Social Teachings
Called to Care for Society and Creation
The ELCA teaches that faith is active in love (Gal. 5:6), and love seeks justice in public relationships and social structures (Amos 5:24). In grateful response to God’s grace, our church supports members’ daily vocations, encourages learning and moral discernment, develops social teaching and policy, and bears public witness. This happens through congregations, synods, churchwide ministries and church-related partners of many kinds. In these efforts the ELCA seeks God’s guidance amid the ambiguity of social life. We seek to welcome diverse gifts and perspectives in using resources that help us to talk and act well together.
Social teaching is our church’s official teaching and policy. It also provides guidance for moral discernment and action for individuals in the ELCA. There are three kinds of social teaching documents. Social statements address significant social issues (such as racism or genetics) and institutions (such as healthcare or economic life) and are adopted by a two-thirds Churchwide Assembly vote. Social messages address narrower, timely topics of contemporary concern and are based on the framework provided by statements. Social messages can be adopted by the ELCA Church Council or the ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Social policy resolutions are the third type of social teaching documents. These are typically brief and establish specific policy-related directives on matters of immediate social concern.
Social Statements
“This church shall develop social statements … that will guide the life of this church as an institution and inform the conscience of its members in the spirit of Christian liberty.” (ELCA social statement, “The Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective”)
ELCA social statements are 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. They are meant to help communities and individuals with moral formation, discernment and thoughtful engagement with current social issues as we participate in God’s work in the world. Social statements also set policy for the ELCA and guide its advocacy and work as a publicly engaged church. They result from an extensive process of participation and deliberation and are adopted by a two-thirds vote of an ELCA churchwide assembly.
The description and procedures for developing and adopting these social teaching and policy documents are established by “Policies and Procedures of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for Addressing Social Concerns.”
Social Messages
Social messages of the ELCA are 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. They are used to address pressing contemporary concerns in light of the prophetic and compassionate traditions of Scripture and do not establish new teaching or policy. Rather, they build upon previously adopted teaching and policy positions, especially from social statements.
These messages draw attention to specific topics or social concerns that arise from our participation in God’s work in the world, and they encourage moral discernment, thoughtful discussion and action. Each message is reviewed by the Conference of Bishops and adopted by the ELCA Church Council, and expresses the convictions of the leadership of this church.
At this time, there are 15 social messages.
Social Policy Resolutions
We are thoughtful and deliberating as a church, and we are actively engaged in God’s work in the world.
Social policy resolutions refer to ELCA actions expressing a position on specific social questions at a particular time. They are framed within and to be consistent with the social statements and messages of this church’s social teaching. They are adopted either by an ELCA Churchwide Assembly or the ELCA Church Council to address the need for special resolutions or actions related to specific social concerns. As a consequence, social policy resolutions normally are brief and limited in scope. They present timely resolutions that commit this church to particular actions that are derived from and consistent with the teachings and policy of the ELCA.
Current Social Writing Projects
Reconsideration of a social message is a formal process in which the whole church is invited to participate. While this reconsideration for revision may lead to substantive changes, there is no pre-determined outcome for the process.
During the process, all members of the ELCA will be invited to participate by submitting their insights, comments, or questions here. There will also be an extended period for public comment on a revised draft of the social message, during which ELCA members can respond to a survey and submit their feedback.
