Kites, Convention and Ministry Partners

Four points for making your kite fly: dynamic people helping us find our gifts and inspiring us to fly

"Oh well, back to the mundane" was the comment overheard between two ladies after the inspiring closing worship at District Convention held in Wodonga on Sunday October 12. The Lutheran Church of Australia's President, Rev Dr Mike Semmler, had preached with passion. We'd shared the Lord's Supper with wonderful, faithful people invol­ved in ministry all over Victoria.

Earlier we'd heard from some of our most dynamic church leaders serving in areas such as Australian Lutheran World Service, Board for Mission, The Lutheran magazine, Lutheran Media and the Board for Layworkers. Dr Andrew Pfeiffer from Australian Lutheran College had presented the Convention Paper on Romans 12 —powerful stuff! Pastor Allan Heppner and Pastor Thomas Böhmert delivered engaging interviews with 'workers in the fields'.

The Convention theme had been 'Let your light shine!' You would've had to have been comatose not to be inspired! I had wished that everyone at St Paul's could have heard some of those encouraging stories! So, to hear this conversation between two dele­gates made me want to call out "No! We're not going back to the mun­dane — we're being called, equipped and sent into the mission fields, letting our light shine in our homes, our places of learning, our congregations; our world! We're ministry partners with a mission! Nothing mundane about it!"

There's nothing mundane about being God's people in ministry! That's you and me — we're God's people in ministry. We're partners in ministry. Think about it! That's exciting! Just like flying a kite really! (Well, some people might find kite flying exciting!) If you were in church on Sunday October 19 when we launched 'Get into Ministry' you would have learned four basic points about kites:

• Kites come in different shapes, sizes and colours.
• Kites need wind to fly.
• Kite flyers need to be in a good place — no trees or power lines.
• Kite flyers need other people to help fly the kite — and having other people around makes it much more exciting!

By now, you're probably wondering what District Convention, kite flying and partners in ministry have in common. Here are four basic points of ministry to show how they are related:

• Like kites, we're all different —different personalities, passions, gifts and experiences.
• God gives us His Holy Spirit —without His Spirit, we can't get off the ground!
• God places us where he wants us to serve — in our work, schools, homes.
• God gives us people — our families, our congregations, strangers, our neighbours; people to serve and serve with.

Getting into ministry at St Paul's and beyond — there's nothing mun­dane about it! Here are some simple things I encourage you to do to get into ministry:

• Think and pray about how God has gifted you and what you are passionate about. If you're not sure how God has gifted you, make a time to speak with one of our Pastors, or myself.
• Thank God for His Holy Spirit. God has gifted you with His Holy Spirit in baptism to equip and strengthen you to serve in His body, the church.
• Think about where He wants you to serve, and pray for the people He has placed you amongst — your family, community, colleagues and congregation. Give thanks too for the people here at St Paul's who serve you.
• Pick up the yellow 'Get into Ministry' form from your pigeonhole, or the foyer, and let us know what you're passionate about — it could be supporting our worship services, teaching Christian Religious Edu­cation in our state schools, serving on a ministry team, or cooking freezer meals.

Once we have all the forms and have collated your responses, we'll try to follow up.

Ministry is not mundane. Being partners in ministry is exciting! Now, are you ready to fly?

by Dania Ahern