On Sunday, January 20 Children’s Ministry Director Suzanne Roberts from Santiago, Chile visited Roseville Lutheran Church to meet Pastor Sara and Julie Hanson and talk with them about the Why Jesus? project that her church in Santiago is using.  Her daughter and nephew participated in Cornerstone that day to see how we are using the lessons. Suzanne has family in MN and while they were visiting, she wanted to visit our church. 

“Our church in Santiago is much smaller than your church, but we have the same goal- to appreciate the important role that Jesus plays in all of our lives. From the youngest to the oldest, we all need to stop and think about the impact Jesus has in this world today.”

The Why Jesus Project was the idea of Pastor Joanna Mitchell of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Hopkins. She asked the questions of “Why Jesus?” and “Why Church?” with Pastor Heather Roth Johnson, St John’s Lutheran Church, Lakeville and it’s her questions that captivated the hearts of 10 churches to collaborate together, including RLC. This group wrote and developed preaching resources, music suggestions, confirmation lessons, cross generational educational ideas and Sunday school curriculum to be available to any church that wants to use it, free of charge. 

The goal is for people of all ages to discover why Jesus is important in their daily lives. In addition to Roseville Lutheran Church, there are 75-100 other churches using this series in varying degrees.  These are churches from across the United States and include Santiago, Chile, New South Wales, Australia, Ontario, Canada and New Zealand.  

Have you taken the time to ask yourself Why Jesus?