Namibia: Lutheran Doctrine

Salvation - not for sale

Lutheran Doctrine

Young reformers: Rev. Lyauvika Nashuuta and Rev. Filimon Nampadhi

Church: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia

Implementation period: November 2015, still ongoing

How many people were involved? 6

How many people did you reach? 3000

What did you aim at?

To teach the Namibian youth about Lutheran doctrine and the differences between different Christian denominations.

What did you achieve?

We have visited different Lutheran parishes across Namibia
We facilitated seminars and gave educational speeches about Lutheran identity within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia
The project has merged with the Office of Youth League in the church, so that every workshop could be linked with our Lutheran doctrine project
The project reached 70% of youth in the Lutheran church in Namibia
More parish church youth leaders can now teach the differences between Lutheranism and other Christian denominations.

What did you do?

We taught Lutheran doctrine in almost every parish in Namibia for youth. We travel and prepare the youth for the 500th anniversary of the reformation and for the LWF assembly.

Interview with young reformers

What is the ongoing reformation you want to see in your church?: I would like to see more participation of youth in the worship services and the youth taking more leadership roles. The youth should share their point of view in the church. We would like to see more youth pastors in our church and more possibilities for the youth to study and prepare themselves.
What has been the reaction of the project among the youth?: The reaction has been very positive and the youth have learned a lot about the Lutheran doctrine and identity. The youth in the church have liked it very much.
How has been the participation of the youth in the reformation project?: we had a team of 6 people leading the project. We organized a seminar for youth leaders coming from different parishes in Namibia and we participated in the annual national youth gathering in Namibia.The youth leaders reproduced our teachings in every parish and community so we could hopefully reach all the youth in the ELCIN.
What has been challenging about creating the project?: It was challenging to run the project with the budget we had. We used our own channels and methods to reach our goals for the project.
Did everything go as planned?: We planned to organized 6 seminars but we could organized only 1. The travelling was complicated and so was the timing to visit the parishes. Our goal was reached though.
How do you see the continuity of the project?: Yes, we would like to continue with this project and the youth are interested to learn more about the Lutheran doctrine, especially when the LWF assembly happens in Namibia, our home country.