Social Statements and Messages

Lutheran Advocacy Ministry Arizona derives its policy priorities from the ELCA’s Social Statements: teaching and policy documents that provide broad frameworks to assist us in thinking about and discussing social issues in the context of faith and life.  LAMA’s policy priorities are also informed by the ELCA’s Social Messages: topical documents adopted by the ELCA Church Council to focus attention and action on timely, pressing matters of social concern to the church and society. Below are social statements and social messages relevant to the work LAMA does in the areas of hunger and poverty, care of creation and welcoming the stranger.

ELCA Social Statement on Economic Life

ELCA Social Message on Homelessness

ELCA Social Statement on Caring for Creation

ELCA Social Statement on Race, Ethnicity and Culture

ELCA Social Message on Immigration

ELCA Social Message on Government and Civic Engagement

Visit the ELCA’s Faith and Society website to learn more about how the church addresses social concerns, to access study resources, and to learn more about the ELCA’s process for adopting social teaching policies.

A Social Message on Government and Civic Engagement in the United States: Discipleship in a Democracy

The ELCA has adopted a social message on government and civic engagement titled “Government and Civic Engagement in the United States: Discipleship in a Democracy.” This writing project was requested by the 2019 Churchwide Assembly and was adopted in June 2020 by the ELCA Church Council [CC20.06.17].

To help dig into the text, there is a Study Guide, along with a Leader's Guide for those facilitating groups. A Spanish translation can be downloaded here. Printed copies (in packs of 5) can be ordered here.

Social messages are teaching documents of the ELCA focused on particular social topics. They are intended to focus attention and urge action on timely, pressing matters of social concern to church and society. ELCA social statements are more comprehensive documents developed via a five-year process led by a task force and adopted at churchwide assemblies. To read more about the upcoming work toward a social statement on church and state, click here.