For Lutherans, public witness has often taken the form of prayer, service, feeding ministries, disaster response, accompaniment, letter-writing, and, at times, protest. A recent article in Living Lutheran (Summer 2026, p. 18), “Publicly, Boldly and Honestly,” reminds us that civic engagement is not a departure from Lutheran faith—it is part of our long tradition of loving our neighbor in public.

In the article, Brenda Martin shares stories of ELCA members whose faith has moved them into visible public action. Their witness includes responding to immigration enforcement, standing alongside vulnerable neighbors, protecting children and families, participating in public demonstrations, and working for civil rights, voting rights, hunger relief, immigrant justice, and care for creation. Their actions are rooted not in partisanship, but in the gospel’s call to love our neighbors, especially those who are hungry, sick, imprisoned, displaced, excluded, or afraid.

The accompanying study guide by Robert C. Blezard poses a question central to advocacy ministry: What does it mean not only to pull drowning people from the river, but also to go upstream and ask why they are falling in?

Congregations are often very good at throwing lifelines. We host food pantries, support shelters, provide clothing, accompany immigrants and refugees, care for the sick, and respond generously to urgent needs. These ministries are essential. Advocacy invites us to take the next faithful step: to examine the systems, policies, and decisions that contribute to hunger, homelessness, poverty, fear, and exclusion in the first place.

This is the work of Lutheran Engagement and Advocacy in Nevada.

When we advocate for food security, affordable housing, access to health care, voting rights, immigration justice, environmental stewardship, and the dignity of every person, we are not engaging in partisan politics. We are practicing public discipleship. We are asking how our life together can better reflect God’s justice, mercy, and care for the whole community.

The Living Lutheran resource also acknowledges that public faith can be uncomfortable. Christians do not always agree about how or when to speak out. Advocacy can be criticized as too political, too bold, or too risky. Yet Lutheran theology offers strong grounding for public witness. The ELCA social statement The Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective reminds us that speaking God’s word “publicly, boldly and honestly” can be a faithful service to God and neighbor.

Our neighbors are affected every day by decisions made at the Legislature, in Congress, in city councils, on school boards, and in public agencies. Public policy influences whether families can afford housing, whether children have enough to eat, whether elders can access health care, whether immigrants are treated with dignity, whether voters can participate freely, and whether communities are prepared for extreme heat and other climate-related challenges.

LEAN invites congregations, pastors, deacons, lay leaders, and people of faith across Nevada to reflect on this resource and ask: What does faithful public witness look like in our community right now?

Perhaps it begins with a Bible study. Perhaps it begins with a letter to an elected official, a call to a legislator, a voter registration effort, a ministry partnership, a public prayer vigil, or a conversation in your congregation about the needs of your neighbors.

However it begins, the call remains the same: to love our neighbor not only privately, but publicly; not only quietly, but boldly; not only with compassion, but with courage.

This is the long arc of Lutheran advocacy. And it continues with us.

For Lutherans, public witness has often taken the form of prayer, service, feeding ministries, disaster response, accompaniment, letter-writing, and, at times, protest. A recent article in Living Lutheran (Summer 2026, p. 18), “Publicly, Boldly and Honestly,” reminds us that civic engagement is not a departure from Lutheran faith—it is part of our long tradition of loving our neighbor in public.

In the article, Brenda Martin shares stories of ELCA members whose faith has moved them into visible public action. Their witness includes responding to immigration enforcement, standing alongside vulnerable neighbors, protecting children and families, participating in public demonstrations, and working for civil rights, voting rights, hunger relief, immigrant justice, and care for creation. Their actions are rooted not in partisanship, but in the gospel’s call to love our neighbors, especially those who are hungry, sick, imprisoned, displaced, excluded, or afraid.

The accompanying study guide by Robert C. Blezard poses a question central to advocacy ministry: What does it mean not only to pull drowning people from the river, but also to go upstream and ask why they are falling in?

Congregations are often very good at throwing lifelines. We host food pantries, support shelters, provide clothing, accompany immigrants and refugees, care for the sick, and respond generously to urgent needs. These ministries are essential. Advocacy invites us to take the next faithful step: to examine the systems, policies, and decisions that contribute to hunger, homelessness, poverty, fear, and exclusion in the first place.

When we advocate for food security, affordable housing, access to health care, voting rights, immigration justice, environmental stewardship, and the dignity of every person, we are not engaging in partisan politics. We are practicing public discipleship. We are asking how our life together can better reflect God’s justice, mercy, and care for the whole community.

The Living Lutheran resource also acknowledges that public faith can be uncomfortable. Christians do not always agree about how or when to speak out. Advocacy can be criticized as too political, too bold, or too risky. Yet Lutheran theology offers strong grounding for public witness. The ELCA social statement The Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective reminds us that speaking God’s word “publicly, boldly and honestly” can be a faithful service to God and neighbor.

Our neighbors are affected every day by decisions made at the state Capitol, in Congress, in city councils, on school boards, and in public agencies. Public policy influences whether families can afford housing, whether children have enough to eat, whether elders can access health care, whether immigrants are treated with dignity, whether voters can participate freely, and whether communities are prepared for extreme heat and other climate-related challenges.

LEAN invites congregations, pastors, deacons, lay leaders, and people of faith across the Grand Canyon Synod to reflect on this resource and ask: What does faithful public witness look like in our community right now?

Perhaps it begins with a Bible study. Perhaps it begins with a letter to an elected official, a call to a legislator, a voter registration effort, a ministry partnership, a public prayer vigil, or a conversation in your congregation about the needs of your neighbors.

However it begins, the call remains the same: to love our neighbor not only privately, but publicly; not only quietly, but boldly; not only with compassion, but with courage.

This is the long arc of Lutheran advocacy. And it continues with us.

Study guide author Robert C. Blezard is a retired ELCA pastor living in Maryland. He earned a Master of Divinity degree from Boston University School of Theology and pursued further study at Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, now part of United Lutheran Seminary.