The collection contains administrative records, correspondence, minutes, printed items and publications, reports, research materials, subject files, and task force materials collected and created by the Advisory Council on Church and Society (ACCS), its staff, and its predecessor entities as they worked to guide the Church in its responses to the social, political, and economic issues of larger and secular society. While a large portion of materials document the activities and work of the ACCS, its predecessor entities are also represented in the collection, including the Department of Social Education and Action, the Office of Church and Society, and the Department of Church and Society.

The Dean Lewis Files series, circa 1916-2002, contains materials created, collected, and maintained by Dean H. Lewis. Lewis worked in many roles throughout his career in the Church, including as secretary of the Office of Social Education and Evangelism (OSEE; of the Division of General Lay Education, Board of Christian Education [BCE]), as secretary of the Office of Church and Society, and as director of the ACCS. The files are arranged alphabetically by folder titles and cover a wide range of subjects and topics, including: abortion, alcohol and alcoholism, economic systems, education, energy, extremism, farm workers, health care, mission design, peacemaking, religious liberty, the Sanctuary Movement, sexuality, social policy, South Africa, and the Vietnam War. Entities represented in the files include the ACCS (and its predecessor entities), the Ecumenical Development Cooperative Society (EDCS), the General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC), the General Assembly, Ghost Ranch (New Mexico), the Krisheim Institute on Social Involvement (KISI; Philadelphia), the Mission Design Committee (MDC; of the General Assembly Council), the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. (NCCC), the Presbyterian Panel (of the Support Agency), and the OSEE. There are files pertaining to numerous committees, subcommittees, strategy groups, and task forces, including: Central America; Christian Obedience in a Nuclear Age (CONA); Cuba; Health Costs / Policies; Homosexuality; Just Political Economy; J. P. Stevens Plants; Middle East; Migration Issues in U.S./Mexico Relations; Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI); Peacemaking; Religious Liberty and Church-State Relations (RLAC); Science, Medicine and Human Values; Seminary Consultation Planning Committee (SCPC); Sexuality and the Human Community; Small Family Farms; Social Policy Implementation Review (SPIR); Social Witness Implications of Reunion (SWIR); Structure Review (GAMC); Transnational Corporations; and Vietnam. There are also files of ACCS and its predecessor entities' staff, including Dean H. Lewis, Clarence Cave, Clifford J. Earle, and Dieter Hessel.

The Other Operation and Subject / Topical Files series, circa 1938-1977, contains materials created, collected, and maintained by other ACCS and its predecessor entities' staff, including Robert D. Bulkley, Ellis H. Butler, Margaret E. (Maggie) Kuhn, Howard C. Maxwell, Robert E. Raymond, H. B. (Ben) Sissel, and Gayraud S. Wilmore. There are files of the Presbyterian Service Committee for Religious Objectors' communications with conscientious objectors; files of the Commission on Race and Religion (CORAR); and research files on a variety of subjects and topics, including aging, economic life and economics, international affairs, metropolitan society, and race and race relations.

The Audiovisual Materials series, 1960-1988, contains audiocassettes, a media kit, open reel audiotapes, and a videotape chiefly documenting meetings of the ACCS and its committees and task forces.