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Created to Be

by Pastor Mariah Mills

After a 6 year gap due to COVID, the ELCA is preparing for the 2024 ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans! The Gathering for decades has been a transformative and life changing opportunity for youth across the country. For a week in July, thousands of youth and volunteers will travel to NOLA for worship, music, speakers, service in the community, fellowship with their group and synod, devotions, and connecting with ministries of the ELCA. The mission and goals of the Gathering are for all who attend to be affirmed and challenged in their faith, experience new perspectives, ponder their vocation, bond with their group, and learn more about the ELCA and our partners. 
 
Since the last Gathering in 2018, young people have experienced several major life events. The theme of this year’s Gathering is “Created to Be,” with the theme verse being Psalm 139. After several years of challenge and upheaval, the Gathering hopes to remind young people that they were indeed created by God, the Creator of the cosmos. Each day has a specific focus, diving into who we each have been created to be: 
 
  • Brave: to show up with an open mind and heart, willing to be challenged 
  • Authentic: to bring our whole selves and know that we are loved by our Creator
  • Free: to be transformed by the Gospel
  • Disruptive: to work for justice for all our siblings 
  • Disciples: to be sent out into the world to love our neighbor just as we are loved by God 
 
For this Gathering, Luther Heights is taking a group of over 20 students and chaperones, representing 7 different congregations in the Treasure Valley. 2 of those students, Sam LeBoeuf and Owen Preboski, are students from Redeemer. Throughout the next several months, as these students work to fundraise for the Gathering, I invite you to pay attention to fundraisers and opportunities to support Owen and Sam, along with the other students in the Valley attending the Gathering. I encourage you to take the time to ask Sam and Owen about why they want to go to the Gathering–I am confident their answers will leave you with a spark of hope. 
 
On the Gathering’s website, it says  

“we know that this is a powerful and transformational ministry if you are brave enough to let your guard down long enough for the Spirit to enter in, if you can be quiet long enough to listen to someone different from yourself, if your prayer is to be open to what God is calling you to, if you realize the strong roots of a community will ground you no matter the strength of life’s storms, if you imagine yourself as part of something bigger than you.”

As we begin this new year as a faith community, may we see that this is not only true for the Gathering, it is true for Redeemer’s ministry as well. May we be brave, may we listen, may we be open to God’s calling, may we be rooted in our communities, and may we remember that we have the joy of being part of something bigger than ourselves. This year, may we remember who we have been Created to Be. 
 
In Christ’s love,  
Pastor Mariah Mills