Church partners launch multicultural youth ministry

In early 2024, our congregation at Glynde Zion Lutheran Church in South Australia initiated a long-term strategic plan and a new mission and vision. Two key priorities emerged from this plan: ‘Spreading mission by growing our multicultural community’ and ‘Growing faith in young people through “first-third ministries”’.

With a growing and vibrant children’s ministry and a core group of high-schoolers, we wanted to pursue ways of supporting and growing these young people as they move into and through their teenage years. We also wanted to develop ways of complementing and adding to the sustainability of our existing cross-cultural ministries at Glynde and collaborating with our other church partners onsite – Grace Lutheran Chinese Church, Adelaide Korean Global Mission church, and our Nuer Lutheran Fellowship.

With our partner congregations, we have developed a thriving mid-week multicultural ministry, which started from humble beginnings with the influx of refugees from South Sudan in 2004. This ministry has largely been focused on families with children aged up to five years, attracting more than 100 people per week in various activities, such as playgroups, Mainly Music, and ‘coffee and chat’. We seek to build on these as the young people who have benefited from these ministries are now older and between 8 and 30 years old.

Our partner congregations have identified a need for ministry to young people in this age range. We share the long-term goal of growing multicultural groups and activities to develop the faith of those within this demographic. Our churches have established Sunday schools but do not have regular and active groups for young people aged 8 to 18 and 18 to 30.

We have been blessed to receive a Local Mission Seed Project Fund grant from the LCANZ, which will help us to initiate this and aid us in fostering the spiritual growth and development of young individuals within our diverse community.

With the help of this funding, we have employed a part-time youth coordinator, Emma Klatt, who will spend the next 12 months with us to:

• develop and coordinate the vision for cross-cultural ministry to young people within our church hub and local community
• implement initiatives to grow ministries for people aged 8 to 30 in our culturally diverse community at Zion Lutheran Church, Glynde
• grow leadership skills in active Christian witness among our young people.

Developing child, youth and young adult multicultural ministries at Glynde will help address a need from current young people and grow this into the future so more young people can grow in the love and faith of Jesus Christ.

We are very excited that Emma has joined us in this role and look forward to how God can continue to bless our mission and ministry to our local community in this way. We thank the LCANZ for making the Local Mission Fund grants available and helping us with the seed funding to sow in growing our mission.

Tim Eckert is the chairperson at the Glynde Zion congregation.

Glynde Zion Lutheran Church was one of 10 congregations that received grants through the inaugural round of the LCANZ’s Local Mission Fund. The fund has been established to help congregations, districts and agencies as they seek new ways of reaching their neighbours and their local communities with the gospel. Expressions of interest for 2026 grants will open in July 2025. Click here for more information.