Depositing records of individual ministry
The records of the ministry of pastors, special ministry pastors, and missionaries, are integral to understanding the story of the LCANZ. In general, the records you deposit will be added to the ‘personal papers’ series under your name. Exceptions are where the item is a specific collection item (eg an artefact, photograph or register), or where it is a record that fills a gap in synod or congregation records – eg copies of minutes.
If you would like to deposit the records from your or your family member’s life as a pastor, SMP or missionary, we ask that you contact us first to talk about the material and the processes involved in depositing. A list of the items to be considered, including dates and context will help this process.
what should be deposited
Registers
In addition to the Congregation Register, some Pastors choose to keep their own register to record the baptisms, confirmations, marriages and burials that they conduct throughout the entirety of their ministry.
Other registers include service details: location, date, sermon, attendances etc.
Both of these can be deposited as unique records of your ministry.
ministry milestones
- Certificates of ordination, graduation, higher degrees
- Call correspondence
- Service orders of installations, farewells, and anniversaries
- Sermons from significant services or events (e.g. installations, farewells, anniversaries in the life of the church)
- Photographs (selected, labelled and identified) – student days, graduation, ordination, installations, farewells, anniversaries, selected personal photos (e.g. wedding, family), congregational life, churches, confirmation classes etc.
Original written works and publications
Items that you have authored including:
- Bibliography of articles, papers, books, or commentaries
- Papers or theses from theological studies
- Original songs and hymns
- (Selected) original worship materials (e.g. Bible study series)
- Papers or articles published in non-LCA sources (i.e. overseas journals)
- Original artwork (particularly if related to ministry)
Please note only a representative sampling of sermons can be accepted.
Working documents and artefacts
- Correspondence, working documents relating to pastoral work
- Vestments, stoles, doctoral hoods etc – considered on a case-by-case basis, depending on sampling present in our collection.
- Artefacts – considered on a case-by-case basis. (Does it tell a significant story? Does it reveal something important or unique about your life or ministry?)
Biographical Material
This includes items that tell who you are, and how you went about your ministry.
- Memoirs, recounts, reflections, obituaries/funeral service orders
- Interviews about life and ministry
- Diaries and journals (especially if containing details of pastoral acts)
Records belonging to church organisations
You might have records that were generated from a church entity (eg a congregation or committee) These should be transferred to the Archives – but check with us first if we already have copies.
- Congregation or parish records – minutes, reports, significant correspondence, photographs, anniversary booklets/service orders
- Minutes, reports, key correspondence etc of LCANZ national or district committees, boards, commissions, or departments
Sample some stories
Gottlieb Blaess – Missionary to the Māori
When 29-year-old theological student Gottlieb Blaess returned from his Christmas holidays in the winter of 1893, he found a letter waiting for him: a call from the Hermannsburg Free Church to serve as missionary in New Zealand.
Emma Kriewaldt – Diary of a Pastor’s Wife
At the age of 23, Emma Kriewaldt nee Eberlein moved from Shawano, Wisconsin, USA to Lobethal in South Australia with her husband Emil Kriewaldt, an LCMS pastor who had been called to serve in Australia.
Two German tradesmen and their Wanderbücher
These Wanderbücher document the journeyman travels of two German tradesmen: stone mason Daniel Heinrich Christian Busch and carpenter Friedrich Johann Christian Juers.