Pastor Luehr's Column

A classmate of mine from Luther Seminary, Rev. Hitoshi Adachi was recently called as an Assistant to the Bishop for Finance, Administration and Congregation Ministry support. Though this is not a typical first call for new pastor, Hitoshi’s extensive past in business and finance before hearing God’s call to ordained ministry makes him well suited for this position. In addition to the financial aspect of his call part of Hitoshi’s work at the synod involves support of the twenty-four ethnic ministries in the Pacifica Synod. Having been heavily involved with the Lutheran Japanese Ministry in Huntington Beach for a number of years this ministry suits him well.

Recently he wrote an article in the Synod newsletter about the different ethnic ministries supported and flourishing in our synod. What surprised me about Hitoshi’s article was the number of different languages in which ministry is carried out across our synod. On any given Sunday the following languages are used in Worship:

English, Spanish, Mandarin, Amharic, Oromo, Tagalog, Taiwanese, Indonesian, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Thai and Danish.

Thirteen different languages!! Each Sunday the lessons we read, the prayers we say, the Lord’s Supper, the creed, the passing of the peace, and on and on and on. . . all of these things are lifted up to God in thirteen languages in Lutheran churches across Southern California. I think of the ethnic ministries being carried out right here in our corner of the globe and thank God for the work of the Holy Spirit. Praise be to God who is able to transcend languages and cultures and countries and whose saving power is given out to the ends of the earth!

In His Grip,

Pastor Cate Luehr