‘Finding Happiness’ Bible Study
We won’t let distance come between us and a good idea. We won’t even let the oceans prevent us from working together as a whole Australia and New Zealand Lutheran Church.
Back in October 2024 Pastor Joel Cramer was still serving at The Ark Salisbury Lutheran Church. Our leadership team took part in the Global Leadership Summit. Here we heard a presentation by Arthur C Brooks who is a professor from Harvard Business School. During his talk he explained that happiness is not some elusive feeling we need to chase, it is something that is easy to find. He also explains that our Christian faith shows us where happiness can be found.
At The Ark we had always participated in an All Church Bible Study and we thought this would be an inspiring topic to base it on. Skip forward a few months and Pastor Joel took the call to move to St Paul’s Lutheran Church in Wellington New Zealand. We could have left this idea lie where it fell, but decided that between them our two churches could work together despite the distance. Erin Skewes, the Care and Connections Coordinator at Salisbury and Pastor Joel made the idea come to life. Erin wrote a 4-week study booklet exploring the ideas of finding happiness in enjoyment, satisfaction and meaning and Pastor Joel prepared and filmed 4 weeks of sermons to match.
During the months of July and August 2025 both the congregations at Salisbury and Wellington heard Pastor Joel preach his message either in person or via his pre-recorded sermons. Small groups met during the week to further their study on the topic. A lot of in-depth conversation was had and everyone found it a great topic to stop and reflect on.
Since the study has commenced some of these small groups are continuing to meet weekly and many new relationships have been formed. Pastor Joel and Erin continue to stay in touch and support each other’s ministries. We will have to see what God has planned for a 2026 All Church Bible Study.
This study is now available for you to implement at your own congregation, complete with four video sermons, study booklets and worship resources. You can find the resources at: www.sant.lca.org.au/resources/bible-study
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2025/206 edition of the Together magazine.
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