– Lisa Jeffreys

Why the Gathering, and why service learning? Because Jesus!

That’s the easy answer, right?

But the answer really is because of Jesus.  Nothing about organizing service learning experiences for the Youth Gathering is easy.  Yet the church places great value on cultivating meaningful service learning experiences at the Gathering.

Jesus calls us into relationship with others: other perspectives, other backgrounds, other everything.  The churchy word for that is accompaniment.  Accompaniment means we value the relationship built in service learning enough to do the really hard work of listening, respecting, inviting, and engaging fully in the experience.  Jesus models this kind of ministry when he invites himself to Zacchaeus’ house for dinner, when he shares a drink with the woman at the well, and when he walks alongside two disciples on the road to Emmaus.  It’s about connecting our stories: my story, your story, God’s story.

Detroit is still buzzing about the Skittles explosion that was created at the 2015 ELCA Youth Gathering.  A few week’s after the event I received this email from one of our neighborhood partners, a resident of the Detroit Osborn neighborhood: 

“We prayed for helping hands but never imagined the most loving hearts that would come along with them! Our team, ‘Pathway from Playfield to Paradise‘ worked on relentlessly to uncover the sidewalk buried for decades (so the children no longer have to walk in the street) and created beautiful planters from the tires that have been dumped (causing horrible mosquito infestation). May God continue to bless you always ELCA. You bring hope for a better future!”

I am excited to see how the Spirit will move through participants and service learning partners in 2018 because, you know, Jesus.

Lisa Jeffreys was the Service Learning Coordinator for the 2015 ELCA Youth Gathering 

– Jason Poole-Xiong

Even after 20 years, I still remember my first ELCA Youth Gathering. The memories are some of the most formative and joyful of my entire life. I remember being nervous and scared to travel and to be with other youth, especially that many other people for a week. However, it was the number of people, the enormous number that I remember most—being with over 35,000 Lutherans—was something I was never expecting to be so unforgettable.

The feelings of hesitation and not knowing what to expect quickly moved into feeling the awesome power of the Holy Spirit. So many other people in the same room shared my faith and felt that their faith was important enough for them to take a chance to come to the Gathering.

I have had the pleasure to attend seven ELCA Youth Gatherings as a participant, an adult leader, and a volunteer. Each one was unique and each one shares a special place in my faith journey. That is why the opportunity to serve as a Synod Coordinator for the 2018 ELCA Youth Gathering was something I couldn’t pass up.

I know that the Gathering is a transformative event and an opportunity in our faith journey to experience God’s presence in a very real way.

We have the privilege to walk with young people who are transformed and will return home to make their faith an integral part of their daily lives.

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!

– Aubrey Thonvold

I know firsthand just how magical and life changing the Youth Gathering can be.  I went to my first Gathering back in the 90s when I was a freshman in high school.  It was powerful to be with over 30,000 peers experiencing the life of the church on such a massive scale. It was just as powerful as a youth leader when I brought a youth group ten years later.  However, it is in my current role as the Executive Director of ReconcilingWorks that I look forward to the Gathering with a different level of excitement.

The holy work of ensuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people and their families are named, seen, and cared for in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is transformative.  As a lesbian, there have been times in my life where church did not always feel like a safe place for me.

The role that ReconcilingWorks has at the Gathering is to create a space where LGBTQ youth and adults can be fully themselves and celebrate the beautiful diversity in which we are all made.

I am looking forward to the Gathering in Houston so we can celebrate and affirm the many ways the LGBTQ community helps to make the ELCA its best.   No one should ever wonder if the church is a safe place for them.

Make sure and stop by the ReconcilingWorks booth . . . just look for the rainbows!

– Iain Chester

My first experience of the ELCA Youth Gathering was less than two years ago in Detroit. I learned quickly that a Gathering is unique and that there is nothing quite like worshiping in an NFL stadium filled with 30,000 people. As children’s rights activist Marian Wright Edelman walked out on to the stage during worship, she summed it up perfectly saying, “You are incredible.”

My role at the ELCA Youth Gathering was to help with ELCA World Hunger’s Walk for Water. This interactive experience invites participants to learn more about access to clean water by following the story of someone who does not have easy access to clean water. Participants can feel what it is like to collect water by carrying a five-gallon jug of water (about 41.5 pounds when full).

Looking out at the crowd, Marian Wright Edelman challenged us saying, “With your energy we are going to transform America and make it understand that God did not make two classes of children.”

Since the Gathering, many congregations, youth groups, and high schools across the ELCA have hosted their own localized versions of ELCA World Hunger’s Walk for Water. I believe that this experience, taken home by so many who came to the Gathering, has been a small part of the transformation Wright Edelman spoke about.

Congregations and youth groups have also been part of transformation through giving. Many who attended the 2015 ELCA Youth Gathering brought gifts to support ELCA World Hunger’s Walk for Water. To date, over $1 million has been raised to support ELCA World Hunger water-related projects. This transformation all began at the Gathering and will continue to provide clean drinking water like spring boxes and boreholes, support for irrigation systems, education about sanitation in rural villages, and so much more.

God did not make two classes of children, some with access to clean water and others without.

As we look toward Houston and the 2018 ELCA Youth Gathering, I am excited to see the ways in which God will transform us, our world, and our understanding of one another.

– Kinda Makini

Blessings from me to you!

My name is Kinda Makini. I am honored to serve as the Team Leader for the Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE) for 2018. Through MYLE, we live to empower young people of color and those whose primary language is other than English.

At MYLE, our hope is for everyone attending to embrace their story as a part of God’s story to move towards healing and wholeness as transformational leaders in the world.

At the Gathering in Detroit, I served as a Co-Team Leader and Project Manager for Service Learning. Serving on the ELCA Gathering team transformed my life to love and tackle God’s work through accompanying our young people.

I live in Detroit, Michigan with my precious little one; Kay’Lei Ella. I am the Executive Director of Inner City Youth Group, whose mission is to serve youth between the ages of five to 24. My hobbies are sewing, playing Candy Crush, exercising, bowling, and most of all, enjoying time with family.