Greetings from our nation’s capital! I join the ELCA Washington Office as the new Director for Grassroots Advocacy and Communication, where I look forward to working with Christians as we connect faith and public life.
Humbled by Christ’s constant inclusion of people living on the margins of society, Christians identify with and support the vulnerable through prayer and public witness. God’s inescapable call to his people to lift up the sick, welcome the stranger, and aid the poor follows us outside of our church walls and in to our communities, our wider nation, and our world.
Christians in the United States have unique opportunities to work through political channels on behalf of the vulnerable. Through advocacy ministries, the Church intercedes and creates space for the voiceless by engaging governments to aid immediate need and shatter deeply imbedded cycles of injustice. This citizenship and view of government was central to the Reformation and remains important today.
My work here in Washington is based on an active partnership with you and your congregation. I very much look forward to hearing your vision, and it is my hope that you will share your advocacy ministries with me and our larger Church body, as well as your communities and elected officials. We seek to keep you informed of governmental action, and our office can provide resources to assist you in standing up for God’s most vulnerable children.
Everyday the God of our fathers and mothers, the Lord who always lives and is always near, goes with us as we collaborate to carry out Christ’s work on earth. Jesus tells us, “The harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.” Today we ask the Lord of the harvest to call us, unite us, and work through us to shape public perception and policy affecting Creation, the poor, the hungry, the sick, and the stranger.