Resourcing your church community

Our congregations are where we gather as the body of Christ to worship God and to grow in our knowledge and understanding of his word. Congregations are our primary mission fields, where we love and serve each other and our communities.

Our congregational leaders, therefore, have a lot on their plates – and not just at a famous Lutheran bring-a-plate shared lunches! There are just so many aspects of congregational life that need attention, time, energy, knowledge and resourcing.

Over the years, the Lutheran Church and its people have produced many great resources designed to support congregations.

But how much help will these resources be if the people who need them don’t know how to find them or, worse still, don’t even know they exist? That’s why, at the recent Convention of General Synod, the LCANZ launched its new Congregational Life web hub – to bring together all the kinds of resources that congregations need in one, easy-to-access place.

A joint project of the churchwide communications staff and district mission directors, the Congregational Life hub features an expansive range of resources gathered to assist congregations and their leaders in fulfilling their many functions.

The first phase of resource collection and curation is expected to be completed by mid-2025. After that, Churchwide and District people will identify any gaps and work together to develop additional resources to better equip people for service in their local contexts.

Longer-term, the plan is to incorporate pathways to training into the hub, so that everyone serving in the church can grow their skills and confidence at a pace and level that matches their life circumstances and vocational goals.

You can find the Congregational Life web hub on the LCA website homepage (www.lca.org.au) by going up to the navigation pane and clicking on ‘Congregational Life’.

By hovering over the Congregational Life heading, you’ll see the very many resources organised by category in a drop-down menu. On the landing page, you’ll see the six main areas of the site: worship and faith life, mission and ministry, pastoral care, administration, leadership and teamwork, and churchworkers.

The pastoral care section includes information on what pastoral care looks like in a congregational setting, as well as resources for specific issues. The ten common topics people may struggle with are organised in such a way that they can be used by individuals or congregations, or they can be shared with others who may have needs in a particular area.

You’ll also find information about visiting as a Christian person and how to set up a visiting ministry, along with information about chaplaincy and becoming a chaplain to serve in different contexts.