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Old and new reasons to celebrate

The history of Finke River Mission (FRM) in Central Australia dates back to the mid-1870s. However, while there are regular milestones recalling significant events across more than 140 years, there are also new and exciting developments in the 40 Lutheran communities of the region.

This month marks the 70th anniversary of the dedication of the church building at Haasts Bluff, 220 kilometres west of Alice Springs, while recently a new church was dedicated at Engawala, 150 kilometres north-east of the region’s largest population centre.

Haasts Bluff was the first church built in the Pintupi-Luritja language area when it was constructed predominantly by the work of Aboriginal people in 1949. The church’s bell, which is still in use, had been donated by the Lobethal Lutheran congregation in the Adelaide Hills.

The church was built 26 years after the first tentative survey mission trip was made to the area from Hermannsburg.

It was 19 years after the start of official ongoing evangelism work at Haasts Bluff, eight years after it had been formally established as a ration depot, and only a few years after Pastor Hermann Pech and his wife Elizabeth (who passed away only this year) had arrived. Seventy years on there will be an evening singalong and a service of thanksgiving. Celebrations will be led by local Indigenous pastors Trevor Raggett and Simon Dixon.

Another reason to celebrate is the new bush church at the small community of Engawala, situated on Alcoota station.

Until recently, the congregation had gathered for monthly worship on a basketball court. Several years ago, locals decided that they wanted their own church building. Assisted by local community development workers, they have been converting an old house into a small church.

While work on the church is ongoing, FRM support pastor for the Alyawarr Region Michael Jacobsen reports that an opening service was held in June, with FRM support workers officiating, and other Aboriginal pastors and linguists, and the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir participating in the service.

Church vessels were donated by St Paul Lutheran Church Morawa in Western Australia and Pastor Michael says a plaque will be placed in front of the new church with the inscription: Aboriginal Lutheran Church of Engawala.

‘The Lord made us, and we are his; we are his people’ (Psalm 100:3).

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Doing it all for the gospel

Can you recall the time when God’s grace transformed your life and his spirit first sang in your heart?

Through LCA International Mission, you join us in proclaiming, training, transforming and partnering in the gospel with our neighbours across Asia and the Pacific. Darkness gives way to light, hope replaces fear, love restores lives. When our life is changed, the lives of those around us also change.

PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL
In the small village of Huay Pong in northern Thailand, Khun Pim shares the story of her love for Jesus. Pim is one of eight local evangelists, supported by you, who serve their local communities by living and sharing the gospel. ‘Jesus Christ is a healer, a mighty God’, she says. ‘Two years ago I talked with a spirit doctor who was unable to heal his own sick grandchild. Finally, he asked me to pray for his grandchild. I went several times to pray and his grandchild was healed! The spirit doctor became a Christian and was baptised.’

TRAINING IN THE GOSPEL
This year young Australian and Asian Lutherans are learning about our church’s ministries, developing leadership skills, seeing mission and ministry up close, and working with a mentor. Grow Leadership identifies future young church leaders in the LCA/NZ and in our Asian neighbouring churches and encourages them in deepening their love for Jesus as they see his Spirit at work. Participant Hudson says: ‘God’s spirit is literally all over the world and it unites us.’ Seeing how God works through lives in another culture has given these young people a greater appreciation of God’s grace and love. Bielehmo, from Myanmar, says: ‘He is faithful in the beginning of my journey to the end.’

TRANSFORMING IN THE GOSPEL
Six Indonesian pastors are now trained in Reconciliation Ministry. The law can be a strong focus in a country where followers of Christ are a minority and where living a ‘righteous’ life equal to their Islamic neighbour is important. Reconciliation ministry has a gospel focus that transforms lives with the understanding of God’s grace. Rev Deddy Fajar Purba says, ‘The seven-week program has led us to a deep understanding of God’s love. We observed how Reconciliation Ministry has become a practical way of life in the congregations. They know God is kind and very near to them.’

PARTNERING IN THE GOSPEL
We value our partnerships with Interserve and Wycliffe where Hanna Schulz, Ian Hutchinson, Patrick and Anke Sprau, Natalie and Stephen, and Anna serve, or prepare to serve, as Bible translator advisors, missionaries, medical specialists and audio bible producers. Through the many ways we partner, the gospel is proclaimed and lives are reflecting the change from darkness to light. Thank you, Jesus, for the opportunities!

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Where are all the young people? What can I do?

by Jodi Brook

Have you ever found yourself asking this or similar questions? Do you sit in church and look around at the generations of people visible on Sunday mornings and wonder? As parents, grandparents, those involved in the work and life of families in our communities and all of us – this question can lead to great frustration and sometimes be very personal and cause considerable grief.

A lot of research has been done over the past 10 years to help us to understand why some young people leave the church and perhaps where they go. These studies have all had similar outcomes.

Over the past six years, Grow Ministries has been doing the hard work of processing this research.

What we have learnt is that we need to encourage congregations to rethink how they do ministry with children, young people and their families, and that this ministry needs to include the whole church community. Yes! That means each person of all ages needs to see themselves as part of ministry with children and young people.

Young people often do not feel like they are an important part of life in the congregation and belonging is really important to young people – as it is to all of us. For a young adult, in the years leading up to them deciding to leave the church, they have been unintentionally told that they are not welcome as part of the ‘big’ church.

We told them they were too young to understand what was happening in worship – ‘you can go to Sunday school’ – and then, when they are finished in Sunday school, they don’t feel as though they belong in worship because they have never been present there!

Next, we said: ‘Go along to youth group. Hang out with other Christian kids – you’ll have fun!’ Yes, they had fun. Yes, they made great Christian friends, but they never got to know the church, the congregation or the people. So what is the church that they are leaving? Perhaps it is a church they never felt they belonged to in the first place.

It is not easy to understand how we help young people to feel part of our congregation. It’s much easier just to run another youth program, or employ a youth worker and expect that to be our ‘silver bullet’ or quick-fix answer. The former requires us to rethink the ways we’ve always done things.

Part of our rethinking is not to put our time and resources into hiring an energetic youth leader or into providing a more contemporary worship service. Of course, these things may help, but they’re not the whole answer.

The key is to be intentional in providing opportunities to get to know our young people. We can help them belong by planning intentional ways of building relationships across the generations. Take time to speak with the young people in your congregation – particularly following your worship service. Find out what interests them.

Is there a way in which they can serve or contribute to the ministry of your congregation? Intergenerational ministry is about doing life together. It’s about taking the time to get to know the people we sit next to each week, no matter how old or young they are.

Can we provide learning opportunities that include all ages? Opportunities that build understanding of one generation to the other? Could we consider inviting a larger group of adults to assist with teaching confirmation and first communion?

Could we rethink small groups to make them intergenerational? Intergenerational ministry is not just about – and of benefit to – children and young people. It is about – and of benefit to – people of all generations.

It is essential for congregations and their leaders to invest some time and energy into understanding what role they have to play in implementing this new way of thinking – it’s about changing culture. It’s about doing ministry differently and this requires leadership and guidance. Permission to try new things.

Young people need to feel they belong to your congregation. But the research also tells us that our families still play a critical role in teaching and passing on the faith.

Families enjoy opportunities to pray, learn and be together – even if parents are a little reluctant to get started.

A growing number of congregations within the LCA are taking up this opportunity to rethink what faith formation looks like for their church family. They are now celebrating a renewal of health and vitality in their contexts as they minister to each other in faith and life.

Jodi Brook is Director of Grow Ministries.

If you would like to learn more about the ways in which Grow Ministries can help your congregation to rethink ministry with children, young people and families, please contact us via email at growministries@lca.org.au or by phone on 08 8267 7300.

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Young people are still part of the story

by Josephine Matthias

People love stories. Whether they’re true accounts of when your parents were younger or fictional tales of magical worlds, there’s something about telling or hearing a story that creates relationships.

Some of the most powerful stories are from the Bible. If you’ve grown up in a Christian home, you probably know off by heart stories like Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers. But millions of people have never heard of Noah, the ark, the animals and the flood. You really notice the power of Bible stories when you tell them yourself.

Bible stories are the most basic and influential tools for sharing faith. If you are willing to share them, God can work in miraculous ways.

Another simple way to change someone’s life is to invite them to church. They may not come immediately but at least you have opened that door.

My sister Greta and I invited a school friend, Dale, to church last year. I love my church and the second family it has been to me. I wanted him to experience what it’s like to have hundreds of grandparents and aunts and uncles. I’ve invited many people to church before but mostly they politely refuse. He didn’t.

This year, Dale celebrated his first Easter. He received his first Bible last year and was part of his first Christmas service. These simple experiences are monumental in the life of someone who’d never known what Christmas was actually about.

Dale recently shared his testimony in our church confirmation class, that he lives in a non-Christian home and is teased for his beliefs, but still prays every night and wants to share the good news of Jesus with others. To see the way he’s changed since coming to church and believing in Jesus is life-changing for me also.

Although it may seem our church pews are filled with fewer young faces these days, young people are still out in the community, working hard to bring the light of Jesus to the world. Please pray for us.

Josephine Matthias is a member at Para Vista Lutheran Church in suburban Adelaide.

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Growing young leaders

by Vicki Rochow

Where have all the young people gone?

I wonder whether this is the wrong question to ask.

Imagine a farmer standing arms folded and asking, ‘Who didn’t shut the gate?’, while watching his sheep flee up the road and onto the highway. Would he not instead close the gate to protect the sheep still in the paddock, before going out to look for those who are lost?

Likewise, as a church, could we instead ask, ‘How can we love and encourage the young people who are still here, while reaching out to those we no longer see?’

I have met many LCA/NZ young people who have a vibrant faith. They are active in their local congregations and communities, sharing and serving.

Grow Ministries has been working for six years to support and equip congregations to move from isolated programs for children and young people to an intergenerational ministry culture that nurtures faith for life. Part of that process is to share with congregations the 10 Guiding Principles that have been developed to assist congregations to disciple people of all ages, including young people.

One way we can ‘grow’, equip and encourage young leaders is through the LCA/NZ’s Grow Leadership (GL) program. GL is an 11-month part-time commitment targetted at young adults. It involves two face-to-face intensives, a ‘Stretch and Grow’ experience overseas (in partnership with LCA International Mission), regular one-on-one mentoring and involvement in local congregational leadership.

The aim is to provide participants with a mentored faith adventure, enabling them to grow in the gospel and empowering them to become leaders with skills to contribute to the church and the wider community.

The 2019 Grow Leadership team met in the Adelaide Hills in July for Intensive 1. During that time we discussed the theme of this issue of The Lutheran, ‘Where have all the young people gone?’ One young person felt frustrated by the theme – ‘It makes me angry because I’m still here!’ As well as asking for their reactions to the theme, we asked why they are still engaged, involved with and participating in the LCA/NZ, including through GL.

Vicki Rochow is communications and Grow Leadership coordinator for Grow Ministries.

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Two communities, one heart for mission

by Lisa McIntosh

Many Lutheran schools in Australia have their genesis in a local Lutheran congregation. But having both school and church on the one ‘campus’ is a newer phenomenon.

At Queensland’s Murrumba Downs, just north of Brisbane, Living Faith Lutheran Primary School and Living Faith Lutheran Church do more than just share a site – they share one heart for mission.

Living Faith Primary was established after congregations at Sandgate and Petrie amalgamated in 2000 with the aim of starting a school. When the school built a new administration building a few years back, it collaborated with Living Faith congregation, so that visitors enter through one front door to access both receptions.

The working relationship between primary school Principal Jane Mueller and church Pastor David Schuppan, who each started at Living Faith in 2014, exemplifies this shared vision.

The pair meets each Monday over coffee. ‘There’s a lot of mentoring, from David to me. And that’s probably step one for us in the relationship between the church and the school’, Jane says. ‘It works both ways’, Pastor David says, ‘I learn a lot about educational processes.’

Pastor David takes weekly Bible studies with school staff, leads some school chapel gatherings and three times a year leads staff in theological or spiritual training. Each class from the R-6 school takes part in church services at Living Faith, but while a number of school families have joined the congregation, church membership numbers are not a motivating factor for the relationship. ‘It’s more about kingdom-building’, Jane says.

Both leaders have seen changes in the demographics they serve at Living Faith. In recent years, the congregation has planted Beyond Church, to reach out to unchurched people. Most youth now attend Beyond and Pastor David is keen to draw people of that age range to Living Faith, which is one goal of an LCA Mission Stimulus Grant they were recently awarded.

In her time at Living Faith, Jane says the school community has become more multi-faith. ‘We now have families from all backgrounds, we have Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindus, various Christian denominations and some people who identify with no faith’, she says. ‘When Lutheran schools were established they were for Lutheran people and now they’re an outreach, so I say, “Bring it on”.’

To that end, Jane says having the majority of the school board being – like her – members of Living Faith congregation, is critical. ‘When it comes to setting strategy … we can talk about things like compassion, we can talk about Christian love and forgiveness and that filters down into the school’, she says.

‘The fundamental benefit [of working together] is that when we serve, we grow’, Pastor David says. ‘Your own soul expands when you share Christ with others, share love with others, so it’s a healthy thing.’

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Sharing life with students

by Adam Yeager

What is school chaplaincy? After nearly nine years I am still trying to answer that question.

The life of a lay chaplain in Lutheran schools can be wild and varied. Whether it is kicking a footy with Year 6 boys, tackling questions about science, history, philosophy and theology with Year 12s or supporting staff through seasons of grief and doubt, chaplaincy is rarely easy and never boring.

My vocation is to journey with staff and students through the daily routine of school life. I have sat with students struggling with their sexual and gender identity, strapped students into waterskis though they didn’t have a clue what they were doing, and led countless chapel services – all with the aim of sharing life with students and reminding them, through word and deed, that they are loved by God.

We live in a time when family and community connections often break down, leaving young people desperate for something that explains what’s happening in their world and in themselves. The idea of a stable community rooted in a local church is a foreign concept to most students. They are more likely to connect with young people in a different country through online gaming than with those in a local community of faith.

This is where school chaplains bring something countercultural into the lives of young people. As students share their lives with us, we share the love of God with them. They are loved, regardless of how popular, sporty or intelligent they try to be. We journey with them, regardless of what they believe, through the good days, the bad days and the often-boring milieu in between. A school chaplain can be a theologian, a counsellor, an administrator, an executive, a coach, a mentor or whatever we are needed to be. The words of Paul resonate for me:

‘I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings’ (1 Corinthians 9:22–23).

To the diehard Taylor Swift fan, I become like one who likes her latest single (though I don’t think it’s very good); to the boy who can’t focus in class and acts out because of his insecurities, I become one who empathises and never judges; to the principal wrestling with teacher-performance issues, I become a listening ear and a voice of comfort.

In an age in which the dynamics and demographics of Lutheran schools are drastically changing, chaplains serve to keep our schools anchored in the gospel – one collegial cup of coffee (or juice box) at a time.

Adam Yeager has been serving as College Chaplain at Faith Lutheran College at Tanunda in South Australia. Later this month he takes up the same role at Unity College at Murray Bridge in SA.

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Living a gospel of hope

Being a Christian chaplain in a government school means you can’t explicitly preach the good news of Jesus to students and, understandably, many people find that a real challenge. But that suits Sharon Salomon just fine because there’s no rule against living the gospel as an example to students.

Sharon, a lifelong Lutheran who has been working as a chaplain at state schools in Queensland for 11 years, believes that’s more her calling and gift.

‘I’m not someone who can really share the gospel, I do better trying to be the person who lives it’, says Sharon, who has served at Oakey State High School and Oakey State School (primary), in Queensland’s Darling Downs, 30 kilometres north-west of Toowoomba, for almost six years. ‘I’d rather live by example and through building relationships. Showing that love … kids pick that up.’

Appointed, trained and equipped by Scripture Union Queensland, Sharon is known as ‘Chappy’ by the students.

As well as providing morning teas and lunches for the school staffs and pancakes for students during the recent Chaplaincy Week, Sharon has been visiting local churches to promote school chaplaincy. This has been supported by the interdenominational Oakey Combined Chaplaincy Committee, of which St Paul’s Lutheran Church Pastor Ken Schultz is vice-chair. Sharon’s work is funded in part by federal and state government funding, with local support critical in making up the shortfall, coordinated by the chaplaincy committee.

Sharon has no doubt about one of the most-needed things Christian chaplains can bring into the lives of students. It’s hope. ‘We’ve got more hope, we bring more hope than any non-Christian person’, she says. ‘These kids need hope. They don’t know they need God, but if we bring the hope that it’s going to be okay, they can say, “Chappy believes this is going to be okay”.’

And some students do face big challenges. There are family breakdowns and the resultant trauma, which may be brought about by alcoholism, drug use, domestic violence and sexual abuse. Others have mental health issues and some face homelessness.

Sharon has introduced programs covering topics such as forming friendships, and grief and loss. In addition, she has enabled high school students to make their own toasted sandwiches – a real benefit for those who haven’t had breakfast. There is also a chaplaincy committee-supported breakfast club at the primary school.

Despite the demands of juggling two roles across five days and endeavouring to serve the schools, the local community and the local churches, Sharon has no doubt what she loves most about chaplaincy. ‘I love the kids’, she says. ‘I love that I can be a support to them through the next stage of their life. That’s what I’d like to see, to see them grow in the way they need to grow. There’s a verse in Proverbs that essentially says, “Grow the children that they should grow” (Proverbs 22:6).’

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God’s love motivates our care

by Ian Lutze

It was a privilege to be part of the LCA’s One Loving God project team, which worked to update and expand the resources for people in our church who provide care across a wide variety of settings.

One of the results of this practical theological project – the 16-page God’s Love – Our Care booklet – is beautifully produced, with many heartwarming, and sometimes heartwrenching, photos of care in action.

It can be used for personal study or in groups, with Bible texts and thought-provoking questions to explore. There is also a ‘Digging Deeper’ section with more questions to ponder, other things to think about, and further reading to consider.

It’s a gem of a document. But does it say anything new? Isn’t caring for people a simple, responsive and intuitive thing for Christians to do? What more is there to talk about?

The document will indeed sound very familiar to Lutherans reading it, with its references to God’s love which inspires care for the needy, the focus on God’s saving action in Christ being the church’s primary interest, and connections to the gospel through word and sacrament.

But a practical theological project does not simply repeat the past. It seeks to restate our thinking about God in the light of real life in the world, where tough questions are encountered, and the challenge to proclaim the gospel clearly is always changing.

I work in aged care, an arena of dynamic change. Aged-care centres are required by law to provide non-discriminatory care to people according to standards set by the government, albeit with input from the peak bodies from the sector itself. Such standards include accepting, honouring and not trying to change the spirituality of any resident in our care. It is about treating people with due dignity.

This seems to present a problem, though, for mission-minded Lutherans, whose DNA is to proclaim Christ wherever we go.

Over against this thinking is our daily experience of living in a multi-cultural and multi-faith world, growing food for ‘the just and the unjust’, and developing our own life-giving connections to people, home, family, creation, art and culture, and to great causes. Our own ‘spirituality’ is more than our relationship with Christ. We still have a stake in a world we try to make as ‘good’ as it can be.

And more and more we belong to complex families in which our loved ones have a variety of spiritual expressions, too.

God’s Love – Our Care addresses this reality by talking about God having ‘two hands’ – one hand (the left hand) to care for and sustain people in this world, and the other (the right hand) to bring people into the kingdom of God, the new eternal reality created through the gospel.

The document suggests that God’s two hands work more in harmony with each other than perhaps thought in the past. So everything in the way God created people is ‘very good’, even people’s spirituality, their way of making sense of the world, their place in it and their connections. So we can celebrate a non-Christian’s healthy religious practice, as part of the way God created them, while also hoping and praying that God’s kingdom will come to this person, too – God’s right hand at work. Working with this way of seeing things is the art of spiritual care: we accept, and we hope, at the same time.

So, as Christians, it is entirely consistent for us to meet the many needs of any person who comes into our orbit, with grace, love and skill, without devaluing the person because they are not yet a Christian.

The concept of God’s two hands, of course, is, with different language, as old as the Reformation. I love it because it is a way to advance our mission in this world by being honest to God as he really is.

It allows me to get alongside a lady who has never been a Christian, to hear her real needs, and to respond, together with my organisation, according to my specialty.

She comes to church, occasionally, ‘just for you’, as she puts it. Will she ever be a Christian? Who knows? But she is hearing about a God who cares for her very much. Where that goes is God’s business.

Grace means unconditional acceptance, being generous enough to help connect a Hindu to his religious roots rather than place a Christian tract in his hands. Are we able to do this?

Despite being mandated to unconditionally accept people’s faith as it is, to do so also reflects the generous heart of a God with two hands, who will get his work done in the world and will sometimes use us.

I pray that God’s Love – Our Care will confirm the sense in your heart of what good care looks like. May it challenge and nurture your own spirit as you care in God’s name.

Pastor Ian Lutze is Aged-Care Pastor/Chaplain at Tanunda Lutheran Home in South Australia’s Barossa Valley and a member of the LCA’s One Loving God project team.

Interested groups and individuals can download and print from an electronic version of God’s Love – Our Care here or request a printed copy by emailing the LCA/NZ’s Committee for Ministry with the Ageing.

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Highlighting the ability in disability

Lutheran Services is one of the longest established community care providers in Queensland. Its origins can be traced back to 1935 with the establishment of Salem Lutheran Rest Home in Toowoomba.

Today, Lutheran Services provides care, support and accommodation for older people, young people and their families, people living with disability or mental illness, and families experiencing domestic violence and hardship. The organisation is a major presence in the many urban, regional and rural communities it serves.

As a diaconal ministry of the LCA’s Queensland District, Lutheran Services exists to serve, bringing Christian faith and love to life. As stated on its website, the organisation ‘walks together with congregations, individuals and communities to tend to human need in the spirit of Christian love and service’.

Lutheran Services, through its previous incarnations, established workshops, accommodation and support services for people living with disability and mental illness in the early 1970s. Many of these initiatives were the first of their kind in Queensland. Today, Lutheran Services provides disability support services at several regional communities throughout south-east Queensland. These include supported accommodation, in-home support, day programs, social support groups, community engagement and skills development programs.

The disability support initiatives are complemented by an array of creative engagement programs – activities and projects that promote personal development, wellbeing, collaboration and community. One such example is a mixed-ability cross-cultural performance project called ‘Confusion Inclusion’ – an innovative and ambitious idea that yielded spectacular results.

The project brought together performers from two disability services on opposite sides of the world – the Lutheran Services Keystone Centre in Logan, and Popeye from Nagoya in Japan. Employing music, dance and storytelling, Confusion Inclusion sought to ‘build a bridge from confusion to inclusion’. After much planning and rehearsal, the performers gave a public show at Butterbox Theatre at Logan between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. It lit up the theatre. The audience cheered and sang along as the grinning Keystone Crew ‘busted’ their moves.

Keystone’s Boden Nicholson says inclusion is central to the project: ‘It’s a great community effort in the true spirit of inclusion, where we strive to make the world a more accessible place for all. And what a great experience! For those in the audience, it’s a wonderful show. For those performing, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime.’

Confusion Inclusion provided Keystone participant Matthew the opportunity to try new things, develop new skills and make new connections. ‘It was my first time on stage’, Matthew beams. ‘I loved dancing to the songs. The Japanese dancers were great and are good friends. I can’t wait to dance on stage again.’

For more information, click here.

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