On the fourth day of the 2024 ELCA Youth Gathering, Lutheran young people from across the country explored together what it means to be disruptive—to work for justice for all our siblings by challenging the normal courses of activity.

Youth groups who participated in their Interactive Learning Day experienced a variety of ways in which the ELCA and its partners seek to live out the kind of disruption God calls us to. At the Gathering’s Interactive Learning Center, attendees engaged with exhibits from dozens of ELCA ministries and partner organizations. Through a wide range of educational styles, games and sensory experiences, participants enjoyed fun and meaningful ways to see their church’s ministry around the world.

At one station, throughout the Gathering youth groups assembled thousands of disaster and hurricane relief kits for New Orleans residents to use in the aftermath of a storm. The kits consisted of items provided by in-kind offerings from each of the ELCA’s nine regions in the months leading up to the Gathering. Local youth who had been impacted by hurricanes were present to share their experiences with attendees.

At another station, groups learned about how ELCA social statements are one way the church aims to disrupt social systems related to a given issue by striving for justice. They were invited to “make a statement” in the exhibit by writing out their ideas about what future social statements should address.

Youth groups assembled thousands of disaster and hurricane relief kits for New Orleans residents.

The ELCA Service and Justice exhibit offered participants a passport to collect stamps from each of its stations. As they made their way along the journey, attendees walked through a day in the life of someone affected by one of the areas the church addresses, including the experiences of migrants and those affected by disasters and hunger. Hands-on activities allowed youth to better understand the experiences of people facing injustice, the ways in which the church is responding and how they could become involved.

The Sumud station included an awareness-raising corner featuring a separation wall, symbolizing systemic inequality in Palestine and Israel. Youth were invited to write messages on the wall in colored paints. In the station’s advocacy corner, attendees could write postcards to their representatives, pushing for a cease-fire in Gaza and for humanitarian aid.

A group of ELCA youth of Middle Eastern descent connected with each other at the Sumud station, having not known about the ELCA’s ministry that responds to occupation and injustice in Palestine and Israel prior to the Gathering. “I learned a lot,” said Joseph (last name of youth withheld in this article), a Palestinian American student. “I’ve met a lot of new people, and I learned everyone’s languages and cultures, and I learned how to do new things.”

A sprawling Community Life Playground also gave attendees a chance to blow off steam or connect at different group game stations.

A call to disrupt

At the final evening mass gathering Friday night, a raucous energy filled Smoothie King Center, with a dance party on the arena floor and T-shirt cannons firing into the crowd—including a few shot by Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of the ELCA.

As the service began, Gathering emcees gave an update that the Generation Zero-Hunger challenge had so far raised $71,162.57.

Orlando, Fla.-based singer-songwriter Blanca then performed a set of pop songs, speaking about her faith journey along the way. The native Puerto Rican shared that she almost didn’t make it to the Gathering because of the global IT outage that affected many airlines’ flights. But, she said, that setback was in keeping with that day’s theme of disruption, adding, “I feel like God chose me for tonight.”

Sally Azar, the first female Palestinian pastor in the Holy Land, spoke about disrupting the restrictions imposed on Palestinians: “To be created to be disruptive means to figure out which rules shouldn’t be rules in the first place.”

Growing up, Azar saw examples of Palestinian women leading in the Bible but not as pastors in her context. She attended the Gathering herself as a youth. “Eventually, I felt God calling me to become a pastor,” she said. “This calling was a disruption—in a good way. … The Holy Spirit calls women. Our church believes in that calling. God created us to be a disruption!” She was ordained last year by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL).

“The Holy Spirit calls women. Our church believes in that calling. God created us to be a disruption!”

Like Palestinians today, “Jesus was also living under occupation,” Azar said. But he disrupted not through violence or force but “by teaching people and healing people and feeding the hungry,” she said. “And he did it by giving his own life on the cross. God broke the biggest rule of all: the rule that death has the final word. God raised Jesus from the dead to disrupt the power of death with the power of life!”

The ELCA partners with the ELCJHL in many ministries, Azar said, adding, “We do not do this alone. We do it together. So God calls us to disrupt the idea that we are Americans or Palestinians or Israelis, and God calls us to remember that we are human beings and all children of God, and every human being deserves to be safe and free.”

In closing, Azar invited Palestinian Lutheran youth on stage to join her, where they received a standing ovation from the crowd. “Whenever the world says that we are enemies, or that some people are less than others, God creates us to be a disruption!” she said.

Lori Fuller, pastor of Palms Deaf Church in Palm Coast, Fla., shared that she first attended a deaf church as a young adult and it was life-changing. “I learned we have a God,” she said. “And God loves me and all of you. … We are created for a purpose, every one of us. I am not a mistake. You are not a mistake.”

Ninety-eight percent of the world’s deaf people are not involved in a church, Fuller said, adding, “I am one of the few deaf Lutheran pastors in the world. There are more than 280,000 deaf people your age in this country. … We need your help to disrupt this idea that there’s only one way to experience God’s love. If you don’t sign, that’s OK. You can partner with deaf people.”

“I am not a mistake. You are not a mistake.”

She then taught the crowd how to sign “I am not a mistake. You are not a mistake.”

In the final message of the evening, ELCA youth Nati shared about how, when he immigrated to the United States from Ethiopia at age 7, playing soccer was a way for him to stay connected to his country of origin. “Soccer became this bridge between everything happening in my new country and everything that was still happening in my home country,” he said. “It connects my past to my present.”

Although Nati was orphaned and initially struggled to learn English, the community he found through soccer was a stabilizing force. “With every change, every disruptive shift, with every new thing to learn in the U.S., soccer was the bridge that let me connect the two countries I know, the two lives I live, the two homes I love. … I am lucky enough to be loved all through the disruptive moments. I am created to be the one who walks the bridge between the two.”

The service closed with Nati participating in a symbolic dance with a soccer ball while members of the Gathering house band performed.

John Potter
John Potter
John G. Potter is content editor of Living Lutheran. He lives in St. Paul, Minn.

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Religious news & social issues   ELCA Advocacy, ELCA Youth Gathering, Holy Land, Lutheran Disaster Response