Assembly Approves Motion to Increase Youth and Young Adult Representation

Bylaws in the ELCA Constitution provide specific guidance for how the church lives out its mission and organizes its work, and they can be amended by a majority vote of the Churchwide Assembly.

On Tuesday of Assembly, the voting body approved “Motion D” with 530 votes in favor and 236 opposed, amending bylaw 5.01.E19 to raise the ELCA’s percentage goal for youth and young adult voting membership on the Churchwide Assembly, Church Council, and churchwide boards and committees from 10% to 20%. The Reference and Counsel Committee also recommended, and the assembly adopted, a continuing resolution directing the ELCA Church Council to develop and present a plan for implementation — addressing barriers to youth and young adult participation — at its April 2026 meeting.

The 20% goal for youth and young adult representation aligns with a 1984 Lutheran World Federation resolution to ensure greater participation of young people in the life and leadership of the church. This resolution called for all member churches—including the ELCA—to uphold and actively advance this standard of shared leadership across all levels of governance; specifically through a 20% representation of people under 30. This commitment has been reaffirmed at many LWF Assemblies, most recently in 2023 in Krakow, Poland.