06/23/2015

ELCA Youth Gathering brings thousands to Detroit

CHICAGO (ELCA) – In affirmation of their baptismal promise to “serve others and follow the example of Jesus,” almost 30,000 youth, adult leaders and others from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will participate in the ELCA Youth Gathering July 15-19 in Detroit.

Meeting under the theme “Rise Up Together,” the Gathering will offer youth an opportunity to strengthen their faith and discover their call to serve the world – at home and abroad.
Heidi Hagstrom, Youth Gathering program director, said the baptismal promise “means we share in another’s experience of suffering. It means understanding life in terms of giving rather than taking, self-sacrifice rather than self-protection.”

The ELCA Youth Gathering is a triennial event that brings together thousands of high-school age Lutherans from across the country and overseas for faith formation, worship, fellowship and service. Hagstrom said the Gathering theme and program is based on the Gospel of Mark.

“When studying the Gospel of Mark we recognized the recurring theme of death and resurrection,” she said. “That promise of life from death is something we know teenagers are familiar with, whether they use those words or not, and it also is the metastory of Detroit, a city that has risen from the ashes, literally and figuratively, many times throughout its history. By adding the word ‘together’ to the theme – Rise Up Together – we are making a statement about our church’s preference for the posture of accompaniment, which is the way we are in mission in the world.”
Speakers during the event include the Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, ELCA presiding bishop; the Rev. Luke A. Powery, dean of Duke University Chapel and associate professor of the practice of homiletics at Duke Divinity School, Durham, N.C.; the Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, an ELCA pastor and national leader in areas of poverty and immigration; and the Rev. Rani Abdulmasih, pastor of Mother of the Savior Lutheran Church in Dearborn, Mich., the largest Arabic-English Lutheran church in the United States and the only one in Michigan.

During the event youth will participate in service learning opportunities throughout Detroit.
“This July we invite Gathering participants to engage in Detroit’s unique story of tenacity and hopefulness,” said Lisa Jeffreys, Youth Gathering program coordinator. “We will join in partnerships of accompaniment all across the city, allowing Gathering participants to see God at work through transformative experiences. And last but not least, we seek to empower participants to return home seeing themselves as agents of change in their own communities and in the world in life-giving ways.”

Hagstrom said the event will also help the youth better understand their connection to a “global communion of Lutherans.”

“Many young people have limited experience with what it means to be part of the Lutheran Christian witness in the world. Many don’t experience other Lutherans outside of their family or congregation. With such a small circle of influence, most young people think that the way they worship in their congregation or the values their congregation espouses is the way all Lutherans practice or express their faith. The beauty of Christ’s church is that there is room for all under the tent of mercy made real through Jesus’ death and resurrection. We need the witness of young people in that community of Christ’s church,” Hagstrom said.

Preceding the ELCA Youth Gathering is the Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE) and the Definitely Abled Leadership Event (DAYLE), both to be held July 12-15 in Detroit.

DAYLE is designed to bless and empower gifted young people with a range of physical, cognitive and emotional differences so they might grow as faithful, wise and courageous witnesses. MYLE exists to empower young people of color and those whose primary language is other than English to claim their story as part of God’s story.

The Southern Ohio Synod has 778 people planning to attend the many activities taking place in Detroit in July. Please pray for safe travels and opportunities to serve, love and connect with our brothers and sisters in Detroit.