SOUP SUNDAYS IN JUNE

The SBLC is once again proud to support our young people attending Christian Life Week through fundraising efforts like Soup Sundays and retiring offerings during the month of June.

Talk to your representative to find out what’s happening in your congregation.

Bethany: Chris Canute Tabor: Chris Bartsch

Saturday the 14 June we will be doing a series of four 'stand alone’ studies on the Holy Spirit.

It is a 8.45am for a 9am start, finishing with prayer around 2pm.

Please -

• Pray for this event

• If you want to attend feel free to do so, but to ensure you get a feed at lunch, please let me know!

Cheers Grant Herrmann 0402 011 590 / granth97@gmail.com

Blessings to you all,

We write to provide you with an update from the SBLC Governance Council.

As you know, we are now nearly 18 months into our journey as SBLC. Over this time, we have initiated and implemented a range of strategies to support our goals as outlined in the Framing Our Vision for the Future Framework, which was approved in October 2023. As we continue forward, we believe it is a valuable time to revisit this document—reviewing our progress and identifying what steps are needed to move toward Stage 2 of our vision.

To support this review, the SBLC Governance Council recently invited the SBLC Ministry Team to an evening session with Pastor Mark Schultz. Pastor Mark currently serves as Assistant Bishop – International Mission for the LCANZ. Prior to this role, he was the lead pastor at Lifeway Lutheran Church, a multi-site church with four worship locations across Sydney: Epping, Newcastle, Illawarra, and Glenmore Park. Lifeway is home to numerous ministry teams composed of volunteers, pastors, lay workers, and pastoral assistants. Pastor Mark played a vital role in planting and growing Lifeway Church, helping to shape its mission and ministry framework.

We were blessed to have Pastor Mark review our Framing Our Vision for the Future document and join us to provide feedback. During the two-and-a-half-hour session, he shared valuable insights from his experience in leading Lifeway Church, covering areas such as vision and mission development, church structure and governance, ministry operations, worship, and pastoral care. This session also allowed us to ask questions specific to our SBLC context. We are deeply grateful for Pastor Mark’s time and his thoughtful contributions to our process.

Ideas and initiatives that emerged during this discussion will be considered by both the Governance Council and the Ministry Team as we work through a review of our Framing Our Vision for the Future document and conduct a comprehensive survey of our members. These steps are essential to understanding how our people feel about the direction and decisions of the SBLC.

The Call Committee believe it is appropriate to take results of the review and survey into consideration as part of the call process and thus will pause the call process until completion of activities.

As leaders, we understand that change can evoke a range of emotions, and we truly value the voices of our community. The Governance Council is committed to creating space for member involvement as we move forward in this review. To that end, we are currently developing a survey that will be distributed within the next month. In addition, we plan to host Q&A gatherings to hear your thoughts and provide updates on our progress.

Please be assured that we remain in active and ongoing conversations with the LCA. We are also engaging with potential pastors, refining our administrative processes, and steadily working toward becoming a more united Church, ready to serve our community.

Thank you for your continued prayers, support and engagement.

Yours in Christ

The SBLC Governance Council