Blessed beyond belief
When Matt Schubert became mission facilitator/church planter at Rockingham Mandurah Lutheran Church (RMLC) in Western Australia earlier this year, he didn’t know what God had in store for him beyond 2020.
RMLC began a church-planting journey more than four years ago, committing to support a mission facilitator position for three years and to plant a new church. But they knew they wouldn’t be able to source all the funding from within their community.
Meanwhile, the 16-member Redeemer congregation at Nairne in the Adelaide Hills had plans to support a church plant in northern Adelaide with some proceeds of a 2006 land sale. That plant didn’t materialise and so, when Redeemer members learnt of RMLC’s need, they donated $50,000.
In response to the gift, RMLC Pastor Steve Liersch says, ‘Praise God! This reflects that God is up to something within our church and the wider LCA. Only he could have orchestrated such an amazing and inspiring gift.’
Redeemer was given a parcel of land in the late 1980s and intended to build a church. But the land was deemed unsuitable by council and they were led by the Holy Spirit to turn their disappointment into blessings. ‘The Holy Spirit moved us to investigate looking into giving some of this money to (the LCA’s) New and Renewing Churches’, say Nairne chairperson Michael Gladigau and other members.
After prayerful consideration, they first made a gift of $50,000 to the Beyond Church plant in south-east Queensland in 2018, and provided seed money for a multi-ethnic church plant out of LifeWay Lutheran Church in north-western Sydney in 2019.
Through the gifts, Redeemer members hope ‘people will be led to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.’
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