THE LUTHERAN August 2019

N A TIO N A L M A G A ZIN E O F THE L U THE RA N C HU RC H O F A U STRA LIA

AUGUST 2019

‘The Lord does not look at things people look at …

THE LORD LOOKS AT THE HEART’ 1 Samuel 16:7b

VOL 53 NO7

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Where have all the young people gone?

HEY T E B Y A M (… OR ) L L A T A E N HAVEN’T GO

LUTHERAN

CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA

EDITORIAL Editor Lisa McIntosh p 08 8267 7300 m 0409 281 703 e lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au Executive Editor Linda Macqueen p 08 8267 7300 e linda.macqueen@lca.org.au

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CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA The Lutheran informs the members of the LCA about the church’s teaching, life, mission and people, helping them to grow in faith and commitment to Jesus Christ.

The Lutheran also provides a forum for a range of opinions, which do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editor or the policies of the Lutheran Church of Australia.

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International connections This year’s international participants in Grow Leadership – Sanglura, Jacob, Bibi and Sarah from Myanmar – visited the LCA/NZ Churchwide Office in North Adelaide last month to learn more about our church’s ministries, and caught up with the latest edition of The Lutheran. The discipleship and development program fostering young leaders also has five Australians and one New Zealander taking part this year. Sanglura, Jacob, Bibi and Sarah serve in the four Lutheran World Federation Churches represented in Myanmar (Mara Evangelical Church in Myanmar, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Myanmar, Lutheran Church of Myanmar and Myanmar Lutheran Church).

Send us a photograph featuring a recent copy of The Lutheran and you might see it here on page 2 of a future issue.

People like YOU bring love to life Matthew Konrad Good Shepherd Para Vista SA Student/Grow Leadership participant Enjoys photography, travel and design Fav text: Psalm 139:14

Wendy Woods Manawatu NZ Early childhood worker/Grow Leadership participant Enjoys spending time with family Fav text: Jeremiah 29:11

Erin Geurds–Cook Rockingham–Mandurah WA Student/Grow Leadership participant Enjoys girl guides, soccer, reading Fav text: Isaiah 54:17

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AUGUST

Special features EDITOR'S

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Letter

Where are all the young people?

What can I do about it?

Where have all the young people gone?

Is that even the right question to ask? Clearly, there are committed and talented youth and young adults contributing in our congregations and broader church life. On the other hand, the sea of grey heads in many of our congregations is telling another story.

So, are we burying our collective head in the sand if we don’t ask: Where have all the young people gone?

Teens dropping out of church after confirmation or young adults ‘disappearing’ from our pews after moving out of home is nothing new. But it does appear that the trend of youth disengagement with the church has risen alarmingly in recent times. When Pastor Stephen Schultz, the SA/NT District’s Assistant to the Bishop for Mission, surveyed more than 200 delegates at a recent district synod about the biggest challenges for their congregations, 81 per cent responded with ‘lack of youth and young adults’, while only 41 per cent opted for ‘financial difficulties’.

I spoke with many people from across the church – youth workers, pastors, and those involved in child and family ministries. Most importantly, I spoke with young people and deputised others to do the same. If they are still active in our church, what keeps them here? If they’re not, why did they leave?

What they told me – and what you’ll read in these pages – is sobering but, at the same time, hopeful. Yes, we have lost and are losing young people from active church life and we can and must endeavour to stem that tide. But there are also many others still in the church: worshipping, taking on responsibilities, developing leadership skills, and giving their all to the mission of the church.

We need to care for them in our faith families.

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So what can we learn from all of this and how can we be part of the solution?

Those working with young people tell us that the answers are not simply found in big, buoyant youth groups, employing vibrant youth workers, including the right music in worship, or devising dynamic programs of activities.

Two keys to keeping young people engaged in church life are: building relationships (both within and across generations), and fostering discipleship. We need to trust, love and respect our young people as equals, give them responsibility, equip, empower and encourage them, listen to them and utilise their many skills in our congregations. All of us are on an intergenerational faith journey together.

As Pastor Schultz says, ‘When I hear the phrase, “The young people are the future of our church”, I think we’ve dropped the ball.

They’re part of the church now. And no generation is the future of our church – Jesus is the future of our church. The church is the body of Christ, made up of many parts and many generations.’

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Young people are still part of the story

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They’re still out there …

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Growing young leaders

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Engaging across the ages

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Why I left the church

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Regulars Heartland

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Dwelling in God’s word

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Go and Grow

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Reel Life

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The inside story

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Going GREYT!

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#youngSAVEDfree

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Directory

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Your voice

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Notices

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Coffeebreak

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Lisa Our cover: istock.com

JES U S I S G OD'S LOVE. HE G IVES U S NE W HE ARTS TO L AY AS IDE O UR OL D WAYS, TO B EL IE VE AND FOL LOW HIM, TO L IVE WI T H HIM E VERY DAY.

heartland

REV ROBERT BARTHOLOMAEUS Bishop LCA NSW District

THERE’S ALWAYS MORE TO LE ARN OF G OD When I finished my confirmation instruction, I can remember thinking to myself, ‘I must know everything there is to know about God now. What more could there possibly be to learn?’ Looking back I can see that I was quite deluded.

I guess you would never say such a thing today either – you know full well you don’t know everything.

But the way we live our lives might reveal that we may still think something akin to that delusion.

When we consider reading the Bible daily something that we can take or leave; when we think that attending a group Bible discussion is not all that important because we have attended hundreds of church services over the years; and when reading up on matters of theology is for others, we are deluding ourselves into thinking that, in matters of faith, we know most things.

This is what makes knowing God so EXCITING. There is always something yet to be DISCOVERED … There is always something new.

I have been a pastor for 36 years and I certainly know a lot more about God than I did after my confirmation. But, unlike in my younger days, today I try to take quite the opposite attitude: I try to say to myself, ‘There is probably much more to this than I know’.

I try to take an expectant attitude towards God, to the word of God, to the things of God and to all the people I meet, both Christian and non-Christian.

So when I read a Bible passage that I have read a hundred times, I read it expecting to see something

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that I have never seen before, something that is fresh.

When I meet someone who is new to me, I ask the question, ‘What can this person teach me?’, or ‘What can I learn from this human being that I have never known?’

When I worship, I expect something I have not noticed or heard before.

The reality of God and also his creation is that they are mysteries, something we will never fully understand. And that includes the person sitting next to you, since they are made in God’s image.

No wonder the psalmist says in Psalm 145:3: 'Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no-one can fathom'.

This is what makes knowing God so exciting. There is always something yet to be discovered. There is always something still to be learnt.

There is always something new.

What difference might it make in our Australian and New Zealand Lutheran church if we all started to approach life with this expectant attitude?

LCA Bishop John Henderson is currently on Rest and Refreshment Leave. While he is away, three of the LCA’s district bishops will contribute to Heartland.

To learn more of God, delve into Scripture with our edition-themed Bible study on page 11.

are all the

?

What can I do about it?

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

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

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

What we have learnt is that we need to encourage congregations to rethink how they do ministry with children, young people and their families, and that this ministry needs to include the whole church community.

Yes! That means each person of all ages needs to see themselves as part of ministry with children and young people. Young people often do not feel like they are an important part of life in the congregation and belonging is

really important to young people – as it is to all of us. For a young adult, in the years leading up to them deciding to leave the church, they have been unintentionally told that they are not welcome as part of the ‘big’ church.

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

Next, we said: ‘Go along to youth group. Hang out with other Christian kids – you’ll have fun!’ Yes, they had fun.

Yes, they made great Christian friends, but they never got to know the church, the congregation or the people. So what is the church that they are leaving? Perhaps it is a church they never felt they belonged to in the first place.

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

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Lutheran Youth of Queensland Events Coordinator Sarah Gates says that building relationships with young people across generations is a key to them staying involved in congregational life.

I think that foremost young people are leaving our church because they feel disconnected. Having other young people in a congregation can help to bridge this connection but it can’t rely on just that – young people need to feel part of the whole community and understand who they are as part of that community.

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

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

Is there a way in which they can serve or contribute to the ministry of your congregation? Intergenerational ministry is about doing life together.

It’s about taking the time to get to know the people we sit next to each week, no matter how old or young they are.

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

It is about – and of benefit to – people of all generations.

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

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

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This is nothing new. Moses speaks to the people of Israel about passing on God’s word as they enter the Promised Land: ‘These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up’ (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).

Young people often do not FEEL like they are an important part of life in the congregation and BELONGING is really important to young people – as it is to all of us.

Can we provide learning opportunities that include all ages? Opportunities that build understanding of one generation to the other?

Could we consider inviting a larger group of adults to assist with teaching confirmation and first communion?

Young people are staying because of community and belonging, and because the church is meeting their spiritual needs. They feel welcome, they know a lot of people in their church, they feel like they can contribute to the community, they feel like they receive a lot from the community.

If parents have never experienced what a devotional practice or family prayer looks like, this responsibility can be overwhelming. So congregations have an opportunity to support families as they learn about how they can be regular in prayer and devotion.

Intergenerational learning strengthens the faith of parents and families by encouraging the whole family to participate. It equips parents (and grandparents) to be faith-formers of their children by developing their confidence through experiences of sharing stories, celebrating rituals, praying together, reading the Bible together and serving together.

Intergenerational learning provides activities that model the practices that congregations want parents and families to live at home.

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

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

Jodi Brook is Director of Grow Ministries.

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

Young people are still part of the story

by JOSEPHINE MATTHIAS

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

Some of the most powerful stories are from the Bible.

If you’ve grown up in a Christian home, you probably know off by heart stories like Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers. But millions of people have never heard of Noah, the ark, the animals and the flood.

You really notice the power of Bible stories when you tell them yourself.

My Year 12 maths teacher always had a trivia question on the board for our class. One day, it asked, ‘What was Lot’s wife turned into?’ No-one else knew, which surprised me. I assumed everyone had heard of the woman turned into a pillar of salt. It’s amazing how God works because that single question gave rise to an hour-long conversation regarding the Bible and the ‘craziest’ stories I knew from it.

aunts and uncles. I’ve invited many people to church before but mostly they politely refuse. He didn’t.

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

Dale recently shared his testimony in our church confirmation class, that he lives in a non-Christian home and is teased for his beliefs, but still prays every night and wants to share the good news of Jesus with others.

To see the way he’s changed since coming to church and believing in Jesus is life-changing for me also.

Some of the most POWERFUL stories are from the Bible … If you are willing to SHARE them, God can work in miraculous ways.

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

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

My sister Greta and I invited a school friend, Dale, to church last year. I love my church and the second family it has been to me. I wanted him to experience what it’s like to have hundreds of grandparents and

Every Christian has a story. But it’s becoming increasingly difficult to share your faith without detrimental effects on relationships. Still, God finds ways for young Christians to share the good news. At university one day, I was studying for an exam when someone noticed the cross I was wearing and asked if I was a Christian. It started an hour-long conversation about Christianity and now we’re great friends.

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

Josephine Matthias, pictured above far right with sister Greta and friend Dale, is a member at Para Vista Lutheran Church in suburban Adelaide.

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‘How do we know what to do?’ My confirmation pastor, the late, dear Rev John Sims, used to suggest something like: ‘Pray about it, then use your sanctified commonsense!”

What then to do about our supposed lack of young people in the church?

To me, part of the ‘sanctified commonsense’ is to know the facts. God doesn't want us to fear, including the unknown. As it turns out, the statistics in this area, while confirming fewer young people and declining church attendance among them, also suggest plenty of upside.

Do fewer young people attend LCA services?

It is true that proportionally we see fewer young faces around us each Sunday. National Church Life Survey (NCLS) data compiled from LCA congregations shows that from 2001 to 2016 the average age of LCA church attenders 15+ has increased from 52 to 60 years of age. From 2001 to 2016 the percentage of attenders’ children aged 15+ and living at home still attending church declined from 68 per cent to 60 per cent.

Are we an ageing church?

It's important to remember that Australia has an ageing population, as borne out by Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data. Moreover, Christian church attendees in Australia are older than the general population, according to the NCLS. These two factors alone account for some of the ageing.

Another influence is that, in the past 15 years, there has been a sharp increase in the five-yearly national census of the number of people reporting ‘no-religion’ (although, is there really such a thing?).

Is the belief that we’re losing young people from our LCA/NZ congregat ions at a faster rate than ever backed up by facts?

We asked Western Aust ralia’s Pastor Mat thew Bishop, a former senior economist in the Aust ralian Government Treasury depart ment, to look at what the stat ist ics tell us abou t whether there is reason for hope.

by MATTHEW BISHOP

As the table below shows, Christianity declined by 11.8 per cent between 2006 and 2016. The effect was amplified nationally in the 18 to 30 young adult cohort, with a 14.6 per cent surge in those reporting ‘no-religion’.

SHARE OF AUST RALIAN POPULATION , 20 06 AND 2016 ABS CENSUS 2006

2016

DIFFERENCE*

Christian

63.9%

52.1%

-11.8%

No-religion

18.7%

29.6%

11.0%

Christian

54.2%

39.3%

-14.9%

No-religion

24.3%

38.9%

14.6%

ALL POPULATION

18-30 YEAR OLD

*unaccounted difference goes to another religion

What else can I do?

Remember that God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7).

Therefore, pray about which of the following you might be able to do really well. Then use your sanctified commonsense and get on with it!

Indeed, a 2016 NCLS fact sheet on spirituality reports, ‘Young people aged 15–29 are least likely to agree there is something beyond that makes sense of it all (38 per cent vs ~47 per cent for those aged 30 plus)’.

Perhaps echoing this, census data shows that from 2006 to 2016 Lutherans aged 18 to 30 years as a share of all Lutherans declined by 3.3 per cent to 10.9 per cent.

There’s a Lutheran young adult somewhere near you Gloomy? Don’t be! In 2016 some 18,931 Australians aged between 18 and 30 still reported as being Lutheran! The table below shows there is no need to be lonely if it is an 18 to 30-year-old Lutheran Christian you are missing.

LUT H ERAN YOUNG ADULTS 18-30 YEARS OLD, 2016 ABS CENSUS MALE

FEMALE

TOTAL

NSW

781

983

1764

VIC

1283

1527

2810

QLD

2965

3523

6488

SA

2754

2966

5720

WA

366

401

767

TAS

17

33

50

NT

540

571

1111

ACT

86

135

221

TOTAL

8792

10,139

18,931

Surprised? Don’t fall for untruth from the ‘father of lies’ (John 8:44) that there are no youth left in our church.

For example, in the greater Perth area where I live, 568 young people aged 18 to 30 nominated as Lutheran in the 2016 census. I know only 50 at most.

Who are the other 518? What a great question to answer in getting to know them, their situation, and helping them to know what Christ has done for them.

• Get to know the young adults you don't know yet!

Young people tell me they like to ‘hang around’ together (not necessarily with older people). So, rather than re-invent the wheel, help connect them with the various younger gatherings and Bible study communities that are already in your district, zone or congregation. Encourage those running these events with prayer, words and finances. With young people often struggling financially, help with food or make a donation to those groups.

• Read and practise an excellent book on how to talk faith, like Sydneysider Sam Chan’s Evangelism in a Skeptical World: How to make the unbelievable news about Jesus more believable.

• Invite your pastor, lay worker or LCA’s Pastor for New and Renewing Churches, Rev Dr Noel Due, for a discussion about conversational evangelism (noel.due@lca.org.au).

• Lead or support your congregation into digging into long-term intergenerational faith formation in modern Australia by contacting LCA Grow Ministries Director Jodi Brook (jodi.brook@lca.org.au) and utilising Grow's extensive collection of internationally curated resources.

When you feel discouraged, remember that youth still remember later in life at least some of what they learnt in confirmation! But above all, pray: We frequently lay our anxieties on Christ (including regarding the youth of our church) because he cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).

Pastor Matthew Bishop serves Bethlehem Lutheran Church Morley in suburban Perth and is on the LCA’s Council for Local Mission. He is blessed with three teenage daughters, pictured from left Gabbi, Eden and Naomi, and wife Melissa, and assists Lutheran Youth of WA with camps and young adult Bible study.

He has previously researched young adult ministry for Lutheran Youth of Queensland.

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