively group for over 60s that meets on a Tuesday in the church and hall. The group enjoys lunch together and engages in a variety of activities, from keep-fit to quizzes, and celebrates Communion together once a term. The group is growing in size, with new members joining regularly, and there are usually around 60 people in attendance.

The Shed is a club for men of retirement age. We meet to visit places of historic, scientific, gardening and cultural interest. During the winter, we meet monthly and during the summer at three weekly intervals. We meet to have interesting and fun days out, and to enjoy one another’s faith, fellowship and experiences.

These regular breakfasts are an opportunity to spend time with friends, neighbours or colleagues, in a friendly atmosphere, over a cup of tea or coffee and plenty of food. Each time the group meets, there is a guest speaker.

Brownies (12th Maidstone) St. Luke’s, meet on a Thursday evening 6.00pm to 7.30pm term time for girls aged 7-10 years. The girls choose the programme and we have a variety of challenges, drama, games, quizzes, water fights, crafts, fundraising, trips and discos. Any parent whose child is interested, or any adult is interested in becoming involved with Guiding in any capacity, please contact Brown Owl via the church office.

The pack meets at St. Luke’s at 9.15am on Saturdays and we aim to provide a varied, enjoyable programme of crafts, sports, interests and activities. Brownies are encouraged to work for interest badges individually and as a pack. Girls aged 7 - 10 years are welcome to join us.

“we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord...so that the next generation would know them...and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in the Lord.” Psalm 78: 4-7.

We are putting this into action by being involved with children, and other children’s ministers, right across this country and beyond. St. Luke’s Kidz on a Sunday morning (including ‘490’, the school years 7 – 9 group), St. Luke’s Kidz lifegroup on Tuesdays, Kidz In services, T ‘n’ Tots, East Borough school, Starz (8 – 11s) at the Detling summer celebration, Kampala Children’s Centre in Uganda, Scripture Union, Church Army and The Family Trust, to name but a few. Read more

12th Maidstone (St. Luke’s) Guides meet every Wednesday during term time between 7pm and 9pm. Evening programmes during the year have included making Royal Wedding dresses from bin bags, a pamper evening, a trip to Aylesford on the train and a river walk back to Maidstone, preparing for our Christmas Fair and a keep fit evening with a difference - belly dancing!

St. Luke’s playgroup is a charity registered playgroup. We are allowed 26 children per morning and are open to any member of the community with a child between the ages of 2.5 years and school age. We are now open from 9.30am to 12.30pm every day to cover the 15 hours free entitlement the government has introduced. The group employs 8 members of staff who are all trained in early years.

We have recently celebrated our 50th anniversary and have re-decorated the inside of our headquarters in our red and white colours to mark the passing of this event. We are always looking for adult help with all our sections and it gives a wonderful opportunity to take part in the range of activities we provide. Read more

Beavers ages 6-8yrs (Tues 6-7pm)
The colony is always full with children on the waiting list. We would encourage parents to put down their child’s name as early as possible to ensure there is a place available when the time comes. Theatre trips, seaside outings and craft activities are all features of the Beaver programme.

Cubs ages 8-11yrs (Weds 6.30-8pm, Thurs 6.45-8pm)
Pack holidays and outings are a main feature to be enjoyed in the Cub section. Various visits to zoos, places of interest and parks are all regulars during the year.

Scouts ages 11-14yrs (Mon 7-9pm, Fri 7.30-9.30pm)
Camping is the mainstay of the scout programme with hill walking, canoeing and climbing all included as activities.

“Jaguar” Explorers 14-18yrs (Tues 7.30-10pm)
Activities include wide games and camping trips, hiking and sailing.

The group meets during term time from 9.30am - 11.30am on Mondays, providing a place for carers to meet and their children to play. At present, we have 30 people on the books, of whom 15-20 attend regularly; therefore we feel a waiting list is not currently necessary. As always, anyone who feels at a loss for something to do on a Monday morning would be most welcome to join us.

“Our passion is to see young people from inside and out of the church experience God’s love and power, grow as individuals and have a safe place ‘to be’.”

We believe that we have seen this at different times throughout the past year.

Nexus meets on 2nd and 4th Fridays for school years 7 – 11. This includes social times including playing football, Wii, pool, sumo wrestling, themed evenings and short discussions on faith. Leaders include older youth, which we believe enables them to grow in their faith and use their gifts.

The girls lifegroup ran for a time, but closed in November as the number of girls fell. The boys lifegroup continues to run on Wednesday evenings. The format has been an open house group fortnightly and a group aimed at those aged 17-20 the other week. We are about to launch FaithWorks. This will meet on 1st Fridays 7.30-9.30pm and will be aimed to be a mixed group for those aged 16+. It will be social, have guests, be a place to share God stories and as the name suggests, see faith work in real life.

We do not lead a group, but do provide a service. Several people already read the Bible daily, relying on scholarly/devotional notes provided by Scripture Union, Every Day With Jesus, and other publishers to help them. These notes are bought regularly and delivered to the readers. We would be delighted to help or advise others who would like to make daily Bible reading in a structured way part of their discipleship.

Lifegroups are small midweek groups mainly meeting in homes in and around Maidstone. They’re safe places to be yourself, to make friends and be encouraged. Although St. Luke’s is a friendly place, it can be hard to really get to know people in the time after the services. In any of the 17 lifegroups which operate, you will learn about each other and how God works in people’s lives, and probably eat food together! There will probably be times of worship, learning, sharing and thinking about how to make an impact in the community around us.

If you would like to know more or would like to join a lifegroup, please do contact us.

The course has been around for many years but is still very valuable for all Christians to look at where their calling from God is. It does not just identify spiritual gifts but both your ministry passion and personal style.

The aim is to enable you to be the right person in the right place for the right reason but it is not the churches recruitment agency! The people on the course were able to speak to a coach individually about the results of the course and it either confirmed they were in the right place of ministry or provided insight into where their calling could be. We would love to run more courses so please register your interest by contacting the team.

The mission of PWL is to encourage and equip Christians from all Church denominations to live every day for Jesus so that they and their Church communities make a genuine difference for good in the world. It is so difficult to describe everything that happens and to detail everything that God does. It really is something which has to be experienced first-hand. Read more

Street Pastors is an inter-denominational church response to urban problems, engaging with people on the streets to care, listen and dialogue. It was pioneered in London in January 2003 by Rev Les Isaac, director of the Ascension Trust, and has seen some remarkable results, including reduction in crime in areas where teams have been working. There are now some 9,000 trained volunteers nearly 250 teams around the United Kingdom.

The co-ordinator for Maidstone Street Pastors is from St. Luke’s, as are many of the Street and Prayer Pastors. Maidstone was the first town in Kent to have Street Pastors and on each Saturday night from 10pm to 4am on Sunday morning a team of up to nine people provide practical help and support to the approx. 15,000 people who come to Maidstone’s clubs and pubs.

The Street Pastors are supported by a team of Prayer Pastors in their base in the town with direct radio communication between there and the Urban Blue bus (providing medical assistance), the police, the door staff, and the town CCTV control room, with whom the Street Pastors work closely, but independently. We are recruiting in 2012 for more Street and Prayer Pastors to replace those who leave and to expand our activities. If you are interested in finding out more about this ministry, please contact us.

Compassion is an evangelical Christian child sponsorship organisation. It works through local churches in 26 of the poorest countries around the world to release children from economic, social, physical and spiritual poverty. Read more

St. Luke’s Church is in partnership with two child sponsorship projects in Africa. The projects are based in the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, Kieni, Kenya and Walukuba Elim Pentecostal Church, Walukuba, Uganda. Members and friends of St. Luke’s currently sponsor a total of approximately 200 children across both the projects.

Sponsors make a monthly donation so that their child can attend their project once a week to receive healthcare, education and Bible teaching. This gives the child the opportunity to develop spiritually, physically, emotionally and socially. Each child has only one sponsor therefore sponsors are encouraged to support their child in prayer and to build up a relationship by writing to their child regularly.

The 6 Course takes place over 6 weeks and enables participants to discuss the big questions of faith in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. Covering topics such as ‘Why should I be interested in faith?’ and ‘What’s so special about Jesus?’ it allows space to discuss issues and raise questions.

It is designed for those who are interested in Christianity without presupposing any background knowledge. The course is run in a similar way to Alpha beginning with a meal, a guest speaker and occasionally, a testimony before breaking into smaller discussion groups. Participants are encouraged to ask questions and share together.

Coffee Break Plus meets every Thursday morning during term time. We serve carers, mostly mums, of young children aged 1-3 years. Since the closure of Coffee Break and the Friday health clinic, we have gained some mums with babies who have formed a friendship group. This is fulfilling our primary aim to give carers a place where they can build friendships and get support from our team when needs arise.

We serve coffee, teas and homemade cakes and provide a safe play environment for the children. Creative activities are being run for the older children and their carers.

Connect is our main outreach communication with our parish. The parish is distributed into 36 areas and the magazine is distributed by a large team of ambassadors, who each get involved with the design and content of each edition.

Providing hospitality is central to so much of what we do, it is a great opportunity to show God’s love and care to all people both from within the church family and even more so to those who do not yet know Him.

We would be keen to hear from anyone who shares the vision of the church that we are ‘Here to love God and people’ and are gifted to do this through hospitality.

A group of dedicated prayers meets monthly on a Thursday evening to pray for Africa. The needs of the continent are overwhelming, but we focus our prayers each month on, perhaps, a topic, a country, an individual or a ministry. We prioritise praying for mission partners in Africa, for those from St. Luke’s going out on a mission, or anyone who has a particular connection somewhere in Africa.

We welcome new members - anyone who has a heart for Africa and a heart for prayer.

After many years in the dreaming and planning, we launched in June 2011, and God has been taking us on an exciting journey since then. We have been distributing Princess Packs to new mums in our church family and the wider community. These are beautiful gift boxes individually tailored to each mum, with the aim of blessing her extravagantly, and reminding her that she is special, unique, and loved - by us and by God!

We ran two pilot projects in 2011, firstly of a befriending scheme to offer one-to-one friendship and encouragement to new young mums who don’t have much of a support network around them. We have been working with mums who were residents of Trinity Foyer if they became pregnant, but we have also made contacts with other agencies such as Golding Homes and Surestart and look forward to being able to partner with them in the future. Further training courses are planned in the near future, and we are welcoming volunteers from many different Maidstone churches onto these courses.

The other pilot scheme was the Parenting Children Course. We are hoping to be able to join forces with other interested parties both inside and outside the church to be able to run this course in St. Luke’s Centre in due course. Read more

Trinity Foyer is supported accommodation, in the centre of Maidstone, for up to 46 residents, aged between 16 and 24 who might otherwise be homeless. Three groups of volunteers from St. Luke’s provide a weekly activity evenings for the young people, cakes for these evenings every week which are very well received by the residents (and the volunteers!) and supervision of the residents whilst they use the computer room, enabling them to do their college work, write CVs and keep in touch with friends and family.

We aim to demonstrate God’s love for each young person in a practical way and we are often given the opportunity to share with them, the hope we have in Jesus.

The committee’s task is to encourage the whole church fellowship to be excited and engaged in Christ’s mission throughout the world. We do this by sharing information of individuals and societies that we support, through prayer, education, and giving in that it recommends to the church council the allocation of part of the money from the overall mission budget.