Editor’s note: Last month 16,000 young Lutherans came to New Orleans for the 2024 ELCA Youth Gathering. From July 16 to 20, Mass Gathering services were held nightly at the Smoothie King Center and other programming was offered throughout each day at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and across the city. We heard from a few members of the many planning teams behind the Gathering, who shared about what it takes for the church to mount an event of this scope, which was years in the making.

As you can imagine, Gathering staff and leadership show up a week or so before everyone else so we have time to get supplies, move into our offices and set up. A few days into my stay, I was returning to my hotel after a long day of errands. It was dark, the street was quiet—well, as quiet as Canal Street can be. But I noticed something different. Our 2024 Youth Gathering banners had popped up on streetlights, welcoming groups to the city.

I had been on staff for five years, through the Gathering’s postponement in 2021 and cancellation in 2022, and now it was finally here. I had chills and started to tear up a little. In just a few days we would bring in thousands of young people to experience church in a whole different way. It was a full-circle moment; my first experience with this ministry was in 2012 in this same beautiful city.

Though it might feel as if the Youth Gathering cycle kicks off when registration begins, the true start of a Gathering cycle is many years earlier, with site visits, conversations with city governments, contracts, theme discernment, building the brand identity and much more—an endless stream of spreadsheets, files, contracts, Slack messages and Zoom calls, all leading us to the Gathering. It was such a surreal feeling to walk around the city and our venues, seeing all the things we’d spent many months talking about—and probably more months pivoting—finally come to life.

—Justin Wilson, ELCA Youth Gathering manager of engagement and resources

Impressions and impact

It was Tuesday, the Gathering’s opening night. I was walking around the interior of Smoothie King Center a few minutes before the doors were going to open, getting to my station so I could help check wristbands and direct folks to seating areas. There was excitement in the air, last-minute instructions being given over my headset, and then the countdown to doors opening.

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Open the doors, open the doors.”

In that moment I was walking by one of the entrances, and there was a literal rush of people excited to come into the space, to enter the Gathering and all that had been prepared for them. There were smiles, high-fives, questions asked and answered, words of welcome expressed, volunteers pointing to and directing the flow of people traffic. The long-awaited opening of the Gathering had arrived.

A couple days later, I was at a different entrance of the arena. Though my tasks were the same as on the first night, I observed something different. Now the staff of Smoothie King Center were sharing in the high-fives and receiving stickers, clothespins and other tokens from participants. The staffers were visibly surprised and grateful.

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Open the doors, open the doors.”

The Gathering is an unusual event for a stadium space and its staff. Some of them asked me what the Gathering is and why all these students were here. They were eager to learn more about “the Lutherans.” They commented on how polite the students were and how excited everyone seemed to be. Simply put, they were impressed. I realize that the ministry and goals of the Gathering are not about impressions, but we certainly left an impression on some of the staff—a positive one.

I’ve heard stories of other impressions and impacts the Gathering continues to make. May these impressions and impacts reflect the connections and relationships shared through faith—even in the form of a high-five with a stranger or a small token received from a student. These entrances provided more than access to a space; they provided an opportunity for connections to be made.

—Jennifer Schultz, director, volunteer team; pastor, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Los Alamitos, Calif.

Why we were there

The role I had in serving for this Youth Gathering cycle was a new experience for me. My only other experience with the Gathering was in 2018 in Houston, where I was a volunteer adult leader for a congregation in South Dakota. It was a joy to put back on a communications hat I had worn for many years before entering rostered ministry. Yet you can never be too sure what will happen during a live event. All the years of planning, brainstorming, dreaming and anticipation were no comparison to the on-site implementation for our team.

It was Monday afternoon of this year’s programming week, the two pre-events—the Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE) and the tAble—were wrapping up, and our focus was shifting to the Gathering. Our team had already been in New Orleans for four days. Between managing a constant stream of app updates and reviewing and approving our team’s content, I had started to hit a wall in my productivity. I needed to escape from the convention center. I was able to get out of the office for a bit to support our communications team differently by picking up more snacks and refreshments to get us through the rest of the week.

Flash forward to the first night of Mass Gathering in the Smoothie King Center: When I finally peered over my MacBook screen and took in my surroundings, it hit me why we were doing this work in the first place. Young people from across the United States and the Caribbean had arrived! Here they all were, in brightly colored T-shirts, celebrating the multitude of ways God created them to be brave, authentic, free and disruptive disciples of Jesus.

Work that seemed tedious (or sometimes even thankless) came to fruition because our team members all had a role in supporting an environment like this for our young people to experience. There is truly no other event in the ELCA like the Youth Gathering, and it was evident on that first night why we must continue to make space for young people in the church.

—Sawyer Vanden Heuvel, content team manager; pastor and mission developer, Shepherd’s Table, Sioux Falls, S.D.

Eliminating barriers

What took more than two years of dreaming, planning and discerning was over in what felt like the blink of an eye. At every stage of planning, the biggest question on the minds of the tAble team was how we could make sure that this event truly eliminated all the barriers these youth face daily. What we couldn’t have foreseen was how our community would grow together so quickly and how things we couldn’t have imagined would happen as if they were planned.

One of the best parts of the tAble is the variety show, a time and space for everyone to show us their talents, sing karaoke and be authentic to themselves. What started off as a list of only a few participants grew, and the show lasted into the night. From Taylor Swift songs (both sung and danced to) to dad jokes and even some poetry, the event was one for the books.

What we couldn’t have foreseen was how our community would grow together so quickly and how things we couldn’t have imagined would happen as if they were planned.

The most meaningful part of the experience was providing a space where tAble participants felt safe, as if they were coming home. There’s true joy when, in the middle of a crowd of the Gathering’s size, you spot someone from the tAble and they come running to you for a hug.

The planning team for the tAble is unlike any other team. We share a passion not only for making worship more accessible but also for allowing our participants to be themselves. At the tAble the rest of the world’s barriers aren’t an issue, and everyone understands that they are created to be “wHoly” who they are.

—Mack Patrick, tAble planning team coordinator; assistant to the bishop, Northern Illinois Synod

The joy of pivoting

Community life events at the Youth Gathering are designed to build relationships by creating fun experiences for participants. Our team loved putting together a playground space in the convention center, Nightlife activities that followed Mass Gatherings, and providing a variety of experiences for 16,000 youth to enjoy.

While fun is the goal for this area of the Gathering, it presents its own challenges. When you have a tight budget to follow and you must figure out how to get supplies where you need them, it means that someone on your team has to drive their truck and trailer from San Jose, Calif., all the way to New Orleans. It also means doing the math to figure out how many people can jump up and down in the ballroom at the Hilton before the hotel shuts down your dance party. Through the many challenges, the joy of it all was watching our team of 24 volunteers pivot, make things happen and join in themselves when they could.

Our volunteers went above and beyond to make our community life spaces fun and safe. From the volunteer who adapted a game for a tAble participant to the volunteers using plastic cups to stabilize the mirrors in the speaker rooms near the dance floor so the mirrors wouldn’t fall off the wall, we did it all. We gave people a chance to be active­­­­ and let their energy out.

It meant working long hours without air conditioning to set up in the convention center and long nights cleaning up after Nightlife events, but we all did it, because we believe in the ministry of the Youth Gathering. We believe that these dance parties with our youth groups will be memories that participants take with them on their faith journeys, that playing pickleball with their pastor will help build trust and love, and that we are “created to be” together as the ELCA, all for the glory of God.

—Cassie Overcash, community life manager; assistant to the bishop, North Carolina Synod

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