• Associates in Ministry are called and commissioned for service in congregations, agencies, schools and institutions of the ELCA. Their primary areas of service are education, youth, spiritual formation, campus ministry, outdoor ministry, music and the arts, administration, service and general ministry.

• ELCA Deaconesses are called and consecrated, and serve in congregations, agencies and institutions of the ELCA. They are members of the Deaconess Community of the ELCA, and participate in the life of that community.

• ELCA Diaconal Ministers are called and consecrated, and serve in congregations, agencies and institutions of the ELCA. Their focus for ministry is the extension of the church’s ministry of witness and care into the world.

ELCA Consultation Examines Future of Word and Service Leadership
The future of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's professional public ministers of Word and service — associates in ministry, deaconesses and diaconal ministers — was the focus of an ELCA consultation in February in Delray Beach, Fla. The central question some 64 participants discussed was how the theology and experience of vocation and service should shape the 21st century roles of these ELCA leaders.
Word and service ministries are based on the concept of "diakonia," or unconditional service to the neighbor in need. continue►

• FACETS (Articles from Rostered Lay Ministers)
• Associate in Ministry by Phyllis Castens Wiederhoeft
  I am an associate in ministry and currently serve as an assistant to the Bishop in the South-Central Synod of Wisconsin. I have served in this position since August 1988.
• Deaconess by Carol Burk
  My letter of call says that I am director of learning ministry at Ebenezer Lutheran Church, Columbia, South Carolina. Quite simply, I am a Christian educator. I am responsible for all of the educational activities in the congregation.
• Diaconal Minister by Phillip R. Deming
  There is a soft, quiet, but resolute click in the sound of a steel door closing firmly in the locked unit of a psychiatric facility. The sound of a door shutting. Metallic echoes of the rejection felt by many struggling with mental illness who have been shut out from the faith practices of their youth. Individuals who are forgotten when shifts change, and those with the keys of access go home.
• The Diaconal Ministry in Lutheran Churches provides further reflections on diaconal ministry, published by a 2005 LWF consultation in São Leopoldo, Brazil. 
• Equipping and Encouraging Laity by Nelvin L. Vos and Melvin D. George
  Congregations are finding ways to support the laity in their callings. Here are 23 ideas.
• Past, Present, and Future by James Mahler
  This is my 15th and final Facets column written for Lutheran Partners. My retirement and new role as Professor Emeritus at California Lutheran University will occasion a change in authorship for this column directed to rostered lay ministers whose calling is to teach and lead ELCA early-childhood and elementary-school programs. My new role as one of the twin tenders for twin granddaughters whose parents are Minnesota pastors is renewing another whole set of skills.
• Prophetic Diakonia, a paper developed by a 2002 Lutheran World Federation (LWF) consultation in South Africa, interprets the shape of diakonia (service) for the Christian church today. 
• Who We Are by Carol L. Schickel
  Significant ministries are being carried out on behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America through the service of almost 900 active leaders who are called to serve as associates in ministry, deaconesses, and diaconal ministers (there are approximately 300 retired workers).