How can being in Christian community help us to put our light on a lampstand? Our ELCA World Hunger Advocacy Fellow from Lutheran Office of Public Policy – California shares such an experience in this devotional series reflection: https://blogs.elca.org/…/devotional-flame-burning…/
The next stop on the Pews to Policy Tour is Phoenix, Arizona, where LEAN will join our partners in ministry for Lutheran Day at the Legislature.
Hosted by Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest and Lutheran Advocacy in Ministry Arizona (LAMA), Lutherans and friends from across the state will gather at the Arizona Capitol in Wesley Bolin Plaza on:
Monday, February 23, 2026
9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
This will be a day to learn, to witness, and to raise our collective voice in the public square — activating our faith in love.
Together we will:
All of this flows from our baptismal promise “to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.”
Many of the priorities in Arizona echo the work we are doing in Nevada — a powerful reminder that this is church together across state lines.
Issues for advocacy will include:
These are not abstract policies. They are about food on the table, stable homes, healthy families, and dignity for our neighbors.
We will hear from leaders in public health, government, social ministry, and the church, including:
For LEAN, this gathering is more than a single day, it is part of a growing movement to bring the pews to the policy table.
When Lutherans show up:
And we are reminded that advocacy is not partisan — it is a lived expression of our faith and our love for neighbor.
Last year, as we were preparing for Ash Wednesday, we realized at the last minute that there were no ashes. It would have been easy to assign blame or panic. Instead, I picked up the phone and called the deacon at the Episcopal church across town. They shared what they had, and because of that simple act of communion across congregations, Ash Wednesday was not only saved, it was holy in a deeper way. We were reminded that the church is never just one place, one supply cabinet, or one tradition. It is a people who show up for one another.
This year, snow has cancelled our service.
And yet, as I look toward the snow-covered Carson Pass, I find myself thinking about the wilderness.
The wilderness of Lent.
The wilderness where Jesus is led by the Spirit.
The wilderness where we are stripped of certainty and taught to trust in God’s abundance.
And I wonder if that is not a Lenten image for us: God’s presence moving beside us in ways we did not plan; in landscapes we would not have chosen.
This season is inviting us to shift our vision: from scarcity to abundance, from isolation to neighbor, love, from fear to moral courage.
I recently heard Senator and Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock speak about this moment as a time of moral reckoning, a time when we are asked where we stand and how we will live. And I have been thinking about the stories I’ve heard right here in our communities, about people encountering ICE patrols, about neighbors who may not even claim faith and yet embody the gospel by loving and protecting one another.
Because at its core, the way of Jesus has always been this:
Love your neighbor.
Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, to reveal its deepest purpose: a love that resists empire, crosses boundaries, and restores human dignity.
This weekend I will return to my home congregation for its 80th anniversary. It is in Placer County, a place many would label politically conservative, and yet it is where my faith was formed. Three generations of my family still gather there week after week. The same is true here in Carson City, where generations come together in this community we share.
Which is why I cannot accept the narrative that the church is dying.
The church is not dead.
We may simply need new eyes to see it.
We see it when ashes are shared across denominational lines.
We see it in a snowy wilderness.
We see it in neighbors protecting neighbors.
We see it in grandparents, parents, and children gathered around the same table.
We see it in this congregation.
This Lent, I invite you to look for that abundance.
To notice where God is already present.
To notice the companions on the road.
To notice the love that refuses to be cancelled — even by snow.
Because the wilderness is not empty.
It is full of God.
The National Faith + Climate Forum is one of the nation’s largest and most diverse gatherings at the intersection of faith and climate. Each year, it brings together more than 2,000+ participantsacross 80+in-person host locations, representing more than 550 congregations and 30 faith traditions and denominations. Clergy and congregational leaders of all ages come together to learn, collaborate, and implement meaningful climate solutions in their communities.
Join us on Saturday, April 25, 2026, at a host location or from your home or office for a powerful hybrid event featuring live-streamed program. This year’s theme, The Future We Choose: Faith in Action for a Thriving Tomorrow, invites attendees to imagine and build the world that becomes possible when people of faith lead with courage, care, and conviction.
Today we mark Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent — forty days of repentance, reflection, and reconciliation. In a time when the brokenness of the world can feel overwhelming and insurmountable, this holy season reminds us of a profound promise: God meets us in the dust, in the ashes, in the places of fracture — and God is always at work bringing healing and redemption.
Lent is not only a personal journey of prayer and devotion. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to witness to God’s transforming work not just within our worshipping communities or private spiritual lives, but as the church together in the public sphere. Our civic life is often marked by tension and forces that seek to divide us from one another. Yet the cross stands at the center of our faith as God’s embodied promise that division and death do not have the final word. In Christ, reconciliation and new life are already breaking in.
This season, we invite you to live out your faith as public witness through learning, prayer, advocacy, and community engagement. The following resources offer ways for us to walk this Lenten journey together:
Studies for Civic Life and Faith has released a churchwide curriculum designed to help us engage faithfully with questions of religious liberty, the relationship between church and government, and our shared life in society. Each session includes an opportunity to offer feedback directly to the task force, making this not just a study, but a conversation shaping the future of our church.
In the 2026 series, “Body of Christ,” we are invited to reflect on Paul’s proclamation that “we who are many are one body in Christ” (1 Corinthians 12). No member of this body can be dismissed or deemed expendable. This series lifts up Palestinian Christians as an inseparable and equal part of Christ’s body, calling us into prayer, solidarity, and deeper awareness of our mutual responsibility, care, and love.
A daily practice that connects prayer with action, reminding us that our Lenten disciplines are always tied to God’s concern for our neighbors — especially those experiencing hunger and poverty.
Rooted in Matthew 25:37–40, this challenge invites us to see Christ in our neighbors who are hungry, sick, imprisoned, and marginalized. Each week focuses on learning, compassion, and advocacy, stretching our spiritual lives beyond reflection into concrete action on behalf of underserved communities.
Wherever you begin this Lenten journey, whether in ashes, in longing, in weariness, or in hope, we walk together toward Easter morning trusting in God’s promise that new life is always possible.
Lent does not call us into despair.
It calls us into honesty, into community, into courage, and into hope.
For we are an Easter people, and even now, hope is already rising.
Lutheran Engagement and Advocacy in Nevada 