Share Your Actions Speaking Loudly!

Consider all the ways your church cares for God’s Good Creation.

Celebrate, share, and connect! For each pillar of church life listed below (Worship, Christian Education, Buildings/Grounds, Public Witness, Personal Discipleship) please respond to Lutherans Restoring Creation with what your congregation is doing already, or plans to get started this year. For help getting the conversation started: https://bit.ly/LRCTalks

Your responses below will help the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) know what we are doing now, where we have to grow, and how we can help each other restore a right relationship with God’s good creation (which includes each other). The Good Green News you share will be immediately posted through this site: https://bit.ly/LRCLoudLights (you can filter/sort/download the info without logging into AirTable, just ignore their prompt to sign up).

No personal contact information will be listed online or sold.

For tips and printable resources visit: https://lutheransrestoringcreation.org/ccck-action-plan/

Don’t worry if you hit submit and then need to update or make changes. Reach out to info@lutheransrestoringcreation.org for a response within 48 hours.

I’ve been watching the fiftieth season of Survivor. I’ve watched this show for years, and if you pay attention from season to season, there’s a pattern that emerges. Again and again, there are immigrants or children of immigrants who talk about who they watch the show with, a grandmother, a dad, or a whole family gathered together.

This season, I’ve been rooting for Kamilia, whose family immigrated from Sri Lanka, and Rizgod, who is from Albania descent. Their stories aren’t just background, they’re part of what makes the show meaningful. They remind us that behind every person is a story of movement, sacrifice, and belonging.

As Hamilton reminds us: “Immigrants—we get the job done.” But it’s more than that. Immigrants don’t just “get the job done.” Their stories are still shaping our country—still shaping us—even in trying times.

This past weekend, I was back in Minneapolis for the first time since this past fall when I was visiting for a friend’s ordination. It was strange to be back in Minneapolis just a couple of months after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renée Good.

As we drove along Hiawatha Avenue, prior to our arrival, we had already heard reports that ICE still had a significant presence in the city. For our own safety, and for the work we do, it felt necessary to stay somewhere more secure.

And as we drove, the city felt different. A place that had once been bustling felt, at moments, like a ghost town. A Friday in downtown Minneapolis—once full of life—felt quiet in a way that was hard to name.

The fear is real. But what lingers even more than the headlines is the trauma.

I thought about an interview I once heard with a pastor. “Pastor Dan”,who said that in Minnesota, people had learned to live with ice. To outsmart it. To outlast it.

But you can’t outlast fear without being shaped by it.

Even if the visible presence has lessened, something deeper remains. The fear is still there. The trauma is still there. People move differently. Gather differently. Trust differently.

And that’s the tension I keep coming back to.

On one screen, I’m watching stories of immigrants—stories of resilience, family, and hope—on a reality show that brings people together.

And in real life, I’m walking through a city where immigrant communities—and those who stand with them—are carrying fear, grief, and uncertainty.

Both are true.

And maybe the question for us, as people of faith, is this:

What does it mean to honor the stories we celebrate…
while also standing with the people who are still living through fear?

This social message was adopted in 2004 by the Church Council of the ELCA.

The social message on “Living in a Time of Terrorism” was developed in the early years of the 21st century as acts of terrorism reached haunting proportions throughout the world. Drawing on the social statement “For Peace in God’s World,” the ELCA Church Council adopted this message as a means to facilitate thoughtful discussion in congregations and to encourage members to participate in civic deliberation as citizens. It is a resource for reflection on such questions as:

• What is terrorism?
• In light of our faith, how should we oppose terrorism?
• What are the responsibilities and limits of government for earthly peace and security?
• What gives rise to terrorism?
• How does our faith address the fear that terrorism causes?

Through this message, we encourage people, congregations and communities to talk together about what it means to be peacemakers in a time of terrorism and to take part in the ongoing public discussion on terrorism, security and peace. You can read or download the full social message on “Living in a Time of Terrorism” in English or en español. This social message was adopted in 2004 by the Church Council of the ELCA.

Adopted by more than a two-thirds majority vote (803-30) as a social statement of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America by the fourth Churchwide Assembly on August 20, 1995, at Minneapolis, Minnesota..

For Peace in God’s World conveys ELCA teaching on matters related to war, domestic and international security, and the Christian call to be peacemakers. The statement is grounded in the scriptural understanding that God desires shalom (the Hebrew word for complete well-being of all) but that such eternal peace is fragile and imperfect within even the best earthly peace and well-being that human beings may achieve. Because of the sin-filled reality of earthly life, this statement affirms just war teaching in the service of just peace, with attention to what this means for culture, economics, politics, military conduct and international security.

The statement also recognizes the significant witness of conscientious objectors and others who, as a matter of faith, cannot condone war in any circumstances. It calls all disciples to be advocates for a Christian peacemaking that strives for human rights, political alternatives to war, social justice, control of the arms trade, and creative means of working for peace in God’s world.