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Lutheran Church of Australia

where love comes to life

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      The Lutheran Church is the largest Protestant church in the world, with over 70 million members. This website tells the story of Australian and New Zealand Lutherans, following Jesus Christ – where love comes to life. Whoever you are, whatever your story, you're welcome here with us.
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bring Jesus

‘bring Jesus’ was a regular column in The Lutheran in 2014 and 2015, subtitled ‘making sense of mission’.

10
Dec2015

Christmas blows away fog about God

by Rev Dr Steen Olsen

You can’t focus on fog. Many have rather foggy ideas about God. For some, God is vaguely tied up with our religious feelings. For others, ‘god’ is an impersonal force that works through all religions to bring peace on earth and goodwill among people. Even the Australian prime minister (at the time of writing) has… Read more

Read more...

10
Nov2015

Set free

by Rev Dr Steen Olsen

‘I slept in and so didn’t get to do my 20-minute personal devotion this morning. I feel like God is disappointed with me.’ When I was a young Christian in high school and university, I understood that God’s law convicted me of my sin. Then at some point in confirmation class I got it. Jesus… Read more

Read more...

10
Aug2015

Dare to be different

by Rev Dr Steen Olsen

When we engage with non-Christian family, friends and neighbours, we often run into attitudes that are very different from our own. People may have opinions about issues such as refugees, homosexuality, morality, abortion, euthanasia, evolution, the Bible and racial matters that make us feel uncomfortable. That is not surprising. How do we respond? Often, both… Read more

Read more...

10
Jul2015

Pregnant congregations bring life

by Rev Dr Steen Olsen

A healthy tree produces fruit. God created it to do just that. Jesus tells the story of a man who owned a fig tree that produced no figs, so he instructed the gardener to cut it down. The gardener replied, ‘Let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure… Read more

Read more...

10
Jun2015

Welcoming the stranger

by Rev Dr Steen Olsen

For three months we worshipped at a different church each Sunday. Ruth and I had just moved back to Adelaide so I could begin work as the SA/NT Director for Mission. When we arrived for a service I would go and stand by myself in a corner and wait to see what happened. In those… Read more

Read more...

10
May2015

Making room for more people

by Rev Dr Steen Olsen

We had seventeen members. It was a congregation in my first parish. One lovely older guy had bought the land and built the church, largely with his own hands. He no longer held any official position in the congregation. All decisions were made by quick meetings after the service. One day we made a small… Read more

Read more...

10
Apr2015

Gospel glimmers in unlikely places

by Rev Dr Steen Olsen

Anzac Day is perhaps the most ‘holy’ day of the year in modern secular Australia. We get up early to remember. We make pilgrimages—some even to the distant shores of Gallipoli. We hear speeches about sacrifice. ‘No-one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’ (John 15:13) is ripped out… Read more

Read more...

10
Mar2015

Prayer: As individual as you are

by Rev Dr Steen Olsen

If we were attending a leaders’ retreat and it was announced that instead of the planned program we were to be silent for the whole weekend, my wife Ruth and I would respond differently. Ruth would say, ‘Great! Let’s get started.’ I, on the other hand, would be driven to prayer: ‘Lord, send me a… Read more

Read more...

10
Feb2015

I am making all things new!

by Rev Dr Steen Olsen

Back in our New Zealand days, my then vice-president gave my wife Ruth a fridge magnet that says, ‘Living with a Dane builds character’. That just about sums it up—except that it doesn’t just apply to those who, like me, were born in Denmark. All of us can be hard to live and work with…. Read more

Read more...

10
Nov2014

We want to grow!

by Rev Dr Steen Olsen

Is your congregation on autopilot? Maybe it is time to pause and reflect on why your congregation does what it does. The fundamentals of what we do don’t change. It is still all about God giving us his love and grace through his Son Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit at work through… Read more

Read more...

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