First, the five Ws about Life Teams.
Who: Lutherans
What: Create awareness, then do something
Where: In your congregation and community
When: Now
Why: Because God loves life, and every life is precious to God
We are created by God, redeemed through the blood of Christ, and called through the waters of Baptism to live a new life in the Spirit, working together as brothers and sisters in Christ to share the Good News and serve as the hands and feet of Jesus in order to praise and worship God and give Him glory.
Read on as I share insight from two of our precious Life Team leaders.
Why Start a Life Team?
by Velda Bartel, Faith Lutheran Church, Pierre, South Dakota
Faith already had a few individuals interested in life issues who met approximately every quarter. We were able to provide our congregation with information on the gestation and development of the unborn and started a Diaper Derby—but our group lacked direction and cohesiveness. As the leader, too, I recognized that I lacked the training to effectively lead.
When I began reading about the Life Team process on the Lutherans For Life website, I believed this would be helpful and met with my pastors about it.
As a result of that meeting, Faith Lutheran Church made the decision this year to develop a Life Team. Once the decision was made, I asked each pastor to provide a list of individuals whom they felt might be interested. I then called and personally invited each one to an informational meeting that was also announced in church.
Following the clear and helpful guidelines in the training materials, I came prepared with handouts about Life Teams, showed the video, and answered questions about the team certification process and the time commitment involved. The certification process helped to bring everyone on board. It has helped to strengthen our group and broaden our understanding of life issues, and has provided a framework to enable us to discern God’s will for us in this journey.
Our team of ten is still growing and learning, but it has truly been a very rewarding experience. My prayer is that God will use our team to be “rescued rescuers” wherever and whenever He sees fit!
As one team member, Karen Lindbloom, stated, “I think a major reason for starting a Life Team would be to make people aware of all the life issues—it’s not just about abortion—then engage their support. I’ve found that there are so many related issues that I never thought about.”
Why Every Church Should Have a Life Team
by Pam Kuhl, Resurrection Lutheran Church, Cary, North Carolina
I first approached our pastors around May of 2013 about addressing life issues at our church. At the time, I had been a volunteer at a local pregnancy center for about one year. At the pregnancy center, most of the clients I saw had Christian backgrounds yet still considered abortion during their time of crisis. This surprised me. Based on my observations at the pregnancy center, I realized Christians need to be more effective in communicating God’s plan for life.
Despite my passion for this ministry, I was quite anxious about addressing life issues at our church due to strong and differing opinions in this area. In my initial proposal to the pastors, I offered to act as a life coordinator for our church and to focus on abortion issues. It wasn’t until after speaking with Lori Trinche at LFL and going through LFL’s Life Team training resources that I realized a team approach would be more effective and that this team would exist to help in many areas of the life arena. We would not be just an anti-abortion team. From the training I learned that our team should work hard to become a team that is Gospel-motivated, unified, consistent, multi-faceted, trusted, resourced, interfaced, careful, and multiplied.
As a Gospel-motivated team, we serve because of the love and grace of God that we have received. As one of our Life Team members recently explained, “The purpose of the Life Team is to educate and engage our congregation on behalf of those who may be forgotten, cast away, or ignored by our society (our neighbors) and aren’t necessarily those who benefit from other church projects and missions.” The life arena can encompass many different areas including end-of-life issues, abortion and post-abortion healing, orphan and foster care, suicide, marriage, sexual purity, and many other areas. What your team focuses on will depend upon your congregation’s unique needs. It is important to not shy away from controversial areas but to serve in a loving, Gospel-motivated way.
Our first Life Team meeting was held in September 2013. I was quite anxious about this first meeting since I had little experience leading a team. During this first meeting, I explained the “Mission Discovery Process” (MDP) that I learned about in LFL’s training, where teams develop specific strategies, goals, and a mission statement. Our team began the MDP process by soliciting observations and input from our team members and congregation on which areas of the life arena we should focus. Life Teams should progress slowly through the MDP process without worrying about planning events right away.
Looking back over the past two years, I see such growth in our team. We have truly become multi-faceted. When our team decided to host an information session for our county foster care program, we gained three new Life Team members because of their passion and life experiences in this area. As you host events on various areas of life ministry, your team will attract people with different passions, and you will increasingly gain the trust of your congregation.
With all of the suffering caused by the declining respect for the sanctity of life in our culture, now more than ever, every church needs a Life Team. Put Jesus first in your efforts! You will also find great support from LFL.
Please contact Lutherans For Life for more information about how you can start a Life Team in your congregation. What are you waiting for?