Beginning on Monday, 8 students and 3 adults will venture down to New Orleans for the 2024 ELCA National Youth Gathering. While there we will gather under the theme, “Created to Be,” inspired by Psalm 134:14, which states: “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
The Gathering staff explains the theme further:
“We have been created to be ourselves. Created by the Holy One. Since the last time the ELCA came together for an ELCA Youth Gathering (2018 in Houston), our young people have experienced several major life events… However, we can rest assured that we are created to be in relationship with one another.
“We are created to be brave, to show up with an open mind and heart, willing to be challenged.
We are created to be authentic, to bring our whole selves and know that we are loved by our Creator.
We are created to be free, to be transformed by the gospel.
We are created to be disruptive, to work for justice for all our siblings.
We are created to be disciples, to be sent out into the world to love our neighbor just as we are loved by God.
“Our host city, New Orleans, has always been its true, authentic self. Our theme, ‘Created to Be,’ highlights the arts, music, and soul of this beautiful, vibrant, and resilient city. New Orleans was built to host and to be a city where all God’s children come together.
“We plan to dive deeper into justice, mental health, and anti-racism conversations throughout the Gathering. These are hard conversations, but our church desperately needs to have them. We also hope to foster relationships and be a sanctuary for one another. We are saint and sinner simultaneously, and we need forgiveness when we aren’t or can’t be brave, authentic, free, disruptive disciples.”
Please pray for our group—Eli, Gavin, Jonah, Kiya, Elsa, Sofia, Teo, Evan, Carter, Kristin, and Pastor Joe—and the other 18,000 participants whom we will be sharing this experience with. And join us in giving thanks and praise to God for the wonderful ways God is active in, through, and around us.
Grace and Peace,
Joe