Good works don’t make God love us, Martin Luther taught. God loves us regardless of who we are or what we’ve done.
Over 70 million of us
As you’ve no doubt noticed, Lutheran churches (and Lutherans!) are all over the Barossa Valley. Australian Lutherans have a strong connection with wine-making. Many of the vineyards and wineries in our celebrated valley were founded by Lutheran settlers, who brought their expertise in grape-growing and wine-making with them from Europe.
We’re not so populous in other parts of Australia though. Government censuses indicate that about 250,000 Australians identify as Lutheran. In practice, though, the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA), has about 60,000 regular worshippers. By contrast, the worldwide Lutheran Church, with just over 70 million members, is the second largest non-Catholic church (and largest Protestant church) in the world. In Australia and New Zealand there are 648 Lutheran congregations, 298 parishes, 533 pastors (including those who have retired) and 116 registered lay workers.
Although we are a small church compared with other mainstream Christian denominations in Australia, we are disproportionately represented in the community through our many schools, childcare centres and aged-care facilities, all of which have an outstanding reputation for offering excellent professional services and Christian care. It is likely that the many non-church-attending Australian people who identify as Lutheran do so because of their association with a Lutheran school, childcare centre or aged-care facility.
Our family’s story
Along with all other Lutheran churches around the world, we trace our roots directly to a 16th century movement for renewal of the church, known as the Reformation. Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk assigned to lecture in biblical theology at the University of Wittenberg in Germany. Even though he lived the life of a conscientious monk, Luther felt that he was not able to please God. But as he studied the Bible he began to realise that its central message is about God’s overwhelming love for us.
The Bible teaches that we are saved by God’s kindness to us, through faith in Jesus Christ, and not by our own efforts to please God. So Luther began to protest against the church practices of that time that gave people the impression they must work hard to win their place in heaven. Good works don’t make God love us, he taught; God loves us regardless of who we are or what we’ve done.
Luther’s teaching, sermons, and writings inspired others to join him in working for reform of the church. Beginning at Wittenberg, reform spread to many areas of Northern Europe, especially in Germany and the Nordic countries. In 1530 Lutheran leaders were summoned to give an account of their faith before the parliament of the empire gathered at Augsburg.
The confession of Christian faith they presented to the emperor is known as the Augsburg confession, and this has become the charter of Lutheran churches all round the world. As the movement for reform spread, other leaders came to the fore, and, sadly, divisions appeared among them. Those who followed Luther were nicknamed ‘Lutherans’. Luther would have preferred them simply to be called ‘Christians’, but eventually the name took on … and the rest, as they say, is history.
You can learn more about the Lutheran Church by visiting the website for the Lutheran Church of Australia.
