Reformation Celebration at Tallebudgera

Reformation Celebration at Tallebudgera

This year at St Andrews Lutheran Church Tallebudgera, which serves the southern Gold Coast and the Tweed Coast, we had a great service of celebration for Reformation Day. Not only did we celebrate the truth of God’s great love for us, but in our worship service we had eight teenagers publicly confirm their faith in Jesus as their Saviour, four adults become members of the Lutheran Church after undergoing a course of adult confirmation, and seven young people join with us in celebrating Holy Communion for the first time. An added joy is that all these people, and their families, are regular worshipping members of St Andrews. That they all got to this stage in their faith life journey is due to so many factors: God’s love and the work of the Holy Spirit first and foremost, but also the example, support and witness of their families, all those who have taught them Sunday school and in other classes, and the supportive and inclusive church family at St Andrews where we are blessed to have a large cross-section of ages and a great intergenerational culture. Thank God for His work in the lives of all these people, and the way He has worked through so many others to bring them to this formal step in their life of faith.

Nineteen people formalised their faith journeys at St Andrews, this past Reformation Day.

A couple of their stories. For one family, on this day mum and dad were confirmed as adults and their teenage daughter was also confirmed. After a very traumatic family event a number of years ago, through their connections with St Andrews Lutheran College this family started coming to worship on Sundays with the congregation.  They found God’s love and healing in the teaching and worship, but also in the welcoming and inclusive community. Their daughter is a regular attender at Christian Life Week camps, and has a strong passion for her faith through them. Although they have all been involved in St Andrews for ten years now, mum and dad decided that with their daughter being confirmed it was an opportunity for them to learn more about the Christian faith and publicly confirm their faith also.

For another family, mum and daughter came to us for baptism last year. Their only previous Lutheran connection was that some of the daughter’s cousins attend a Lutheran church in Germany, so the daughter decided she would like to be baptised in the Lutheran church also. From this they became regular worshippers, getting to know more about God’s love and experiencing what it means to be a part of a loving Christian community. So, this year the daughter did first Communion classes, and the mum adult confirmation, so last Sunday became a day of celebration for them both.

All the nineteen people involved with this day have a story about how God’s love, and God working through other people, brought them to where they are in their life of faith right now. We thank God for each one of them, and for the way God also blesses us through them. We pray that together with us they now continue to grow in faith as they walk on their journey with God and beside us all each day.