ELCA Unveils Online Congregational Study of Economic Life

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In 1999, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) adopted a social statement on economic life. To help congregations examine the statement and the issues it raised, the ELCA Division for Church in Society has created a Web-based study guide, "Receive with Thanksgiving!" at http://www.elca.org/dcs/receivewiththanksgiving.html
"A social statement is a theological, complex, multiply- undergirded document," said Kaari M. Reierson, associate director for studies, ELCA Division for Church in Society. "For every paragraph that makes it into the social statement there are 10 other things you could write to help people understand it better, but we simply can't write a social statement that long and complex," she said.
The materials were designed for the ELCA's 10,816 congregations to use in adult education or confirmation classes, said Reierson. Reierson authored the study guide in collaboration with the Rev. Paul E. Lutz, associate director for adult education, ELCA Division for Congregational Ministries.
The study guide's title came from Martin Luther's 16th century explanation of the Lord's Prayer. On the petition, "Give us this day our daily bread," Luther wrote, "In fact, God gives daily bread without our prayer, even to all evil people, but we ask in this prayer that God cause us to recognize what our daily bread is and to receive it with thanksgiving." Luther continued that "daily bread" is "everything included in the necessities and nourishment for our bodies."
It's important for the study guide to draw from Lutheran theology, said Reierson, especially Luther's broad application of Christian teachings. Keeping God's commandments means more than refraining from stealing or killing, she said; it means "promoting the health and well- being of our neighbor."
The study guide "asks people to read the social statement," said Reierson. "It uses examples from the social statement. It asks people to study the calls to action in the social statement," she said.
The guide poses several questions to help the reader consider the possible causes of poverty and what can be done to overcome them. It also addresses the Lutheran concept of vocation as the expression of one's Christian faith in one's daily activities or profession and pondered what that may mean for employee-employer relations.
The study looks at the statement's title, "Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All." It provides materials defining "sufficiency" and "sustainability," and questions "whether sometimes we confuse what we want and what we need," said Reierson.
"What in our society encourages us to think that we really need an SUV, when perhaps we could really just use a smaller car?" she asked as an example. "Are the practices that we carry forth now going to leave enough resources for our children and grandchildren?"
"The economic life social statement is an important document of the ELCA," said the Rev. John R. Stumme, director for studies, ELCA Division for Church in Society. "This social statement holds out a moral imperative to create a society with a 'sufficient, sustainable livelihood for all.' It's very important we talk about that and how we can contribute to a more just economic order," he said.
"Often in the church, perhaps too often, we ignore or don't talk seriously about the economic life realities of our own life or of our society -- our buying, our selling, our work, our consuming, our saving and all the rest -- as well as the poverty within our society," said Stumme.
Since the church was formed in 1988, the ELCA has adopted seven social statements dealing with such topics as abortion, the death penalty and racism. The Division for Church in Society has developed study guides based on most statements, but this is the first to be entirely Web-based.
"We're not printing copies of this study guide," said Reierson. Online files of the document were drawn up to be printed and photocopied easily, she said. Churches that do not have access to the Web can get copies of the study from ELCA resource centers in their areas.
Placing the study on the World Wide Web allows the reader to use the Internet to bolster materials in the study with those on related sites, Reierson said, such as a government Web site that helps U.S. citizens look up poverty statistics in their neighborhoods. -- -- --
The ELCA social statement on economic life, "Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All," is available at http://www.elca.org/dcs/economiclife.html on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html