I have attended two national youth gatherings hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the most common thread I have found at these gatherings is the emotional journey young people go through throughout the week.
I have twice witnessed Gatherings bring together a group of young people with a certain chemistry, a dynamic formed from years of intimacy, then tear that group apart through difficult emotional and spiritual experiences, only to bring them back together again a week later by the time the group returned home.
This phenomenon reminds me of a spiritual process that a mystical Catholic priest I follow describes as “order, disorder, and reorder.”
In other words, we experience a faith that has been formed through a myriad of forces, a so-called “order,” but that experience disrupts a set of assumptions about faith, leaving us in “disorder.” And when it’s all over, we inevitably find that, thanks to the Gathering, we have been “realigned,” that our assumptions about faith have somehow changed for the better; some degree of spiritual growth has been achieved.
Last week, a reader asked me how I liken these large congregational faith events to megachurch worship experiences, and as I returned to church this week and did some reflection, it got me thinking: I have watched two youth groups at our church undergo very similar spiritual realignments at the ELCA’s National Youth Gathering, six years apart.
Do I know that this realignment of faith will last a lifetime in these students? No, I’m not sure. But the young people who attended the 2018 Gathering with me still talk about the event as a highlight of their faith formation. So, this seems like a pretty good sign that the Gathering is having a positive impact.
How much is it worth? It’s probably too early to tell.
But if you attend the rally, you will see the fanatical dedication of the staff and volunteers, and it is no doubt that they were drawn to the rally because of the young people who attended.
This naturally leads one to wonder how many people’s faith has been shaped by experiences at ELCA meetings or similar large youth faith events hosted by other denominations.
Perhaps the numbers are not quantifiable, but it’s possible, but we can be sure that the experience changes young people, even if it’s intangible.
Worshipping with 16,000 young people in passionate celebration of faith for nearly a week, while experiencing the culture of a new city and region of the country, is sure to be a great breeding ground for spiritual change, even if the results may take years to see.
