Education
Getting Started
The following resources provide support for new advocates or those initiating new advocacy ministries:
- Starting an Advocacy Ministry in Your Congregation provides a step-by-step process to introduce advocacy as a congregational effort.
- Do groundwork on holding “difficult conversations” in your congregation. Places to start include the book Difficult Conversations: Taking Risks, Acting with Integrity by Katie Day, The Public Conversations Project or ELCA publication Talking_Together_as_Christians about Tough Social Issues
- Biblical references to advocacy and justice
Congregational Advocacy
Involving Congregations in Advocacy Now (ICAN)
An ELCA guide to developing an advocacy ministry within your congregation
That we may speak …Our ministry of action
A step-by-step guide for congregations to choose an issue and begin a ministry of advocacy
Public Policy Advocacy Toolkit from Lutheran Services in America order form
How and Why the ELCA Does Advocacy examines the how and why of advocacy in the ELCA
Congregation and Nonprofit Political Activity Guides
Called to be a Public Church: ELCA Civic Participation and Voter Education Guide
Download for free or order from ELCA Resource Catalog [800-638-3522, ext. 2580] Item number 9786000220617
Political Activity and Tax Status FAQ
from ELCA Legal Counsel
Political and Lobbying Activities Guide for churches and religious organizations
from the Internal Revenue Service
Education
Convene a Bible study or small group with a focus on advocacy in Scripture and implications for Christian life today. Consider the following examples:
- Called to be Political: But I Don’t Want to be Political reviews Martin Luther’s teachings on the role of Christians in politics and explores how those teachings still speak to us. A two-hour program from the Women of the ELCA.
- The Poor You Always Have With You, examines faithful responses to poverty, written by Dr. Foster McCurley for LAMPa.
- God’s Kingdom Is For Everyone: Discussion Poverty in a Christian Framework from the Pennsylvania Council of Churches
- God’s Love for the Poor and the Church’s Response to It from the National Council of Churches
- Convene a congregational “book club” to read and discuss a book about the role of the church in advocacy. Start with “Exodus from Hunger by David Beckmann of Bread for the World. See this Study Guide – Exodus from Hunger to use in a group.
- Study the ELCA Social Statements and Messages in an adult education class. Many have study guides available.
Use and promote/display the following public witness one pagers:
- How to write a letter to an elected official
- How to make a visit with an elected official
- How to write a letter to the editor
- The latest issue of LAMPa Highlights e-newsletter and/or Annual Report.
- Review and distribute the ELCA Civic Participation Guide for guidelines on the church’s involvement in elections – then reach out to the candidates!
- Ask LAMPa for brochures to display with other materials from Lutheran agencies and institutions – you never know who might pick them up!
Follow the Issues
View the LAMPa Partners page to find organizations that more closely monitor issues of specific interest to you.
