Dear church,
In an interview after I was elected, I reflected on my experience as a mission developer: "It is not about what you think you're bringing into the community. It's who you are in the community. The minute we showed that we cared is really when the community adopted us. People don't care about what you know till they know that you care."
Faithful. Informed. Engaged. This refrain captures a vision for Lutheran Christians living out their baptismal calling in the election season and beyond. Faith grounds us in God's promises, and Christ sends us forth to love our neighbors and serve the world. Being informed equips us to address complex issues with wisdom, discernment and integrity. Being engaged reminds us that our participation in civic life is a key way we love and serve our neighbors.
ELCA ministries and leaders already register voters, provide rides to the polls, open buildings as polling places and advocate for voting rights. Thank you! This year, I invite you to embrace an additional role: serving as trusted messengers in your communities.
Our church can be "all together in one place" as a powerful witness for truth, love of neighbor and honesty. False information remains a persistent challenge during elections. It can spread rapidly, undermining confidence in the electoral process and discouraging participation. Grounded in the commandment not to bear false witness, our churches and faith leaders are uniquely positioned to help address this challenge by seeking out and sharing accurate information and correcting misinformation when it arises. In a time when trust is often in short supply, serving as trusted sources of wisdom and guidance is a meaningful form of Christian witness. By helping our neighbors access accurate information and engage confidently in the democratic process, we live out our faith through responsible civic engagement and service to the common good.
The ELCA offers a variety of resources to help congregations and individuals be trusted messengers. The new ELCA Election Engagement Toolkit provides guidance on serving as trusted messengers, engaging in election protection and modeling love of neighbor in polarized communities. Through the ELCA Civic Engagement Guide, you can access materials on voter education, voter registration, candidate forums, legal guidelines for congregations, voting rights and ways to encourage participation.
Be faithful, informed and engaged as disciples of Jesus seeking the well-being of our neighbors and the common good of the communities God has entrusted to our care. Every act of informed participation, every conversation marked by grace and every vote cast with prayerful discernment is an opportunity to bear witness to God's love in the world. In Christ, The Rev. Yehiel Curry
The Messenger
This very short passage from the prophet Isaiah shares God's promise of a bountiful future; a future still unknown to us as we transition to calling a new pastor. But they are words full of promise and of God's generosity toward us and of a new future.
