The Challenge of Missional Renewal

By Tania Nelson

The Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand is in a liminal space. This liminal space has come about due to a number of converging factors - declining membership, diminishing finances, being over-governed for our size, the theological debate over women's ordination which is one presenting issue for what appears to be a growing divide betwee

• Language: English
• Publisher: Australian Christian Resources
• Release date: Dec 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9780645594973

Book preview

The Challenge of

Missional Renewal

An Australian Lutheran Perspective

Tania Nelson

Text © Tania Nelson 2022

Published Edition ©2023 Australian Christian Resources [ACR]

Dural, NSW, Australia.

[e-mail]

ACR P702569

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher.

Author: Tania Nelson

Title: The Challenge of Missional Renewal

ISBN: 978-0-6455949-0-4

Cover layout and internal typesetting: Ben Morton – Immortalise

Series Editor: Mark Worthing

Cover image: Sunguk Kim on UnSplash and repainted by media.io AI and DataChef

The energy and wisdom of Nelson’s book joins a strong dose of God’s law drawn from both Scripture and the sociological data. God is deeply present in the challenges of contemporary Australian culture and society and the personal and communal experience of persons within the LCA and those immediately present to its membership in their daily lives.  In this book there is a deep trust and practical wisdom for how Lutherans live out of the promise of Jesus Christ. I found it the most inviting, engaging, and challenging descriptions I have read.

Pat Keifert, Center of Church Innovation

of the Graduate Theological Union, San Francisco

If you are a leader or member of a church, denomination or mission agency thinking through adaptation and mission renewal during these tumultuous times, you will find help in this collection of essays by Dr Tania Nelson. They are stimulating, honest and courageous reflections that are up-to-date in missional scholarship, wide-ranging in the topics addressed, and contextually rooted in challenges and opportunities facing the Lutheran Church of Australia. Highly recommended!

David H.F. Ng Program Leader for Missional Leadership, Melbourne School of Theology.

Tania Nelson consistently applies a missional hermeneutic in each chapter of this volume, and for that reason it is to be read thoughtfully and carefully. It invites us to move from ‘protect and survive’ to ‘participate and thrive.’

Noel Due, emeritus pastor for new and renewing churches, LCANZ

Dr Tania Nelson offers thoughtful and insightful reflections on how the Lutheran Church in Australia and New Zealand is engaging in God's mission. Her missional perspective on biblical texts, on the social and cultural context and the work of the Lutheran Church is inspiring and challenging. The clear call to fully participate in God's mission is made with gentleness and generosity.

Ruth Powell, Director of NCLS Research

"Dr Tania Nelson’s love for the church, her passion for God’s mission, and her never-say-die attitude shine through on every page of this outstanding book on the missional challenge of today’s church. This is an invaluable collection of thought-provoking essays on the missional implications of Christian spirituality, stories of exile, the call of Abraham, and gender justice. The challenge of missional renewal is a summons to cast our gaze beyond our church walls to the communities in which we have been placed."

Peter Lockwood, emeritus lecturer,

Australian Lutheran College

Foreword

God’s mission, and my small part in God’s plans, has long been a passion. My attendance at the Convention of General Synod, held in Tanunda SA in 2000 was a catalyst for a growing awareness of how the Lutheran Church of Australia plays a part in the missio Dei.

At the convention, the delegates unanimously voted in favour of the Hand-in-hand – Schools and mission vision statement:

BE IT RESOLVED that the following Vision Statement be adopted.

The mission of the LCA is to share the love of God in Christ with the world. Lutheran schools provide the church with many opportunities to make contact with the people of local communities and to respond to their physical and spiritual need, and so to both demonstrate and declare the gracious love of God. Congregations and schools are encouraged to be more intentional, diligent, sensitive and flexible in responding to these mission opportunities.

It is no surprise that the proposal was enthusiastically endorsed. What a wonderful aspirational statement! However, it led me to begin thinking about my part in being ‘more intentional, diligent, sensitive and flexible’ in mission. My doctoral studies, subsequently, explored the contributions of Lutheran principals and pastors to mission via Lutheran primary schools.

This present compilation of essays and reflections, gathered from papers and articles produced in recent years, examines the broad missional focus of the Lutheran Church of Australia. I wish to convey that I dearly love Christ’s church, his bride, and the unique expression of Christ’s church which is the Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand. When my critique borders on criticism, rest assured that this is first directed to myself and my feeble – though, by God’s grace, valued – role in God’s mission.

Chapter One

The changing face of the Lutheran Church of Australia and our mission imperative

The Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand is in a liminal space. This liminal space has come about due to a number of converging factors – declining membership, diminishing finances, being over-governed for our size, the theological debate over women’s ordination which is one presenting issue for what appears to be a growing divide between more progressive and more conservative theologies. And then throw in a pandemic and its uncertainties, a constitutional review and an ecclesiastical discipline review and anxiety levels are high in some sectors and for some people. This chapter offers a view of the Lutheran Church of Australia’s health and calls for a refocus on God’s mission.

Regular worship attendance is on a marked decline in traditional Christian denominations,¹ including the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA). Notable exceptions are some Pentecostal churches and several majority ethnic churches. The decline is expected to continue, due in part to Australia’s ageing demographic. The Lutheran Church of Australia has an ageing profile, with 48% of respondents to the 2021/2022 National Church Life Survey aged 70 years and over.

We are becoming less of a rural church (though we acknowledge and appreciate our rural roots) and more of an urban church. Our larger congregations are predominantly in