Voting is one way people of faith care for their neighbors and seek the common good. A new ELCA Election Engagement Toolkit offers congregations practical, nonpartisan ways to encourage civic participation, protect access to the ballot, and bring a faithful presence to election season.

Designed for congregations, ministry leaders, and individuals, the 20-page toolkit helps Lutherans engage faithfully in our democracy without telling anyone how to vote. Instead, it provides practical ideas for encouraging informed participation, reducing barriers to voting, and strengthening trust in our election process.

Grounded in the ELCA social statement Faith and Civic Life: Seeking the Well-being of All, the toolkit reminds us that Christians are called “to pray, participate in, and advocate for civic life in the United States.” At the same time, it makes clear that congregational election engagement must always be transparent, legal, and strictly nonpartisan.

Start Where You Are

One of the toolkit’s greatest strengths is that it recognizes every congregation is different. Each section includes three levels of engagement, Beginning, Ready for More, and Challenging, allowing churches to start with simple actions and grow their ministry over time.

The toolkit offers practical guidance for:

• Beginning conversations about faith, voting, and the common good.
• Helping people check their voter registration and make a voting plan.
• Hosting nonpartisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts.
• Providing transportation, childcare, or other Election Day support.
• Recruiting poll workers, poll observers, and poll chaplains.
• Serving as a polling location when appropriate.
• Sharing trustworthy election information and responding to misinformation.
• Supporting election protection and de-escalation efforts.
• Holding prayer vigils and other public expressions of faithful witness.

It also includes Bible studies, worship resources, legal guidance, and conversation tools to help congregations discuss political differences while remaining rooted in Christ’s call to love our neighbors.

Practical Ideas for Nevada Congregations

Here in Nevada, these ideas are especially timely.

Our state is one of the nation’s most closely watched electoral battlegrounds. Statewide elections are often decided by only a few thousand votes, and local elections frequently shape decisions about housing, health care, education, food security, public lands, and other issues that affect our neighbors every day.

Congregations can make a meaningful difference by:

• Posting a “Prepared to Vote” checklist.
• Helping members verify their voter registration.
• Sharing accurate election information from the Nevada Secretary of State and county election officials.
• Offering rides to polling locations or early voting sites.
• Making election information available through food pantries, community meals, shelters, and other outreach ministries for neighbors who may face barriers to voting, including older adults, people with disabilities, Tribal communities, rural residents, and people experiencing homelessness.

The toolkit also introduces the ministry of poll chaplains, trained clergy and lay leaders who offer a calm, welcoming, nonpartisan presence at voting locations and help foster peaceful civic participation.

Truth Matters

The toolkit gives significant attention to misinformation and disinformation.

Churches are among the most trusted institutions in many communities. That trust carries a responsibility to share accurate information and point people toward reliable sources.

Sometimes faithful leadership is as simple as confirming the correct election date, registration deadline, polling location, or identification requirements. It can also mean building relationships with local election officials so questions can be answered with confidence and accuracy.

As Christians, our commitment to truth calls us to distinguish between honest mistakes, misunderstandings, and intentional falsehoods, and to ask whether what we share reflects our love for our neighbors.

Faithful, Not Partisan

The toolkit draws an important distinction: election engagement is not candidate endorsement.

ELCA congregations may encourage voting, provide nonpartisan voter education, host appropriately structured candidate forums, advocate for fair access to the ballot, and pray for our elected leaders and communities.

They may not use church resources to support or oppose candidates or political parties.

Our faith will not lead every Lutheran to the same political conclusions. But it does call all of us to seek the well-being of our neighbors, uphold human dignity, tell the truth, and participate faithfully in our shared civic life.

As election season approaches, perhaps the question is not whether churches should engage, but how we can do so in ways that reflect Christ’s love for our neighbors and strengthen the communities we share.

What’s one faithful step your congregation can take this election season?

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