The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) has strong social teachings that affirm the role of humans as stewards of creation. The 1993 “Caring for Creation” Social Statement set the biblical groundwork, and the the 2023 “Earth’s Climate Crisis Social Message” specifically called upon Lutherans and people of faith to “act decisively” on climate justice. However, as a denominational community, the fight for climate justice is perceived in different ways. Three surveys were taken that analyze how ELCA Lutherans are responding to climate change.
Individuals
The first survey was the “American Climate Metrics Survey” collected by ecoAmerica, who surveyed individual Lutherans and their beliefs about climate change in 2024 and 2025 as compared to representative sample in the United States.
See results of ELCA American Climate Metrics Survey ACMS (2025)
Congregations
2024 marked the first year the ELCA moved from a denomination-wide survey called “Form C” to a smaller, topic-focused survey for smaller samples of congregations, called a “Pulse Survey.” One Pulse survey focused on how congregations responded to climate change.
See the results of the ELCA Climate Change Pulse Survey here.
Synods
Many synods passed resolutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030. LRC’s Just Transition team reached out to those synods who committed to this goal in order to better understand how they were pursuing emission reduction. This became an informal collection of data.
See the results of the LRC Synod Survey here
See also Care for Creation Survey from the Northeastern Iowa synod here!