by Pastor Michael Salemink
Lutherans For Life is delighted to announce an exciting new opportunity!
Save the date for spring 2025, because in a couple of months we’ll be inviting your congregation to participate in the House of Refuge initiative.
We’re collaborating with our friends at a fellow sanctity-of-life ministry known as Love Life, who developed the House of Refuge project. The House of Refuge represents a brilliantly simple Gospel-motivated witness and service to our communities. A House of Refuge congregation commits publicly and lovingly to active surrounding and ongoing supporting of neighbors experiencing surprise pregnancies.
They undertake this by:
- registering their leadership’s consent to readiness and pastoral endorsement of it with Lutherans For Life,
- declaring the House of Refuge pledge in the worshiping assembly at least twice annually and displaying it in a prominent location of their facility,
- designating a parish House of Refuge ambassador,
- publicizing their contact information on Love Life’s online nationwide House of Refuge locator,
- and preparing access to material, emotional, social, and spiritual assistance in the event that a community member accepts the House of Refuge invitation. (This may include companionship and mentoring, pastoral counsel, referrals to aid agencies, transportation and housing arragements, facilitating medical care, and the like.)
The House of Refuge pledge promises to anyone undergoing surprise pregnancy that this congregation regards the condition as a blessing instead of a sin and the child as a privilege rather than a punishment. The congregation affirms they hold precious both the child’s life and the welfare of the parents and asserts they will unite their efforts toward whatever it takes to help mother and father carry and care for the little one. The congregation also vows not to subject mother or father to gossip or shame or pressure toward abortion. The congregation devotes themselves to sympathy and solidarity for mothers, to encouraging and commending, and to holding men accoutable for their God-given vocations. And the congregation insists on extending the Heavenly Father’s forgiveness and healing in Christ Jesus to any who mourn already having aborted their own children.
We believe that formally and frequently proclaiming this pledge makes churches safe places. Rather than running from the household of faith when surprise pregnancy occurs, neighbors both within and outside the Body of Christ will turn to them as a first resort. Young people will come of age formed to know that this security awaits them should they fall into such a situation, and the fellowship will gain a public reputation for the kind of compassion that renders abortion unnecessary. And we hope this gentle and winsome entrance into sanctity-of-life advocacy, devoid of any political dimensions, will lead to greater courage for both the entire congregation and individual members to voice their convictions about these matters.
We are currently completing the process of finalizing program parameters and preparing orientation materials and support resources. Please begin getting ready by informing your congregation that House of Refuge is forthcoming and monitoring Lutherans For Life communications for further details!