Seasonal Resources

The Season of Creation is an ecumenical response to the environmental crisis impacting the world. The season is celebrated between 1st September to 4th October as an alternative to the regular time after Pentecost. Each year brings has a particular themed focus connected with an aspect to the environment, to raise awareness and inspire responsible environmental action.

The following worship resources have been prepared in collaboration with Lutheran Earth Care Australia and New Zealand, endeavouring to point God’s people to the hope that we have in the midst of environmental chaos: Christ as the Redeemer of the world, who sustains all things by his powerful word, and will make all things new.

There are two suites of resources congregations can choose from: the first is more foundational and general in nature, and could be used in any year, while the second suite has been tailored for the 2023 theme, "Let Justice and Peace Flow."

Suite 1: Worship Resources for any year

Seasons of Creations Worship Resource

Prepared Worship Service Orders
Word / PPT standard / PPT widescreen

Printable Bible Readings

Sermons for Suite 1
These sermons have been edited for lay-reading.
Sermon 1, Matthew 6:25 – 34 
Sermon 2, Genesis 1: 24-31, 2:4b-22

Suite 2: Worship Resources 2023 Theme: "Let Justice and Peace Flow"

Let Justice and Peace Flow Worship Resource

Prepared Worship Service Orders
Word / PPT standard / PPT widescreen

Printable Bible Readings

Sermon for Suite 2
The following sermon has been edited for lay-reading.
Sermon 1, Amos 5:21-24

Season of Prayer 2023

In Luke 10, as Jesus sends out 72 local missionaries, he tells them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. So pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out harvest workers into his harvest fields’.

From 10 to 24 September 2023, congregations of the LCANZ are being called to prayer. The Local Mission department of the LCANZ is facilitating an annual Season of Prayer. This year's theme is ‘Lord, renew your church’.

Congregations are invited to spend three weeks of intentional prayer for

• spiritual revival, hope, and joy in your church,
• the mission of your local congregation and
• that people will come to know Jesus through our congregations’ mission and ministry.

We hope and pray that this Season of Prayer over three Sundays will be a catalyst for ongoing, deepening prayer in our churches. The August edition of The Lutheran will focus on prayer. Resources, such as Bible studies, ideas for congregational prayer, events and activities, will be available on the LCA website at www.lca.org.au/season-of-prayer

Worship Resources for Season of Prayer 2023

Season of Prayer Worship Resource

The following service resources contain a selection of the liturgy and prayers for each week. They are include a selection of Public Domain and contemporary music choices. Please feel free to choose whichever music best suits your congregation's style or substitute your own selections.

Week 1

Season of Prayer Ready to Go Service Order  Week 1    Word / PPT standard / PPT widescreen

Season of Prayer Readings Week 1

Sermons for Week 1   Sermon 1 / Sermon 2

Week 2

Season of Prayer Ready to Go Service Order Week 2     Word / PPT standard / PPT widescreen

Season of Prayer Readings Week 2

Sermon for Week 2

Week 3

Season of Prayer Ready to Go Service Order Week 3     Word / PPT standard / PPT widescreen

Season of Prayer Readings Week 3

Sermon for Week 3

• 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.

'Beyond Love' Lutheran Tract Mission Lenten Devotional 2023.

The devotional booklet is available as a free resource for individuals, aged care facilities, schools and churches to access. You can download a copy at https://www.ltm.org.au/flipbk/lenten-2023/ 

The devotional can be viewed on a device as a flipbook or can be downloaded in Adobe Reader, where a congregation, school or aged care facility can add their Easter details or just their details (for advertising) to the back and then print it as a booklet. Only the cover and back page are in colour to save on colour ink. The rest of the devotional is in greyscale.

For this and other great resources for Lent and Easter this year, visit: www.ltm.org.au

Mid-Week Lenten Services, Year A

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.

• Midweek Lenten Devotional Service Outline  Word

• Music Suggestions for Mid-Week Lenten Services Year A - includes links to backing tracks where available, contemporary music suggestions with links to Youtube clips, as well as musical settings/hymns/songs for the Psalms each week.

Mid-week Lenten Services, Week 1

• Midweek Lenten Devotional Service 1A  Word
  
• Ready to go Mid-week Lenten Service 1A  Word | PPT standard | PPT widescreen
• Printable Bible Readings
• Sermon

Mid-week Lenten Services, Week 2

• Midweek Lenten Devotional Service 2A Word
• Ready to go Mid-week Lenten Service 2A  Word | PPT standard | PPT widescreen
• Printable Bible Readings
• Sermon

Mid-week Lenten Services, Week 3

• Midweek Lenten Devotional Service 3 Word
• Ready to go Mid-week Lenten Service 3A  Word | PPT standard | PPT widescreen
• Printable Bible Readings
• Sermon

Mid-week Lenten Services, Week 4

• Midweek Lenten Devotional Service 4 Word
• Ready to go Mid-week Lenten Service 4A  Word | PPT standard | PPT widescreen
• Printable Bible Readings
• Sermon

Mid-week Lenten Services, Week 5

• Midweek Lenten Devotional Service 5  Word
• Ready to go Mid-week Lenten Service 5A  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.

Harvest Thanksgiving Year A

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 65  PPT standard / PPT widescreen
• Prayer of the Church
• Sermon and Reading Illustrations
• Sermon 1 / Sermon 2 / Sermon 3 / Sermon 4  (edited for lay-reading)
• Top 4 Public Domain Hymns

• • LH 467 For the beauty of the earth   Backing Track
  • LH 377 Take my life, and let it be   Modernised Lyrics  Backing Track
  • “Blest are you, Lord our God” (to the tune of LHB 437 Nun danket alle Gott)   Backing Track (for lyrics, refer to Harvest Thanksgiving Liturgy, Prayer and Music Suggestions above)
  • LHB 442 Praise to the Lord, the almighty, the king of creation   Backing Track
• Top 4 AT/LHS songs under copyright

• • LHS 811 Praise and Thanksgiving (CCLI, One Licence)
  • AT 43 How shall I call you? (CCLI, One Licence)
  • AT 265 Take us now, we are yours (CCLI)
  • AT 361 Here we are (CCLI, One Licence)
• Top 4 Contemporary songs

• • All People That On Earth Do Dwell - Emu Music  CCLI by Alanna Glover, Louis Bourgeois, William Kethe
  • You Crown The Year (Psalm 65:11) - Hillsong Worship  CCLI by Brooke Ligertwood, Reuben Morgan
  • For The Beauty - Emu Music CCLI by Alanna Glover, Conrad Kocher, Folliott Sandford Pierpoint, Philip Percival
  • Praise to the Lord - Emu Music CCLI by Alanna Glover, Catherine Winkworth, Joachim Neander

Harvest 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)

God’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.

National Reconciliation Week begins on May 27. The theme for 2023 is Be a Voice for Generations, encourages all Australians to be a voice for reconciliation in tangible ways in our everyday lives – where we live, work and socialise. For more information, click here.

National Reconciliation Week first started as the Week of Prayer for Reconciliation in 1993 (the International Year of the World’s Indigenous Peoples) and was supported by Australia’s major faith communities. In 1996, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation launched Australia’s first National Reconciliation Week. In 2001, Reconciliation Australia was established to continue to provide national leadership on reconciliation.

Common Grace has developed a detailed National Reconciliation Week Church Resources Toolkit which includes materials for worship, prayer, Bible readings, Acknowledgement of Country, action steps, and a video message. You may find some of the material helpful in preparing services. The toolkit can be obtained for free at https://www.commongrace.org.au/reconciliation_week_2023

You may find these resources from TEAR Australia helpful when planning worship, Bible studies or other Reconciliation Week events:
Reconciliation Action Kit 
Reconciliation Liturgy

You will find  excellent resources around reconciliation at the LCA Reconciliation Action Plan website https://www.rap.lca.org.au/

Australia and New Zealand have both suffered from significant natural disasters and other challenges in recent years. In times of crisis, we can all struggle to find comfort and security, whether we are directly involved or watching helplessly as others suffer.
These resources are provided to help congregations draw close to God in times of trouble, and to support and comfort the people around us. While many were produced in response to a specific crisis, they may still be of help in other times of hardship.

Prayers for a Time of Crisis and Loss written for the LCA by Pastor Aub Podlich

2022 Flood Crisis

Prayer petitions for the floods and storms in November 2022

In Psalm 46, hear the promise that God is the refuge and strength of his people, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, let us pray that God would be an ever-present help and refuge to those who have been so significantly impacted by devastating floodwaters across Australia.
Almighty and merciful God, creator and preserver of our world, we ask you to hear our humble prayers for all those affected by the devastating floodwaters across NSW and Victoria. Grant safety to the thousands of residents under evacuation orders. In your mercy, bring relief to affected areas and protect both life and property.
Show your compassion and bring your comfort and relief to all those struggling with flood and storm damage in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia.
Bring all who are missing safely home and comfort all who love them and worry for their safety.
Give courage and hope in the midst of despair. Through the generosity of governments and individuals, provide a future for those whose present circumstances are marked by loss and desperation. Grant wisdom to those who assist, especially government leaders, State Emergency Services, our Australian Defence Force, other emergency workers and aid agencies. And by your gracious hand, rebuild communities where men, women and children are nurtured with care and love.
We pray for pastors and their congregations serving affected communities. By your grace, enable and equip them to be faithful servants in the midst of hardship and effective witnesses of your saving message.
At this time, may those without genuine peace find true hope in your Son, Jesus.
In His name we pray. Amen.

Hymn of thanks for Emergency Services

Leigh Newton wrote the following hymn after Black Summer in 2020 for a service of thanks for emergency service workers. He has generously passed it on for use by all churches as we struggle with natural disasters including the current floods and storms.

Words: Leigh Newton © 2020
Melody: Nun Danket Alle Gott by Johann Cruger 1647  (LH 437/TIS 106)      Backing Track

Now thank we all our God,
for those who help in crisis,
in rescue, flood and fire,
and those who work in quiet.
For chaplains who give ear
to loss, distress and grief,
who offer sacred space,
that they might bring relief.

For those who give themselves,
for love of unknown stranger;
and those who sacrifice
for property and neighbour.
All gratitude be theirs –
these mates who note the call;
who walk the way of love,
and serve all people well.

For justice and for love,
and joy of serving others,
for honour and for grace –
in common wealth of colours.
We praise the suff’ring Christ,
who knows the cross we bear;
who walks our troubled road;
brings hope in our despair.

Now thank we all our God
For life on Easter dayspring
Good Friday’s loss remains,
But hope is now our wellspring.
These feet and hands are God’s,
enfleshed in answered prayer –
a gift in anxious days,
God’s strength in our despair.

Floods in March 2022 in Queensland and Northern NSW

LCA eNews and Messages from the Bishop

https://www.lca.org.au/pray-for-flood-victims/

https://www.lca.org.au/please-keep-praying-for-flood-hit-communities/

2022 Drought

https://www.lca.org.au/bringing-love-to-life-from-the-dust/

2019-2020 Bushfires

Prayers in Response to Bushfires 2019-20 - produced by The Commission on Worship and published on the Worship Planning Page in January 2020.

Robin Mann wrote two new verses for his song 'Comfort, Comfort' specifically in response to the bushfires. The words & the music are free of charge in the wake of Australia’s 2019-2020 bushfires. Download the lyrics here.

Bishop John Henderson released a Heartland eNews on Wednesday 1 January, regarding the bushfires. It contains words of encouragement and additional prayers. Click here to read that eNews.

https://www.lca.org.au/lutherans-reach-out-in-bushfire-crises/

Liturgy and Prayers for a Time of Drought

Hymns and Songs of Comfort

LHS 815 O Christ the healer, we have come (CCLI, One Licence)
LH 854 Be still my heart (Public Domain)
LHS 862 As we step from the edge of morning (CCLI, One Licence)
LHS 869 Like the deer that yearns (One Licence)
LHS 732/ AT 25 Comfort, Comfort (CCLI, One Licence)
AT 294   God give you joy  (One Licence)
AT 490 When human voices cannot sing (CCLI, One Licence)
AT 496 Don't be afraid (CCLI, One Licence)

Hear Me, Lord - Emu Music (CCLI)