Victoria Tasmania District of the Lutheran Church of Australia

1201 Riversdale Road
Box Hill South VIC 3128
Phone 03 9236 1200

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The Power of the Lentil

Legumes such as lentils are an essential part of the East African diet. There is little surprise why this is the case: they’re nutritious, filling, long-lasting, and cheap. But would you ever see legumes as agents for mission? Never underestimate the mission potential of the humble lentil!

In October 2021, the Shepparton community was hit hard by the Delta Covid outbreak in Victoria. At one stage, a third of the city was in hard quarantine, and essential services like supermarkets were struggling to keep up. Many people were hungry, helpless, and alone. The lockdowns were felt keenly by African members of St Paul’s Lutheran Church, who were cut off from their usual lines of support: family, community, and church. As a congregation, we did our best to attend to the physical and spiritual needs of our members under these very difficult circumstances. One of the only ways we could do this within the pandemic restriction was by delivering care packages of culturally appropriate food items, including lentils. Unfortunately, a lot of the food delivered by Foodbank and other support agencies was unfamiliar to African people, and being able to deliver legumes and other more familiar foodstuffs not only fed the belly, but also the heart. It also gave us an opportunity to pray with people, satisfying the needs of the soul as well.

But where do you get large quantities of lentils in the middle of a pandemic? It was at this point that I rang Gavin Schuster, a farmer from Freeling, South Australia and a member of the Light Lutheran Church. He put out the request to other members of his church, and although nobody had any lentils available, they quickly resolved to send a generous amount of money to enable us to purchase legumes locally to us.

It was soon after this that we invited Light Lutheran Church to consider entering into a mission partnership with the Goulburn Murray Lutheran Parish. For the last six years, the Goulburn Murray Parish has been blessed by the ministry of Kathleen Mills, a trained deaconess from the USA who has been instrumental with mercy ministry work amongst the Shepparton African community. Her position has previously been funded by a generous grant from the LCA Board for Local Mission, but this funding came to an end in May 2022. With the assistance of Craig Heidenreich, the LCA’s Cross Cultural Ministry Facilitator, and Brett Kennett, LCAVD Pastor for Congregational Support, we have been looking to establish mission partnerships. While financial support is an important element of these partnerships, the desire is to see them as mutually beneficial by providing opportunities for prayer, sharing of skills and experience in cross-cultural ministry, and mutual encouragement.

On the 31st July 2022, a delegation from St Paul’s Shepparton visited Light Lutheran Church for a mission festival held in Freeling. Members of the St Paul’s African choir sang, Deaconess Kathleen Mills shared a presentation on her work in the Goulburn Murray Parish, and representatives of Light Lutheran Church and the Goulburn Murray Parish signed an MOU signifying the relationship between the two church bodies. We wrapped the festival up with a sumptuous meal provided by our hosts, and more singing from the choir. It was a very joyful and encouraging start to the partnership, and we look forward to seeing it grow and develop over the coming years.

You may be interested to know how Light Lutheran Church is raising the funds to support mission. Well, some innovative farmers in the church received permission to crop a plot of government land on the condition that they use the profits for charitable purposes. Last year, they got a bumper crop that earned four times what they expected. What did they grow? Lentils, of course!

Pr Matthias Prenzler, Goulburn Murray Lutheran Parish

Friends in High Places

Some years ago, “The Lutheran” magazine ran an article entitled, “A Friend in High Places.” It explored the eagerness of some politicians at the time to seek the favour of Christians, and how Christianity had become a ‘player’ in Australian politics.  More recently, discussion has more often turned to concern for religious freedoms and the government’s role in protecting them.

In 1 Timothy chapter 2, St. Paul explores why the church should be, not a ‘player’ but a ‘pray-er’ in politics. True, the church is not responsible for governing the country and the government is not responsible for the mission of the church. Yet the government does have a part to play in ensuring the freedom of Christians to practice our faith and profess the good news of Jesus before the world; and the Church has a responsibility to support those who govern with our prayer.

In his instructions about public worship (1 Timothy 2), St Paul urged Timothy that the church should exercise its priestly function by praying for its secular leaders, whether those leaders were Christian or not. We, too, should talk to our ‘Friend in high places’ (God) about our ‘friends in high places’ (our political leaders). We are to think not just about how they may serve us, but how we may serve them by our prayers.

Paul begins with the words, ‘I urge you’, meaning ‘I strongly encourage you’ or ‘I plead with you,’ that this praying be done ‘first of all’ – as a matter of urgency.  He then addresses three questions:

  1. How should we pray? He emphasises the urgency of the task by using four different words for the kinds of prayers we offer: requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving (v.1).
  2. For whom should we pray? Paul urges that these ‘requests, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings’ be made ‘for everyone’ (v.1). That is why our ‘Prayer of the Church’ in public worship is often introduced with words like: “Let us pray for the church, for the world and for all people according to their needs.”
    St Paul especially encourages prayer ‘for kings and all in authority’ (v.2a). Of all people, our ‘friends in high places’ desperately need our prayer because they serve with authority that has been vested on them by God himself.
  3. Why should we pray like this? St Paul says that the Christian church should be a key ‘pray-er’ in politics so ‘that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness’ (v. 2b). The structures of society and government provide stability, protection against crime, and help in all kinds of need. Furthermore, our ability to practice, profess and promote the one true faith depends upon laws and social structures that will freely allow us to do so.

Our prayer for the world supports God’s mission in the world. That is why St Paul continues, ‘This is good and pleases God our Saviour who wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and human beings; the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all’ (v.3-6a).   That ‘Mediator… who gave himself as a ransom for all’ is also the reason for our confidence in prayer. In Jesus, we have just the person who can help us in our praying. We have a Friend in a Higher Place who can help us as we pray for our friends in high places.

So, as we think about how we may play a part in the stability of our society, the peace of our world, the wellbeing and freedom of all its citizens, and the welfare and mission of the church in the world, let us not forget to talk to our ‘Friend in high places’ (God) about our ‘friends in high places’ (our political leaders).

The Nicene Creed 1700 Years On

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen…

These are the opening words of the Nicene Creed, one of the three Ecumenical Creeds, and one of the two creeds we regularly recite in our worship services – creeds that put words to our confession of faith in the Triune God.

Our church especially reflects on the nature of the Triune God on ‘Trinity Sunday’ which we observe on a Sunday in June each year. We praise and worship a God who has revealed himself as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and yet is one God.

Reflection on the Nicene Creed is particularly significant this year because it marks the 1700th anniversary of the first ecumenical council of Nicaea in 325 AD, which gave rise to the Nicene Creed.  This council of church leaders was called by the Emperor Constantine to consider the being of, and the exact nature of Jesus Christ regarding his humanity and his divinity.

The Christian Church has never been a stranger to controversy, and it was a theological controversy that led to the formation of the Nicene Creed.

The Nicene Creed was formulated in response to the teachings of Arius who claimed that God the Father alone was really God and that Jesus was essentially different from his Father.  Arius claimed that Jesus did not possess any of the Father’s divine qualities; nor did he exist before he was begotten by the Father. The Father produced him as his creature.  He did not share in the being of God the Father and did not know him perfectly.

Arius’s teachings were of great concern for others who claimed that to separate the Son from God the Father in this way undermined Christ’s standing both as the Revealer of God and the Redeemer of mankind.

Hoping to avoid a serious division in the church, Emperor Constantine summoned the council of Nicaea out of which came the formulation of the Nicene Creed. The creed was later revised and confirmed by the Council of Constantinople in AD 381. The creed affirms the full divinity of Jesus and the oneness of God as Trinity and has had a lasting impact worldwide on the understanding of, not just the Christian faith, but also of worship and liturgy.

However, the Nicene Creed itself became the source of further controversy, contributing to a schism in 1054 AD between the church of the Greek speaking East and that of the Latin West, giving rise to two strands of the Christian Church – Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.

The phrase at the centre of this controversy was the inclusion in 589 AD of the words ‘and the Son’ in relation to the Holy Spirit, who is said to ‘proceed from the Father and the Son.’ That clause, ‘and the Son,’ is often referred to as the ‘filioque’, which is the Greek translation of its words.

Despite that difference that remains to this day, both the Greek (Eastern) and the Latin (Western) Christian church hold the Nicene Creed in high honour for having played a part in shaping the faith, theology, liturgy and hymnody of the past 1700 years. It has served both as a confession of our personal faith and as the church’s confession or witness to those who do not believe.

The anniversary of the Nicene Creed provides an opportunity for each of us to examine the things we believe and why we believe them, just as the Berean Jews did, who ‘received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true’ (Acts 17:11). You may like to look up the Bible verses, which show some of the Scriptural basis for the statements in the Nicene Creed (download HERE).

Praise be to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen!

We pray:
Triune God, our Father, we give you thanks for revealing Yourself thorough your Son, Jesus,
and being present with us now through the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for the work of your Spirit in Christians before us, to provide us with our statements of faith.
Enable and empower us to witness our faith to those who do not yet believe.
In the name of Christ, Amen.

Undercurrents of Faith

Undercurrents of Faith: Reframing the Narrative of Mission in Australia

If you’ve been part of conversations about faith in Australia lately, you’ve probably heard the familiar narrative: Christianity is in decline. There’s some truth in the statistics—fewer Australians are identifying as Christian, down from 52% in 2016 to 44% in 2021.

There’s more to the story however, with church attendance remaining steady or even slightly increasing in recent times; about 15-20% of the Aussie population attends church regularly.

The latest McCrindle report, An Undercurrent of Faith, contains this and other encouraging findings.

It seems that beneath the surface of decline lie some dynamic and hopeful trends. We know that the gospel works beneath the surface—in quiet, persistent, Spirit-led ways—perhaps these “undercurrents”, as they flow through our society, are signs that the Holy Spirit wants us to respond to.

A Harvest We Didn’t Expect

The McCrindle research reveals that while overall affiliation with Christianity is declining, large numbers of Australians are still coming to faith—including 784,000 people between 2016 and 2021 who previously identified as having “no religion”. That’s not just a trickle. That’s a stream.

Some of the most common reasons people turn to Christianity?

  • Because they feel a spiritual connection or sense of divine presence that draws them to Christianity
  • Because they find personal meaning and purpose through Christianity.
  • Some drawn because they believe it offers answers to questions about life, morality or existence that they haven’t been able to find elsewhere.
  • A significant life event or challenge can also encourage people to seek faith in Christianity.

In a society often described as secular, these findings suggest that spiritual hunger is alive and growing.

 

An Ageing Revival?

Another surprising undercurrent: older Australians are increasingly turning to Christianity. In fact, this age group makes up a growing proportion of new believers.

  • While the overall proportion of Australians aged 55+ has increased by 3 percentage points in the last ten years, the proportion of Christian converts who are 55+ has increased by 11 percentage points.

Could it be that as our population ages, we are entering a new frontier for mission—one not just among the young, but among retirees, aged-care residents, and older neighbours who are asking deeper questions about life, death, and meaning?

 

Gen Z: Leaving… and Coming Back

Young Australians (15–24) are the most likely to leave Christianity, often citing irrelevance, past hurt, or disillusionment with church leadership. But here’s the twist: they’re also the most spiritually open.

  • More than 1 in 4 Gen Zs are open to changing their religious views, and many of those who remain Christian are more likely to attend church regularly than previous generations.
  • 51% of Gen Z and 54% of Gen Y are extremely/very open to a spiritual conversation that involves different views to their own, compared to 43% of Gen X and 32% of Baby Boomers.
  • Even though younger Australians are becoming less likely to move towards Christianity, those who are Christians are more likely than older Christians to attend church at least monthly. Seven in ten Gen Y Christians (72%) and 68% of Gen Z Christians attend church either online or in person at least monthly, compared to 39% of Gen X and 26% of Baby Boomers.

This signals a generation that isn’t hostile to faith, but rather wants it to be real, meaningful, and lived out with integrity.

 

Regional Drift

One undercurrent that provokes careful reflection is that regional and rural areas—long seen as the “Christian heartland”—are now moving away from Christian identity faster than inner cities.

  • There could be various explanations for this. Perhaps these areas are simply catching up to the trends observed in more urbanised contexts in recent decades, perhaps Christian nominalism now less likely in urban contexts?

As congregations in country towns face challenges and changes in their local communities this data is a wake-up call not to retreat, but to re-engage in place-based, relational mission.

 

So, What Might God Be Saying?

In the light of this report, I wonder if Jesus’ words ring with fresh relevance:

“Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are white for harvest.” (John 4:35)

These undercurrents tell us something the Census checkbox doesn’t: God is still at work. The Spirit is moving in the lives of young seekers, older wanderers, disillusioned prodigals, and spiritually curious neighbours. The mission field is not empty. It’s just more complex—and more promising—than we might have thought.

 

Questions for Local Reflection

As congregations prayerfully consider their context and calling, here are some questions worth asking:

  • Who in our community might be quietly seeking God—older adults, young people, recent arrivals?
  • What does it look like for us to become a community of belonging, welcome, and spiritual hospitality?
  • How are we investing in older adults as potential faith-seekers—not just as “faithful members,” but as a mission field?
  • Are we honest about the hurt or disillusionment some feel toward the church—and are we humble enough to respond with integrity and grace?
  • What small steps can we take to reimagine evangelism—not as pressure, but as invitation?

 

Encouragement for the Journey

We’re a church that values greatly Martin Luther’s insights, especially for example, Luther’s ‘Theology of the Cross’. Luther held fast to the truth that God works most profoundly in hidden and unexpected ways. The whole story of Easter after all is that God, in Jesus, used the horror and suffering of a Roman cross to bring about forgiveness, salvation and new life.

This report doesn’t offer easy answers, but it reframes the conversation. It reminds us that our God is the God of resurrection hope—who works through undercurrents, mustard seeds, and hidden yeast.

So don’t be discouraged. Be discerning. Be prayerful. And above all, be ready to participate in what God is already doing in the lives of those around you.

Let’s keep looking, each day, for undercurrents of God’s grace in our lives – and especially opportunities to share the good news.

ALWS 75th Anniversary

Serving the most vulnerable for 75 Years

This year the Lutheran Church of Australian and New Zealand (LCANZ) celebrates 75 years of serving the most vulnerable through the ministry of Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS).

The origins of our church’s overseas aid and development ministry started at Bonegilla Migrant Centre near Albury where Rev Dr Bruno Muetzelfeld, a local Lutheran pastor, began offering pastoral and practical care to thousands of European Lutheran refugees following the end of World War II.

In time the ministry expanded to focus on supporting the most vulnerable overseas and today our church works through ALWS to practical care to vulnerable people in fourteen of the poorest countries… food for the hungry, education for children and support to grow resilient families.

Inspired by the faithful generosity of Australian Lutherans, ALWS is celebrating its anniversary with four major events, and the ambitious goal to support 75,000 children with the essentials for a happy, healthy life – food, school and safety.

  
All are invited to join ALWS at a celebration event and to make a special 75th donation that will change the future for a vulnerable child impacted by poverty and war in Somalia, South Sudan, Kenya, Burundi, Bangladesh, Nepal and Ukraine. Together we can ‘Step out so a child can step Up’!

Anniversary celebrations commenced with a commemorative event at Bonegilla Migrant Centre on Saturday 22 March, where attendees enjoyed guided tours of the migrant facilities, live cultural performances, a historic Walk My Way to the old Bonegilla Rail Station and heard stories, songs, and reflections that honour our church’s legacy of care.

A Thanksgiving Service, led by Churchwide Bishop Rev Paul Smith, was held on Sunday 23 March at St Luke’s Lutheran Church, Albury.

Celebration events will also be held in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.

Lutheran churches and schools in the Victorian Tasmanian District are invited to join the local celebrations at Melbourne Walk My Way on Sunday 30 March at Good News Lutheran College, Tarneit. A Thanksgiving service will be held at St Philips Lutheran Church at 9:30am and the Walk My Way festivities will commence from 11am.


Come and enjoy the multi-cultural community hub with live cultural performances, food trucks and kids’ activities. You might also choose to participate in a 3km or 12km walk along alongside the picturesque Werribee river trail.

To register for the Melbourne Walk My Way event, and to discover more about the legacy of our church through ALWS, visit www.alws75.org.au.

Together, let’s give thanks to God for 75 years of Lutheran service through ALWS and commit to changing the future for 75,000 vulnerable children impacted by poverty and war.

 

Baptisms at Knox

On Sunday 16th June Our Saviours Knox were blessed to have 3 baptisms for an Ethiopian Church that is currently without a Pastor. Although they are an independent church, they are Lutheran from Ethiopia establishing themselves in their own church in Dandenong known as Oromo Evangelical Church of Melbourne.

Pastor Peter was contacted by one of their elders, Kelbasa, because they were encountering a growth in children needing to be baptised. They currently worship in a Church of Christ building where the residing minister of that church did not recognise infant baptism.

The Knox congregation, currently hosting the South Sudanese Fellowship led by Pastor Peter Deng, saw this as a great opportunity to extend our hospitality to another African Community.

Pastor Peter will continue to communicate with the Oromo community and introduce himself to the wider community to establish further ministry opportunities.

We thank God for the opportunities that God is opening up to us, to further utilise our church for others. Knox also hosts the Finnish Lutheran Church monthly, and the Ringwood congregation hosts a Haka Chin Burmese congregation.

     

Servant of Christ 2022 – Presentation to Cliff Rossack at Grovedale

Mr Cliff Rossack, a lifelong member at St Pauls Lutheran Church Grovedale in Victoria, is a worthy recipient of the LCA Servant of Christ Award for 2022. Described by his fellow congregants as ‘a humble, dedicated servant to his church and Lord’, 85-year-old Cliff served St Pauls as an elder for 43 years until 2015 and remains an active contributor to the life of his congregation and local community in a variety of ways. He is the congregation’s longest-serving member.

Since 2004 Cliff has been organising a fundraising farm produce stall which operates after Grovedale church services, with the help of fellow member Peter Winter. Originally selling honey Cliff harvested from his own hives, the stall now includes such seasonal produce as potatoes, pumpkin, strawberries, beans, eggs, parsnips, cauliflowers, broccoli, tomatoes and zucchini, while his wife Betty has made hundreds of jars of jam from the fruit he ‘somehow manages to get hold of’!

Since 2010, the stall has raised almost $60,000 and benefitted those helped by more than a hundred different charities and causes.

Cliff has assisted with and initiated many maintenance-related projects at the church since his teenage years. One of which was – with the able assistance of a very active maintenance team – the complete remodelling of the church entrance.

Each year since approximately 1990, he has helped to locate, cut down and Transport to the church a live, large Christmas tree, to the delight and appreciation of all who attend Christmas season services at St Pauls.

Cliff has also volunteered his time at other non-Lutheran churches for many years, and he continues to help with the meals program for the homeless and underprivileged run by Christ Church in Geelong.

His heart for others also has shone through his personal support for Kaway, a refugee from South Sudan welcomed into the St Pauls family. As well as using their own funds to assist Kaway as he endeavoured to bring his children out from a refugee camp in Africa, Cliff and Betty cared for Kaway’s wife and other family members while he was away overseas.

An active member of Lutheran Youth of Victoria in his younger years, Cliff also served on the St John’s Lutheran Primary School council at Geelong for approximately eight years.

His fellow parishioners sum up their reasons for nominating Cliff for the Servant of Christ Award with the following words: ‘Speaking about what Cliff has done is easy. Speaking about who Cliff is, is simple. He is a humble, quiet, God-fearing Christian who loves his Lord.

‘He was a commercial fisherman for over 52 years and that fits in very well with his Christian life example. He connects and communicates with ease across all generations with his genuine and gentle manner.

‘Speaking about Cliff is also somewhat difficult because over time we have seen that the many acts of kindness that Cliff performs mostly only come to light many months or years after the act, because he rarely discloses to anyone what he has done.

‘He has helped – and helps – and cares for people as he can, and still tries his best when he can’t. Cliff throughout his life has been a humble, dedicated servant to his church and Lord.’

 

Holy Trinity Benalla Closes Its Doors

On Sunday, 22nd September, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Benalla held its final service before closing its doors. Pastor Ernie Kiss led the service, Pastor Brett Kennett (Pastor for Congregational Support) delivered the sermon, and Pastor Matthias Prenzler (Assistant Bishop) conducted the closing rite. Those gathered were uplifted by the inspirational singing of the St Paul’s African Choir from Shepparton, who brought joy, warmth and hope to the occasion.

Holy Trinity’s story stretches back to the 1950s, when Lutherans first gathered in Benalla, and formally became a congregation in 1966. The church’s roots are deeply tied to post-World War II migrant ministry. Supported by the Wangaratta congregation, the early members—a mix of European Lutheran migrants and local Australians—built a strong and resilient community. This early backbone of the congregation thrived for many years, despite the challenges of families moving to larger cities for work and education opportunities.

Those who stayed in Benalla formed a close-knit, hard-working community that not only focused on spiritual growth but also on serving others. Holy Trinity members served their wider community faithfully, empowered by God’s grace as they gathered for worship.

One of the wonderful aspects of the congregations history was its willingness to ‘get church out to the big wide world’ as one member put it to me recently.  Prior to the opening of the church building the congregation participated in parish (with Wangaratta) worship services in a variety of locations, including a communion service on Lake Eildon itself! There were regular congregational excursions for fellowship and service activities.

Other aspects of the congregation’s life included Saturday evening worship services followed by shared meals, a thriving Sunday School, youth programs led by a part-time youth worker, welfare fundraiser for drought assistance, and special ecumenical outreach initiatives like Easter dawn services and Christmas caroling at a local housing commission precinct.

The congregation worked exceedingly hard to maintain its financial viability. Fundraisers, such as firewood, cattle and garage sales, helped.

Every event brought people together, fostering deep connections and a shared sense of purpose.

But over the years, as the congregation aged and more families relocated, Holy Trinity faced a steady decline in numbers. By 2024, it became clear that the church could no longer sustain itself. The decision was made to close, with a final service on 22nd September marking the end of an era. Pastor Brett’s sermon theme, “Well done, good and faithful servants” (Matthew 25:23), captured the heart of the congregation’s legacy—one of faithfulness, service, and dedication in response to God’s gift of salvation by grace through faith alone.

During the closing service, sacred items from the church were carefully removed. The next chapter for the physical building will see it repurposed as a home for the local Salvation Army, including their much-needed food bank ministry—a fitting continuation of the church’s service to the community.

Looking ahead, members of Holy Trinity are already involved in a parish partnership with Wangaratta and are eager to explore new regional opportunities with neighboring parishes – and they are still committed to ‘getting the gospel out to the big wide world’.

‘See How They Love Each Other’ – Our Public Witness

Over the past few years, as I’ve attended our various national and district conventions, one of the joys that I’ve experienced has been interacting with folks from outside our church who are serving us through their vocation. For example, at some of our conventions, we’ve had people helping us with venue facilities such as audiovisual equipment, providing food, or even first aid.

I’ve often wondered what they make of this bunch of folks, us Lutherans, as we gather together to achieve what must look like a series of mysterious tasks to an outsider.

Sometimes that’s the question that I’ve opened a conversation with: “So, what do you make of all this?”

I think it’s helpful to keep in mind that we Christians are always giving a public witness. We talk about the divine service, worship, being a ‘public’ service of the church. Our conventions, while predominantly attended by us Lutherans, do have visitors from outside – and in that sense have a public aspect also.

And given God’s passion, priority, concern, and love for the ‘outsider,’ the ‘stranger,’ the ‘foreigner,’ what opportunity might we have to serve them – and what gift might they bring to us?

God’s Love for the Outsider

The Bible is indeed full of verses that speak to God’s love and concern for the outsider. For instance, Leviticus 19:34 says, “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” This commandment highlights the importance of welcoming and loving those who are not part of our immediate community. Here’s another scriptural thought: Hebrews 13:2 encourages us in our Christian vocation of hospitality. “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” Wow!

An Opportunity for Mission

At our recent Vic Tas District convention, a friend of mine had a series of delightful conversations with someone visiting. It developed into an opportunity to share the basics of the Lutheran Christian tradition. My friend shared about ‘grace’ and the fact that we are people of grace because of the grace brought into this world through God’s love in Jesus. This was the key insight that seemed to strike home for the person my friend was talking to. They were impressed by the idea that before we were even thinking about God, God was coming towards us, and in Jesus, God has already done everything possible to make things right between us and himself. This thought was truly revolutionary to them. So revolutionary that the conversation continued to extend across the weekend – in short bursts! As my friend said goodbye, the person asked for the location of the nearest Lutheran church to them. This means they might have visited your church, or be planning to! Look out for them, please. God bless you and give you joy as you meet the strangers, the angels that God sends you – and as you engage in conversations about Jesus.

Love in Action

Our faith calls us to demonstrate love in practical ways. Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” What a privilege to let folks know that we are disciples by extending love beyond our immediate circle and reaching out to those who might not yet know Christ. By showing genuine hospitality and care, we can create opportunities for meaningful conversations and share the transformative message of the Gospel.

Tertullian’s Witness

Tertullian, an early Christian writer, famously noted the profound impact of Christian behaviour on pagan observers. He recorded how outsiders to the faith would sometimes exclaim, “See how they love one another!” when reflecting on Christians. Tertullian highlighted that this love, evident in selfless care for one another, was a powerful testimony to faith in Jesus and stood in stark contrast to the surrounding culture. This striking difference drew non-Christians to explore the Christian faith.

 

So, may I encourage us to keep this in mind as we attend conventions and other gatherings held by our church. God is gifting us with opportunities to display his love, so that his Spirit might invite curiosity and spark interest in the message about his Son.

I know that I am guilty of not always keeping this in mind. My prayer is that we all might grow in our awareness of every opportunity to display the love of Jesus by how we speak, and how we act towards each other – and towards the ‘stranger’ in our midst.

 

Some Next Steps

Here are some suggestions for how we can continue to embody Christ’s love and welcome outsiders:

  1. Be Open and Approachable: Make an effort to engage with visitors at church events. A simple conversation can make a huge difference.
  2. Offer Practical Help: Look for ways to serve those who are new to your community, who look disoriented or uncomfortable. Help them settle in, provide information, or simply offer a friendly face and a warm ‘gday’.
  3. Share Your Faith: Be ready to share the message of God’s grace and love with those who are curious or seeking.
  4. Pray for Opportunities: Ask God to open doors for you to connect with and minister to those outside your usual circle.
  5. Follow Up: If someone shows interest in your faith or church, take the time to follow up with them and continue the conversation.

 

ALC – removing barriers to study

You may not be aware but there is no longer a need to be in Adelaide to study with ALC. We are now fully in distributed learning mode, which means classes are attended online, from wherever you are. Here are some updates from current students.

Lauren Krenske

Lauren grew up in Queensland and has been a member of the Lutheran Church all her life. She became a teacher because she was inspired by the excellent teachers she had during her own schooling, who connected with her and encouraged her to do her best. Her teaching career to date has included positions at Bethania Lutheran Primary School, Redeemer Lutheran College and most recently, at Lutheran Ormeau Rivers District School (LORDS), where she serves as the Pastoral Care Coordinator for Years 7-9.

I am currently studying a unit through ALC as part of LEA’s Leadership Development Program but over the past 3 years have also completed a number of professional development offerings through ALC. I have learnt a lot from these courses, which have helped me develop as an educator and leader.

Adam is a candidate in the Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) program who is currently serving in two congregations across Adelaide, while completing his theological studies part-time. He has spent the past 20 years working as a church worker in various roles within the Lutheran Church. In fact, you may have even met him when he was working for the LCANZ Church Worker Support Department a few years ago. It was during this time that he became aware of congregations struggling to fill pastor vacancies and became aware of the SMP program. It was also during this time, that his mother passed away from cancer.

My mother had openly shared with me, her belief that I would make a good pastor. When she died, this memory triggered something inside of me and I subsequently decided to enter a period of discernment to see if pastoral ministry was for me. With the support and encouragement of my manager at the time, I enrolled part-time in studies at ALC. At the same time COVID happened and more opportunities for online study became available through the College.

In 2022 Mawson Lakes Community Church were seeking expressions of interest from SMPs.
I was familiar with the use of SMPs in regional and church planting communities but not in the city and felt that God was inviting me to use this opportunity to gain an understanding of parish ministry. At the same time, my home congregation, Our Saviour Lutheran Church at Aberfoyle Park was entering a period of vacancy, and they were also interested in engaging an SMP. I now serve both congregations on a part-time basis.

I have found study at ALC to be both challenging and encouraging. I am particularly thankful that ALC has adjusted its learning model so that I can now access all my classes online and fit in study around work and family commitments. The online environment has allowed me to meet students, not just from Australia, but from all over the world and hear what amazing things God is doing in their churches and faith communities.