On day three of the 2024 ELCA Youth Gathering, Lutheran young people explored freedom—the freedom to be their full selves, loved by a God who created them just as they are; the freedom work of highlighting the dignity of all people; and the freedom to accompany others, putting God’s love into action.

On Thursday 5,012 Gathering attendees participated in their Accompaniment Day, the largest group to take part in the day this week. On Accompaniment Day youth groups encounter community leaders who are making an impact across New Orleans and the world.

Each off-site accompaniment project was crafted by local leaders to help deepen their missions. From July 17-19, Gathering groups are rotating between 200 locations in the city, clearing storm drains, cleaning parks, and beautifying playgrounds and shelters, among other activities. At one site, the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, groups took part in an oyster shell recycling program.

But ELCA youth also learned more about how, in addition to direct service, accompaniment involves justice and policy work. On-site at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, groups rotated through different engagement opportunities with a wide range of local organizations and ELCA programs and partners.

After sharing about the work they do in New Orleans, Alliance for Affordable Energy staff led attendees in writing letters to their own public service commission regulators about their concerns or local needs. The groups’ letters addressed overreliance on fossil fuels, clean energy, energy efficiency and community solar panel systems, among other topics.

“We are created to be advocates. We can bring the stories of our communities to impact the laws that are passed.”

“It was interesting—we learned about energy,” said Brody (last names of youth are withheld in this article) from Trinity Lutheran Church in Waupaca, Wis. “It kind of relates to what we have where we live in Wisconsin.”

Trevor, also from Trinity, agreed. He wrote a letter about “how in Waupaca there needs to be more renewable resources,” he said. “There are some solar panels, but I feel like that’s more of a concern for me.”

The ELCA’s advocacy site focused on policy and engagement, providing groups with an original board game to play, Moves for Justice and Peace. Players wrote down issues they cared about on cards and then came up with ways to address them, making their way through the board to achieve their goals. The session offered tips for engaging with policymakers.

At the ELCA Witness in Society session, groups were walked through how to respond to issues through policy advocacy at the local, state and national levels. Amy Reumann, ELCA senior director for Witness in Society, asked the youth to share their concerns around issues local to them.

“We are created to be advocates,” Reumann said. “We can bring the stories of our communities to impact the laws that are passed. … Public policy can tear down walls. It can also reinforce them.”

“Be you”

The Thursday night mass gathering centered on the theme “Created to Be Free.”

The service opened with a set of New Orleans jazz songs, followed by an update that $40,932 had been raised by the end of the Gathering’s second day for Generation Zero-Hunger, a fundraising challenge to support ELCA World Hunger.

Tammy Jones West, Youth Gathering director, then read a statement of apology. “Last night in the arena, students and adult leaders from a congregation that attended [the Multicultural Youth Leadership Event] experienced racial hostility,” she said. “On behalf of the Youth Gathering staff, volunteers and participants, we deeply apologize for the harm experienced and publicly acknowledge the offense.”

When writer and public speaker Austin Channing Brown later took the stage, she referenced the apology and directly addressed the young people of color at the Gathering. “There’s a very particular experience that happens for students of color who find themselves in the minority in predominately white spaces,” she said. “People expect you to conform—to be like them in order to be ‘good.’

“In too many churches, there are people of color—and in your school, in your neighborhood—who are being asked to be something other than themselves. And I want you to know that when God created you, God said, ‘And you are good.’”

“I want you to know that when God created you, God said, ‘And you are good.’”

Brown offered an affirming message to ELCA youth of color: “I need you to know that you are not the work. Racial justice is the work. … The freedom work that we are called to is to honor the dignity of every person in the world. But I also need you to honor your dignity, because you are fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Her directive was in keeping with the experience of ELCA youth Sianna, who said, “God did wonders creating me.” But there are times when her self-assurance is curbed by doubt. “The voice in my head says, ‘These people do not want to be around you,” she added. “You are taking up too much space. Talking too much.’”

In those moments Sianna remembers a centering truth: “Nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39). I have to remind myself of this truth every day. I am loved by God. And this reality gives me the freedom to love myself, love others and love God. Nowhere in this Scripture does God mention anything about changing yourself for others. Be you.”

Drew Tucker, executive director of HopeWood Outdoors, similarly shared about the freedom he found in learning to embrace his authentic self. Growing up, Tucker constantly compared himself to his popular brother while he struggled with self-image and eating disorders. He drew parallels between their experience and the biblical story of Jacob and Esau.

But, Tucker said, “here’s the thing: We were created to be free. You were created to be free from the burden of being someone else, because you were created to be free—fully and wholly yourself.”

In an original spoken-word performance, rising high school freshman Jada rallied the crowd to live out Jesus’ commitment to justice: “Let us fight for justice with love and care. For we are all human, we are all the same. And justice for all is the only way to claim our humanity, our dignity, our rights. Let us do justice and shine with all our light.”

“You were created to be free from the burden of being someone else.”

In closing remarks, Keats Miles-Wallace, mission developer of Technicolor Ministries in Seguin, Texas, spoke of the time they felt their identity affirmed after an adolescence of failing to fit in. “In college, I finally discovered that being me was better than being who people wanted me to be,” they said. “I found places of worship that would accept me for my whole self, not just the parts people said God would love.”

In fact, Miles-Wallace said, “God didn’t just accept me—God loved me, delighted in me. I was created to be free. Free to discover and to be my weird, different and unique transgender, nonbinary, neurodivergent, Anglo and Mex-Indigenous self.”

Instead of being bound by the expectations of others and “contorting myself in the most uncomfortable ways for their approval,” Miles-Wallace is now “chasing the freedom of expression that God intends for all of creation.”

But it isn’t enough to only free oneself, they said, “I want everyone to know the light of God.”

Miles-Wallace closed with an invitation: “Can you imagine if everyone actually believed that they were created to be free? What an incredible world that would be. A world full of God’s love felt within people and shown to people by each and every one of us.”

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   children and youth, ELCA Advocacy, ELCA Youth Gathering, Racial justice