Archive for category: Columns

Bishop Paul’s letter

Rev Paul Smith
Bishop, Lutheran Church of
Australia and New Zealand

God the builder: ‘Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail”’ (Matthew 16:18b).

We continually ask the Lord to ‘raise workers’ for the harvest. We see more pastors retiring. We see an increasingly short supply of Lutheran people trained to serve as school ministry workers and principals. We see aging congregational communities and the closure of buildings.

God sees people of the church, in work that he has commissioned. It was our Lord Jesus who declared ‘you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8).

This does not mean that the church ignores matters of concern about church life. We need to be properly preparing women and men for the various ministries of the church. We need to continually work on evangelism as a primary task. We need to encourage one another, including young adults, to offer our gifts in service for the mission that God has given us.

In the ages of the church since the time of the resurrection of our Lord, there have been church bodies that have grown, diminished and concluded. Ephesus is a good example of this. Ephesus received a letter in the New Testament and an historic early church council was held there. You can visit Ephesus today, but it is an archaeological site. We can imagine the grief as the Ephesian Christians faced closure.

The mission of God is much more than the demography of any one church organisation. In New Zealand and Australia, we are seeing church organisations declining in numbers, but this is not the same in other parts of the world. The Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus has more than 10 million members and is increasing in numbers. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in our neighbouring Papua New Guinea also continues to grow and now includes more than 1.8 million members.

What is certain is that our Lord has declared that he will be actively building his church and that the gates of Hades will not prevail against it (Matthew 16). This is a sure promise for our witness and service as people of the worldwide mission of God that is at work in the Lutheran Church in New Zealand and Australia.

This does not mean we should refrain from grieving at the closure of a church building or of a ministry in which we have been involved. We human beings know the pain of loss. If you know of a congregation that is closing or has closed in recent times, please pray for those folk and consider how you might reach out to them in their struggle.

Please also regularly pray for the ever-growing mission of God and for our place as Lutherans in the Lord’s promised building of his church.

Our Lutheran church has established a ministry called New and Renewing Churches which is tasked with asking the important questions about evangelism in the church, and then helping communities actively co-operate and practically plan together, in the mission that our God has given to us.

In Australia in particular, we know that people continue to cherish the witness and service of our Lutheran schools and Lutheran care facilities like our aged-care communities. We must ask what this means for us and for our participation in the mission of God.

The College of Bishops has established the Ministry Future project to help us to be better able to identify issues about ministry and to discover good solutions to those issues.

In the song, ‘Reaching out with open arms’, Australian songwriter Robin Mann has taught us to hopefully sing:

‘Take up Jesus’ cup, drink it to the end;
love, give, start to live; we are Jesus’ friends.
May we care with our actions and our prayers.
We’ve been given so much, people, let’s all share!
Reaching out, reaching out, reaching out with open arms.’

In Christ,
Paul

Lord Jesus, we belong to you,
you live in us, we live in you;
we live and work for you –
because we bear your name.

Going GREYT! 1 Peter 4:10

In Going GREYT! we feature stories of some of our ‘more experienced’ people within the LCANZ, who have been called to make a positive contribution in their retirement. We pray their examples of service will be an inspiration and encouragement to us all as we look to be Christ’s hands and feet wherever we are.

by Helen Brinkman

Being good with numbers has been a blessing for the man believed to be the LCANZ’s longest-serving congregational treasurer, Glen Kraft.

The 74-year-old member of Burnie congregation on the north-west coast of Tasmania has spent the past 50 years as treasurer of his home congregation and is still going strong.

Glen is comfortable sticking with numbers: ‘I’m not one who can go out and witness. God gave me a gift of numbers so I can thank him for that. Doing that, I can give something back to the Lord.’

Glen was only 24 years old, and fresh off the mainland when he became treasurer in May 1973. He had moved to Burnie in 1971 from South Australia’s Barossa Valley.

His first job out of university was working as an industrial chemist in a local paper mill. He said he’d probably stay for four to five years when he was interviewed for the role. Fifty-two years later he’s still here, ‘and I’ll probably die here’, he says.

‘Part of the reason I looked for a job in Tasmania was because I didn’t really like the hot climate in South Australia’, he says. ‘While at uni I did some internships, one in Tasmania, and the other in Dampier, northern Western Australia – with temperatures as high as 50 degrees – and I was counting down the hours until I finished. It sort of pushed me to Tasmania.’

Growing up in the small Barossa town of Stockwell, Glen didn’t like the big city, so he was quite happy moving to Burnie with its population of about 20,000 people.

And of course, Glen liked the cold! So much in fact that he decided to try snow skiing. While he admits he wasn’t very good to start with, his persistence paid off. By 1979 Glen had his first winter holiday in the ski fields of New Zealand.

‘When it is -5 degrees on a sunny day, it’s lovely’, he says.

Glen has never looked back, skiing at many of the world’s major ski fields until about 20 years ago when he decided the Canadian snow resorts were his favourite – and they became his go-to destination until COVID hit. Aside from his ability to work with numbers, skiing has given Glen another blessing – access to some of the best mountain views in the world.

‘Picture a clear blue day, with such crisp clean air and the sun shining on white snow so it just gleams’, he shares. ‘The snow just hides all the scars in the earth, and for me, that has absolute beauty.’

It reminds Glen of his favourite worship song, Robin Mann’s ‘How shall I call you?’, with the lyrics ‘How shall I call you? Maker of heaven, poet of sunset and painter of sky’ (song number 43 from the All Together Now songbook).

‘When I am standing on the top of mountains and looking down at mountain peaks covered in snow, that song used to buzz around in my mind’, Glen says. ‘Everything is crisp, clean and beautiful – and you think God’s created all this, and he looks down and everything’s perfect.’

Fast forward to 2023, and Glen is hoping to plan his next ski trip to Canada in 2024. ‘That may be the last, as age is catching up with me’, he says.

But Glen is keeping fit as a fiddle for skiing by walking kilometres each day up and down the hills between his home and the Burnie church manse. This is because he’s not only the congregational treasurer but is also looking after the manse while the parish awaits a new pastor.

Oh, and he’s also treasurer of the North Tasmania Lutheran Parish, which includes the congregations of Devonport and Launceston, as well as Burnie. His maintenance and information technology skills have also been put to good use developing the weekly service orders, PowerPoint presentations and service arrangements for the three congregations.

As for his treasurer’s duties, Glen has noticed the changes in the role over the decades.

‘It’s certainly become more complicated over time’, he says. ‘These days you need to do a lot of reporting. Compliance is important.’

While he serves the parish in multiple capacities, Glen believes keeping the congregations functioning well, especially during pastoral vacancy, is a team effort. ‘I am just one of the people helping to keep the church working’, he says.

When it comes to serving, Glen’s advice is to seek God’s guidance: ‘You just need to pray. If people are really motivated to serve, God will lead them to find what suits whatever they can do. ‘There’s lots of little ways they can help. Anyone can push a mower around, as long as you enjoy doing that. God’s given everyone different gifts. Without those little jobs, the church couldn’t exist.’

And the final verse of his go-to Robin Mann’s song reminds us all of God’s faithfulness: ‘How shall I call you? Master and servant, lord of the seasons and lord of the years; faithful and constant in loving and mercy, giver of laughter and taker of tears.’

Helen Brinkman is a Brisbane-based writer who is inspired by the many GREYT people who serve tirelessly and humbly in our community. By sharing stories of how God shines his light through his people, she hopes others are encouraged to explore how they can use their gifts to share his light in the world. Know of any other GREYT stories in your local community? Email the editor lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au