LUTHERAN CHURCH
EDITORIAL
Editor Lisa McIntosh
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e lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au
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LUTHERAN CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA
The Lutheran informs the members of the LCANZ 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 and New Zealand.
Well worth Peru-sing!
Jenny and David Kraft know that even when you are enjoying the spectacle of a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Andes Mountains, it’s wise to have a little something to read when you stop for a breather from the breathtaking views. And so, the Krafts, who are members at St John’s Lutheran Church Tea Tree Gully in suburban Adelaide, kept a copy of the June-July edition of The Lutheran handy during a recent visit to the 15th-century Inca citadel Machu Picchu.
Send us a photograph featuring a recent copy of The Lutheran and it may appear on page 2 of a future issue and on our website at www.thelutheran.com.au
People like YOU bring love to life
As this edition gives thanks for 80 years of sharing the gospel through Lutheran Media and its forebears, we are featuring people who have worked or volunteered for this ministry.
Jacob Rathjen
Our Saviour Lutheran Church Aberfoyle Park SA
Lutheran Media Digital Media & Marketing Assistant
Most treasured Bible text: Psalm 62:8
‘Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.’
Rosalee Kilmier
St Paul Lutheran Church Blair Athol SA
Longtime Lutheran Media volunteer
Most treasured Bible text: John 8:12
‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’
Andy Voigt
St Petri Lutheran Church Nuriootpa, SA
Former Lutheran Media Content Producer for more than 20 years
Most treasured Bible text: Romans 12:1,2
‘ … present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God … Do not conform to … this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’
Let the light of someone you know shine through their photo being featured in The Lutheran and LCA Facebook. With their permission, send us a good quality photo, their name and details (congregation, occupation and most treasured text) and your contact details.
Twenty-six years ago, kicking and screaming like a toddler throwing a tantrum, I was hauled into the job as editor of The Lutheran by a God who didn’t seem to know he’d called the wrong person.
It’s not that I didn’t want the job. I did. Sort of. But I was terrified. Terrified that 25,000 readers (including 600 pastors) would be reading my editorials and stories, which equated to 25,000 people telling me off for getting it wrong. Terrified that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, and it was only a matter of time before I was found out.
I had no choice, though. This was a powerfully supernatural call, leaving no room for even a smidgeon of doubt. So, I said yes, with a caveat. ‘All right then,’ I pouted at God, ‘I’ll do this, but only for one year, okay?’ God had a different idea about the timeline.
When you read this, I’ll be retired. I’ll have completed 26 years in that job I was woefully unequipped for (first as editor of The Lutheran and then LCANZ Communications Manager). That job I didn’t want has woven together my life experiences, personality, gifts and passions into what I am convinced has been a divine calling.
As I step into the great unknown of this next life adventure, I’m tempted to say to God, ‘I want to do retirement for 26 years, okay? I want to do nothing but read books, prune roses and make gooseberry jam until I die, okay?’ But I have a sneaking suspicion (based on prior experience) he’ll smile knowingly and say, ‘I have a better idea.’
I thank God for his faithfulness and for each twist in the road that shaped me.
As I close one chapter and open another, I pray that you, too, will know his presence and hear his voice – in every good and bad day, at every door that closes and every one that opens. And when he calls, even as you tremble, may your answer always be ‘yes’. Yes to the new role, the untried opportunity, the courageous step of faith, the invitation to start over. Every yes to God will change your life, and probably someone else’s, too. All our yeses will build Christ’s church, bless our families and communities, and write stories far greater than any of us can imagine. With deep gratitude to each of you who has walked beside me, and in joyful anticipation for what God will do next – in me and you.
Still spreading the same gospel message*
Service to others is the rent you pay
A legacy of media and mission*
Hope in every format
‘Congratulations on 80 years of communicating Christ’
Celebrating eight decades of sharing God’s love
‘A privilege to share your stories’
The power of his presence on show Regulars
Because we bear your name: Bishop Paul’s letter
Footnote: I am so grateful to Linda for her extraordinary service to our church, and so thankful to God for her gifts and his call on her life. She has been a wonderful mentor, and our LCANZ Communications team wishes her every blessing in retirement. Appropriately, she is signing off in an edition focused on sharing the gospel through media, as we mark Lutheran Media’s 80th anniversary.
May God bless your reading,
* Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following pages contain images of people who have died. Our cover: iStock.com
PAUL’S LETTER
REV PAUL SMITH Bishop, Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand
‘Now I should remind you, brothers and sisters, of the gospel that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you – unless you have come to believe in vain.’
OUR MEDIA MINISTRY
MAINTAIN(S) ... WHAT IS OF ‘FIRST IMPORTANCE’. IT IS THIS TELLING OF THE GOOD NEWS …
Finally, the Reformation era saw an explosion of Christian hymn-writing and church musicianship so that people could learn the faith and could share the gospel through song.
These three elements of media for communicating the gospel have continued to the modern era, and our church has various ministries with ‘media’ in their charter. This includes Lutheran Media, which this year celebrates 80 years of wonderful witness and service in the mission of the church. And there are many ministries in our church that could be rightly called ‘media ministries' through the print, visual and audio productions across the communities of the LCANZ. They all have the core purpose of telling’ the good news: the gospel!
When the Apostle Paul was writing his first letter to Christians in the early Church community in the city of Corinth, he worked through a variety of conflicts and concerns in the congregation. Then his letter to the Corinthians builds to a high point in chapter 15 where he tells the people:
In 1 Corinthians 15:3–10, the apostle goes on to summarise the core elements of this ‘gospel’: ‘For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them – though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.’
‘According to the Scriptures’, not ‘according to the Apostle Paul’, ‘Christ died, Christ is risen, Christ has appeared, even to me!’ Paul explains that this telling is of ‘first importance’. We are first and foremost, people of the gospel!
We have established our media ministry to maintain the tradition of what is of ‘first importance’. It is this telling of the good news, so that we might by any means save some, all for the sake of the gospel, so that we may share in its blessings (1 Corinthians 9:22,23).
I thank God for the founders, servants and supporters of Lutheran Radio and TV, the Lutheran Hour and Lutheran Media, ‘bringing Christ to the nations’.
In Christ,
