Congregational Multi-Cultural Awareness Day
Change is something that no-one relishes (except, as the saying goes, if you are a baby with a wet nappy!). Our Lutheran Church of Australia, indeed God’s Church on earth, is undergoing a huge shift in how we “do” church in the post-Christendom era. Old paradigms no longer work, and Australia is increasingly becoming a very secular country.
Nevertheless, God is still working amongst his people and has brought hundreds of thousands of people to our shores in recent times – people whom he loves dearly and for whom he has paid the price for sin on the cross, so that he might bring them to himself.
No longer do we need to go overseas to be missionaries; we have the people coming to our neighbourhoods, many of whom have never heard of God’s great love. “Redeemer” Glen Waverley, a campus of Nunawading and Waverley Lutheran Church, has been working towards ministering to the overwhelming number of settlers from mainland China, in particular, but generally with all new settlers. How do we do this? How can we be more effective? These are questions that we have struggled with.
Craig Heidenreich, LCA Cross-Cultural Ministry
Recently, a grant from the Victorian District Cross-Cultural Ministry provided us with the opportunity to hold a Workshop, to help us unpack these questions with Craig Heidenreich (right) of the LCA’s Cross-Cultural Ministry department. Our Pastor, Tim Castle-Schmidt, presented a demographic overview of China, followed by Craig’s presentation. Craig has a great love for the stranger in our midst and provided us with practical strategies we can use when the Lord brings them into our path as we go about our everyday lives. The simplest of things, such as a smile, a ‘hello’ in their language, and learning their name, can help a person to feel noticed and welcomed.
Sherry Hong, Nunawading-Waverley Lay Worker
We are blessed to have in our congregational a lay-worker, Sherry Hong, who comes from mainland China. Sherry and a small group of friends of the congregation helped us to make dumplings and cooked a wonderful lunch for us. After this, Sherry explained aspects of Chinese culture to us, helping us to better understand the worldview of the Chinese people in Glen Waverley and how we can communicate better.
Making dumplings
As Australian Christians we have a unique opportunity to share our faith with newcomers. As Craig has said, we need to think of them as individuals whom God loves dearly, rather than as a group of Chinese/Sri Lankans/Afghanis etc. Perhaps the Lord is asking us to open our arms, and perhaps he is asking us to do things quite differently than we have ever done them before? It takes courage, but the Lord is with us and goes before us if we but ask him.
Photos supplied by Susanne Hudson
