LLLunch launches into party mode
Any reason is a good reason for a party. But this year the LCA has a very special reason for a party – it’s our 50th birthday. Elsewhere in this edition of The Lutheran you’ll read about the events leading up to the birth of the LCA, on Reformation Sunday 1966 – and also how some of our young people are imagining what our church might look like on our 100th birthday.
Our 50th birthday is a wonderful opportunity to give thanks to God for his blessings, and to look forward with hope to where he is safely leading us. So it’s not surprising that one of our themes for this year’s Longest Lutheran Lunch is: celebration!
We think God’s blessings to us ought to be shared.
Longest Lutheran Lunch coordinator Andrea Cross is busily putting together party-themed celebration packs, which will be posted to congregations which register their event (via the website).
But we’re not planning a party only for ourselves. We think God’s blessings to us ought to be shared. So this year we’re lunching also with the theme of ‘Sharing the Gift of Service’. We are challenging all LCA/NZ congregations, schools and aged-care facilities to dream up creative ways of using our gifts of food and hospitality to serve our communities.
Andrea has given your planning teams a huge head start by posting her Top 20 Lunch-with-Service ideas on the Longest Lutheran Lunch website. We’ve shared four of them here but you’ll need to go to the website to learn more. The idea is to choose one of Andrea’s Top 20 and adapt it to your local situation. And remember it can be held anytime and need not be a lunch. A dinner, breakfast, brunch or morning or afternoon tea might work better for you.
Look around and see whom God has placed within reach of your congregation, and then think up a creative way to serve them with great food and hospitality and no-strings-attached kindness. What better way to thank God for his blessings than to share them with our neighbours.
More information: Longest Lutheran Lunch website.
Email Andrea at lllunch@lca.org.au
Four more top ideas for your Lunch-with-Service
- Progressive Lunch – an all-day affair
- Around the World in a Day
- Operation Disaster Relief
- Community Garden Picnic
50.500 faith.freedom.future
During this synodical term, 2015–2018, the LCA/NZ reaches two significant milestones: in 2016 the LCA’s 50th birthday; and in 2017 the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. 50.500 faith.freedom.future invites us to celebrate and commemorate these special anniversaries – with thanks to God for his past blessings, and in the sure hope and confidence that he is building the LCA/NZ for the future.
This feature story comes from The Lutheran October 2016. Visit the website to find out more about The Lutheran or to subscribe.
