When I was a wet-behind-the-ears executive director, a woman greeted me after a Life Sunday sermon and said, “That was a very good sermon, Pastor, but you didn’t tell us what we can do.” She was right. I had made a good biblical case for what God does that gives value to life and why we should uphold this God-given dignity of life at all stages of development. However, I failed to offer any suggestions as to how to go about this.
I learned my lesson! Lutherans For Life (LFL) is not just about equipping people with Gospel-centered educational materials on the life issues. It is also about properly motivating people to do things that positively affect the lives of others. Allow me to share three quick stories.
LFL’s outreach to the younger generation, Y4Life, sponsored a servant event. After appropriate training, the young people visited a senior center and then did some sidewalk counseling at Planned Parenthood. One young person commented, “When I saw the look on the face of a girl leaving Planned Parenthood, it hit me, ‘This is happening. This is wrong.’” Another commented about the senior center, “It was great to put a smile on their face.” An adult working with the group stated, “I don’t feel like I’m with teenagers. You are all very adult and mature, doing things a lot of adults would avoid.”
The following is from our Word of Hope (888.217.8679) post-abortion hotline counselor, Grace Kern:
“An LFL chapter paid for a billboard near a large bridge. It was about 1:00 a.m. when my hotline phone rang. When I picked it up, I heard a woman crying. She was pregnant, hopeless, and alone. The woman had a previous pregnancy that she aborted—the abortion was so devastating for her that she wouldn’t do it again. When she found out she was pregnant she felt like the only option she had this time was to end her life. Seeing the billboard she pulled over and called our number never thinking someone would be there to answer her call. She told me she had been thinking about driving off the bridge when she saw the billboard that told her to call this number for help. During the next few months we counseled her through her pregnancy. Today she has a beautiful baby that she loves.”
Another LFL chapter organized a fundraiser to help purchase a mobile ultrasound unit. Lutheran churches and schools got on board and in three weeks they raised $33,000! The unit is used in front of a local abortion facility and will also be used to travel to schools so students can get a “window to the womb” by seeing real-time ultrasound. Babies are being saved and hundreds of lives will be touched.
I could share many, many more stories. But I wanted you to understand that supporting LFL is more than supporting a ministry that produces good resources to educate people about the life issues from a Gospel-centered perspective. You support a ministry that produces people resources! We help move people to action and equip them for that action which touches and changes lives.
We will continue to produce good resources and share them using a variety of media technology. We will continue to equip people for action, to touch lives and, through the power of the Gospel at work, bring change into people’s lives.
That, of course, requires funding. Our funding comes from people like you and congregations like yours. We do not receive funding from any national church body. So please will you help? Your special gift will not only help educate people but also motivate them to action. It is this Gospel-motivated action and compassion that will ultimately bring change to our culture.
One of the best things your gift to LFL allows us to do in order to properly equip people and move them to affirm life and touch lives is to equip the equippers. For example, you help us provide graduating seminarians with flash drives for their computers containing files of our materials. One seminarian sent a note:
“Thank you very much for these useful resources. I was a little apprehensive about dealing with these issues in my ministry but these will help tremendously.”
One of my favorite things to do is to speak at pastors’ conferences. Your gift helps us do so. We have done three so far this year with another one scheduled. That’s over five hundred pastors! When asked in a survey what they found valuable, one pastor wrote:
“Probably the information from Lutherans For Life. I was amazed at how much they’ve put out. I went to their website right after the conference and looked at even more.” (Are you aware of how many resources we “put out”? Find out at www.lutheransforlife.org!)
But pastors do not just read our materials. They use our materials in their own congregations to equip people and move them to action. For example, “Thanks SO MUCH for the PowerPoint files. I hope to use them extensively as I teach this in the parish.” When asked what was learned at the conference that would help them in their ministries, one pastor responded:
“Perhaps it would be better to ask what in the conference I will not incorporate into my ministry. Absolutely everything applied and will be implemented immediately.”
When you help us equip pastors it becomes a “value-added” gift. For they in turn equip hundreds in their congregations and more and people see the great need to approach these issues from a spiritual perspective with compassionate action. This, more than any law or political party, will bring real and lasting change to our culture. That is LFL’s vision: “Every Lutheran congregation upholding the God-given value of human life and influencing society to do the same.”
I invite you to be part of this vision. The Church needs to speak and do more to connect the life-affirming and life-changing message of the Gospel to the life issues. Our mission is to equip them to do so and we need you on our mission team!
I ask for your support to help us produce timely, easy-to-use resources and to properly motivate people through the Gospel to life-affirming action. I promise that your gift will help us do so.
I also want to invite you to our 2013 LFL National Conference, November 8-9, at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, 8301 Aurora Avenue, in Urbandale (Des Moines), Iowa. Our theme is L.I.F.E. – Living In Faith Everyday. We hope you can join us!