As individuals and as a faith community — Christ’s church — we live our Christian faith in the thick of life with the concerns and complexities that shape our lives together in God’s creation. We work at social concerns as individuals, communities, congregations, synods and a churchwide organization, as well as through related ministries, agencies, social ministry organizations, educational institutions, networks, other partners and across denominations.
ELCA Social Teachings include social statements, social messages and social policy resolutions. These documents arise from and reflect on the changing circumstances of the world in light of God’s presence and work. They are developed to assist members and congregations in thinking about social issues and to guide the church’s life in society and creation.
Join Bishop Scott Johnson for one class or all the classes in exploring ELCA social teaching documents and discussing how they inform, provoke, and guide our life together as a church. Materials will be provided for each session in advance: participants should familiarize themselves with the content before each session.
Schedule
April 10: 7-8:30 PM: Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective – 1991
Church in Society was the first ELCA social statement. The statement lays out three basic commitments: our institutional witness in society, the baptismal vocation of individual Christians, and the church as a community of moral deliberation.
Register for Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective
May 8: 7-8:30 PM: Civic Life and Faith (Draft)– 2025
The 2019 Churchwide Assembly called for a statement on civic life and faith, the relationship of church and state, and related matters. Civic Life and Faith has been through several draft cycles and will most likely be sent to the 2025 Churchwide Assembly for adoption as a social statement.
Register for Civic Life and Faith (Draft) – 2025
Date TBD: 7-8:30 PM: Immigration (ELCA Social Message) – 1998
While this social message is now over 25 years old, immigration has been and continues to be a volatile point of contention. Immigration draws from Scripture and the experience of Lutherans in America as an immigrant church in a country of immigrants, thematically grounded in the call to welcome the stranger together with the commitment to justice that advocates for fair and generous laws.
FALL DATES TO BE DETERMINED
September: Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All – 1999
Economic activity is a means through which God’s will is served for the well-being of humankind and the care of the earth. This statement on Economic Life recognizes that even though sin distorts human activity, we are called to practice economic activity justly and with special concern for those who live in poverty. In this work, the church is guided by the biblically grounded imperative to seek sufficient, sustainable livelihood for all.
November: Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust – 2009; rev. 2025
The 2022 ELCA Churchwide Assembly authorized two reconsiderations of this social statement. Reconsideration #1 was to review specific text references that would ‘consider the import that