“God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday is coming up on September 13. Have you seen ELCA Advocacy’s helpful resource to help congregations connect hands-on service with faithful public witness?
The resource, “Advocacy in Service to Our Neighbor,” reminds us that Lutherans celebrate “God’s work. Our hands.” because we care about our communities and witness to God’s love in our local places. It grounds advocacy in Lutheran social teaching, naming our shared commitment to the common good, dignity, equity, and the well-being of all neighbors. It also lifts up civic engagement as one way we help ensure that every voice is heard and every vote is counted.
The supplement includes a template letter congregations can use to write to elected officials. Some congregations may prefer this hands-on letter-writing approach to digital action alerts, and the ELCA Washington Office is willing to deliver collected day-of-service letters to federal lawmakers. This can be an easy, concrete activity to add to a food drive, service project, fellowship hour, adult forum, youth gathering, or worship-adjacent event.
The resource is especially timely because “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday falls during what ELCA Advocacy calls “prime time” for civic engagement. In the seven weeks that follow, congregations can connect their service to:
National Voter Registration Day on September 15,
National Voter Education Week October 5-9,
Election Hero Day on October 20, and
Vote Early Day on October 27.
The guide also offers ways to get the conversation flowing across generations. It suggests asking questions such as, “What was it like the first time you voted?” and “How has your faith impacted your voting choices?” Those questions can open the door to deeper reflection on Lutheran social teaching, civic life, and our shared responsibility for the common good.
Congregations might also use “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday to help neighbors access the right to vote. The resource suggests activities such as holding a voter registration drive, learning about opportunities to serve as a poll worker or poll watcher, planning hospitality for election workers, or joining with local faith partners for prayer, public witness, or community-building around Election Day.
For LEAN, this is exactly the kind of faithful civic engagement Nevada needs. Service matters. So does advocacy! When we pack food boxes, assemble hygiene kits, serve meals, welcome neighbors, or support community ministries, we also learn something about the policies that shape hunger, housing, health care, immigration, education, voting access, and public life.
“As people of faith, ELCA members recognize elections as an expression of our call to love and serve our neighbor,” the resource says. That is a powerful reminder for this season. Our public witness does not have to be partisan to be faithful. We can encourage voting, support election workers, listen across generations, write to lawmakers, and help our neighbors participate safely and confidently in civic life.
This September 13, let “God’s work. Our hands.” be more than a day of service. Let it be a day of prayer, learning, advocacy, and faithful love for the neighbor — with hands ready for service and voices ready for justice.
Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, is a humanitarian immigration protection for people already living in the United States who cannot safely return to their home countries because of armed conflict, natural disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions.
TPS does not create a path to citizenship. While a country’s TPS designation is in effect, eligible individuals can receive protection from deportation and authorization to work in the United States.
What is happening to TPS?
TPS protections have narrowed dramatically during 2026.
The Trump administration has moved to terminate TPS designations for numerous countries. Recent court decisions have allowed several of those terminations to move forward.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the administration to proceed with ending TPS protections for people from Haiti and Syria while litigation continued. Subsequent federal court decisions have cleared the way for the administration to terminate protections for people from South Sudan, Burma/Myanmar, Somalia, and Ethiopia, among others.
The legal situation continues to change, and litigation remains underway in some cases.
For affected TPS holders, termination can mean losing protection from deportation and employment authorization. It can also create uncertainty for families who have spent years—and in some cases decades—living, working, worshiping, raising children, paying taxes, and building lives in the United States.
This matters in Nevada
This is not simply a national immigration debate. TPS holders are part of Nevada communities.
According to Congressional Research Service data, approximately 5,825 people with TPS lived in Nevada as of March 31, 2025.
They are our neighbors, co-workers, caregivers, congregation members, business owners, parents and friends.
Immigrant workers are also an important part of Nevada’s workforce, including industries such as hospitality, construction, food service, care work, agriculture and other essential sectors.
When someone loses authorization to work, the consequences can extend far beyond one individual.
A family can lose income. An employer can lose an experienced worker. Children can face uncertainty about a parent’s future. Congregations and community organizations may see increased needs for food, housing, legal assistance and emergency support.
Behind every statistic are people and families.
Why should Lutherans care?
For Nevada Lutherans, immigration is not only a political question. It is also a question about how we understand our relationship with our neighbor.
The ELCA social message on Immigration reminds us:
“Hospitality for the uprooted is a way to live out the biblical call to love the neighbor in response to God’s love in Jesus Christ.”
Scripture repeatedly calls God’s people to remember and care for the stranger.
“The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the stranger as yourself.” — Leviticus 19:34
Jesus also reminds us:
“I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” — Matthew 25:35
The ELCA’s teaching on immigration recognizes both the legitimate role of government in creating an orderly immigration system and the responsibility of Christians to advocate for policies grounded in human dignity, justice, compassion and concern for our neighbors.
TPS was created by Congress because circumstances can arise when returning people to their countries of origin is unsafe.
As protections are withdrawn, people of faith can ask an important question:
How should our immigration policies balance the rule of law with human dignity, family unity, due process, community stability and protection for people facing dangerous conditions?
What can Nevada Lutherans do?
Contact Nevada’s members of Congress
Congress has the authority to change federal immigration law and create more permanent protections for longtime TPS holders.
Nevada Lutherans can contact our U.S. senators and representatives and ask what they are doing to provide stability for TPS holders, their families and the communities where they live.
An ELCA Action Alert.
Share Nevada stories
Public policy affects real people.
If your congregation, ministry, workplace, school or neighborhood includes TPS holders or families affected by changing immigration policies, consider helping their stories be heard, with their permission and with careful attention to their safety and privacy.
Pastors, employers, educators, health care workers, social service providers and community members can also help policymakers understand how changes in immigration policy affect Nevada communities.
Never publicly identify someone’s immigration status without their explicit permission.
Connect people with trusted legal resources
Immigration law is complicated, and the status of individual TPS designations is changing rapidly.
Anyone who currently has TPS or whose employment authorization may be affected should consider speaking with a qualified immigration attorney or accredited nonprofit immigration legal-service provider.
A person’s options may depend on their country of origin, family circumstances, immigration history, asylum eligibility or other factors.
Congregations should not provide immigration legal advice unless the person providing it is appropriately qualified.
Instead, congregations can help neighbors find trustworthy legal assistance.
Prepare for impacts on families
The termination of TPS can affect more than someone’s immigration status.
Congregations and community organizations may encounter:
Job and income loss
Housing or food insecurity
Family separation concerns
Questions about employment authorization
Increased demand for legal assistance
Fear surrounding travel or interactions with government agencies
Children and families experiencing significant uncertainty
Faith communities can prepare by building relationships now with immigrant-serving organizations, food assistance programs, housing organizations and reputable legal-service providers.
Pray, accompany and advocate
Christian public witness involves more than responding to a policy debate.
We pray for neighbors living with uncertainty.
We listen to the experiences of immigrants in our communities.
We accompany families seeking safety and stability.
And we advocate for public policies that uphold human dignity, family unity, due process and the common good.
Temporary Protected Status exists because Congress recognized that extraordinary circumstances can make returning home unsafe.
As protections are withdrawn for communities that have built lives in the United States, people of faith have an important role to play: accompanying affected families, connecting neighbors with trustworthy resources, and asking policymakers how our immigration system can uphold human dignity, family unity, due process and the common good.
Our neighbors are more than an immigration status.
As Lutherans, we are called to see the human beings behind our public policies—and to love and serve our neighbors.
Sources & Learn More
ELCA Social Message: Immigration The ELCA’s social teaching on immigration emphasizes welcoming the stranger, advocating for fair and generous immigration laws, and recognizing the dignity of newcomers.
Congressional Research Service: Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure Provides background on TPS, congressional authority and national and state-level TPS population data.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: Temporary Protected Status Provides official information about current TPS designations, eligibility requirements, employment authorization and country-specific updates.
Important: TPS policies and court cases are changing rapidly. Information in this resource is current as of August 19, 2026. Individuals affected by TPS changes should consult qualified immigration counsel for advice about their individual circumstances.
Lutheran Engagement and Advocacy in Nevada (LEAN) provides advocacy and educational resources for Nevada Lutherans. This resource is for general educational purposes and is not legal advice.
Unlike a traditional electric rate based primarily on how much electricity a household uses, a demand charge also looks at how much power a household uses at one time. That means running your air conditioner, oven, dryer, and other appliances at the same time could increase your bill.
Consumer advocates have raised concerns about what this could mean for households that have limited ability to change when they use electricity, including older adults, families with children, renters, people with disabilities, and people who work from home.
Nevada lawmakers recently had an opportunity through the Legislative Committee on Energy to take a position on the demand charge. They declined to do so.
That means this conversation is far from over.
As Nevada prepares for the 2027 Legislative Session, Nevadans need a larger conversation about energy affordability, utility accountability, and who pays for Nevada’s growing electricity needs.
That conversation becomes even more important as Nevada sees significant growth in electricity demand from data centers and other large industrial users.
“LEAN believes public policy should protect our neighbors. As our energy system grows, and the increasing strains on our grids, Nevadans who are already struggling with housing, food, health care, and utility costs should not be left carrying an unfair share of the burden especially when the Nevada legislature fails to hold NV Energy accountable” said Rev. Paul Larson, Advcoacy Director .
Who should bear the cost of Nevada’s growing energy demands — and how do we make sure keeping the air conditioner running doesn’t become unaffordable for our neighbors?
LEAN will continue following this issue as Nevada moves toward the 2027 Legislative Session.
Major changes to SNAP are coming, and Nevada families, and our state budget, could feel the consequences.
Beginning October 1, 2026, the federal government will reduce its share of SNAP administrative costs from 50% to 25%, leaving states with fewer federal resources for staffing, training, technology, and administering the program.
Then, beginning in October 2027, states with SNAP payment error rates above 6% could be required to pay a portion of the actual cost of food assistance.
Nevada’s FY2025 error rate was 6.22%, just 0.22 percentage points above the federal threshold.
Based on that rate, Nevada could become responsible for 5% of SNAP benefit costs. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that could mean roughly $50 million in new costs for Nevada in FY2028.
That matters as Nevada prepares for the 2027 Legislative Session.
Lawmakers could face a difficult choice: find tens of millions of dollars in the state budget to maintain food assistance or look for ways to reduce SNAP costs and participation.
We must make sure hungry Nevadans do not become the easiest place to cut.
Improving payment accuracy is important. But accuracy cannot come at the expense of access. More paperwork, complicated verification requirements, or additional barriers could lower an error rate on paper while also causing eligible families to lose the food assistance they need.
Behind every percentage point is a neighbor.
A child who needs breakfast before school.
A senior stretching a fixed income through the end of the month.
A working family trying to keep groceries on the table while paying rent, utilities, and health care.
During this August Recess, Lutheran Engagement and Advocacy in Nevada continues to advocate for a strong Farm Bill and a strong SNAP program. Congress should strengthen our nation’s commitment to addressing hunger, not shift billions of dollars in responsibility onto states already facing difficult budget choices.
And when Nevada lawmakers gather in Carson City in 2027, LEAN will be there advocating for a SNAP system that is both accurate and accessible.
As people of faith, we believe feeding our neighbors is not simply another line in a budget. It is part of our shared responsibility to one another.
Nevada cannot balance its budget by making it harder for hungry families to eat.
When I worked in the campaign world, Labor Day often marked the unofficial beginning of the Get Out the Vote campaign. By then, the final plans were being put in place, volunteers were being mobilized, and campaigns were building the capacity needed for the final push toward Election Day.
In the legislative world, the beginning of September starts a different kind of countdown.
As August comes to a close, Nevada’s interim committees are beginning to wrap up their work. Bill Draft Requests are being developed, voters and candidates are preparing for the midterm elections, and the 84th Session of the Nevada Legislature will convene in February 2027.
That might sound like a long way away, but the work has already begun.
Throughout the interim, legislators have been meeting in committees, hearing presentations, studying policy and beginning to develop the Bill Draft Requests (BDRs) that will eventually become legislation.
Lutheran Engagement and Advocacy in Nevada (LEAN) has been following that work, along with developments across our state, to identify some of the issues that could become important during the 2027 Legislative Session.
This isn’t our final legislative agenda. There are still months to go, hundreds of bills have yet to be written, and Nevada will undoubtedly surprise us.
Housing Affordability
Housing continues to be one of the biggest challenges facing our neighbors.
Nevada made significant investments in housing during the 2025 Legislative Session and special session. That was important progress.
But building more housing doesn’t automatically make housing affordable.
As rents, home prices, insurance, utilities and other costs continue to increase, Nevada must wrestle with another question: Who can actually afford to live here?
LEAN will be watching senior rent stabilization, tenant fees and transparency, eviction protections, affordable-housing funding, supportive housing and homelessness, manufactured housing, zoning and ADUs, institutional and out-of-state investors, and implementation of Nevada’s 2025 housing package.
Housing is more than an investment or economic commodity.
It is where we sleep, raise our families, care for one another and build community.
Nevada doesn’t just need more housing. We need housing our neighbors can afford.
Hunger and Food Insecurity
Housing isn’t the only part of Nevada’s affordability crisis.
When rent, utilities, child care and health-care costs increase, food is often one of the few expenses families can reduce.
That makes hunger an affordability issue.
Changes to federal SNAP policy are also creating new challenges for Nevada. Changes involving eligibility, work requirements, administrative costs and the sharing of SNAP costs between federal and state governments could have significant consequences for Nevada families and our state budget.
LEAN will be watching SNAP access and implementation, school meals, summer food programs, food banks and pantries, nutrition access in rural and Tribal communities, local food systems and the growing connections between hunger, housing and household affordability.
Our congregations know this issue.
We see our neighbors at food pantries, community meals and ministries across Nevada.
Charity matters. But we cannot food-drive our way out of hunger.
What does it say about our priorities when our neighbors must choose between groceries, rent, medicine and keeping the electricity on?
Health Care and Maternal Health
Health-care access is also becoming an increasingly important issue.
The recent announcement that Henderson Hospital will end maternity and NICU services comes while Nevada already struggles with maternity-care deserts and health-care workforce shortages, particularly in rural communities.
Where you live should not determine whether you can safely have a baby or receive basic health care.
LEAN will be watching potential maternal health “momnibus” legislation, Medicaid reimbursement and coverage, child-welfare funding, children’s behavioral health, workforce shortages, rural health, insurance affordability and Nevada’s public-health infrastructure.
We will continue asking a simple question:
Can our neighbors actually get the care they need?
Data Centers, Energy and Affordability
Nevada’s rapidly growing data-center industry is becoming much more than a technology issue.
It is an energy issue.
It is a water issue.
It is a tax issue.
And increasingly, it is an affordability issue.
Data centers promise jobs and economic investment, but their enormous electricity and infrastructure needs raise questions about who pays for that growth.
LEAN will be watching data-center tax abatements, utility infrastructure costs, residential ratepayer protections, NV Energy demand charges, renewable-energy requirements, water consumption, local control, community-benefit agreements and utility wildfire liability.
Economic development can be good for Nevada.
But economic development should also be good for Nevadans.
Who receives the benefits of Nevada’s growth, and who is being asked to pay for it?
Water and the Colorado River
Nevada is a desert.
Water has always mattered here, but the Colorado River situation is making the conversation increasingly urgent.
Nevada, Arizona and California face difficult decisions as demand for Colorado River water continues to collide with a shrinking supply.
Water also connects almost every other issue on this list.
Housing needs water.
Agriculture needs water.
Businesses need water.
Data centers need water.
Our communities and ecosystems need water.
As Nevada confronts these choices, LEAN will continue asking:
Who bears the burden when a scarce common resource becomes even scarcer?
Creation Care
Water is only one part of our responsibility to care for creation.
Nevada’s public lands, wildlife, growing communities, energy needs, extreme heat and wildfire risks mean environmental stewardship will remain an important part of the 2027 conversation.
LEAN will watch public-land policy, proposals involving the sale or transfer of federal lands, wildfire prevention and recovery, extreme heat, renewable-energy development, environmental impacts of data centers, groundwater, wildlife habitat, climate resilience and environmental justice.
Growth and stewardship do not always have to be enemies.
But growth requires us to think beyond the immediate economic benefit.
What responsibilities do we have to our neighbors, to the land and water entrusted to our care, and to generations who will inherit the Nevada we leave behind?
Public Education
Nevada made historic investments in public education beginning in 2023.
Now another conversation is beginning.
What should Nevada expect from that investment?
LEAN will be watching district accountability, teacher recruitment and retention, literacy, chronic absenteeism, the Pupil-Centered Funding Plan, special education, school choice and Opportunity Scholarships, charter schools, early childhood education and declining enrollment.
Accountability matters.
But accountability should help students and schools succeed, not simply punish communities that are already struggling.
So instead of only asking:
How much are we spending?
or
What results are we getting?
LEAN also wants to ask:
Are Nevada’s children receiving the resources and opportunities they need to flourish?
Criminal Justice
Public safety matters.
Accountability matters.
But justice must also leave room for rehabilitation, restoration and the possibility that people can rebuild their lives.
Nevada’s criminal justice system affects more than the person who is incarcerated. It affects children, spouses, employers, victims and entire communities.
LEAN will be watching sentencing and criminal-justice reform, prison and detention conditions, reentry services, housing and employment after incarceration, behavioral health and substance-use treatment, juvenile justice, diversion programs, public defense, fines and fees, educational opportunities, victim services and restorative justice.
We can hold people accountable for harm while still recognizing their human dignity.
The question isn’t simply:
How do we punish wrongdoing?
It is also:
How do we prevent harm, restore communities and help people build a different future?
Immigration and Welcoming Communities
Immigration policy is largely determined by the federal government.
But federal immigration decisions are experienced locally.
They affect Nevada families, workplaces, schools, congregations and communities.
Changes involving immigration enforcement, Temporary Protected Status, humanitarian protections and detention have consequences for people who have sometimes lived, worked, worshiped, paid taxes and raised families in our communities for years.
LEAN will watch state and local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, protections for immigrant families, access to services, language access, workplace protections, detention conditions, legal services, refugee resettlement and the Nevada impacts of changes to federal humanitarian programs.
Lutherans have a long history of accompanying refugees, immigrants and displaced people.
That history continues to shape our advocacy.
How do we welcome our neighbor and protect human dignity in a rapidly changing immigration landscape?
Voting Rights and Democracy
Democracy will also return to the Legislature in 2027.
Interim committees are already considering proposals involving election administration, ballot processing and the relationship between state and federal authority over Nevada elections.
There is also unfinished business involving proposed constitutional protections for Nevada’s mail-ballot laws that could return to lawmakers.
LEAN will watch mail voting, ballot processing, voter access, election-worker protections, Tribal voting access, drop boxes and other proposals affecting how Nevadans participate in our democracy.
Our commitment isn’t to a political party or candidate.
LEAN is nonpartisan.
But nonpartisan does not mean disengaged.
Our democracy is stronger when our neighbors can participate, when voting is accessible and when people can trust the systems administering our elections.
Economic Justice and Nevada’s Budget
Finally, underneath almost everything on this list is money.
Housing requires investment.
Schools require investment.
Medicaid requires investment.
Behavioral health requires investment.
Food assistance requires investment.
Water infrastructure requires investment.
And eventually every policy conversation reaches the same question:
How are we going to pay for it?
LEAN will be watching Nevada’s budget, revenue projections, corporate tax incentives and abatements, wages, worker protections, paid leave, unemployment, household affordability and how state resources are distributed.
Budgets are more than spreadsheets.
They tell a story about priorities.
When Nevada provides a tax incentive, cuts a program or makes a new investment, we are making choices about what — and whom — we value.
That makes the state budget a moral document as much as a financial one.
LEAN Into 2027
This list will change.
Some issues will become major legislative fights. Others may disappear before February. New issues will emerge that aren’t even on our radar today.
That’s why LEAN will continue following Nevada’s interim committees, BDRs, state agencies, community partners and developments across our state.
And throughout the 2027 Legislative Session, we will try to do what we always do:
Learn. Listen. Ask questions. Show up.
Our advocacy isn’t about telling everyone how to vote or pretending every complicated policy question has an easy answer.
It is about bringing our Lutheran voice into the public square and asking how the decisions made in Carson City affect our neighbors — particularly those whose voices are too easily overlooked.
The Legislature doesn’t begin until February.
But faithful advocacy doesn’t begin when the first gavel falls.
Lutheran Engagement and Advocacy in Nevada 