Ministry

Dear Families of Endeavour College,

I hope and pray that you are well, and that you have made it through lockdown in good health – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Last term students showed great initiative in opening up the opportunity for any student within the College to ask questions about the Christian faith that they would like answered. We sent a video late in the term to share that we would be doing this in Term 3, and that the questions related to a range of important topics that included suffering, mental health, how we understand such an old book as the bible, and gender and sexuality.

The first topic we will be looking at shortly is around gender and sexuality. Many of the questions around gender and sexuality were about perceived judgmental attitudes from Christians, from the Bible, and from God.

This isn’t intended to be a comprehensive and in-depth answer on these important questions, but is intended to give you some clarity as to how we are engaging with students. More insight into this is in the accompanying video, and of course you are welcome to speak with me about this, or any faith matter, within the College.

As such, we share these short statements regarding what we will be sharing with students as our starting point.

• In the Christian faith, belonging – becoming part of God’s family – is a free gift. It is not dependent on behaviour, and is definitely not dependent on someone’s gender or sexuality.
• Following Jesus is not about ‘don’t do this, don’t do that’, but rather, is about learning to live and love like Jesus. It isn’t about a set of rules, but rather about learning to trust Jesus as a friend.
• No one is excluded from Jesuss community based on their gender or sexuality.

Secondly, we will be sharing with the students about how to look at the Bible when talking about gender and sexuality:

• The Bible is not considered an ‘authoritative book’ for people who don’t follow Jesus
• Different passages in the bible were written for different groups of people, at the time they were written, and we misuse them when we ignore the history of a passage in the bible and especially when we use it to harm, judge, or condemn others.
• In the Lutheran faith, we interpret all scripture through the lens of the unconditional love that we receive in Jesus.

There are many important applications of these statements, but I share with you these two important truths for our College community:

• No student is any less, nor are they to be made to feel any less, because of their gender or sexuality, in our community.
• No student is any less, or to be made to feel any less, because of their gender or sexuality, in the eyes of God.

If you have any questions or concerns about the inclusive nature of our school community, please know that you are welcome to contact me at the school or via email – chris.mann@endeavour.sa.edu.au

Chris Mann

Pastor