Item Type: Online Journal

Social statements are social teaching and policy documents in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Created by task forces composed of ELCA members and supported by ELCA churchwide staff members, social statements are developed through a series of participatory steps. Contributors share divergent feedback on the “Draft Social Statement on Women and Justice” with embodied local and global perspectives.

In 2019, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America affirmed its thirteenth social statement, which is biblical and theological social teaching and policy. As an introduction to a collection of essays, Mary J. Streufert sets this ELCA social statement Faith, Sexism, and Justice: A Call to Action within the context of ecumenical and global Lutheran partnerships, seeing gender justice as a faithful, trusting response to God’s gracious call to serve neighbors in Christian freedom.

Although preaching is an oral/aural event, preachers often prepare sermons as they would write term papers. This three-part article offers are a few steps preachers can take in order to craft a sermon that is geared more toward the hearer’s ear.

An assessment of how and why work with commentaries can be appropriated effectively and faithfully for the sake of preaching. The first point addresses attitude toward commentaries. The second concerns timing. And the third pertains to types of commentaries.

The article explores the appointed Gospel texts for the season of Easter season (Revised Common Lectionary). These texts provide an opportunity to talk about the surreal and confusing elements of an encounter with the risen Lord.