THE LUTHERAN September 2018 by Lutheran Church of Australia

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

SEPTEMBER 2018

SPECIAL EDITION

Print Post Approved PP100003514

VOL 52 NO 8

GOING AND GROWING as God's people RY A STO C L E TH

2018

LUTHERAN

CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA

ZIP-A-DEE-DOO-DAH! New ALWS Executive Director Jamie Davies enjoys The Lutheran as she prepares to leap into new adventures – both from the 10 metre zipline at Luther Heights Youth Camp in Queensland and in her work at ALWS. Jamie brings with her many years of experience and service through Christian overseas aid – including terrifying journeys on dodgy airplanes into conflict zones. So, while it may seem she is leaping into the unknown, the ALWS team is confident together they can reach new heights!

EDITORIAL Editor Lisa McIntosh p 08 8267 7300 m 0409 281 703 e lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au Executive Editor Linda Macqueen p 08 8339 5178 e linda.macqueen@lca.org.au

CONNECT WITH US We Love The Lutheran! @welove_TL lutheranchurchaus

SUBSCRIBE www.thelutheran.com.au 08 8360 7270 lutheran.subs@lca.org.au LCA Subscriptions PO Box 731 North Adelaide SA 5006 11 issues per year

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 Jan Pichler

Australia $44 | New Zealand $46 Asia/Pacific $55 | Rest of the world $64

LifeWay Lutheran Church, Newcastle NSW

Issued every month except January.

Retired Enjoys reading, watching old movies and singing in Newcastle University Choir

DESIGN & PRINT Design & Layout Elysia McEwen Printer Openbook Howden

ADVERTISING/ MANUSCRIPTS Should be directed to the editor. Manuscripts are published at the discretion of the editor. Those that are published may be cut or edited.

Copy deadline: 1st of preceding month Rates: general notices and small

advertisements, $19.00 per cm; for display, contract and inserted advertisements, contact the editor.

LUTHERAN

Fiona Haynes Victor Harbor Lutheran Church SA Teacher Enjoys pilates Fav text: Matthew 19:26

Oliver Swift

CHURCH

Rockingham–Mandurah Lutheran Church, WA

OF AUSTRALIA

Transport Coordinator

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.

Fav text: Joshua 24:15

The Lutheran SEPTEMBER 2018

Enjoys youth and young adults ministry, playing PS4 and hanging out with friends Fav text: Romans 8:31

Surprise someone you know

with their photo in The Lutheran. Send us a good-quality photo, their name and details (congregation, occupation, what they enjoy doing, favourite text) and your contact details.

SEPTEMBER

Special features EDITOR'S

Letter

People tell me that they worry for the church’s future: some if change occurs, some if it does not. This is especially the case as the LCA approaches its triennial General Convention of Synod next month in Sydney. There are big decisions to be made that will have an impact on each one of us and you can learn more in this issue. It is easy to get worked up and anxious about the future. We all do it sometimes. It’s good that we care about our world and our church. But therein lies a stumbling block we often trip over. It’s not our church, it’s God’s church. Is there a difference? Well, we tend to characterise our church, the LCA, as the organisation, seen by some to be painfully slow to adapt to the changing world, and by others to be too keen to sway where the winds of society blow. But God’s church – including the LCA – is not an organisation, or a denomination. It is people – recalcitrant but redeemed, failed but forgiven, selfish but sanctified people. Worrying about the church robs us of precious time we could be using to share God’s love with others. It is a thief of opportunity, focusing us on our own concerns, priorities and disagreements, rather than allowing us to respond to needs around us. There are well-known verses in Matthew 6:26–27 about worry: ‘Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?’. Now I’d take exception to that if I were a bird but the point is obvious. Worrying will not take us anywhere apart from the road to despair. Instead of worrying, we can pray (and pray that we stop worrying) – and that’s what LCA Bishop John Henderson calls on us to do in the lead-up to Synod (see page 5). We can pray and let God take charge. He alone can deal with our worries. We can also rejoice that his mission continues through the LCA, and much of this special pre-Synod edition is dedicated to bringing you a report-back from church departments, agencies and support bodies. To bring you this special coverage we have had to omit some regular features. Thank you for your understanding. They will return next issue.

Departments and Agencies introduction

Local Mission reports

Finke River Mission report

Ministry Support reports

LLL report

Office of the Bishop reports

Commission on Worship report

Education and Training reports

ALWS report

Regulars Heartland

Inside story

Directory

Your voice

Notices

I hope and pray that you will feel connected and convicted as you learn more about these ministries, how you can become more involved – and how you are already playing an important part, including by supporting The Lutheran.

Lisa

PS: Our October issue will be published during General Convention and will not contain any Synod news. Our November edition will have full coverage. To receive news during Convention, sign up at www.lca.org.au/enews for Synod eNews.

Our cover:

Design by Elysia McEwen. Photos courtesy of Trinity Lutheran College Mildura, Victoria, Lutheran Archives, Finke River Mission, LLL and Peace Lutheran Primary School Gatton, Queensland, LCA International Mission, ALWS, and New and Renewing Churches, along with images from dreamstime.com and 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 JOHN HENDERSON

Bishop Lutheran Church of Australia

JESUS REPL ACES FE AR WITH LIFE It was my privilege recently to visit the Lua people in northern Thailand. The land is steep and mountainous. In the wet season it rains heavily most days. The vistas are spectacular but the people are poor. The Lua, who live on both sides of the Thai/Lao border, have long been itinerant, partly because of their belief in local spirits. Each village has a shaman, or spirit doctor, who mediates between the spirit world and the world of the living. A whole village would shift because of an evil spirit, particularly when someone died. There must be no contact between the living and the dead. The Lua live in small houses, propped precariously on stilts because the land is so steep. Their homes look as though they could be abandoned in just a couple of hours. A number are in fact empty, as many Lua have moved to Bangkok in search of work.

In another home we met Oo, a 90-year-old woman who 10 years ago was the first person in her village to believe in Jesus. Since then she has suffered. Several members of her family have died, seemingly as punishment for her faith. The Lutheran SEPTEMBER 2018

You and I might think that their new-found faith is just a simple faith, but not so. It’s quite profound. It’s deeper than the human thoughts, spoken words and logical arguments for faith that we often turn to. Faith lives in their innermost being, raw and unedited. It connects them with the Creator God who overcomes all evil. It is hard to put into words. It’s just who they are. The Spirit has made them into new people, . the image of Christ.

Until they met Jesus they were not truly ALIVE

With the Thai Lutheran church leader, Bishop Amnuay, who was previously the local pastor, we visited several homes. One was that of a former local shaman, who became a Christian when he saw the love of Jesus contrasted to the loveless animism he had been practising. He and his wife told of the fear they used to have in the night, when evil spirits would invade their home. Now that he is a Christian, those spirits have gone. He and his family sleep unafraid through the night.

Fear was a constant theme and the release from fear that Jesus brings. With few possessions, vulnerable and exposed to the primal elements of nature, these people knew a deep, visceral fear – an ancient terror when the forces of evil are unleashed in the world. Such fear sits deep in the gut, in the psyche, in the innermost being. Fear had steadily devoured them, they were not truly alive, until Jesus met them and set them free.

I didn’t speak their language, but faith simply glowed within them. I wondered what gifts they might bring to us, if they could. What would they say about our reliance on material goods and prosperity? How would they respond to our many, many words about correct doctrine and practice? How relevant to them would those things be on which we spend so much time and effort? What undisclosed fears would they see us covering over, fears that for them faith has already confronted and dealt with? On that visit I saw the living God at work, creating saving faith in these people. While to the world they might look poor and underprivileged, in him they are truly rich beyond measure.

Church called to pray in SYNOD LEAD-UP by LISA MCINTOSH LCA Bishop John Henderson has called on all members to pray for the church’s leaders, and the delegates and organisers of next month’s 19th General Convention of Synod in Sydney, as they prepare for the triennial meeting. Bishop Henderson said holding a General Synod was ‘a serious matter, as Synod has the “power to direct and control” the affairs of the church’. ‘Now is also the time for all of us to pray for all the organisers, leaders and delegates across Australia and New Zealand who are preparing for the Synod’, Bishop Henderson said in a Synod eNews bulletin last month. ‘The tasks before us are immense, and we cannot do them in our own power. Only God’s power makes the work credible, or even possible. ‘Our faith instructs us to share our anxieties with God in prayer, and trust him, rather than ourselves, with the wellbeing and progress of the church. So let’s pray then, as a church, trusting that the church is safe in God’s hands.’ To be held from 2 to 7 October at Rosehill in the city’s west, the 2018 General Synod will consider, debate and vote on a range of issues, including the ordination of both women and men, a proposed change of name for the church, membership of

international Lutheran bodies, and the introduction of a Reconciliation Action Plan for the LCA. Bishop Henderson, who was first elected to the role of LCA Bishop in 2013, and incoming LCA Assistant to the Bishop – International Mission Pastor Matt Anker are the two candidates nominated for the role of LCA Bishop by General Pastors Conference (GPC). Incumbent Assistant Bishop Dr Andrew Pfeiffer will seek re-election to his current role. If a vote on women’s ordination is held next month, it will be the fourth time an LCA Synod has faced the question, after 2000, 2006 and 2015. In 2015, 64 per cent of delegates voted in favour of the introduction of women’s ordination, narrowly falling short of the two-thirds majority required to carry a change that is theological or confessional in nature. However, that Synod called on the LCA’s Commission on Theology and Inter-Church Relations (CTICR) to develop a draft doctrinal statement (DDS) ‘that presents: a theological basis for the ordination of women and men [and] a theological basis for why ordination of women and men need not be church divisive’. Twenty congregations have proposed motions to the 2018 Synod for the LCA to allow the ordination of women

faith freedom

future

Our General Synod logo is inspired by the journey of the Israelites, written in the book of Exodus. With every step of faith they took towards freedom and future – through good times and bad – they were held safely in the hands of God. As are we.

pastors, while there are four proposals against a change to the current teaching of a men-only pastorate. On the advice of GPC to Synod, the LCA’s General Church Council (GCC) has proposed that if the church were to change its teaching, this be done by adopting CTICR’s DDS. Also before the Synod will be a GCC proposal for the development of a Reconciliation Action Plan, with aims including building relationships and understanding between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal members of the LCA, addressing questions of recognition and representation of Aboriginal people, and encouraging Aboriginal The Lutheran SEPTEMBER 2018

Continued from page 5 leadership and service in all aspects of church life. Synod delegates will also be called on to consider a name change for the LCA. The motion from the Lutheran Church of New Zealand, a district of the church, proposes a change to Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand (LCANZ). Six congregations have proposed that the LCA applies for full membership of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), while two congregations have proposed that the LCA become a full member of the International Lutheran Council (ILC). The LCA is currently an associate member of both the LWF and the ILC. For more information, including the Book of Reports (available from 10 September) and weekly prayer petitions, go to www.convention2018.lca.org.au

NEW LUTHERAN EDUCATION LEADER Dr Lisa Schmidt (pictured) will be the next Executive Director for Lutheran Education Australia. Associate Professor Schmidt, who is currently the Dean of Education for the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University in South Australia, will succeed Mr Stephen Rudolph, who is retiring from the role later this year. In announcing the appointment, LEA Board of Directors Chair Dr Neville Highett said Dr Schmidt would bring ‘an extensive and valuable range of attributes, experiences and achievements’ to the role. Dr Schmidt, who has been a member of LEA’s Board of Directors since 2013, said she was looking forward to meeting with and listening to those at the coalface of the Lutheran education community. ‘Lutheran education is blessed to have such a dedicated community of educators across Australia’, she said. ‘There are challenges, but looking back at the history of Lutheran education,

there always have been; we just need to adapt to the current version. Similarly, there always have been and will be opportunities; we just need to keep our hearts and minds open to them.’ When she takes up the new role in January 2019, she will become the fourth national director for Australian Lutheran education and the first woman to hold the post, after Mr Rudolph, the late Dr Adrienne Jericho and Pastor Tom Reuther. Mr Rudolph said Dr Schmidt’s appointment was ‘exciting’ for Lutheran education in Australia. ‘She is an immense talent in the field of education – highly intelligent, very qualified and extremely capable’, he said. Dr Highett said the Board also wished to acknowledge the contribution of Mr Rudolph, who has been Executive Director for the past seven years.

Wisdom hallmark of late leader’s service Wisdom and support characterised the service of the late Pastor Kevin Schmidt, the LCA’s General Secretary from 1984 to 1991, who died in July, aged 85.

in parishes and preaching places in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland and Victoria during his ministry.

That’s the view of former LCA President Dr Lance Steicke, who served the church in the role now known as LCA Bishop from 1987 to 2000.

Pastor Schmidt served in a locum tenens capacity across different parishes in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Queensland through 1955 and was then called to his first parish at South Australia’s South Coast, including Victor Harbor, where he served from early 1956.

‘I enjoyed his companionship but above all I enjoyed his support’, Dr Steicke said. ‘He bent over backwards to be of assistance. I sought his advice and counsel and was never disappointed. ‘Sometimes certain people are referred to as “a wise old owl”. Kevin was one of those “wise old owls”. I remember Kevin for many things, of course – his friendship, his comradeship, his collegiality, his strong Christian faith, just his presence. But it’s the “wise old owl” Kevin that has endeared him most to me and is most memorable.’ Pastor Schmidt was born Kevin John Schmidt at Lameroo, South Australia, on 9 September 1932. He was baptised and confirmed at St John’s Lutheran Church, Lameroo.

The Lutheran SEPTEMBER 2018

He received his primary school education at Smithville State School and secondary education at Lameroo Area School and Immanuel College. He graduated from Immanuel Theological Seminary in 1954 and was ordained as a pastor of the Lutheran church at Tabor in Tanunda, South Australia, on 9 January 1955. According to a 12 February 1955 report in the Lutheran Herald, he was the first son of the congregation to have been ordained in its 104 years of existence. He served

He married Barbara Liebich at St Petri, Nuriootpa, South Australia, on 8 January 1958. As well as parish ministry and his service as LCA General Secretary, Pastor Schmidt was Queensland’s Director of Church Development from 1967 to 1970. He retired in December 1997. He died on 24 July 2018 at Fullarton Lutheran Home, South Australia, and is survived by his wife Barbara, and their children Julie, Philip, David and Tim, and their families.

Child protection policy review With National Child Protection Week held in Australia early this month, Professional Standards Department (PSD) Manager Tim Ross said it was timely that the LCA/NZ’s General Church Council (GCC) had reviewed the church’s Child Protection Policy. GCC has also approved a new related procedure and both the policy and procedure set out in practical terms how LCA/NZ members can respond to God’s call to look after children. ‘The LCA and all believers have a special responsibility to care for all children and see that no harm comes to them’, Mr Ross said. ‘God calls us to make every effort to protect children.’ He said all churches should ensure their leaders held valid ‘working with children’-type checks. The Child Protection Procedure sets out detail on who needs a check and how to apply, as well as reporting suspected abuse. It is also important that leaders are properly trained regarding the attitudes and behaviours the LCA expects. You can find details of the Professional Standards training program at www.lca.org.au/psd-training You can access the Child Protection Policy and Procedure online at www.lca.org.au/policies For more information, contact your District Professional Standards Officer (PSO). See www.lca.org.au/psd for PSO contact details.

Immersion tour brings Asian LUTHERANS TOGETHER Far left: Lily Tam and other participants learn about the LCA/ NZ and Lutheranism during the church study and immersion tour. Left: Tim Yiu was one of the organisers of the five-day tour.

Members and friends of Asian Lutheran congregations in Australia and New Zealand have taken part in a church study and immersion tour in order to learn more about the LCA/NZ.

‘I hope this tour is just a beginning and that many more Lutherans could have the opportunity to enhance their understanding of the LCA and the history of the Lutheran church’, he said.

A group of 26 travelled to Adelaide from different states and New Zealand to participate in the five-day tour in July. The tour aimed to enhance participants’ understanding of the LCA and the history of Lutheran church, as well as strengthening connections between Asian congregations.

Participants visited the LCA/NZ churchwide offices, ALC and LLL in North Adelaide, to gain a better insight of the Lutheran church, its departments and agencies.

Tim Yiu, who was one of the organisers, said the tour was ‘a great, valuable and precious’ experience for participants. As well as learning more about the LCA and the history of the Lutheran church, he said it was a wonderful opportunity to meet new friends from various Asian congregations in the Lutheran community and strengthen the relationships among the Asian congregations.

In addition, three study sessions introduced the group to the history of Lutherans in Australia, Reformation history and Lutherans in today’s world. Tour members also had the chance to visit three of the earliest Lutheran churches in Australia, at Lobethal in the Adelaide Hills and Bethany and Langmeil in South Australia’s Barossa Valley, and to worship and share fellowship together. Along with attending morning devotions at ALC and the LCA, they worshipped and shared a meal with St Stephen’s Lutheran Church Adelaide.

2018

er Sunday 28 Octob Register now

u your party pack yo d n se n ca e w so

ranlunch.org.au e th lu st e g n o .l w ww

The Lutheran SEPTEMBER 2018

Get connected

and be inspired This special annual edition of The Lutheran updates you on the Christ-centred service of the churchwide (national) departments and agencies of your Lutheran church in Australia and New Zealand. Your church is preparing for its triennial General Convention of Synod, to be held in Sydney next month. These pages present an important opportunity to connect with each ministry and gain greater insight into how each one assists us as individuals, and as members of congregations, families and communities.

The LLL, which is also featured in this report-back, financially underpins many of the ministries of our church, having provided benefits and services estimated at $29 million since 2015.

We hope that this annual report-back helps you to stay informed, get connected, and be inspired.

Over the next 18 pages you’ll meet people served by your church’s ministries and support bodies and you’ll learn a little more about how they work together with your support to bring God’s love to life in your communities.

You play a critical role as a partner in the mission and ministry of the LCA/NZ, through your prayers and donations and by volunteering.

by LISA MCINTOSH

Of course, the LLL is only able to give this crucial support because of your loyalty as depositors and the generosity of supporters who include the LLL in their wills. While the focus and reach of each ministry here is different, they share the identical purpose – to help us all to ‘go and grow’ as God’s people, sharing his love and the life-changing message of salvation through Jesus.

We hope that this annual reportback helps you to stay informed, get connected, and be inspired to answer the invitation to continue to serve your church, according to your gifting and calling. And remember, we are here to help if we can. We’re only a phone call or email away.