– Chris Heavner 

I love coming to the Gatherings and staying in a hotel!  My family didn’t stay in hotels that much (even now, I snatch all the tiny shampoo bottles for my kids).  This luxury would probably not be so thrilling if my stay only reminded me that I lack a permanent place to sleep.  For too many families, “home” is a couch in the home of a friend or relative.  For too many of God’s children, it is a dream to have a thermostat which controls the temperature and a bathroom with running water. 

“This Changes Everything” about the way we understand our stay in the hotels in Houston. Those of us staying in the hotels will “change everything” about the lives of three Houston families. 

Three Habitat for Humanity Houses will be constructed in the Interaction Center. Youth will swing the hammers that will frame the walls for bedrooms, kitchens, and living rooms.  I love coming to the Gathering knowing that a part of me and my heart will stay in the hosting city when I am gone.  

This is the fourth Gathering at which such a project has been one of the Interaction Center offerings.  The leadership is provided by Lutheran Campus Ministry and Lutheran Disaster Response. Twelve college students for whom Lutheran Campus Ministry has become an avenue for civic and community engagement will be serving as crew leaders. In addition to the work completed in Houston, we will tell you how you can organize similar projects in the places you call home. 

I love coming to the Youth Gatherings and meeting folks from across our country and our Church.  And I love working with you to change so many things in the city which serves as our host. 

Chris Heavner is campus pastor at Clemson University in South Carolina. This will be his eighth Gathering. He also serves as the faculty advisor for Clemson’s Habitat for Humanity, with whom he as built thirty-three homes.

– Claire Meyer

The Gathering does really, really big things really, really well. One of those really, really big things is Interactive Learning. We have some really, really big and exciting things in store for you.

Interactive Learning is a prime example of the really large scale-ness of the Gathering. In Houston, the Interactive Learning team will partner with over 40 organizations to fill 700,000 square feet with hands-on, creative, and engaging experiences. That’s over 12 football fields of space. We will house things like the blood drive to collect 1,000 pints of blood, and a hair donation station with hopes that 750 people will donate eight or more inches of hair. We will be your go-to place for the firsthand exploration of the daily themes. We are planning ways for you to pick up the daily themes and look at them from many different angles, like:

• talking about the daily themes with the people you came with and with people you just met,
• practicing the daily themes right then and there, and
• then taking home the experience and practicing the daily themes some more.

As much as I love the big stuff, Interactive Learning is all about the small one-on-one moments. Moments where an individual young person realizes that this Jesus thing makes sense. Moments where they connect with an organization doing God’s work that speaks directly to them and their passions. Moments where they discover how God has gifted them and is calling them to use those gifts. These small moments are the ones that make the biggest difference. We offer a huge range of things to do and see. We do this because we have 30,000 individuals who each need a moment to connect with God, to connect with their vocation, and to connect with their church.

The big thing that Interactive Learning does best is creating tens of thousands of small moments.

We can’t wait to help you find your moment that changes everything!

This is a special double entry from the writers of the theme song for the Gathering! Check out the video for the theme song!

– Judi Tyler

I have been learning to write songs and hymns in the past few years. I often get catchy “ear worms” in my head and I start humming them as I drive to and from my job. I like to take theological thoughts (sometimes even from a sermon!) and put them to music that is pegajoso, sticky in Spanish.

I have been thinking a lot about the 2018 Gathering theme, “This Changes Everything,” and how to put it to music. I had parts of a song, but I knew I needed help. One year ago, I met James Kocian through the Arizona Songwriters Association. James is a song coach and music maker who lives in Wisconsin. When I shared my thoughts with James, I said, “In my head, I hear drums but I cannot play drums at all.” James said, “I am a drummer!” We talked about the Gathering, the theme, who would attend, and their home communities. James worked on the song with his amazing musical and technical skills.

One of my favorite parts of the song is the bridge:

It’s by grace.
We are saved.
We belong to Jesus.

That is what I hold on to when life is overwhelming; belonging to God tells me who I am and whose I am. This belonging changes everything.

Looking forward to making music all together in Houston in 2018!

Judi Tyler is a pediatric medical social worker and is a deaconess from the Lutheran Deaconess Association (LDA) diaconate.

– James Kocian

I’ve been a songwriter and producer for a while. Through a mutual friend in Nashville, I was connected to Judi Tyler to offer song coaching and critique. In one of our sessions, she told me about the theme song contest for the Gathering. I absolutely loved the vision for the Gathering. I thought that the title, “This Changes Everything,” was perfect.

In creating the lyrics, I was thinking about not just my own experiences with God, but also the experiences of teens attending the Gathering. I was thinking about the teenage years and how they are often chaotic.

I hoped to capture God’s unchanging and steady nature, no matter how chaotic and challenging our lives can often be.

I wanted the mood of the song to match the enthusiasm of the moment. For the music and melody, I envisioned a stadium full of energetic and passionate youth singing along to the refrain of the chorus. Adding a lot of “ohs,” “heys,” and other modern responses in a drum and guitar driven arrangement seemed to complete the vision and present the song in the way I had hoped.

I am privileged and honored that the song I wrote with Judi was selected. I look forward to experiencing the amazing Gathering in 2018!

– Molly Beck Dean

We are excited to share with you the theme for the 2018 Gathering, “This Changes Everything.” Our primary scripture is Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”

Grace is a foundational part of Lutheran theology. This gift of grace, undeserved and freely given, changes lives and perspectives as people realize they are enough. We are enough because of what Christ has done for us, and we are called into the world to serve our neighbor and to share the good news.

Our logo is a visual representation of our theme and the 2018 Gathering experience. It incorporates the coming together of a mosaic to reflect the diverse host city of Houston. It also incorporates the idea that we are a church where all are imperfect and incomplete, yet we each belong and have an important place in God’s masterpiece. The cross at the center of the logo is the focus—it is God’s grace, through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, that changes everything for all people.

In her book “Woo: Awakening Teenagers’ Desire to Follow in the Way of Jesus,” Morgan Schmidt identifies the three central desires of teens.

All youth desire:

• someone to become
• somewhere to belong
• something to do [that changes the world]

As young people struggle to find someone to become, somewhere to belong, and something to do, the Gathering seeks to be a ministry that helps define some of that, or at least open up pathways of discovery. Ultimately, we want youth to understand the fierce love that God has for them just as they are, and that by grace, through faith, they have been saved. When young people (or a person of any age) truly claims this reality, it indeed changes everything.

We look forward to diving deeply into this theme with you in the months to come!