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What do iconic heavy metal band Black Sabbath and the Lutheran Tract Mission have in common?
The answer started at the Warrambui Retreat & Conference Centre, New South Wales.
The newly-formed Mission-Edge Tract development team gathered at Warrambui in April to brainstorm ways to better engage with people aged between 20 and 40 who have never had a connection with the Church or who have become disengaged.
Thanks to the support of a $10,000 LLL Mission Outreach Grant, the team of seven writers and visual artists met over two-and-a-half days at the retreat, just north of Canberra, with the aim of producing a series of tracts focussed on who Jesus is and His connection to modern life.
The dedicated bunch produced 26 tracts aimed at answering the hard questions younger non-Christians ask about Christian faith and encouraging young people's connection to God.
One example of the diverse work that resulted from the highly collaborative and creative environment was a tract that pondered the meaning of Black Sabbath song 'God Is Dead?'
"The experience of running ideas past the others, doing revisions in small groups and asking hard questions from different perspectives proved a great way to produce a new set of tracts," project leader Dr Mark Worthing, Dean of Frontier School of Mission, said.
"Once we got moving, it was hard to get the group to stop!
"We imagined all the people we know or had encountered in recent years who were alienated from the Church and from Christ and thought about what we would say to them in 600 or so words."
Other tracts created over that fruitful weekend touched on themes such as the relevance of Jesus today, His relationship with Christmas and how the teachings of the Bible relate to the environment.
Five of the series of new tracts have been printed and are available via the Lutheran Tract Mission website to order or send as an eTract.
Visit: ltm.org.au
Photo: The Mission-Edge Tract Writing Team – Warrambui, April 2023. Back to front (L to R): Bridgitte Willshire, Mark Worthing, Jacob Traeger, Peter Ravikumar. Richard Fox, Jeremy Lie and Tania Nelson.
