Dr Tania Nelson
Casual Academic
About
Tania Nelson is the Ministry Lead (Specific Ministry Pastor candidate) at Mawson Lakes Community Church in Adelaide. She is the former manager of Lutheran Media. Lutheran Media is an outreach ministry of the Lutheran Church of Australia and a registered charity.
Tania has undertaken studies in education and in theology/ministry. Her doctoral thesis explored the contribution of principals and pastors to the mission of Lutheran primary schools. The Challenge of Missional Renewal (2022) is a compilation of her essays and papers.
Special interests
Tania’s research interests include individual and corporate responses to God’s mission, as well as the burgeoning field of digital theology.
She also loves escaping to the family shack on the Yorke Peninsula with a good book.
Teaching areas
- Introduction to Christian Mission
- Engaging in Christian Mission
- Supervised Theological Field Education (Coordinator)
Community engagement
Tania convenes an Advocacy for Women in Pastoral Ministry team who are a primary point of contact for women discerning, training or serving in pastoral ministry within the LCANZ.
Qualifications in detail
- Diploma of Teaching (Primary) (South Australian College of Advanced Education, 1985)
- Bachelor of Education (Deakin University, 1992)
- Graduate Diploma of Theology in Education (Luther Seminary, 1994)
- Bachelor of Special Education (Flinders University, 2002)
- Master of Education Australian (Lutheran College, 2007)
- Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (ACAS, 2012)
- Doctor of Education (Australian Catholic University, 2017)
- Doctoral thesis title: Building Bridges: Exploring the contributions of principals and pastors to the mission of Lutheran Primary Schools.
- Graduate Certificate of Divinity (Melbourne School of Theology, 2022)
Papers and publications
Books
2022
The Challenge of Missional Renewal: An Australian Lutheran Perspective. Sydney: Australian Christian Resources.
Articles
2023
'Pastoral care and voluntary assisted dying: a review of selected literature', Lutheran Theological Journal 57 no.2 (August), 105-107
2022
‘Implications of the call for gender equality on God’s mission through the Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand: a socio-cultural analysis.’ Lutheran Theological Journal 56, no. 2 (August): 96–101.
2021
‘Exile as a metaphor of comfort.’ Lutheran Theological Journal 55, no. 1 (May): 3–12.
2018
(with Dean Eaton and Noel Due) ‘Re-visioning evangelism in the LCA.’ Lutheran Theological Journal 52, no. 3 (December): 165–177.
2015
‘A discussion on the leadership of the principal and the pastor in the Lutheran school community.’ Lutheran Theological Journal 49, no. 3 (December): 126–136.
Presentations
2016
‘Leadership matters: principals, pastors and the mission of Lutheran schools’, Opening lecture for the ALC academic year, Adelaide, SA.
