St. Luke's monthly Celebrates Newsletter helps St. Lukers

connect to one another as we navigate life together. 

We wish a very Happy Birthday to all our St. Lukers!

Join us in celebrating everyone who has a birthday this month.

We appreciate the faithful commitment

St. Lukers make to the church's ministries.

Join us in celebrating everyone who has a church

Partnership anniversary this month.

St. Luker Steve Sloan, legendary University of Alabama All-American quarterback, college football coach, and athletic director, passed away peacefully on Sunday, April 14 at the age of 79. To read Steve's full obituary, please click here.

A funeral service was held on Thursday, April 18 at St. Luke's. Former football coaches and players from various college and NFL teams attended along with family and friends to pay their respects to Coach Sloan.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested gifts be made in Steve’s honor to the below organization or click here to donate online.

Please keep Steve’s wife Brenda and their extended family in your prayers.

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes

8701 Leeds Road

Kansas City, MO 64129

Long-time St. Luker Terry McCorvie passed away on Saturday, April 20 at the age of 72.

Terry was a leader in our church serving on Finance, Church Council, helping to lead our 4D vision, helping to raise funds for Capital campaigns, Shepherds Hope Board, The Greater Good Men’s group, Educational IMPACT, Circles EWG, the Men’s Breakfast, and sharing hours of volunteer and leadership in the Emmaus Community where he played guitar, led weekends, and sponsored dozens of people making their Emmaus Walk.

To read Terry's full obituary, please click here.

A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, May 11 at 11:00 a.m. in Founder’s Hall with a reception following at the Youth Center.

Instead of flowers, kindly give memorial gifts in Terry’s honor to provide scholarships for St. Luke’s Theatre program (select "In Memory of Terry McCorvie" from the drop-down menu at st.lukes.org/give), or to Dave’s House to help provide permanent housing for people with serious mental illnesses (www.daveshouse.org).

Please keep Terry’s wife Kathleen and their two sons, Scott and Ryan, along with extended family in your prayers.

Care Visitation Team welcomes New Members!

Our Care Visitation Team was honored to welcome two new members to the team. Sharon Adelhelm and Ann Dolengowski were commissioned Sunday, April 21 at the 11:15 am Traditional service.

The Care Visitation Team is a group of specially-trained lay people who work alongside our pastors and provide regular visits to those who aren’t able to come to worship. This includes independent or assisted living facilities, skilled nursing facilities, and those that are homebound.

Our team provides a listening ear and loving support while sharing the love of Jesus through the gift of their time and presence and the sharing of devotions and Scripture during their visits. Some have developed very meaningful relationships and life-long friendships.

This team serves as an extension of our church family by bringing a little bit of our St. Luke’s hospitality to those they visit while living into our vision.

If you know someone who would benefit from visits by this team, please contact our Parish Nurse, Lisa Crump at lcrump@st.lukes.org or call 407.955.4756. 

Pictured above: Val Dobson, Ken Anderson, and Beanie Brewer (back row);

Kathy Lamb-Flynn, Wendy Cumo, Darnell Barber, and Dustin Houck (front row)

Congratulations to our newly commissioned Stephen Minister class!

These lay individuals began their weekly classroom instruction in January and attended 50+ hours of training to help walk alongside individuals during difficult times in their lives.

Pastor Jad Denmark proudly commissioned them on Sunday, April 28 at the 11:15 a.m. worship service. Congratulations to all!

If you are in need of someone to listen, care, encourage, and provide emotional and spiritual support to you during a storm in your life, contact the Care Office at care@st.lukes.org or 407.876.4991 ext. 262 to be matched confidentially with a Stephen Minister. Women are matched with female Stephen Ministers and men with male Stephen Ministers.

Grow it Forward - Thank you to our volunteers!!!

Thanks to our amazing volunteers at the St. Luke's Grow It Forward farm, we are able to share our produce with our partner school, Maxey Elementary. Just this past month, we provided and donated cabbage, kale, and sweet potatoes to the families at Maxey Elementary.

Thanks to Melanie, Lynne, Justin, and John for their consistent efforts on the farm. Thank you to all our farm volunteers and to all our gardeners who helped plant sprouts at the Spring Fling event last month.

Click here if you would like to learn more about Grow it Forward.

ZOE Empowers - Zimbabwe Trip Thoughts and Reflections

ZOE Empowers is a three-year empowerment program, working with extreme poverty in 7 program countries, which include Rwanda and Zimbabwe. This program empowers orphans and vulnerable children to become economically, socially, and spiritually strong. St. Luke’s has partnered with over 1,200 children in 15 empowerment groups thanks to the generosity of our congregation.

In April 2024, a team from St. Luke’s, consisting of Pastor Melissa Cooper, Ann Eppinger, Skip Slone, and Michelle Schall, along with a few others from local churches, was able to visit the ZOE groups in Zimbabwe. Pastor Melissa and Skip shared some of their thoughts and reflections from the trip – click the button below to read:

St. Luke's Shout Outs!

The April featured Staff Shout Out goes to

St. Luke's Director of Care Ministries, Kim Paredes!

Kim is very loving, kind, and caring - perfect for being the leader of Care Ministries. Kim is tireless-always forward thinking.

Being a facilitator for GriefShare, I know how much time she puts into just this one ministry. We are so very thankful for Kim and the time and energy she gives to Care Ministries.

A few additional Shout Outs to Kim:

Shout out to Kim for her incredible work in GriefShare. That ministry is bringing so much help and healing to so many people.

While we offer kudos to all the leaders of ministry at St. Luke’s, the ones who keep everything not only functioning, but soaring, we especially tip our hats to one who not only juggles but empowers one of the largest: the Care Teams. Kim is the ultimate ringmaster who keeps everything operating. From support teams such as autism, caregivers, Open Doors, Divorce Recovery, GriefShare, and Hearts to Hands, to action-oriented groups such as Caring Kitchen, Stephen Ministers, Prayer Team, Call and Visitation Teams, Kim ensures that St. Luke’s meets the needs of its congregation. Her supportive, compassionate, and administrative manner undergirds all these and helps them thrive. If one were to ask what makes St. Luke’s the church it is, the answer is Kim Paredes. Well done, good and faithful servant!

Congratulations Kim!

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