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Longest Lutheran Welcome

by Andrea Cross

Lutherans are well known for putting on a ‘good spread’. Perhaps this stems from Martin Luther’s example of hosting his ‘Table Talk’ gatherings. Or could it be a more recent phenomena fostered by the bounty of blessings many of us share today? Ultimately, of course, it is Jesus who inspires our Longest Lutheran Lunch, with his example of hospitality to ‘the least of these’.

More than 100 Lutheran congregations and schools shared the gift of hospitality by taking part in the Longest Lutheran Lunch this year, as part of the celebration of the anniversary of the Reformation (31 October).

Registrations for this annual event included seven congregations in New Zealand and even one in Ontario, Canada. All Australian states and territories were represented, apart from Tasmania and the Northern Territory, with South Australia having the largest by Andrea Cross contingent of 27. Four primary schools, two secondary colleges and one agedcare facility were involved.

More than 50 congregations and schools took part for the first time.

The official registrations are not a true reflection of the number of congregations involved, however, as some nominated as a parish and invited two or more congregations to events.

Some lunches were held as early as June, while some were in late November. Only one congregation registered a lunch on 31 October.

Others changed the name completely to fit in with their activities. Some participants staged breakfasts or dinners. Members from Zion Lutheran Church, Vectis, in Victoria’s Wimmera region, combined their ‘lunch’ with their annual German Night, which drew more than 120 people, most of whom were not members of the church community.

Others to ‘turn German’ for their Longest Lutheran Lunch included St Peter’s Lutheran Church, Loxton, in South Australia’s Riverland on 8 November, and three congregations from Queensland’s Gold Coast, which met at St Andrews, Tallebudgera, on 1 November.

By contrast, several congregations from the Barossa Valley met at Moculta on 25 October, with an Australian flavour to their lunch, featuring campoven damper, lamb stew and Anzac biscuits on the menu.

A short distance away at Redeemer Lutheran School, Nuriootpa, more than 400 staff and students teamed the Longest Lutheran Lunch with their 150th anniversary, under the theme ‘Eating Together in Our 150th Year’. Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Witta, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, hit the front page of its local newspaper with lunchers dressed in period costume.

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God loves eating and drinking

by Tyson Stelzer

Fluoro lights flickered under the galvanised iron roof of the besserbrick shed at the bottom end of town. The floor was set with trestle tables, complete with disposable plates and plastic cutlery. The spit roast was firing. Men arrived with armloads of baguettes, women with giant containers brimming with salads and desserts.

It was dinnertime, to the roar of a hundred conversations, hoots of laughter, bad karaoke and so much wine.

Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, the tiny village in the middle of Champagne’s famed Côte des Blancs (area), is the home of Salon, the champagne house that makes just one cuvée and sells it for $700 a bottle. Just a moment away is Krug Clos du Mesnil, the most famous sparkling vineyard in the world. Its fruits sell for $2000 a bottle. Vineyard turf is never less than two million euros a hectare. I could hardly speak their language. I knew the names of just two people in the room. But I felt at home.

What if we spent more time sharing loaves and fishes with our neighbours than discussing theology? What if God is calling us to share the gospel in bread, wine and chocolate slice?

And that night I learnt something about church. When it comes to getting together over food and wine, I can’t help wondering whether God doesn’t have a higher purpose in mind.

Just take a look at Jesus’ social calendar. His first miracle was to turn water into wine at a wedding banquet.

Matthew 11: ‘The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners”’. Was Jesus a glutton and a drunkard? Of course not. But so vital was the ritual of eating and drinking with sinners for Jesus that he was mistaken for a glutton and a drunkard.

In Jesus’ culture, to eat and drink with somebody was to publicly extend to them acceptance, friendship, love. Jesus ate and drank with the most unlikely, disreputable and unholy candidates. When Jesus saw Zacchaeus in a tree, he said, ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’ We don’t know what was said that night, but we do know that before the end of it, Zacchaeus announced that he would turn his life around.

Matthew was a tax collector when Jesus arrived at his house for dinner. Before dessert was over, Matthew was a disciple.

The Pharisees asked Jesus’ disciples why he ate with tax collectors and sinners. They queried why he didn’t fast. They criticised his disciples for picking and eating grain on the Sabbath. Jesus threw out their legalistic restrictions on what one can and cannot eat. And Jesus knew all about hospitality. When 5000 men plus women and children were hungry, Jesus fed them with five loaves and two fish. When the risen Jesus appeared to his disciples, he cooked them a barbecue on the shores of Lake Galilee.

How did Jesus describe heaven? Like a wedding banquet and a great feast. On the night he was betrayed, Jesus said, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer’. I don’t think it was any accident he chose bread and wine and the ritual of a meal as the way he communes with us. You see, I believe in a God who loves eating and drinking.

And he always has. Back in Israel’s history they put together a tent to show that God wanted to be with his people. It had a table. It had a pitcher of wine and the bread of the presence of God. In Psalm 23, God prepares a table to sit me down with my enemies and, in sharing a meal with them, he will affect reconciliation.

And it is about fun, too. Ecclesiastes 9:7: ‘Eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart’. You see, God loves eating and drinking. And he has set us up to love it, too. Of all the miraculous complexities of our bodies, scientists tell us that smell and taste are the deepest mysteries of all. Not just that no-one knows how we smell, but that we should be able to do it at all. Scientists now believe that we can distinguish between one trillion different smells. God has engineered your nose as one of the most complex mechanisms in all of creation. Why? Because God loves eating and drinking. But what if it’s more than that? What if our open invitation to our homes could create connections with neighbours…

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Getting your church Christmas-ready

by Dean Eaton

How do you get ready to welcome newcomers into your congregation during the Christmas season ?

When visitors decide to attend your church, how will they know where you are and what days and times you will be holding services or events?

What kind of welcome will they receive, and how will they feel as they go away after attending your Christmas service(s)? Here are six tips to improve your welcome, and ideas to maximise this opportunity for sowing the gospel this Christmas.

Advertising

Invest in a good-sized, attractive advertisement in the ‘Christmas services’ section of your local newspaper. If you have a website or Facebook page, place your address and service times clearly on the front pages. Within council limitations, hang some Christmas lights and signs advertising your services and events at least two weeks prior to Christmas Day.

Prepare your church buildings

Ensure the cleanliness of your buildings and grounds. If you are having multiple Chris Ensure sufficient parking for the services. Request that regular members leave the best car parks for visitors. Ensure your toilets and baby facilities are well signposted inside the building, and consider including them in a building map in any handouts and/or on a pre-service PowerPoint slide.

Prepare your welcome team

Roster on extra ushers and welcomers for your Christmas services. Train the team to smile. The body language of those they meet is what visitors will observe first and remember. Hand out breath mints to all welcome team members. Have the welcome team wear a special t-shirt or welcome badge.

Seating

Ask your members to sit up front, leaving the back rows for visitors, who are likely to arrive late and may even leave if the only seats available for them are in the front rows. You’ll still need to bear in mind, however, that visitors need to be able to see what’s going on, for example, parents like to see their children in a Christmas play.

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Where love comes to life

… in the water

Baptism—the sacrament that brings us God’s grace, that washes us clean of our sin and that brings us as Christians into God’s family. It’s where it all begins for us, so it was fitting that Convention began with our remembering it in a special way. At the opening service (and also at the closing service) the bishops were accompanied in procession by children. They gathered together around the baptismal font, where the bishops dipped their fingers into the water, blessed the children with the sign of the cross, and then the children did the same to bless the bishops.

It was a powerful reminder that we are brought into Christ’s family, not by our natural birth, but by being born again in baptism, and that we come together in need of God’s grace and forgiveness.

… in bread and wine

Every morning delegates, visitors and volunteers came together in worship and at the Lord’s table. Every morning the bishops were there to serve us.

Day by day, it became increasingly evident that there was more than simple goodwill holding us together as Synod. God was working in us, too, through this daily meal with Christ himself and all the saints.

The daily celebration of holy communion may have, at first, appeared to some to be an indulgence we could not afford in a tightly scheduled convention, but half way through the week nobody was complaining. In fact, many were asking, ‘Can we make this a regular feature of Convention? Can we have Eucharistic worship every day?’ Feedback from delegates and visitors is consistently rating ‘daily communion services’ as a soaring highlight of Convention.

… in the word

Over the six days of Convention, we travelled through the six chapters of Ephesians. Each day one of our bishops used a chapter as the foundation of his sermon. Full texts of the six sermons were published daily (and are still available) at www.lcasynod.org.au/sermons. In addition, an innovation at this convention was a daily devotion booklet, presented to delegates and available for everyone to read or download from the convention website. We were invited to read one chapter of Ephesians each day and to reflect prayerfully on the notes provided by the bishop preaching that day. The notes were accompanied by striking black-and-white photographs by Geoff Schirmer, which were also projected during worship in the chapel each day.

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ORDINATION We listened

Thursday

It was about half an hour into the session before we realised something in the room had changed. There was a constant low buzz of voices, punctuated by soft, polite laughter. There was concentration on delegates’ faces as they leaned across the circular tables to better hear speakers. There were smiles, and soft hand gestures.

Ordination Dialogue Group (ODG) co-chair Pastor James Haak was smiling. ‘We’ve done about five dialogues now, and this part is always the same’, he said.

If you couldn’t be at Convention, it’s possible that all you heard was the ballot result. But delegates, who had listened deeply to each other and prayed together, heard something else … the pain, the fear, the grief, of a brother or sister.

‘First, delegates pair up, and each gets to describe their own journey with the ordination question. Then they share their partner’s story with the rest of the people at their table.

‘This session is empowering. To share tell the story of someone whom they may not agree with, but have been asked to understand … it means that delegates can no longer view the other as the enemy. Instead, they come to see each other as a brother or a sister in Christ.’

At the end of the day, as delegates gathered again in the light of the Christ candle, we prayed once more that the his light would shine in this place, that his love would come to life here, where 420-plus delegates are tackling a difficult conversation, in his name.

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team@work

It’s impossible to tally the hours that national, district and local planning teams contributed in order to create the best convention experience possible for delegates and visitors.

The national team consisted of some old hands (this was Linda Macqueen’s sixth General Convention), but there were some new faces, too. This was the first time Bishop John Henderson had chaired General Convention, and he received much commendation for his professionalism and even-handedness. In a break with tradition, the chair was assisted, officially, by a consultant with experience and expertise in constitutions and meeting procedures. The onthe- spot advice of Fred Kleinschmidt (pictured centre right), a lawyer, allowed Bishop Henderson to pay attention not only to the business, but also to the people and the spirit of Convention.

Also supporting Synod, out of the limelight, was Geraldine Hawkes (top right), Executive Officer of South Australian Council of Churches. Prior to Convention and during it, Geraldine offered insightful guidance to the church’s leaders and the ordination dialogue team for the conduct of the dialogue and debate sessions. For example, the daily journey of the Christ candle from the chapel into the business sessions was Geraldine’s idea, as were some of the symbolic candle-lighting and extinguishing rituals.

The planning team is indebted to Geraldine and Fred for their fresh approach and innovative contributions.

Working hard behind the scenes—for two years prior to Convention, and during it—was LCA Business Manager Debbie Venz (above) and her support crew, including the ever-attentive minute secretaries. Debbie played the leading role in operational and logistics management across all of Convention, including the agenda of the business sessions.

 

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Change is not death

Extracts from the report of LCA Bishop John Henderson

The church

The Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA) exists so that the body of Christ may be recognisable in human society. As the inward association of faith, we remain steadfastly committed to the pure teaching of the gospel and the sacraments.

The ‘big topic’

Women and the Call to the Office of the Public Ministry We have been debating this topic for at least 15 years. In 2013 the General Convention asked for further study. A ‘moratorium’ on speaking and writing on the matter was lifted, and the ‘Ordination: We’re Listening’ website set up (owl.lca.org.au), providing core materials and a place to hold a conversation. (See pages 15-19.)

Lifestyle of reconciliation

Over the last two synodical terms the LCA has been establishing a Professional Standards Unit (www.lca.org.au/professionalstandards. html), (and) a Reconciliation Ministry (www.lca.org.au/ reconciliation-ministry.html) to promote a biblical lifestyle of reconciliation. We are attempting to ensure greater transparency and procedural fairness.

Marriage

In response to the Irish referendum, I released a statement on Marriage, (affirming) the LCA’s position. If samesex marriage does become law in Australia, the rites of the LCA will not allow a pastor to conduct such a marriage. (However) it is unlikely that the government will attempt to force churches to conduct marriages. (We have) begun to assemble a group to help steer the LCA’s contribution to the social debate and to provide resources for study.

Royal Commission

A hard-working group monitors the work of the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse on your behalf and responds to requests to produce documentation. The LCA (insists) all people in the church working with children complete ChildSafe training and, as appropriate, have a police check or Working with Children check, or (in Queensland) hold a ‘blue card’. If the Commission recommends ways to improve systems and processes, the LCA will impleme

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New. Renewing.You.

by Steen Olsen

By the time Pastor Nathan and Yvette Hedt (pictured above) and their family arrived in Packenham in eastern Melbourne a year ago, there was already a small group of Christians keen to plant a vibrant, growing church on the campus of Lakeside Lutheran College. In partnership with the college and the LCA Board for Local Mission (BLMiss), the Victorian District had called Pastor Nathan to be a church planter.

Pastor Nathan writes, ‘Our new church is not about multiple programs or flashy worship services. Rather, we will be looking to build authentic community. We are doing that through implementing ‘missional communities’—local neighbourhood gatherings of Christians who meet for a meal each week, share Scripture and prayer, and intentionally engage in God’s mission to the people around them. We hope and pray that as new people come to know Jesus, these missional communities will multiply so that eventually there’s one in each of the housing estates in Pakenham.’

The interim Board for Local Mission was established by the 2103 General Synod to promote, resource and coordinate the growth of mission culture in all the diverse ministries of our church in Australia and New Zealand. In adopting the tagline, ‘new and renewing churches’, BLMiss is saying that its focus is on both new mission initiatives and revitalising existing congregations and other ministries.

NEW CHURCHES

Dean Eaton is the BLMiss church planting mentor and mission facilitator. He works with our ten sending churches preparing them to appoint and support church-planting teams, assisting with leadership formation and evangelism training. Dean has provided training in each of the six districts of our church. Some training is specific to the sending churches but the six-part evangelism training is open to all. So far, over 600 people have taken up this opportunity.

RENEWING CHURCHES

Early in 2016, BLMiss will be launching its support for the revitalising of our congregations and other communities. We are not just asking ourselves what we should believe—as important as that question is—but also how we should live. In doing so we are not seeking to identify a set of rules that must be obeyed. Rather we are asking what practices we need to embed in the fabric of our lives together, so that the things we believe may truly shape who we are.

We want to support all LCA communities in their journey toward better health. Therefore, the approaches and resources being used in our ten sending churches will now be made available to all congregations, schools and other communities in the LCA, to assist them on their journey to

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Pastoral letter on the Unity of Synod

from Pastor John Henderson LCA Bishop

Soon our church will gather in a General Convention of Synod. No matter who you are or where you worship, the decisions made at the convention will affect you.

They’ll affect all of us—and our children and our grandchildren. Even if you won’t be attending as a delegate or visitor, you have been asked to pray for the delegates, for the convention and for the church herself.

The question of Women and the Call to the Office of the Public Ministry will not be the only issue on the agenda, but it promises to be the most controversial one.

It might not be the single most important issue in the kingdom of God, but right now it offers us a practical opportunity to get to the heart of some stuff that really matters: how we hear God speaking in the Bible, who we are as Lutheran Christians and what we hold most dear. If you wonder why we are still having this conversation, it’s because, after many years of study of Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions, and two Synod votes, the question has not been satisfactorily resolved. Nearly 50 years after the union that brought the LCA together, God continues to test our faithfulness. Are we ready to listen?

As the convention gathers in worship, hears God’s promises and celebrates the gospel, God is preparing our church for the even bigger questions to come. The world is rapidly changing. Current global events threaten to make the pace of change increase even more. Now is the time to learn once more what it is to entrust our future to God, believe in his gospel, use his good gifts wisely and well, and follow the guidance of the Spirit who motivates us.

Understandably, there are those who feel anxious about what General Synod will decide. Others just want to move on. To face the future together, we need to confess our fears, identify our hopes and accept the challenges that we are called to face. If we can handle this difficult discussion with integrity, honesty and peaceful hearts, submitting to the inspired word of God as the ‘only true source, norm and rule, and standard of all teaching and practice in the Christian Church’, we will learn some important things that will help us with the issues that lie ahead of us. With God’s help we will continue to proclaim the gospel to a world so much in need of it.

Yes, there is a risk to the church. After Convention, feelings could run high. Some people are saying that whichever way Synod votes on the ordination question, some people—or even entire congregations or groups within congregations—will leave on the grounds of conscience. However, as we work through this issue, shouldn’t we be confident of God’s blessing as we allow the love of Christ to guide our actions?

If you are anxious about all this, please don’t rush into anything that is aimed to harm others or their reputations. Let’s stay away from deeds that we might regret or that might bring the gospel of Christ into disrepute. Division is a sadness that brings no joy or satisfaction. Every other possibility must be explored first, and we must give time for that.

In these weeks leading up to Convention, I encourage you to prayerfully reflect on Paul’s encouragement to the Ephesians (4:2,3): ‘Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.’

Therefore, before we do anything after this convention, as a whole church we will need to stop, reflect and breathe deeply.

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Ordination two journeys

by Tom Pietsch and John Strelan

At the recent General Pastors Conference, Pastor John Strelan and Pastor Thomas Pietsch (members of the Ordination Dialogue group) were asked to share their personal journeys on the ordination of women.

This was done to foster a context of honesty and openness for all pastors to share their own journeys with each other. John and Tom’s edited stories are printed here in the hope that a similar spirit may be fostered in the church leading up to the General Convention, and that delegates might be prepared to answer similar questions in small groups. They are published in The Lutheran to help you to reflect on your own journey.

JOHN: I first encountered a woman in the pulpit when I worshipped in a village church in Germany as a teenager. My recollection of that first experience is that she was a pretty boring preacher! But then, I was a 14-year-old boy who didn’t understand a word of German, so perhaps my judgement was a little skewed.

I was raised within a traditional family structure and my parents had fairly defined roles. Mum was a housewife who looked after the children, while Dad was the bread-winner. I don’t think I’ve been scarred by that experience. I am the son, grandson and great-grandson of Lutheran pastors, but it was only after I entered seminary training in my mid-twenties that I began to think seriously about the issue of women’s ordination. I can’t recall having any definite feelings on the topic before then, one way or the other. I guess I trusted the church would know best. That is a position I still hold.

TOM: My dad was the first person to bring up the issue of women’s ordination with me. I was 16 or 17 at the time and not particularly interested in the debate, which seemed more of my parents’ issue than mine. But I took up the position natural to me, which was to support the ordination of women. The idea that women were somehow not equal to men was, and is, abhorrent to me. It seemed to be a no-brainer.

In my last years of school and first years of university, I spent some time thinking about sex, funnily enough. There was a lot of wonder, but also a lot of confusion. I began to come to grips with how sexualised our culture has become, and how demeaning and degrading this can be. But I also began to see the joy of the Christian vision of sexuality, which shone a beautiful light into the gloominess of what was around me at university and on TV.

It was at this time that I began to grow cautious of claims that our generation had reached clarity on issues of sexuality that the previous 2000 years had been blind to. It seemed to me much more plausible that our culture’s vision on sex and gender had been distorted rather than clarified.

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