Celebrating 36 years of ministry, creativity and service

After 36 years of serving the LCA, Verena Johnson has retired. Her ministry included 22 years as a lay worker and 14 years in the LCA churchwide office, including 10 years as a Church Worker Support officer.

Before joining the LCA churchwide office team, Verena served as a lay worker at Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Aberfoyle Park, in suburban Adelaide, beginning in 1990. Initially, she worked as a children’s ministry coordinator and director of drama.

During this time, Verena’s children’s ministry team pioneered the first-ever Lutheran non-Sunday children’s program, ‘Friday Focus’, which ran through the 1990s and into the 2000s. She also represented the LCA on various ecumenical children’s ministry groups and was part of the team that established primary school chaplaincy in South Australia.

In 1992, Verena became one of the first women in the LCA to join a congregational governing body, then known as the Pastoral Ministry Team.

In 1999, Verena became a spiritual life coordinator at Our Saviour, Aberfoyle Park, where she discovered a passion for prayer ministry and women’s ministry. Our Saviour remains her home congregation, and she continues to serve there as drama director, women’s ministry leader and coordinator of an active prayer and healing ministry.

Verena also served on the LCA Worship Commission for many years and headed up the Department of Drama. During this time, the team produced LCA worship resources, including a drama for every Sunday of the three-year lectionary.

‘One of my dreams in my retirement is to make these dramas available again online through the LCA Worship Planning Page,’ Verena says.

LCANZ Bishop Paul Smith says Verena’s contribution to congregational life extends far beyond what many people realise.

‘Many folk don’t know that Verena is a widely published author and editor with many resources for ministry in congregational life under her name,’ he says.

Verena was an editor of the former LCA children’s magazine Friends. She has written four Let’s Make A Scene drama books and edited six Mega Drama Resource books. Many of her unpublished dramas can be found on her congregation’s website at www.oursaviourap.org.au/drama-and-music-resources

Since 2012, Verena has worked at the LCA churchwide office – initially with the LCA Board for Lay Ministry as a lay worker formation officer, and from 2016 as a Church Worker Support officer for the Church Worker Support department.

‘It has been my privilege to support congregations, pastors, lay workers, employees and volunteers of the LCA,’ she says.

Human Resources Manager Michael Bowden says Verena has been ‘a valued colleague whose creativity, humour, kindness, humility, perseverance and love of learning have shaped the way she has served church workers, congregations and colleagues across the LCANZ’.

Reflecting on her current role, Verena says one of the most fulfilling parts has been ‘meeting so many amazing people who are serving Jesus and our church, getting to know them and being able to help them in their roles’.

In retirement, Verena looks forward to spending more time with her children and grandchildren, who live in three different states, and with friends. She also hopes to take some time ‘just to breathe’.

‘I’m looking forward to seeing what God has in store for me in this next phase of my life,’ she says.

Reflecting on Verena’s decades of service, Bishop Paul offers this blessing: ‘God bless your work, Verena. Be assured that all your labours in the Lord’s name are never in vain.’