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Get to know our new shepherds

These Australian Lutheran College pastoral ministry graduates come from a wide range of backgrounds but will all be stepping out in faith to begin their first assignments as General Ministry Pastors in 2021. Read on to discover more about their ministry journeys.

PHILIP BENTLEY

AGE: 57

FAMILY: Wife Narelle

HOME CONGREGATION: St Paul’s Mount Isa Qld

ASSIGNED TO: Greenock Parish SA

Who were the most influential people in your life as you were growing up? Too numerous to mention, but Jesus has been the most influential.

Who are the most influential people for you now? Jesus.

Before ALC? I have had numerous occupations along my life’s journey. The most significant would be 20 years’ service as a design and technology teacher.

Who or what encouraged you towards pastoral studies? The Holy Spirit.

What is your most relied upon Bible verse and why? ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls’ (Matthew 11:28–29 – NLT). I find it most comforting.

The most important thing people need to know about God is … your Father loves you! You can know him and have a relationship with him through Jesus. You can trust his Spirit to teach and guide you. You can believe that he is who he says he is. You can count on him to keep his promises.

Which privilege of being a pastor are you most looking forward to? Serving our living God. Being able to bring others to an encounter with our God who is revealed as a God of love; also being able to administer God’s gifts through the sacraments and the preaching and teaching of the gospel through God’s word.

What is your favourite leisure activity? I like to run and play the guitar.

 

JAMES LUK

AGE: 56

FAMILY: Wife Sarah, seven children and five grandchildren

HOME CONGREGATION: St Peter’s Frankston Vic

ASSIGNED TO: Bethlehem Morley WA

Who were the most influential people in your life as you were growing up? I was

born in South Sudan. God called me through my older brother Philip. Then I was catechised by Peter Kay, who was the evangelist in the evangelical Presbyterian Church of Sudan.

Who are the most influential people for you now? Dr Ken Bartel and Dr Greg Lockwood – both have supported me in one way or another during my studies at ALC and even when I was doing my Diploma of Theology 10 years ago.

Before ALC? I was serving the Sudanese community for six years as Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) at St Peter’s Frankston in Victoria.

What is your most relied upon Bible verse and why? One of my favourite Bible verses is: ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come’ (2 Corinthians 5:17 – ESV).

Which privilege of being a pastor are you most looking forward to? I look forward to serving the people of God for years to come in my new role as General Ministry Pastor at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Morley, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

What is your favourite leisure activity? I enjoy reading stories in my leisure time. I also like to take a nice walk.

If you could chat with any famous person, living or dead, who would it be and why? I would chat with Martin Luther if he was still alive because he rediscovered the truth of the gospel in the Scriptures, that we are justified through faith and not by our good works.

 

STEPHEN NOBLETT

AGE: 48

FAMILY: Single

HOME CONGREGATION: Calvary Glandore SA

ASSIGNED TO: Southern Flinders Parish SA

Who were the most influential people in your life as you were growing up? From a spiritual perspective my mother Dawn – she made sure that I was at church and Sunday school each week – which in turn allowed my pastor and teachers to have their influence on me.

Before ALC? I worked in the finance industry writing financial plans.

Who or what encouraged you towards pastoral studies? Until a few years ago I never thought that it would be a path that I would take. However, various things happened that led me to realise that God was wanting me to make a change in direction.

What is your most relied upon Bible verse and why? My most relied on Bible verse is John 3:16, there you have the gospel summed up in a single verse.

The most important thing people need to know about God is … Jesus died for you, he took on your sins and through his work you are restored into a right relationship with God. That is how much God loves you.

Which privilege of being a pastor are you most looking forward to? Sharing the message of Christ and what he has done for us with all people.

What is your favourite leisure activity? I enjoy a game of golf, but most of the time I am happy tending my fruit trees.

What is your favourite movie? If I had to select one as a representative of the movies I prefer perhaps The Titchfield Thunderbolt.

If you could chat with any famous person, living or dead, who would it be and why? I would like to have a chat with Archimedes – he was a great problem solver who could come up with very innovative solutions to problems.

 

CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON

AGE: 34

FAMILY: Wife Melissa and daughter Phoebe

HOME CONGREGATION: St John’s Southgate Vic

ASSIGNED TO: Nazareth Woolloongabba Qld

Who were the most influential people in your life as you were growing up? My family, my minister and my third-grade teacher. I learned a lot from Pastor Jarvis’s gentle and caring manner, and Mr Bussink challenged me to think critically and hear all the sides of a story.

Before ALC? I travelled a fair bit. I’ve done a number of labouring jobs, from warehouses to picking fruit. My last major occupation before study was managing a tea shop.

Who or what encouraged you towards pastoral studies? God put a retired pastor, [the late] Neil Hampel, in my path. Neil encouraged me to consider studying for ordination.

What is your most relied upon Bible verse and why? I rely daily on the Psalms. For one specific verse, Jeremiah 29:11. This verse and the context around it are a constant reminder that God does have a plan for his creation, me included.

The most important thing people need to know about God is … who God is: the creator of heaven and earth, the all-powerful being who sustains all life and creation. But far from being distantly high above, God condescends to us. God formed Adam with his hands. God knit us together in the womb. God humbled himself to become flesh and blood. God is all powerful, and yet he would and did die to bring us back into relationship with him.

Which privilege of being a pastor are you most looking forward to? The special ways the pastoral office proclaims the gospel; absolving the sins of the congregation; proclaiming God’s grace and peace in sermons; serving fellow Christians the meal of Christ’s body and blood for the forgiveness of their sins.

What is your favourite leisure activity? I love to ride my pushbike.

What is your favourite movie? The Princess Bride

 

JOSEPH THEODORSEN

AGE: 38

FAMILY: Wife Maricel, and children Aaron, Elijah and Abigail.

HOME CONGREGATION: Hope Geraldton WA

ASSIGNED TO: Top End Parish NT

Who were the most influential people in your life as you were growing up? My family, particularly my mother. She has been a solid Christian inspiration throughout my life.

Who are the most influential people for you now? My mother is still such a great example of the faith. Also, many of the lecturers [at ALC], and congregational members and pastors that I have encountered.

Before ALC? I was a taxi driver; prior to that a recruitment consultant, an accounts clerk, general clerk, and a service station attendant and manager.

Who or what encouraged you towards pastoral studies? The congregation in Geraldton, as well as Pastor Dieter Dell’Antonio and his wife Monica.

What is your most relied upon Bible verse and why? The whole of 1 Corinthians 13. Everything I want to do and be as a Christian and a minister in God’s church is centred around love.

The most important thing people need to know about God is … that he loves you – so much that he gave his only Son to die for you.

Which privilege of being a pastor are you most looking forward to? To minister to the sick and dying is something that I have found very humbling and honoured to be a part of.

What is your favourite leisure activity? My family and I are avid campers, we love to get out and about in God’s wonderful creation.

What is your favourite movie? The Matrix or Die Hard.

If you could chat with any famous person, living or dead, who would it be and why? The Apostle Paul. He has been an inspirational character for me. To chew the fat with him about his experiences would be something else!

 

ROLAND ADAMS

AGE: 34

FAMILY: Single

HOME CONGREGATION: St Luke’s Parkwood WA

ASSIGNED TO: St John’s Trinity Renmark and Holy Cross Paringa SA

Who were the most influential people in your life as you were growing up? My family has had a massive influence on me, along with teachers, sports coaches, and many other people that I have looked up to over the years.

Who are the most influential people for you now? There are many people – from other pastors to people that I have interacted with, to some more famous people who serve as an example for me.

Before ALC? I worked on the docks at Henderson in Western Australia in naval construction for BAE Systems.

Who or what encouraged you towards pastoral studies? St Luke’s Parkwood congregation were among the most supportive, along with leaders of Lutheran Youth of WA, several pastors, and my family and friends.

What is your most relied upon Bible verse and why? Romans 8:35 is a reminder that no matter what happens in the world, God’s love is all-encompassing.

The most important thing people need to know about God is … God loves you, to the extent that Christ died for you.

What privilege of being a pastor are you most looking forward to? Bringing people the forgiveness of God, along with the body and blood of Jesus in holy communion.

What is your favourite leisure activity? This depends on how I am feeling, from spending time with friends or with a book to gardening, or computer games.

If you could chat with any famous person, living or dead who would it be and why? If I had the opportunity and language was not an issue, Jesus would be a good option.

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Fundraising for the kingdom – which servant are you?

by Jonathan Krause

I learnt my first big fundraising lesson in the dusty warehouse of a noisy printing factory in an industrial suburb south of Melbourne.

It was 1986. I had hair down to my waist. And I had the stupidest job in the world – writing poems for greeting cards. It seems I was the only person in the southern hemisphere with this job, which led New Idea to do a feature about it, and Gold Logie winner Ernie Sigley to invite me on to breakfast TV so he could crack jokes at my expense.

Each week I would be assigned 50 greeting cards to write poems for. Thinking I already knew everything, I set out to change the world of greeting cards forever by vowing never to write a rhyming poem. No love/glove/dove for me … which is when my boss beckoned me to follow her into the warehouse.

She pointed to a pallet of boxes of greeting cards – returned greeting cards from shops that couldn’t sell them. She said: ‘Jonathan, it’s not about you or what you want to write. It’s about what people want to buy.’

Fundraising is all about what you want to do for others.

So, my fundraising job at Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS) is straightforward. I simply introduce you to people who need your help, support them to tell you what you can do to help and then leave you to decide what action you will take.

Of course, I try to present people’s story as clearly as I can. And I look for exciting ways you can act, such as Gifts of Grace, the GRACE Project, Walk My Way.

Of course, I respect you enough to be frank with you. Show you the urgency. Explain the challenges. Tell you what it costs.

Then, ask unashamedly for your help.

That’s Fundraising 101 – but really it’s one-to-one.

My dad sometimes grumbles that he gets too many letters from charities. Other people ask not to receive letters, so they can save money for the charity and help lower ‘overheads’. I understand those feelings, especially when you help people (and animals) through multiple charities.

However, in fundraising, we know that unless you talk to people at least every couple of months, they can forget about you, donations drop off, fewer people are helped, and ‘overheads’ actually go up.

So, my job in fundraising is to balance the ‘smell-of-an-oily-rag’ approach – over a five-year average ALWS ‘overheads’ are less than 15 per cent – with doing what my 30 years of experience have shown me to be the most effective, efficient way to raise money to help people.

I’ve been blessed to be able to teach fundraising around the world – the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand and even to 500 hospital administrators in the middle of China!

What I’ve found in all those places is that people always give from their heart. Someone’s need touches them, and they are moved to help.

You cannot educate people into giving by teaching lots of facts or statistics to persuade them. It doesn’t work, because the ‘head’ is not strong enough to overturn a decision made in the heart.

The only time fundraising should be about educating, is when we try to show you the most effective way for you to help others.

There’s another ‘Boss’ who has taught me about fundraising – Jesus.

Ever since I was on the Student Representative Council organising ‘Rice Days’ at Luther College in 1976, I’ve been driven by the words of Matthew 25:34–40. This is the story of the sheep and the goats, where Jesus talks about his people feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, visiting the sick … and pointing out that when you and I do this for someone overlooked, ignored or forgotten, we are doing it for him.

What’s interesting is what Jesus teaches directly before that, in Matthew 25:14–30. Here, he tells the story of the Master giving his servants ‘talents’ – or in modern translations money – different amounts according to the servants’ different abilities.

Each day I must ask myself which servant I am. It’s a question we as the Lutheran Church need to ask each day too.

As a fundraiser, I (and ALWS) try to be the bold, hard-working servant of verses 14–30 – inspiring you with ideas, being efficient with your donations, helping you have as big an impact as you can with the gifts God has given you … to bless others as we follow Jesus as the sheep of verses 34–40, feeding the hungry, giving water to those are thirsty, caring for the homeless and sick.

For me, fundraising is a critical part of this ministry.

I thank God I have been given the opportunity to serve this way and been blessed to see the transformation in people’s lives as we work – and raise funds – together to bring love to life. What a joy!

Jonathan Krause is ALWS Community Action Manager.

 

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Christmas without all the trimmings

by Lisa McIntosh

Even though public worship returned in many churches in South Australia in July, Pastor Fin Klein has a seemingly strange message for members of St Michael’s Lutheran Church Hahndorf this Christmas Eve: Stay home.

Of course, that’s not the end of the story. The idea is that each member family of the Adelaide Hills congregation will invite neighbours, colleagues, friends or extended family to their place to share fellowship, food and to watch 7pm worship via community TV or the internet. The hope is to have 50 to 60 St Michael’s members host as many guests as they are able, taking into account government regulations.

In other years, St Michael’s would expect to welcome up to 800 people to its main Christmas Eve service. Those numbers mean the congregation, which has been live-streaming a weekly service for 10 years and partners with Lutheran Media in that space, needs to take the service outside into its carpark. This year, with physical-distancing regulations still in place and, as of mid-November, increasing in South Australia, even the carpark won’t be big enough – hence the encouragement for congregation members to form a network of house churches.

St Michael’s will advertise this different Christmas worship in the community through letterbox drops, banners and social media. And anyone who would like to join in can contact the church and be connected into a group.

‘We asked ourselves, “How do we make the most of the situation we’re in? How do we use this still to give God the glory at Christmas?”’, Pastor Fin says. ‘It’s a big step of faith to go down this path. We know what we’ve lost, but now’s the time to find out what we’ve gained in the process, including those smaller connections which are a gift from God.’

‘One of the strengths of this is the relationship stuff’, agrees Music and Worship Coordinator Anna Klatt. ‘The outdoor service was an outreach event, where you can catch up a little bit, but it’s busy, so you can’t make any meaningful connections. But having it in people’s homes is a lot more intentional in terms of making connections. It also fits where we’re going as a congregation in terms of our discipleship culture.’

Christmas Eve hosts will be supported by receiving an intergenerational resource pack likely to include digital carols playlists, ideas around questions to discuss with guests, and activities and games for children.

Pastor Fin says leaders can also attend an earlier home gathering to ‘demystify’ the experience of hosting people for Christmas.

St Michael’s isn’t the only congregation which has needed to think creatively when it comes to Christmas worship or community outreach this year.

Further north in the Adelaide Hills, Lobethal Lutheran Church for the past 28 years has presented a ‘living nativity’ to the crowds which gather for the annual Lights of Lobethal Festival.

This year, with the festival cancelled, not only has the congregation had to call off the living nativity, but also an ecumenical carol service usually held in its church building as a prelude to the switching on of the lights to begin the festival.

Lobethal Pastoral Assistant Janet Le Page says that, with the people of Lobethal still being encouraged to light their houses as usual, the Living Nativity committee has been planning a static display for the church amphitheatre, including a stable and manger with signage explaining that, ‘God-willing we will return next year’ and that ‘Jesus is still the reason for the season’.

For the members of St Paul’s Box Hill, Victoria, who moved church buildings just as the pandemic took hold and were unable to worship face-to-face for around eight months, just the prospect of any face-to-face worship in their new home has them excitedly looking to Christmas.

If health regulations allow, they’ll have multiple small Christmas Eve services in the church and may use a combination of live and pre-recorded elements, as well as offering pre-recorded services on YouTube. Organ and Choral Music Coordinator Melissa Doecke also hopes to put together an intergenerational Christmas choir, with performances likely to be pre-recorded individually, then combined and included in worship.

Child & Family Ministry coordinator Keren Loffler says St Paul’s will also support more children, youth and families from the congregation this Advent through the take-home ‘Advent in a bag’, which contains Grow Ministries Growing Faith at Home resources and activities.

And, in terms of community outreach, they have taken inspiration from Melbourne’s lengthy time in lockdown, by creating a ‘Spoonville’ nativity for Advent. ‘Spoonvilles’ are communities of characters made out of decorated wooden spoons put into the ground in public places by passers-by. They sprang up around the Victorian capital this year, with people contributing during their permitted outdoor exercise time.

‘We’ve created a Spoonville nativity with the basic characters, with the idea being that the community can come and add spoons and we’ll be part of the Christmas story together’, Keren says. ‘And then we’ll have something like a QR code or link to the website on which we can show our Christmas story video or “Away in a Manger” virtual choir, so people can link in and see our service times.’

At St Petri Lutheran Church in South Australia’s Barossa Valley, the congregation usually hosts a gathering called ‘Christmas on the Green’ with nativity and carols in the town of Nuriootpa’s main street, which can’t go ahead. Child, Youth and Family Ministry Director Sharon Green says St Petri has decided to remodel its community outreach into ‘Christmas at the Mall’.

There will be a nativity scene set up outside the local shopping mall before Christmas, while musicians and singers will share carols, members will hand out 200 Christmas bags for children and families, and a group from the church will be dressed as nativity characters.

St Petri has also filmed its fifth online message this year for its local Messy Church community, with the latest featuring a skit posing the question ‘What is the true meaning of Christmas?’.

South of the Barossa Valley at Gawler Lutheran Church Christmas will sound a little different this year. An intergenerational ukulele group will provide a unique musical framework for the congregational Christmas play, ‘An Aussie Christmas’.

The group features 14 regular players, including four children under 10 and four over-60s with the remainder aged between 25 and 40, who all ‘appreciate the chance we have been given to praise God and help others to do so as well’.

 

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Celebrating Christmas 2020-style

by Libby Krahling

COVID-19 restrictions, regulations and precautions have meant many changes to our lives – including to the way we have worshipped as faith communities, families and individuals. We hope that whatever your situation, Advent and Christmas are times of great joy and thanksgiving as we again celebrate our unchanging, ever-loving God coming to us in human form. To follow are some ideas to help you and your congregation navigate these special times in 2020.

Advent ideas

Lutheran Tract Mission has a new downloadable Advent devotional booklet, as well as many excellent Advent and Christmas tracts and resources for all ages (see also page 16). Go to www.ltm.org.au or phone 08 8360 7222.

Grow Ministries has a fantastic GIFT (Growing in Faith Together) pack for Advent (www.growministries.org.au).

More ideas and resources include:

  • Advent wreath – light a candle each Sunday of Advent. Instructions for creating the wreath and liturgy to accompany the candle-lighting can be found on the Worship Planning Page (WPP) via

www.lca.org.au/wpp/prepare-services, click on the date then the Church@Home tab.

  • Jesse Tree – an interesting alternative which helps you remember God’s promises and the path leading to the birth of the Messiah. Instructions for creating a Jesse Tree and devotions are on the WPP.
  • Advent calendars – open a window each day to build excitement.
  • Advent paper chain – a fun, easy way for people in their homes, aged-care residences or schools to focus on the meaning of Advent and Christmas – while making the place look festive! Instructions are on the WPP or at growministries.org.au.
  • Growing Faith at Home sheets – Grow has made these excellent weekly devotion sheets available for free. They include discussion starters, daily readings, creative responses and ideas for service. Access these on the WPP through Advent and Christmas.

Spread the love!

Sharing the good news of God’s love is always vital. But this year especially sharing joy with people who are lonely or struggling due to isolation or illness is a great way to bless them and to lift your spirits too.

  • Put away the computer and write Christmas cards. During a year in which we have been separated more than usual, make someone’s Christmas by sending them words of encouragement in a hand-written card.
  • Donate food or toys as appropriate to your local community care organisation for those in need this Christmas. Contact your local LCA/NZ District office for suggestions on where to make donations.
  • Support ALWS Gifts of Grace and bring love to life for people from around the world, through a gift of school supplies, COVID-19 clinics, pigs and more, while blessing your friends and family, too. Go to alws.org.au/gifts-of-grace for more information or phone 1300 763 407.

Public worship

If your congregation is struggling with limited numbers or social-distancing requirements due to COVID-19 restrictions, consider these options:

  • Offer a combination of live and online service options. You might record a Christmas service for people who can’t be there in person and have ‘live’ services for those who can attend.
  • Change service venues. Can you hold Christmas worship services in a park, school or community hall to allow for more people?
  • Pre-record elements of the service. If you are running multiple services, or want to have a children’s presentation, consider pre-recording parts of the service such as the music or nativity play. That way you can share the joy with multiple services or online without a lot of extra work. Recording in advance also makes Christmas week not so hectic.

Christmas plays

Christmas plays are a great chance to involve children and others in the service. With restrictions, staging the traditional play might be more difficult. Here are a few ideas to adapt this beautiful tradition:

  • Pre-record your play and share it during the service. If you are sharing it online, make sure participants and their families know how it will be shared. This might be a good option if you have limited space and need to have several services.
  • Consider a Christmas play on an internet conferencing system such as Zoom – have families/households act out different parts of the script. It doesn’t have to be perfect; it just needs to share the great news of Jesus’ birth! Scripts are available from the Christmas@Home section of the WPP.
  • Ask families to take photos or videos of themselves acting out different parts of the nativity story, and then use these to illustrate carols or readings during the service.
  • Rather than a play with multiple speaking roles, simplify things by using a narrator and having participants mime, so you don’t have to reuse microphones. Remember that people in the same household don’t have to physically distance, so perhaps have one household come up at a time.
  • Show a Christmas video – An Unexpected Christmas (https://youtu.be/TM1XusYVqNY) is a cute video from New Zealand and the church which produced it has given permission for public screenings (but not broadcasts).
  • Set up a nativity display outside and have a small devotional-style service so people can worship together in small groups or households. This could be a static display or incorporate scheduled times for a live nativity.

Christmas@Home

If you are unable to worship publicly this year or are separated from the people you love, you can still make this Christmas special.

  • Contact your local church and ask what they are doing for Christmas – they may have a way for you to worship with them.
  • Watch a service online. Congregations which will live-stream or pre-record Christmas services are listed on the WPP. If you live in Adelaide or Melbourne, you may be able to watch Lutheran services on TV.
  • Use the Church@Home resources for Christmas on the WPP. You will find:
  • a printable service order with a matching PowerPoint
  • links to YouTube online music video clips so you can sing along to the carols, hymns and songs for the day
  • printable Bible readings and prayers
  • links to a lessons and carols service on YouTube and digital music service Spotify
  • fun crafts and devotional activities to brighten your day and your home

Wherever you are this Christmas, we pray that you are filled with the joy and hope of the Messiah’s birth!

Libby Krahling is Administration Coordinator for the LCA’s Commission on Worship.

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The gifts of a simple life

by Christine Matthias

Lockdown. The word brings to mind images of prison. And that’s what it must have seemed like for some people around Australia, New Zealand and the world. I have felt deeply for those required to stay home, isolated and without friends and family.

Here in South Australia, the lockdown wasn’t as severe or lengthy as in many places, but we have still had to adjust to changes in work, home and church life, and things are changing again now.

Yet, as we moved to online school and university for our three daughters and restrictions for travel and shopping, we realised as a family that we already live a fairly simple life.

All five of us love to cook, so we had more time to be creative in the kitchen. We love playing board games and watching movies. We have a large garden and enjoy spending time in it. We love walking and were grateful our restrictions allowed us to do that. And we spent many nights sitting around our ‘campfire’ sharing stories.

On the other hand, our struggles were cancelled flights for visiting or hosting family and friends, both interstate in Australia and the United States. Not knowing when we will be with family again is a cause of grief. We recognise the importance of the touch of loved ones and the true joy of hearing their voices.

As Christmas approaches, we enjoy saying we have an ‘occupational hazard’ when people ask what we’ll be doing. For reasons of faith and calling, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are always spent at church. We have to be creative in finding time to spend with each other, to open presents and to visit extended family.

But we also have formed simple yet cherished family Christmas traditions. Over the years our girls have re-told the nativity story, acting it out and using stuffed animals, dolls, toys, drawings, stop motion videos, a knitted nativity set and other figurines to relay the message of Jesus’ birth.

One Christmas we introduced a treasure hunt. The hunt is now an annual event which can take a whole day. One year, the first clue was a piece of music. So the girls tried playing cello, guitar, flute, violins and piano in an attempt to decipher it. But the notes were actually Morse code!

So rather than spending hours shopping, we put hours into planning clues to stump them. The hunt is now the gift.

Perhaps this Christmas, we will organise an online treasure hunt including extended family across the ocean and the states.

That’s the way of life for us now – it is not the ending, but the journey that matters. It is about spending time together.

So, while many things have changed this year, maybe our Christmas won’t be all that different. As always, we will enjoy the simple things we love to do together and, most importantly, celebrate the birth of our Saviour Jesus.

Christine Matthias and her family are members at Good Shepherd Para Vista, South Australia.

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Christmas without all the trimmings

by Lisa McIntosh

Even though public worship returned in many churches in South Australia in July, Pastor Fin Klein has a seemingly strange message for members of St Michael’s Lutheran Church Hahndorf this Christmas Eve: Stay home.

Of course, that’s not the end of the story. The idea is that each member family of the Adelaide Hills congregation will invite neighbours, colleagues, friends or extended family to their place to share fellowship, food and to watch 7pm worship via community TV or the internet. The hope is to have 50 to 60 St Michael’s members host as many guests as they are able, taking into account government regulations.

In other years, St Michael’s would expect to welcome up to 800 people to its main Christmas Eve service. Those numbers mean the congregation, which has been live-streaming a weekly service for 10 years and partners with Lutheran Media in that space, needs to take the service outside into its carpark. This year, with physical-distancing regulations still in place and, as of mid-November, increasing in South Australia, even the carpark won’t be big enough – hence the encouragement for congregation members to form a network of house churches.

St Michael’s will advertise this different Christmas worship in the community through letterbox drops, banners and social media. And anyone who would like to join in can contact the church and be connected into a group.

‘We asked ourselves, “How do we make the most of the situation we’re in? How do we use this still to give God the glory at Christmas?”’, Pastor Fin says. ‘It’s a big step of faith to go down this path. We know what we’ve lost, but now’s the time to find out what we’ve gained in the process, including those smaller connections which are a gift from God.’

‘One of the strengths of this is the relationship stuff’, agrees Music and Worship Coordinator Anna Klatt. ‘The outdoor service was an outreach event, where you can catch up a little bit, but it’s busy, so you can’t make any meaningful connections. But having it in people’s homes is a lot more intentional in terms of making connections. It also fits where we’re going as a congregation in terms of our discipleship culture.’

Christmas Eve hosts will be supported by receiving an intergenerational resource pack likely to include digital carols playlists, ideas around questions to discuss with guests, and activities and games for children.

Pastor Fin says leaders can also attend an earlier home gathering to ‘demystify’ the experience of hosting people for Christmas.

St Michael’s isn’t the only congregation which has needed to think creatively when it comes to Christmas worship or community outreach this year.

Further north in the Adelaide Hills, Lobethal Lutheran Church for the past 28 years has presented a ‘living nativity’ to the crowds which gather for the annual Lights of Lobethal Festival.

This year, with the festival cancelled, not only has the congregation had to call off the living nativity, but also an ecumenical carol service usually held in its church building as a prelude to the switching on of the lights to begin the festival.

Lobethal Pastoral Assistant Janet Le Page says that, with the people of Lobethal still being encouraged to light their houses as usual, the Living Nativity committee has been planning a static display for the church amphitheatre, including a stable and manger with signage explaining that, ‘God-willing we will return next year’ and that ‘Jesus is still the reason for the season’.

For the members of St Paul’s Box Hill, Victoria, who moved church buildings just as the pandemic took hold and were unable to worship face-to-face for around eight months, just the prospect of any face-to-face worship in their new home has them excitedly looking to Christmas.

If health regulations allow, they’ll have multiple small Christmas Eve services in the church and may use a combination of live and pre-recorded elements, as well as offering pre-recorded services on YouTube. Organ and Choral Music Coordinator Melissa Doecke also hopes to put together an intergenerational Christmas choir, with performances likely to be pre-recorded individually, then combined and included in worship.

Child & Family Ministry coordinator Keren Loffler says St Paul’s will also support more children, youth and families from the congregation this Advent through the take-home ‘Advent in a bag’, which contains Grow Ministries Growing Faith at Home resources and activities.

And, in terms of community outreach, they have taken inspiration from Melbourne’s lengthy time in lockdown, by creating a ‘Spoonville’ nativity for Advent. ‘Spoonvilles’ are communities of characters made out of decorated wooden spoons put into the ground in public places by passers-by. They sprang up around the Victorian capital this year, with people contributing during their permitted outdoor exercise time.

‘We’ve created a Spoonville nativity with the basic characters, with the idea being that the community can come and add spoons and we’ll be part of the Christmas story together’, Keren says. ‘And then we’ll have something like a QR code or link to the website on which we can show our Christmas story video or “Away in a Manger” virtual choir, so people can link in and see our service times.’

At St Petri Lutheran Church in South Australia’s Barossa Valley, the congregation usually hosts a gathering called ‘Christmas on the Green’ with nativity and carols in the town of Nuriootpa’s main street, which can’t go ahead. Child, Youth and Family Ministry Director Sharon Green says St Petri has decided to remodel its community outreach into ‘Christmas at the Mall’.

There will be a nativity scene set up outside the local shopping mall before Christmas, while musicians and singers will share carols, members will hand out 200 Christmas bags for children and families, and a group from the church will be dressed as nativity characters.

St Petri has also filmed its fifth online message this year for its local Messy Church community, with the latest featuring a skit posing the question ‘What is the true meaning of Christmas?’.

South of the Barossa Valley at Gawler Lutheran Church Christmas will sound a little different this year. An intergenerational ukulele group will provide a unique musical framework for the congregational Christmas play, ‘An Aussie Christmas’.

The group features 14 regular players, including four children under 10 and four over-60s with the remainder aged between 25 and 40, who all ‘appreciate the chance we have been given to praise God and help others to do so as well’.

 

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Blessed beyond belief

by Lisa McIntosh

When Matt Schubert became mission facilitator/church planter at Rockingham Mandurah Lutheran Church (RMLC) in Western Australia earlier this year, he didn’t know what God had in store for him and the congregation’s outreach ministries beyond 2020.

RMLC, which worships across two sites south of Perth, began a church-planting journey more than four years ago, praying for guidance. In following God’s lead, they committed to support a mission facilitator position for three years and to plant a new church. But, as a relatively small congregation, they knew they wouldn’t be able to source all the necessary money from within their immediate community.

Chairperson Monika Tropiano admits to ‘some anxiety’ – in addition to quiet prayer and contemplation – over how RMLC would raise the $250,000 they needed to make the outreach ministry sustainable.

Meanwhile, the 16-member Redeemer congregation at Nairne in the Adelaide Hills – more than 2700 kilometres from RMLC – had been planning to support a church plant in northern Adelaide with some of the proceeds of a 2006 land sale. But that South Australian church plant didn’t materialise and so, when the Redeemer members learnt of the need at RMLC, they donated $50,000 to the Western Australian church. Matt and the leaders of RMLC were thrilled by God’s goodness. ‘This gift towards our church-planting endeavour in WA is an incredible example of Christian maturity’, Matt says. ‘The question that these people asked was not “What’s best for us?”. They instead asked, “What’s best for God’s mission?”.

‘The nature of any missionary work – church planting included – is that I spend a lot of my time with people who don’t initially value gospel ministry. In a very real sense, the Nairne congregation are standing in the gap for not-yet-Christians, placing value on a ministry the unconverted don’t yet value, supporting a church which is yet to exist.’

In response to the gift, RMLC Pastor Steve Liersch says, ’If it were not COVID times, I would have hugged anyone I saw. Praise God! Prayers have truly been answered. This reflects that God is up to something within our church and the wider LCA. Only he could have orchestrated such an amazing and inspiring gift.

‘I hope that Matt’s next few years here will not only bear fruit with people coming to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, but also in that process the Holy Spirit will use him to inspire others to be involved. We have already had adult baptisms as a result of Matt’s ministry and this will hopefully show even more how everyday people, conversations and opportunities can be used by God for eternal blessings and current inspiration for his church.’

This is the latest chapter in another story of God’s faithfulness in bringing good out of disappointments or hard times. When the Redeemer congregation was given a parcel of land by John and Maureen Nitschke in the late 1980s, they intended to build a church. Established 33 years ago, the congregation has never had its own worship centre, instead holding services in the local Uniting Church building.

But when the land was deemed unsuitable by the local council due to parking requirements, Redeemer members were led by the Holy Spirit to turn their disappointment into blessings for others. They aimed to support a church plant in the Adelaide Hills, but plans for possible developments in their local area stalled, according to Nairne chairperson Michael Gladigau and other members.

‘We wanted to be good stewards of the gifts we were custodians to’, they say. ‘The Holy Spirit moved us to investigate looking into giving some of this money to (the LCA’s) New and Renewing Churches. God is always leading us and answering prayers, as he knows best. We need to trust him. Our vision is limited. God is omniscient.’

What they learnt regarding church planting, together with prayerful consideration on how the funds would be used for furthering the planting of God’s word, led them to first make a gift of $50,000 to a church plant in south-east Queensland in 2018. At that time the recipients – LCA/NZ church planter Chris Podlich and the young leaders of Beyond Church in northern Brisbane – believed God was calling them to move.

Approximately 2000 kilometres from Nairne, Beyond had been planted out of Living Faith Lutheran Church at Murrumba Downs in 2015. Now it was time to step out in faith into the heart of the unchurched community they had been preparing to serve. But, Chris says, they didn’t know where they would establish a new base or how they would fund setting up their own church facilities. Within a 48-hour period, God had shown them the ‘how’ and the ‘where’, with Nairne committing its financial gift and a local state school agreeing to welcome them into their campus at Griffin.

The move has enabled Beyond to establish its distinct presence as ‘a church that unchurched people love to attend’. It has grown from one service to two; one small group to nine; one youth environment to three; one team of eight leaders to multiple teams that have more than 50 leaders in them; and service projects that began with 10 people serving having grown to involve more than 30 people in them.

As with Rockingham-Mandurah, before COVID-19 adult baptisms had become a regular feature of life and ministry at Beyond.

Chris has met with members of the Nairne congregation when he’s had the chance and says the two donations they have made to Beyond have brought much more than financial benefit.

‘It’s something that I’ve personally drawn on and I know our leadership team has drawn on as an encouragement when things get hard,’ he says. ‘When you ask, “Is this worth it?” and you look back on those times, you think, “Well, God clearly thinks it’s worth it”. God’s been moving in people’s hearts. Clearly God’s behind this. These gifts change lives.’

Another example of the life-changing power of local mission through church planting is occurring in Epping, a north-western suburb of Sydney, around 1300 kilometres from Nairne. In 2019, Redeemer provided seed money towards staff for a multi-ethnic church plant out of LifeWay Lutheran Church. Lead Pastor Mark Schultz says the gift was an ‘incredible encouragement’ and an answer to prayer as LifeWay wrestled with how to do mission and ministry in a changing community, with 59 per cent of people speaking a language other than English at home and a third of the suburb being recent arrivals.

‘It enabled us to get into the local schools and work with young people as they straddle multiple cultures, and employ Mandarin and Cantonese speakers to be bridge-builders between cultures’, Pastor Mark says. ‘Walking in mission is a constant journey of trust; it’s easy to hold back because we fear a lack of resources, but reminders like this draw us back to a faithful God, in whom we lack no good thing.’

LifeWay has now embarked on another step of faith. In conjunction with the NSW District, it has just employed a church planter, Danny Brock, to plant LifeWay Westside, a greenfields multi-ethnic church near the new International airport in Western Sydney.

Michael and the Redeemer folk say hearing the grateful responses from people who have received the gifts gives them ‘a feeling of joy and thankfulness that we are able to help others through the blessings we have received’.

‘We are reminded of the wonderful miracle that Jesus performed when feeding the multitudes with a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread’, they say. ‘This one block of land is enabling multitudes to know of God’s love for them. We hope that God’s word will be proclaimed to as many people as possible and people will be led to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.’

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Blessed beyond belief

When Matt Schubert became mission facilitator/church planter at Rockingham Mandurah Lutheran Church (RMLC) in Western Australia earlier this year, he didn’t know what God had in store for him and the congregation’s outreach ministries beyond 2020.

RMLC, which worships across two sites south of Perth, began a church-planting journey more than four years ago, praying for guidance. In following God’s lead, they committed to support a mission facilitator position for three years and to plant a new church. But, as a relatively small congregation, they knew they wouldn’t be able to source all the necessary money from within their immediate community.

Chairperson Monika Tropiano admits to ‘some anxiety’ – in addition to quiet prayer and contemplation – over how RMLC would raise the $250,000 they needed to make the outreach ministry sustainable.

Meanwhile, the 16-member Redeemer congregation at Nairne in the Adelaide Hills – more than 2700 kilometres from RMLC – had been planning to support a church plant in northern Adelaide with some of the proceeds of a 2006 land sale. But that South Australian church plant didn’t materialise and so, when the Redeemer members learnt of the need at RMLC, they donated $50,000 to the Western Australian church. Matt and the leaders of RMLC were thrilled by God’s goodness. ‘This gift towards our church-planting endeavour in WA is an incredible example of Christian maturity’, Matt says. ‘The question that these people asked was not “What’s best for us?”. They instead asked, “What’s best for God’s mission?”.

‘The nature of any missionary work – church planting included – is that I spend a lot of my time with people who don’t initially value gospel ministry. In a very real sense, the Nairne congregation are standing in the gap for not-yet-Christians, placing value on a ministry the unconverted don’t yet value, supporting a church which is yet to exist.’

In response to the gift, RMLC Pastor Steve Liersch says, ’If it were not COVID times, I would have hugged anyone I saw. Praise God! Prayers have truly been answered. This reflects that God is up to something within our church and the wider LCA. Only he could have orchestrated such an amazing and inspiring gift.

‘I hope that Matt’s next few years here will not only bear fruit with people coming to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, but also in that process the Holy Spirit will use him to inspire others to be involved. We have already had adult baptisms as a result of Matt’s ministry and this will hopefully show even more how everyday people, conversations and opportunities can be used by God for eternal blessings and current inspiration for his church.’

Western Australia District Bishop Mike Fulwood says he is ‘so thankful’ for the way God’s Spirit works to inspire people. ‘Wow – God is good’, Bishop Mike says. ‘That people we have never met are supporting mission to people they have never met, is something straight from the heart of God.’

Monika is hopeful that the donation will allow RMLC to move from being focused on its own needs ‘to being a part of the mission of God and sharing our faith so that others will come to know the transformation that following Jesus can bring’.

This is the latest chapter in another story of God’s faithfulness in bringing good out of disappointments or hard times. When the Redeemer congregation was given a parcel of land by John and Maureen Nitschke in the late 1980s, they intended to build a church. Established 33 years ago, the congregation has never had its own worship centre, instead holding services in the local Uniting Church building.

But when the land was deemed unsuitable by the local council due to parking requirements, Redeemer members were led by the Holy Spirit to turn their disappointment into blessings for others. They aimed to support a church plant in the Adelaide Hills, but plans for possible developments in their local area stalled, according to Nairne chairperson Michael Gladigau and other members.

‘We wanted to be good stewards of the gifts we were custodians to’, they say. ‘The Holy Spirit moved us to investigate looking into giving some of this money to (the LCA’s) New and Renewing Churches. God is always leading us and answering prayers, as he knows best. We need to trust him. Our vision is limited. God is omniscient.’

What they learnt regarding church planting, together with prayerful consideration on how the funds would be used for furthering the planting of God’s word, led them to first make a gift of $50,000 to a church plant in south-east Queensland in 2018. At that time the recipients – LCA/NZ church planter Chris Podlich and the young leaders of Beyond Church in northern Brisbane – believed God was calling them to move.

Approximately 2000 kilometres from Nairne, Beyond had been planted out of Living Faith Lutheran Church at Murrumba Downs in 2015. Now it was time to step out in faith into the heart of the unchurched community they had been preparing to serve. But, Chris says, they didn’t know where they would establish a new base or how they would fund setting up their own church facilities. Within a 48-hour period, God had shown them the ‘how’ and the ‘where’, with Nairne committing its financial gift and a local state school agreeing to welcome them into their campus at Griffin.

The move has enabled Beyond to establish its distinct presence as ‘a church that unchurched people love to attend’. It has grown from one service to two; one small group to nine; one youth environment to three; one team of eight leaders to multiple teams that have more than 50 leaders in them; and service projects that began with 10 people serving having grown to involve more than 30 people in them.

As with Rockingham-Mandurah, before COVID-19 adult baptisms had become a regular feature of life and ministry at Beyond.

Chris has met with members of the Nairne congregation when he’s had the chance and says the two donations they have made to Beyond have brought much more than financial benefit.

‘It’s something that I’ve personally drawn on and I know our leadership team has drawn on as an encouragement when things get hard,’ he says. ‘When you ask, “Is this worth it?” and you look back on those times, you think, “Well, God clearly thinks it’s worth it”. God’s been moving in people’s hearts. Clearly God’s behind this. These gifts change lives.’

Another example of the life-changing power of local mission through church planting is occurring in Epping, a north-western suburb of Sydney, around 1300 kilometres from Nairne. In 2019, Redeemer provided seed money towards staff for a multi-ethnic church plant out of LifeWay Lutheran Church. Lead Pastor Mark Schultz says the gift was an ‘incredible encouragement’ and an answer to prayer as LifeWay wrestled with how to do mission and ministry in a changing community, with 59 per cent of people speaking a language other than English at home and a third of the suburb being recent arrivals.

‘It enabled us to get into the local schools and work with young people as they straddle multiple cultures, and employ Mandarin and Cantonese speakers to be bridge-builders between cultures’, Pastor Mark says. ‘Walking in mission is a constant journey of trust; it’s easy to hold back because we fear a lack of resources, but reminders like this draw us back to a faithful God, in whom we lack no good thing. God is a God of abundance and provides for his church in surprising ways.’

LifeWay has now embarked on another step of faith. In conjunction with the NSW District, it has just employed a church planter, Danny Brock, to plant LifeWay Westside, a greenfields multi-ethnic church near the new International airport in Western Sydney.

Michael and the Redeemer folk say hearing the grateful responses from people who have received the gifts gives them ‘a feeling of joy and thankfulness that we are able to help others through the blessings we have received’.

‘We are reminded of the wonderful miracle that Jesus performed when feeding the multitudes with a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread’, they say. ‘This one block of land is enabling multitudes to know of God’s love for them. We hope that God’s word will be proclaimed to as many people as possible and people will be led to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.

‘What is the point of having money in the bank, when there is a need to support those led to spread the gospel, people with gifts of listening, praying and leading people to Jesus? This became our ministry, part of God’s plan to spread the gospel, as he wants all to be saved.’

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Embracing change for his kingdom

by Lisa McIntosh

While the tragedies caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have upended many lives, ‘getting back to normal’ is not something the people of Mawson Lakes Community Church (MLCC) are hoping for.

Like many other church communities, the people of this LCA/NZ congregation in Adelaide’s north have undergone some dramatic shifts in their ministries since March this year. But for MLCC it wasn’t just a case of temporarily ‘pivoting and innovating’ while churches were closed – instead it’s been a matter of ushering in sustainable change.

For Pastor Chris Mann that attitude is biblically based.

‘Every time there’s a crisis, what God wants people to do is to embrace something new – you find that all through the Bible’, he says. ‘And so when people say they want to go back to the way things were, I find that sad and disheartening. They’re missing what God has for them.

‘We’re wired by God for new things, especially in hard times. So the question really is, “What is the ‘new’ that God would have us do during this time?” Newness gives the direction, hope and structure to people that they desperately need in hard times. So we want to keep on going and see where God would take this.’

Before COVID-19, MLCC had an out-of-date website and little social media presence. When shutdown occurred, decisions were made to employ staff to improve and increase the church’s online presence, including through its website at www.mlcc.org.au

Creating an online community using live-streaming – a focus even after face-to-face worship returned in South Australia – has enabled the congregation to support those unable to meet in person, says Amy Dahlenburg, who oversees the communication of church culture through branding, online presence and community connection. She says the congregation has utilised online social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, as well as making weekly community calls through internet conferencing system Zoom and sending out newsletters.

Today MLCC describes itself as ‘one church, two rooms’ – one virtual, online room and one face-to-face room on Sundays.

Pastor Chris says the most important thing MLCC has learnt as a community through the pandemic is to be as inclusive as possible. ‘We’re serving people with online church who always needed to be served, but would only be included through people visiting them in their homes when they were able to’, he says. ‘Now they’re part of the worship service and they feel included. They were always important, but now they feel that they are.’

Having connected with people interstate and overseas through online worship, MLCC is working on improving its ability to follow up those connections. And Pastor Chris says some people who first connected through online worship have started coming to in-person worship once that was available. ‘We’re probably at around about half-a-dozen people who have started coming face-to-face, who we didn’t have contact with before COVID.’

Those without internet access haven’t been forgotten. Amy says MLCC has had church members on a phone cycle to make regular calls to anyone who wasn’t online. Most of these connections were through the church’s small groups.

‘We also encouraged members, when it was safe to do so, to invite people to their houses to watch the live-stream’, Amy says. ‘We still encourage this to help people who are still unable to come to face-to-face church and don’t have internet access, but who may be able to get to a friend’s house or have someone bring a device and sit with them.’

As the congregation’s shepherd, Pastor Chris says his biggest personal learning has been around the capacity of other leaders. ‘We’ve always had an emphasis on “team”, but relying on the expertise of other people and developing a real team ethos among all the leaders, that’s really increased for me as a pastor.’

They’ve also gained new volunteers, some of whom weren’t previously regular worshippers, even though they were part of the MLCC community.

‘People have become motivated, but also their skills have become more valued’, Pastor Chris says. ‘Every church community has people who love that community but don’t come most Sunday mornings. They may just feel there’s not a role for them. We have people who weren’t regular worshippers but have been volunteering regularly, because they care about the church and they care about the people in it.

‘We have a fundamental belief that God has already given us the gifts that we need to do what he wants us to do, so we’ve asked ourselves “Who are the people who’ve got the abilities we need?”.’

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Christ’s love knows no borders

by Faye Schmidt

Early this year I decided that I would retire from paid employment and relocate from Melbourne to Adelaide to be near my daughter as I enter my final years.

Then COVID-19 happened. Like many others, I began working full-time from home.

As part of a team within the Victorian Government which provided funding support to organisations, businesses and individuals to ease the financial impact of the pandemic, I worked long hours and it was a stressful time.

Knowing I would be moving, I submitted my request to police to enter South Australia. I received an automated email with an entry reference number and advice that if I hadn’t heard back within three days to proceed to the border and that my entry would be reviewed there.

My final day of work was 9 July. On 14 July my belongings were collected by removalists to be freighted to Adelaide. The next day I drove, with my cat on board, towards the SA border.

I was terrified. I was now in limbo. Would my paperwork be sufficient? What if they wouldn’t let me in? I had a cat and so couldn’t stay in a motel. I couldn’t go back – I had no furniture and my home was up for sale. I have never been so stressed and tense.

At the border I gave police my entry number and was questioned about my accommodation arrangements and family connections in Adelaide. I was directed to a COVID-19 test. After the test, I drove a few kilometres before stopping to send a text to my daughter that I was through the border. I broke down and cried in relief.

After a police visit to check that I was self-isolating, the following week I finally received an official response to my request to enter SA – I had been denied! Police advised me that I was very lucky as had I not already been in Adelaide, I would not have been allowed into SA.

I share my story because this whole process highlighted even more for me what it means to live under the grace of God.

LCA/NZ Bishop John Henderson cited Romans 8:38,39 in many of his COVID-19 communications to our church: ‘For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

What a stark contrast this is to the fear, stress and anxiety I experienced with my border crossing! God requires no paperwork, no justification for entry to his kingdom, no barriers to be overcome. Christ has overcome all separation between us.

As Paul says in Romans 8:37, ‘No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us’.

Faye Schmidt is now a member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Adelaide and serves on the LCA/NZ’s General Church Board.

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