I had always grown up going to church and believing in something bigger, but I wasn’t overly passionate about my faith. At the airport, waiting to leave for the 2018 Gathering, a group of us decided to go to Starbucks and it was that moment when I realized this was a group of people who I knew I would make life changing memories with. I knew I was there for a purpose.

When we arrived in Houston, I discovered that a lot of the other people in our hotel were from Minnesota as well and that gave me an even greater opportunity to build long lasting relationships with other teens just like me! During our Interactive Learning day, I had the opportunity to talk with others from across the church and make connections.

My favorite part of the Gathering was Mass Gathering. Being in NRG Stadium, full of energetic souls, worship music and incredible speakers, nothing else mattered. There were no worries or outside distractions. It was a place where I could just be myself. So many people were giving their lives to Jesus, singing their hearts out. I wanted to be as passionate as them, so I sang along, elevating my worship to God. 

On the last night together, Tenth Avenue North performed. Most nights we stood in the stands surrounding the stage, but this particular night, we were able to get floor seats. I remember, my congregational group was singing at the top of our lungs. During one of the songs, my friends and the people around me wrapped our arms around each other, swaying back and forth. It was then that I felt God’s presence, reassuring me that God had a plan and I had a purpose. 

After the Gathering, my newfound faith was in action. I started doing Bible studies on a daily basis, highlighting the things that stood out to me, and sharing my notes when I felt called to do so. I surrounded myself with people that had the same beliefs as me, I joined a Bible study group at my school and I started going to church on a weekly basis. My life was changed in the best way. 

Grace Heideman is finishing up her senior year in a growing community in Minnesota. In the fall, Grace will attend the University of Minnesota – Duluth. She loves to weight lift and travel and is passionate about her faith.

As a shy introvert, being up on stage in a room of 700+ people is one of my worst nightmares. If you would have told me years ago that I would have been playing guitar, singing, and rapping (yes, rapping), in front of hundreds of youth from the North Carolina synod, I would have thought you were delusional. I was never really one to have a place in a group. There was a voice in my head saying, “I didn’t belong anywhere,” and I let that voice control my life for a long time. Until I met the band.

Rewind to 2015, there was an interest meeting to form a youth band for Synod Day at the Gathering in Detroit. I went to the meeting just to see what it was about. I was immediately pulled in. A few months later we had our first practice. I hated playing in front of people before, but something was different with this group. Our first practice was rough as we learned to play together, but as soon as we finished playing through our first song, I noticed something. The voice in my head telling me “I didn’t belong” was gone. It was replaced by a warm voice telling me, “Here, there is a place for you.”

Fast-forward to 2018, I had the opportunity to play with them again at the Gathering and many other synod events. They became my family, and that sense of belonging never left. Now in college, that sense of belonging has continued with me. Being involved with Lutheran Campus Ministry at my school and within Region 9 events, everyone and anyone is welcomed and affirmed. 

So come, the table is set, and there is a place for you. 

Grace Robinson is a sophomore at Roanoke College in Salem, VA majoring in Christian Studies and minoring in Psychology. She is originally from Concord, NC and a member of Christ Lutheran Church in Charlotte, NC.

by: Matthew Felbein

Hello! My name is Matthew Felbein and I am thrilled to be able to serve as one of the Gathering Hosts for the 2021 ELCA Youth Gathering in Minneapolis. This will be my second Gathering, and even though it is still about 450 days away (I might be counting already…) I couldn’t be more excited!

Currently, I am a junior in high school and I try to be involved in everything that I can. Music is a huge part of my life as well as my faith. I love sharing music at my church whether it’s in a brass group, the high school choir, or playing the organ and piano. I’m also involved with a lot of theater and music activities and my school.

I was absolutely blown away by the 2018 Gathering in Houston. From the first night, I felt named and claimed as a child of God more than ever. Seeing thousands of people of all different backgrounds from all over the country come together for worship, service, and lots of fun was an incredible experience. Without a doubt, it was one of the best weeks of my life and it really did change everything. When I left, I knew I wanted to be able to inspire people like I had been inspired by the emcees, speakers, musicians, and volunteers at the Gathering, and I am so blessed to have this new opportunity!

I can’t wait to see how God’s boundless love fills us in Minneapolis in 2021. See you then!

by: Adam Knudson

I am an ordained pastor and serve on staff at a Lutheran Church, but I am not an ordained ELCA pastor. My background is Presbyterian. My first Gathering experience was in New Orleans for the 2009 Gathering, Jesus Justice Jazz. I didn’t know what to expect. I’d never been to Louisiana before, I’d never attended such a large youth event before, I was afraid of what it would be like to lead a group of a couple dozen youth and adults around a city that I had never visited. Why did I agree to do this anyway?

Our church is in California and while there are MANY churches and many large churches in California, there are not a lot of Lutherans and even fewer large Lutheran churches. Attending the Gathering offers the youth from my church an opportunity to understand their place and their identity within a larger community. When the ELCA gathers tens of thousands of youth from across the country and beyond, some of our best values and our highest priorities are showcased, highlighted and lived in vibrant and compelling ways. 

When our youth attend the Gathering, I don’t need to teach a lesson, read a Bible story, or prepare a class on what we believe or how God calls us to live in the world. The core values of our faith are written large on giant screens, crowded buses full of folks with bright orange shirts ready to serve, and youth and adults willing to listen to the stories of our hosts as we enter their communities and their cities.

The ELCA Youth Gathering has opened my mind to understand the great breadth and depth of what it means to be Lutheran. The Gathering has given me a chance to share this perspective with our youth, to hold up their faith as a mirror in which they can see who they are and in turn, our youth return home and share stories with our congregation. For me, the Gathering is an opportunity to participate in the kin-dom of God and to recognize God’s family as a place where I belong.

Adam Knudson has served as Youth Pastor at Hope Lutheran in Fresno, CA for thirteen years. He is involved in youth ministry networks in his community and Synod.

by: Kelly Sherman-Conroy, MYLE Team Leader

In October of 2019, the Multicultural Youth Leadership Event leadership team, including youth, young adults and adults, gathered at Luther Seminary to discern a theme for MYLE 2021. Before we began our conversations as a group, we took the time to learn about and understand the history of the land where MYLE will be hosted in Saint Paul, Minnesota. This was led by an effort from Healing Minnesota Stories, to bring healing between people of faith and the Native American people who call Minnesota home. Native people have suffered deep trauma over many years, losing their land, language and culture. While many people and institutions contributed to that trauma, it happened with the full participation of Christian churches. As Pastor Jim Bear Jacobs mentioned to our group, “We all still need healing, healing is doable, and churches have a role to play in healing.”

As leaders of MYLE we believe in the power of healing stories. Stories heal because they make invisible pain visible. The listener and storyteller are both healed by their acts. This was a needed experience for our team and our theme discernment. We learned that churches and all faith communities can play a key role in promoting and experiencing healing by opening ourselves to our own history and listening to the stories of Native people. Through the sharing and retelling of traumatic stories, we can create new positive ones.

And this is how our theme for MYLE 2021 was created. Made Free. Our stories, our experiences matter. And together as leaders, we want to be able to nurture community and inspire healing with all our MYLE participants, leaders and volunteers.  We realize that our ethnic cultures are rich in community and family bonds. Made Free to me is an understanding that our MYLE community can be a pathway for healing and brings a time for celebrating the diverse expressions and many facets of our community which are woven through the Holy Spirit.

The scripture chosen for this theme says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”  What this says to me is that the Spirit empowers us and when we feel empowered, things begin to happen. The soul is very much a part of the body, and the Spirit awakens our soul and gives us life. As a body of Christ, our soul is not fully complete unless the rest of the body is also in harmony. Together at MYLE, we emerge as a community to listen courageously and create Spirit-Filled relationships of healing.

MYLE 2021 is going to be a space that will inspire and create liberating relationships with all in attendance and beyond. We want to characterize these relationships by equity, difference, mutuality, communion and oneness. MYLE aims to be an exciting Spirit-Inspired community, inclusive and accountable to all. Celebrating our cultures together we will literally be breathing Spirit into our own healing.

by: Claire Embil

This week, I had the opportunity to preach about the Baptism of our Lord in Matthew chapter 3. This is a story that perfectly exemplifies God’s boundlessness. Jesus is claimed by God as the beloved son before he has accomplished anything, no healing, no miracles.

In today’s society, it’s so easy to only present the image of ourselves that we want the world to see, and our worth becomes tied to clicks, likes and views. You could be smart, talented, beautiful, but the world says, “Ok, prove it.” I think a lot about how radical and spectacular it is to be claimed as beloved without having to prove yourself. We don’t have to prove ourselves for baptism. God’s grace knows no qualifications.

There is nothing we have to do, that could make us worthy of the love and grace that God extends to us through baptism. It is important to strive to be our best selves, but God already thinks we are worthy and beloved. God promises us this undeserved, unconditional, unending grace that we never had to earn because baptism is not about our commitment to God. Baptism is about God’s commitment to us.

That main theme of this text is particularly important to me because it took me a long time to learn. Back when I was getting confirmed, I think I did so begrudgingly, and not because I didn’t want to be confirmed. I very much did, but because I knew that confirmation is the affirmation of baptism.

I was baptized in the Catholic church and my family didn’t come to a Lutheran church until I was 2. The closer we got to Confirmation Day, the more I felt a nagging sense that I didn’t belong. As we talked more about our baptismal promises, I began to talk to my pastors and my youth leaders about getting re-baptized. I very quickly found out that’s not an option. Jesus wasn’t baptized Lutheran so why did I have to be? I knew that we “acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins,” but I still wanted to be re-baptized. I felt like I had to do something to fit into this family. It took me a little bit to learn that anything I thought I could’ve done was already done for me through the waters of baptism, the first time. No repeat needed.

Claire Embil is a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying English creative writing, religious studies and photography. She is actively involved with the ELCA Young Adult Leadership team, the ELCA Youth Gathering, Wisconsin Campus Ministry, Lutheran Student Movement, and competitive gymnastics.

by: Amy Wagner

The ELCA Youth Gathering offers a great way for congregations to be a part of the larger church. The Gathering can be quite a financial and faith commitment on the part of the congregation as well as the family, but I strongly believe this event belongs on the timeline of each person’s faith journey. With a solid plan in place, collecting the funding for this experience can be both faith-filled and joyful. 

Set a budget and have a plan

Start with a budget. What can the church budget cover? What will you ask families to pay? Know your goals, jot down ideas on how fundraising will play a part in the preparation of this experience and enjoy the process. I appreciate fundraising opportunities where the young people were able to share about why mountaintop weeks like these are important points in their faith journey.

Have a goal, now what?

Great, you know how much you hope to raise from now until the Gathering. How do you raise money? In one word, ask. Mike Ward has a fabulous resource called the $10,000 Car Wash on MartinsList.org that changed the way I look at fundraising. Martin’s List is a database of original member-created resources for adults who work with young people and is included in your ELCA Network membership. He believes that through fundraisers, you are providing an opportunity for your entire congregation to be part of passing faith on to young people.

Fundraisers can also bond the group together through working for the common goal of sharing the story of why this event is an important part of the ministry and how it impacts the lives of the participants.

Butter Braids, Car Washes, Dinners, Flamingos, Oh My…

Be sure to check your congregation’s policy for fundraising; but there are many great and fun ways to raise money with endless lists on the Internet; like this one, or this one. You can do everything from butter braids to dinners to Dodgeball Tournaments to flamingoes. 

Another way to raise money is by creating opportunities for ongoing relationships when asking for support. This can be through a “Stock Sale” or similarly a bulletin board of envelopes marked with set dollar amounts stuffed with information about trip participants. In a sense you are creating built-in relational prayer partners. Donors not only get to give financially but they also get to know and pray for the participants by name leading up to, during and following the trip. You can get the details of the basic setup of these with a simple Google search. 

Thank Donors

Be sure to thank all of the people that helped get your group to the Gathering. This can be done with handwritten Thank You notes before you leave, postcards on the trip, specialized text messages with a photo during the week and/or a special dinner after your group as returned and so much more. There are many great ways to tell the impact of the experience to let them know how they made this life-changing week possible.

by: Elizabeth Peter

“God’s power at work in us can be far more than we dare ask or imagine.”

I couldn’t breathe. It was minutes before I was to be ushered in front of thousands of excited teens for the 2018 ELCA Youth Gathering in Houston, Texas. It would be the most vulnerable I have ever been to such a large crowd of strangers. I felt paralyzed, the words had run out of my head, my heart was pounding, palms sweating, fear course through my veins.

As I waited backstage, a friend walked over, saw the nervousness in my voice and body, grabbed my hands and we prayed. The cacophony of screaming youth dissipated into the background and a calm swept over me. The Holy Spirit was so present and palpable in that moment, that I knew that everything was going to be alright. We said “Amen”, the music came on, I took a breath, I walked into the bright lights and began.

I thought that I was standing up there all alone and vulnerable. But I was actually surrounded by the manifestation of Gods love and grace; I was in the midst of Gods people – feeling the boundlessness of love all around me. In that moment I felt the Holy calm that comes from a life filled with all that God is. The Spirit flowed through me with every breath, it was life giving and freeing.

I had been given a once in a lifetime opportunity to share a story about the limitlessness of Gods grace in our lives. I had the chance to be a part of an amazing experience in the life of our youth, but what I received in return was greater than I could have imagined. I had been given the chance to witness Gods church gathered together, love filling the space from the floor to the ceiling, and grace beyond measure.

Elizabeth Peter is an ELCA Candidate of Word and Sacrament at United Lutheran Seminary. She’s very excited to have served on both the 2015, 2018 Youth Gathering Planning teams, as well as the 2021 Mass Gathering team. She loves to cook, cycle, and sing any chance that she gets!

by: Molly Beck Dean, Gathering Director

In April, a group of creative youth, young adults and adults gathered in Minneapolis to discern the theme for the 2021 Gathering. After reading through 2018 evaluations, listening to locals share about their city and much discussion about the spiritual lives of young people, the theme “boundless: God beyond measure” was chosen.

As I have pondered our theme over the last few months, it speaks to me more and more. It challenges me to think about how big God really is – from creation of the universe to crucifixion for sins, from death defying resurrection to the Spirit that continues to guide us today. It reminds me of the wonders of creation – certainly the beautiful Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota, but also rolling plains, dusty deserts, crashing waves of lakes and oceans, lush forests and majestic mountains. God knows no bounds. God is all powerful and all knowing.

Our theme makes the almost incomprehensible hugeness of God personal. In our scripture verse, Paul writes “I want you to know all about Christ’s love, although it is too wonderful to be measured. Then your lives will be filled with all that God is.” Christ’s love for us is so abundant it can’t be calculated, quantified or even estimated. A love that couldn’t be contained in heaven so God came down and became human. A love so huge it was willing to suffer a gruesome death amongst taunts and jeers. A love so magnificent and glorious that death could not contain it and so Love was resurrected and changed everything humans knew about life, love and forgiveness.

To be honest, I don’t know all about Christ’s love or what it’s like to live a life filled with all that God is. I am bound daily by my sins and weighed down by the struggles of our world. But I have caught glimpses of it. I have stood on the beach and been brought to tears by the beauty and vastness of the ocean God created. I have held each of my new babies and cried because I have been entrusted with two of God’s miracles and in that moment knew a love greater than I could imagine. I have been in worship with a heart so full of the Spirit that my whole body danced in praise and my eyes glistened. I have been brought to my knees and cried the ugly cry over mistakes I’ve made and the wickedness that exists in the world, only to feel a calming in my heart and mind that could only be the forgiveness of God.

These brief moments of being filled with all that God is not only point me to the tissue box evidently, but give me hope for my life and our life together. God doesn’t hoard God’s boundless goodness, but rather shares it with God’s beloved – us – in real ways.

Paul’s words are my prayer for the young people of this Church.  As they prepare for this ministry and as they attend MYLE, the tAble and the Gathering, I hope they get closer to knowing all about Christ’s love and what it can look like and feel like to live a life filled with all that God is.

Molly first attended the Gathering in 1997 and has served at the Gathering in various capacities ever since. She’s worked at the congregational and synodical levels in youth ministry before transitioning to the Gathering Director in 2015. Molly enjoys beaches, spending time with her family and finding the best ice-cream shop in town.

by: Elizabeth Hood

I spend months and months planning before we leave for a Gathering, after I have thought and prepared and over-planned, I lay awake at night…Will they all get along? Will we bond as a group? Will this be worth it?  

We start out nervous and excited but then at some point in the first few days there is this “magic moment.” It’s hard to describe and it always happens when I least expect it. That moment when we shift, the group finds a rhythm and we create community. My heart swells to even think about it.

I have this snapshot in my head of each time it has happened. It doesn’t just happen once, it happens over and over again. The first night we walk into Mass Gathering and the youth see thousands gathering, they realize that this is their community. When they are singing, arm over shoulder, swaying on the floor of the stadium with new friends: community. When they walk through the streets of an unfamiliar city and high five a youth from another state far away: community.

They are deeply impacted by this mass expansion of their circle of community and that word takes on a whole new meaning. They make new friends in an instant and connections that change the course of their lives forever! Life altering connectedness and community! 

These connections to each other and the larger community are priceless, the changes to the youth, profound. When we return home, we aren’t just people in a group, we are a community, connected to a much larger community than most of them had ever realized. They belong, maybe for the first time in their lives, forever woven into this community and it changes everything.

Elizabeth has served her congregation in California for over 10 years, loves camping and traveling around the world. She also leads the Hospitality Team for the Extravaganza and serves on the planning team for the Western States Youth Gathering.