Youth Gathering planning nears fruition

Director of Christian education Nick Moss, convention center co-director for the 2025 LCMS Youth Gathering, talks with other planners about Gathering activities. (Matthew E. LaVere)

By Stacey Eising

“It’s an amazing thing to watch all these Gathering planners come together, working hard so that the youth can connect with their Savior … and [their] brothers and sisters in Christ,” said Director of Christian Education (DCE) Nick Moss, who serves as convention center co-director for the 2025 Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Youth Gathering.

When thousands of youth and their adult leaders convene in New Orleans July 19–23, their experience will be the result of 2½ years of preparations by a team of hundreds of LCMS Youth Ministry staff and volunteers.

Anyone who has ever attended a Youth Gathering knows it is a well-oiled machine. The 2022 Gathering drew around 20,000 youth, adults and volunteers. Youth attend daily Bible studies that are planned months in advance. Each night’s Mass Event includes 90 minutes of high-production live programming. Each day, dozens of sessions, exhibits, activities and servant events are held throughout the convention center.

The planning for all of this begins shortly after the previous Gathering wraps up. In January 2023, a group of planners, youth ministry practitioners and theologians gathered in New Orleans to brainstorm the 2025 theme and topics. Input was received from youth representatives who attended the meeting as well as youth surveyed at the previous Gathering.

‘ENDURE’

The theme of the 2025 Gathering is “ENDURE,” based upon Hebrews 12:1–3. A paper about the theme by the Rev. Dr. Peter Nafzger, one of the Gathering’s theological advisors, was read by all the Gathering planners and forms the basis for all Gathering content.

“It’s really important … that we ground everything that we do and teach and say here in the Scriptures, led by people who are competent, qualified, respected teachers in our church,” said Nafzger. The paper is available at lcmsgathering.com.

The idea of endurance was also a part of the 2022 Gathering theme, “In All Things.”

“It’s pretty obvious to anyone who pays attention that the church is entering a new time where we’re not in a place of privilege any longer,” said Nafzger. “And that’s presenting all sorts of challenges, big and small. So, the question is, how do we as Christians handle this? And of course, the right answer is always, ‘with our eyes fixed on Jesus.’ We can think of Jesus facing times in His ministry, in His Passion, the hostility that He endured on the way to the cross … as one who endured.”

The Gathering will also explore Hebrews 11, which tells the story of the people of God, and how they endured through many challenges.

“That’s another piece that seems missing in a lot of our younger people’s understanding of the Christian faith,” continued Nafzger. “They don’t always understand how we fit into the biblical narrative. … So, we thought this [theme] could be a way to build biblical literacy as well as a way to help our youth endure through the challenges they face today.”

The Bible study planning team also developed a series of five Bible studies, available at lcmsgathering.com/biblestudy, to help congregations and youth groups prepare for the Gathering. Additional studies, to be used on the way to and from the Gathering, will be posted this summer.

‘Living and active’

In October 2023, the Gathering’s programming team met to read Nafzger’s paper and discuss the various sub-themes and learning objectives that could be explored through Bible studies and sessions.

In January 2024, two more meetings were held in New Orleans, with the Gathering’s programming and logistics teams, to further unpack the theme and hash out more of the logistical details, such as a safety plan and walking routes, and to tour the convention center and stadium (the Superdome).

Throughout 2024, the planning teams continued to meet. Then, in November, a large, three-day meeting was held in New Orleans, bringing together the programming, stadium events, Bible study and logistics teams.

At this meeting, around 15 Bible study planners came together, including those who will present the Bible studies at the Gathering. They spent days discussing the fine theological details of the theme and how it might be applied to the lives of the youth in attendance. They also created content outlines for the studies, from which the presenters will create their scripts.

“We believe, teach and confess that the Word of the Lord is living and active, and I can say that … I’ve witnessed the Word of the Lord living and acting in some very powerful ways,” said the Rev. Casey Kegley, Bible study team manager. “It’s really wonderful when you have 15 people together reading the Scriptures, talking about it, generating big ideas. It’s one of the most special joys I’ve had in ministry.”

The programming team also met to tour the convention center and discuss how the layout and content connect back to the theme.

“When the [youth] are on the thematic floor, how are we living out [the theme of] building each other up and enduring in Christ?” said Rhonda Palmersheim, convention center co-director.

This year, around 115 different topics will be covered in the Gathering sessions, including both contemporary issues and central points of LCMS teaching and doctrine (Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, Confession and Absolution).

“Youth are hungry to hear the truth in God’s Word and how it applies to their daily lives,” said the Rev. Dr. Mark Kiessling, director of LCMS Youth Ministry. “The Gathering provides an opportunity to reinforce what is being taught in homes, churches and Lutheran schools. It also provides access to expertise that congregations don’t have regular connections to.”

Also gathered in November was the stadium events team, which worked long days to explore the “ENDURE” theme and how it will play out across the four nights of Mass Events.

“The Mass Events are individual events, but it’s four nights,” said the Rev. Daniel Weber, co-director of stadium events. “And for me, it’s like writing a book. … There’s sort of an overarching narrative, and then there are individual chapters. How can we best do that? Is it an object … a story … an image … a hymn? So, what a preacher does on a Sunday morning or an author does with a book, we’re doing on a big scale across four 90-minute events.”

“All the pieces [of the Gathering programming] have real people behind them,” said Peter Baye, co-director of stadium events.

These stadium events are the one time at the Gathering where all of the youth and adults are gathered together in one space. A stadium like the Superdome is needed to convene a group like this, usually around 20,000 people. Part of the stadium events team’s goal is to strike a balance between this “mountaintop” experience and directing that energy back toward the participants’ local congregations.

“We want to point people to Jesus and to where Jesus promises to work. So, it’s an interesting tension. … We are trying to leverage the awesomeness of coming together in a dome and pointing that toward your congregation, where Jesus is with you and for you and working through you,” said Weber.

In addition to the Mass Events, the stadium will house a Divine Service on the final morning of the Gathering. Communing tens of thousands of youth and adults in a reasonable amount of time requires its own array of logistical planning.

In January, the Gathering planning teams came together for a final large-scale meeting. At this meeting, programming details and session choices were finalized, and scripts were completed. From now through July, the programming and logistics teams will continue working to bring together all of the details.

Bible study and session leaders and Mass Event speakers will be announced soon.

Gathering registration is open until May 29, with the rate increasing March 4. To learn more or to register, visit lcmsgathering.com.

Posted Feb. 13, 2025