Dear 2022 Gathering adult leaders,

Congratulations on your role to bring a group from your congregation to the 2022 ELCA Youth Gathering. This is an incredible opportunity for you and all who will be involved. Perhaps you feel excited and/or overwhelmed, wondering where to start, especially if you have never been to the Gathering before. 

Be assured, you can do this! You can’t and shouldn’t try to do it alone. Under your leadership, adults, parents and youth in your congregation can work together to intentionally prepare. The Gathering staff and teams will share valuable information and resources now and through the Gathering that will equip groups for a thoughtful experience.

To begin, remember that you don’t need to know all the details right now, just the basic ones. Gathering leadership can be trusted to be on top of all the details and considerations that go into planning for a Gathering. Don’t get stuck on the questions that can’t be answered yet. They will get answered eventually. Share an attitude of possibility and openness and graciously calm expressions of anxiety or fear. You can engage your congregation’s group in learning together.

Schedule info meetings in person, on Zoom or the way that works best for your congregation. Make personal contact as much as possible with youth and families, inviting them to be part of this “once-in-a-lifetime experience,” perhaps starting with “We want you to be a part of the 2022 ELCA Youth Gathering in Minneapolis, MN next July!” 

Your synod, along with the other 64 synods, has a Gathering Synod Coordinator (GSC) who will be an invaluable resource for your questions along with the Gathering website. You can contact your GSC by clicking here. 

May you remember God’s boundless love for you as you start to prepare your group. Peace.

The ELCA Youth Gathering is like nothing else I have ever experienced. I have had the honor of walking alongside young people for over 43 years, including 35 years full time at Bethel Lutheran Church in Cupertino, CA.  We have always had a big emphasis on service and inclusion and the Gatherings have always been a large part of our rhythm.

Our youth group motto is “to provide a place where youth are loved and accepted with Jesus as our example.” While we are not very ethnically diverse, we celebrate a great diversity of gender identity and sexuality. We continue to encourage our congregation to be more actively inviting. My prayer has always been to have each Gathering participant understand that the Gathering would be incomplete without them.

For the 2022 Gathering, I have the privilege of serving as the team leader for the Tech and Talent team. This team manages all of the AV & IT needs throughout our venues in Minneapolis. We also manage all of the musical “talent” in all venues and in partnership with the Mass Gathering team. We have about 12 key team members and work with every other Gathering planning team.

The entire team is made up of servants who breathe hospitality and who are very competent at their tasks. We also really value and advocate for youth leadership from all of our stages and venues. 

This cycle we are hopeful about building the Gathering’s relationship with the Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE). One way we hope to accomplish this is by having the MYLE house band be the host for our premier talent stage in the Minneapolis Convention Center. We are excited about creating a space where all truly feel welcome and that they belong.

Next summer promises to be a great Gathering and we are excited to discover all that Minneapolis has to offer alongside you. 

Tom Hoegel has been involved with youth ministry for 43 years. He currently serves as a Youth Director at Bethel Lutheran Church in Cupertino, CA. He is passionate about helping people live their dreams and is a firm believer that “grace wins!”

Voluntold – the first time I heard this word was over 4 years ago.  Voluntold – to be told by someone else to volunteer for something, in other words, not volunteering on your own.  While being voluntold to do something may happen a lot in life, Gathering volunteers serve, not because someone else voluntold them to but because they want to.

I have the honor of serving as the Team Leader for the Volunteers Team for the 2022 Gathering. I, along with the other leadership of the team, work with and train hundreds of volunteers to serve alongside participants, members of other Gathering Teams, ministry partners, and hotels. 

Volunteers serve at the Gathering because they want to, giving their time and energy to live out their faith in unique ways throughout most of the areas of the Gathering. Many volunteers were past participants or adult leaders of congregational groups and many seek to volunteer at more than one Gathering. They are servants at heart and they believe in the ministry of the Gathering and want to be a part of it. Gathering volunteers serve because they want to, not because they are told to.

The 2022 Volunteers Team is responsible for gathering volunteers to serve as Gathering Volunteer Corps (GVC) and Local Volunteers. Our volunteers serve in a variety of capacities and they need to be flexible to the changing needs of the Gathering.  If you are interested in applying to be a part of the Gathering Volunteer Corps or a Local Volunteer, please apply by visiting the Gathering’s website between May 22 – July 22, 2021. To learn more about these two volunteer opportunities as well as our Servant Companion program for young adult volunteers, visit: elca.org/Gathering/Volunteer.

 Jennifer Schultz is a pastor in southern California. This is the 3rd Gathering she has served on Gathering leadership. In 2015, she was Co-Team Leader and then served as the sole team leader in 2018 for Volunteers. She is super excited to have the Gathering in Minnesota, her home state! 

“I am somebody!”  As a teenager at the 1979 Lutheran Youth Gathering in Kansas City, I had front row seats to hear Rev. Jesse Jackson lead us in his call and response of empowerment. (Trying to get front row seats is a longtime Youth Gathering tradition!) Then my world was rocked when I heard an African-American teenage girl sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Such powerful memories that stick with me even today. “The hymn is known as the Black National Anthem, but it’s more than that. It’s a history lesson, a rallying cry, a pledge of unity, and as people gather to fight for equality and justice, it is an ever-present refrain.”

Fast forward to the 2000 Gathering in St. Louis, I attended as an adult leader. We listened to Archbishop Desmond Tutu say “thank you” to US Lutherans and the rest of the world for standing with the oppressed in South Africa to end the apartheid. Twenty years earlier as a college student, my friends and I tried to get Concordia College to divest in companies doing business with the white South African government. Our little group of activists failed. And then, two decades later, at the Gathering, tears roll down my face when I hear “Thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you” from Archbishop Tutu. Lesson learned: the larger church can be a powerful force. 

Are you excited to join us at the 2022 ELCA Youth Gathering in Minneapolis? I hope so. Please don’t miss this opportunity to deepen your walk with Jesus and learn about your church and the world. You get to make memories with thousands of your new friends from across the ELCA! 

Let’s make some powerful memories together in Minneapolis.

Pastor John Hulden serves as the Assistant to the Bishop of the Minneapolis Area Synod. He’s attended the Gathering as a youth, adult leader, pastor and currently serves on the Synod Day planning team. He’s super excited about Synod Day being hosted in local congregations this cycle!

Hi everyone!  I’m Jessica Liles and I serve as the Faith Formation and Education Director at The Neighborhood Church in Bentonville, AR. I recently was ordained as a Deacon in the ELCA! My husband and I planted this church in 2012 and have watched it grow and move by the work of God and God’s people. When we aren’t busy at church, we enjoy spending time with our kiddos, Caylee and Landen going on hikes, playing sports and traveling.

My first experience at the Youth Gathering was in 2009, when I brought a group of high school students from Wartburg Theological Seminary’s program WYLS (Wartburg Youth Leadership School) to help lead a portion of Interactive Learning. I have also had the honor of serving on the Interactive Learning team in 2012, 2015 and 2018 in a variety of different roles. For the 2022 Youth Gathering, I’m excited to serve as Team Leader for Interactive Learning. 

The Interactive Learning team is working hard to provide a variety of activities where participants can express their faith in action. We are working to have our partners intentionally engage with the daily themes in their activities. One of my favorite things about Interactive Learning is having a space for young people to learn what our church is up to in the world and how they can get involved to grow in their faith and to make a difference. What are you looking forward to learning about during your time in Interactive Learning? 

We are so excited for you and your congregation to join us in Minneapolis in 2022 to discover what God will reveal!

The Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE) will gather under the theme of “Made Free” in the summer of 2022. Gathering leadership asked a few people to briefly reflect on what it means to be “Made Free” and to live into the scripture verse of “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17).

Isabelle El-Yateem, Association of Lutherans of Arab and Middle Eastern Heritage

“As an Arab American youth, I think the theme of “Made Free” is awesome. We need to be released from all the things in the world that hold us back from our true potential. We need to be freed to call out for and demand justice and equality for all people, in all places and in all times!”

The Rev. Joann Conroy, ELCA American Indian/Alaska Native Lutheran Association

“Paul in a letter to the Galatians said, “…we should use that Freedom (of Christ) to serve one another in love and live a Spirit-filled life.” As we come to MYLE, we come sharing the freedom that Christ gave to us – love through a Spirit filled life rich in our Lutheran traditions and celebrating all of our Indigenous gifts of culture with the church.”

To learn more about the 2022 Multicultural Youth Leadership Event, visit our website: elca.org/MYLE.