By Mary Henrichs
PHOENIX — “Last summer, I was a page for the Oklahoma District Convention,” said Emma Wosmek, 17 — the youngest district representative at convention — “And I don’t know, I guess they liked me.”
“We’re so proud of her,” said the Rev. Dr. David Nehrenz, president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Oklahoma District. “Emma is the only teen in high school that’s a youth delegate at this entire convention.”
Page 105 of the 2023 LCMS Handbook contains two lines that are easy to glance over: “Each district may be represented by two youth representatives at conventions of the Synod” (Bylaw 3.1.4.6). This provision has been in the Bylaws going back to at least 2001. This year, a total of four youth representatives traveled to Phoenix from the LCMS Oklahoma and Wyoming districts.
In the Oklahoma District, the idea to make use of this opportunity came primarily from the Rev. W.R. Rains, who served as the district’s secretary for 16 years before joining the Oklahoma District Board of Directors. He was inspired by Set Apart to Serve: “Let’s get the youth involved!”
The Oklahoma District involved the youth at their district convention, inviting young people to serve as pages. Pages are responsible for helping a convention run smoothly — distributing paperwork, collecting unused voting devices and even hushing side conversations on the convention floor. The Oklahoma District invited two of those pages to come to Phoenix as youth representatives: Emma Wosmek and Hunter Remington.
“I wanted to get the glimpse of how we work,” said Remington, 22. He recently graduated from Concordia University, Nebraska (CUNE), Seward, Neb., having fulfilled the pre-seminary track and received his bachelor’s in church music. He will attend Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, this fall.
“They always say that we have a really unique structure in our Synod, and this has been very eye-opening — to see why what we have exists and why it actually works for us,” said Remington.
He’s been listening and learning, and he says some of the other district representatives have encouraged him: “‘If you have something to say, or if you can provide an insight that a lot of others can’t, feel free to speak.’
“That’s been very encouraging: That what the youth are thinking is being valued, even at the national convention level.”
Wosmek, who is interested in studying data analytics or industrial engineering, expressed amazement about how much effort goes into making the LCMS run. “Things aren’t just magically the way they are,” she said. “I have so much respect for the people here, especially the floor committee guys — they have to know everything about their certain topic. They’re so knowledgeable, and they care so much.”
As one of the only high-school-aged youth in her congregation, she also took encouragement from seeing so many Lutherans gathered in one place — similar to the encouragement she felt at the LCMS Youth Gathering in New Orleans last year. “The opening worship service was really cool, [to have] that many people singing and saying the Lord’s Prayer together.”
“There’s an opportunity here to show the kids how the church works, and, frankly, just let them meet each other from all over the country,” said the Rev. John E. Hill, president of the LCMS Wyoming District. “Part of the motivation for us was we wanted our Luther Classical College students to be here and to see things and to bring that back to the college.”
The youth representatives from Wyoming, Noah Waterbury and Miriam Kieser, both 19, completed their freshman year at Luther Classical College this spring. Waterbury is on the pre-seminary track, and Kieser is studying to become a Lutheran teacher.
When Kieser received the invitation from the district, she wasn’t entirely sure what convention was. Her dad told her, “That’s actually a great honor. You should do it.”
Kieser and Waterbury were immediately struck by the number of people in attendance. “It’s overwhelming … coming from Wyoming, where everything’s small, to a big city and probably over a thousand people here,” said Waterbury. “It took me a while to realize the enormity of what we’re doing, because it’s all on the Synod level.”
A highlight for the pair from Wyoming was the opportunity to talk with Thor Henrik With, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese in Norway, at the Lutheran Church Extension Fund ice cream social on Monday night.
“That was definitely worth coming for,” said Waterbury, although he’s not sure he’d want to attend again in the future. “But if coming up, I have the opportunity and there are issues I think I could lend a valuable voice to, then maybe I would consider it further.”
“We are the next generation of the church — we’re the next people coming up,” said Wosmek. “At some point, we’re going to be the people voting and making the decisions. The earlier you start, the earlier you can be ready for your own role.
“If I got invited, I would totally come back.”
2026 LCMS Convention
Under the theme “Christ Is Risen Indeed,” the 69th Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod met July 18–23, 2026, at the Phoenix Convention Center in downtown Phoenix.
There are several ways to get convention news, including:
Web
• lcms.org/convention/national
Video
• lcms.org/convention/national/livestream
Audio
• kfuo.org
Social media
Posted July 22, 2026
