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: Sophia Behrens

What boundless: God beyond measure means to me is such a powerful feeling that it’s difficult to put into words. To have a God that’s boundless is to have a God that accepts and loves us all, no matter what we look like, who we love, or what we’ve done.

It’s to have a God that fills in all the empty spaces and gives each and every one of us the spiritual gifts we need to work together. And it’s to have a God so incredible that we can’t even list all the ways we see God in our lives, because God’s always just there.

As high school students, having God among us and beyond us is so important because we know there’s an endless love, patting our backs on the difficult days and pushing us beyond our limits on the easy ones. God is here with us now and back home with our families, growing our spiritual gifts through everyday life and allowing us to grow these gifts through experiences that also bring us feelings and love beyond measure such as the Gathering and the ELCA Youth Leadership Summit.

Sophia Behrens is a freshman at Valparasio University. Throughout high school, Sophia was active in the ELCA Youth Core Leadership Team, her home congregation and supporting ELCA World Hunger. Sophia was also a part of the 2021 Theme Discernment team for the ELCA Youth Gathering. 

by: Phil Hirsch

For several years I volunteered at a home for children who were very sick. They had HIV and AIDS in a time when there was no good treatment. They would go in and out of the hospital and sometimes, tragically, they died. The limits of their lives were painfully short and those of us who cared for these children we were often overwhelmed by what we experienced.

“In your boundless compassion, console us who mourn.”   So goes the liturgy of the Burial for the Dead.  

“Compassion” is the heart of Jesus’ life, the word literally means ‘to suffer with’ someone. The 13th century theologian Meister Eckhart said that the best name for Jesus might just be “Son of compassion.” 

One day, Jesus met the funeral procession of a man who died and the scripture says he was ‘moved with compassion’ for those who were feeling the deep pain and sorrow of that man’s death. He responded by raising the man from the dead as if to show that not even death can limit God’s love.  

Life is limited, love is not. That is what kept us going at the home for sick children. Love means having deep empathy for others who are hurting. In some cases, I have literally felt another’s hurt in my own body.  

At times when tragedy and life seemed like more than I could possibly handle, I could feel God suffering with me. In the pain of loss, betrayal, loneliness, injury, family distress, or physical injury, it has helped me to remember that God is bigger than what I was facing. When I wasn’t sure or wasn’t feeling it, I could simply pray, “in your boundless compassion.”

Phil Hirsch has served as a pastor for almost 30 years. He currently is the Executive Director for the Domestic Mission Unit of the ELCA in Chicago, IL. He is the former president of Dooley House in Camden, NJ.

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!