Advent and Christmas
- A festival of readings and carols – Word | PDF | PPT standard | PPT widescreen
- Service with the Christmas story – Word | PDF | PPT standard | PPT widescreen
Christmas Carols Copyright
Click here to get the APRA AMCOS guide to copyright holders for a wide range of Christmas carols.
Lutheran Tract Mission
Lutheran Tract Mission has published the 2021 Advent devotional booklet "In God's Family"in printable and flipbook form for use on devices.
They have many other excellent tracts, Advent calendars and devotions, fridge magnets and other resources perfect for congregations to share with their communities.
Browse their resources and place an order here.
Christmas Plays
The following Christmas Eve orders and Christmas plays have been prepared for congregational use. The first five were originally prepared by the Board for Congregational Life of the LCA in the 1980s. In 2016 and 2018, we requested congregations to send in copies of Children's Christmas Presentations they had written and were willing to share with the wider church. Thank you to all those who contributed! We present here an edited selection which would be suitable for a variety of situations, with thanks to the original authors.They've been reformatted into Word documents. Feel free to edit them to suit your congregation's needs. Change or omit the carols/hymns/songs; double up on the reader parts and involve youth and adults. Be creative!
NEW! The Elf-angelist Evangelist - a simple play for a small group of children with limited opportunities to practice.
Worship the King - focuses on Jesus the King
Three Questions for Christmas - travel back to Bethlehem for the census with Mary and Joseph!
Hands Up for Jesus! - See also this PPT file which can be used to provide visuals during the service or as ideas for making banners.
Good News From Heaven - based on Martin Luther's famous carol 'From Heaven above'.
Happy Birthday Jesus - cast in the form of a Birthday Party. Children will participate as they do in a birthday party.
And You Will See - Rather than a retelling of the Christmas story, this deals with the theme of darkness and light and God’s rescue of his people. Written by Alison Barkley and performed by the Jesus And Me (JAM) children at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Greenock. These PowerPoint slides accompany the script: And You Will See PPT
Christmas A to Z - This idea would be best suited for a Sunday School with limited resources or mostly very young children. It would work well with the involvement of youth or parents.
Someone's Coming - Quite a few parts in this play, so it’s suitable for a reasonable number of children of different ages. Songs are suggestions only.
Surprise, Surprise - There are 10 characters who would have to be slightly older children. Young children could act some of the scenes or be angels or animals. Songs are suggestions only.
This Baby Changed My Life - Here is a program suitable for whole congregation involvement, or perhaps youth and children of all ages, when numbers of children are limited. Songs are suggestions only.
The Colours of Christmas - Written by Rob Handreck and first performed by the kids of St Paul's Lutheran Church, Box Hill. This is very suitable for a group of young children, but can be adapted to include older children too.
News - People Saved By Baby - Imagine how things might have been if today’s technology was available in 40AD and someone just turned on the radio to hear the news...
King of Kings - Written by Rob Handreck and first performed by the kids of St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Box Hill. This play traces the Old Testament story of God’s interaction with His people through a selection of kings (these can be varied), finishing with the King of kings.
A Studio Christmas - The Director of a photo shoot is organizing a publicity shot for Christmas, and begins by getting the nativity scene set up with the usual cast of Mary, Joseph, Animals, Shepherds, Wisemen, Angels and of course, the Baby.
LentMid-Week Lenten Services, Year C
It has been customary in the LCA to conduct midweek devotional services on the passion of our Lord throughout Lent, usually on Wednesdays. In church tradition, Wednesdays, like Fridays, were kept as days of fasting, since it was on a Wednesday that Judas arranged to betray Jesus. It is a good custom to reserve these days during Lent for special study and meditation on the suffering and death of our Lord, so that the Sundays in Lent may focus on the lectionary readings, with their themes of repentance and discipleship, and the teaching of the catechism.
Note that it is not necessary for the pastor to lead these devotional services. If a suitable meditation has been prepared for reading, a lay reader may lead the service. This may be especially suitable in multi-point parishes, so that every congregation has a midweek service each week.
- Music Suggestions for Mid-Week Lenten Services - includes links to backing tracks where available, as well as musical settings/hymns/songs for the Psalms each week.
Mid-week Lenten Services, Week 1
- Lenten Evening Prayer Service Word
- Lenten Devotional Service Word
- Ready to go Mid-week Lenten Service 1C Word | PPT standard | PPT widescreen
- Printable Bible Readings
- Sermon
Mid-week Lenten Services, Week 2
- Lenten Evening Prayer Service Word
- Lenten Devotional Service Word
- Ready to go Mid-week Lenten Service 2C Word | PPT standard | PPT widescreen
- Printable Bible Readings
- Sermon
Mid-week Lenten Services, Week 3
- Lenten Evening Prayer Service Word
- Lenten Devotional Service Word
- Ready to go Mid-week Lenten Service 3C Word | PPT standard | PPT widescreen
- Printable Bible Readings
- Sermon
Mid-week Lenten Services, Week 4
- Lenten Evening Prayer Service Word
- Lenten Devotional Service Word
- Ready to go Mid-week Lenten Service 4C Word | PPT standard | PPT widescreen
- Printable Bible Readings
- Sermon
Mid-week Lenten Services, Week 5
- Lenten Evening Prayer Service Word
- Lenten Devotional Service Word
- Ready to go Mid-week Lenten Service 5C Word | PPT standard | PPT widescreen
- Printable Bible Readings
- Sermon 1 ; Sermon 2
Lutheran Tract Mission Lenten Resources
LTM have a number of great Lenten and Easter tracts and etracts for your personal and congregational use. Visit www.ltm.org.au to make your selections.
LTM have also produced a devotional resource for Lent 2022 - Lenten Devotional 2022 (ltm.org.au) which you can use as a flipbook in chrch or school, or download for free.
Easter
Reformation
Harvest ThanksgivingHarvest Thanksgiving Year C
Note: The Harvest Thanksgiving festival may be celebrated on any day of the church year, as is appropriate in the local context. It is customary in many places to commemorate the festival on one of the Sundays after Epiphany, normally before the beginning of Lent. In year C, however, the first reading for Harvest Thanksgiving is the same as the first reading for the First Sunday in Lent, so in year C you may consider making an exception and celebrating Harvest Thanksgiving on the First Sunday in Lent.
- Harvest Thanksgiving Liturgy, Prayer and Music Suggestions
- Ready to Go Resources (complete services including readings, prayers and hymns): Word / PPT standard / PPT widescreen
- Printable, Formatted Readings
- Psalm 100 PPT standard / PPT widescreen
- Prayer of the Church
- Sermon and Reading Illustrations
- sermon-john-6-24-35-year-b-proper-13 OR sermon-john-6-24-35-year-b-proper-13 OR sermon-john-6-24-35-year-b-proper-13
Harvest Thanksgiving Year B
Harvest Thanksgiving may be held at any time of the year, whenever is appropriate for the local context.
- Harvest Thanksgiving Liturgy, Prayer and Music Suggestions
- Ready to Go Resources (complete services including readings, prayers and hymns): Word / PPT standard / PPT widescreen
- Printable, Formatted Readings
- Psalm 126 PPT standard / PPT widescreen
- Prayer of the Church
- Sermon and Reading Illustrations
- Sermon 1 / Sermon 2 (edited for lay-reading)
Christian Care SundayGod’s love comes to life through care ministries every single day in our Lutheran congregations, aged-care and community services.
The LCANZ invites your congregation to celebrate this Christian care by setting aside one Sunday (or worshipping time) in your gathered community to acknowledge, bless and honour those people and organisations engaged in care work.
Whether this is visiting those isolated in their homes, providing meals for people in crisis, playgroups, kids clubs and youth groups for community interaction and a place to belong for children and care givers, right up to the running of residential care facilities, independent living villages and social work services – everyday people are providing care 365 days of the year.
The Christian Care Sunday project provides resources for congregations including:
- intergenerational resources provided by Grow Ministries.
- Ready-to-Go worship services (on PowerPoint and as printable documents) are available for download,
- a Worship Planning Page liturgical resource with suggestions for songs, drama, visual arts, bible readings, prayers and spoken responses.
You can get started today, by heading to www.lca.org.au/ccs to download the free resources and start planning your Christian Care Sunday celebration.
Reconciliation WeekCalendar of Liturgical Colours
| White - Epiphany and Epiphany 1, Transfiguration, Maundy Thursday, Easter Day and Easter Day 1–7 (or gold), Christmas Day and Christmas 1, New Year's Eve | |
| Green Epiphany 2–7, Pentecost 2–24, Last Sunday of Church Year |
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| Violet Ash Wednesday, Lent 1–5, Palm Sunday, Advent 1–4 (or blue) |
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| Black Good Friday (or bare altar) |
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| Gold Easter Day and Easter 2–7 (or white), Ascension (or white), Pentecost 1/Trinity (or white) |
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| Red Pentecost, Reformation, and other festivals |
