Pastor Scott's Message

As you read this I am in Minneapolis for the National Youth Gathering. I am joining Sue Schultz, Abbie Schultz, Faith Jonas, Lillian Conger, Miles Sauer, Luke Schultz, and Max Sauer. You can follow our fun at www.lcmsgathering.com. You can also watch live. Each morning there is a Mass Bible Study and at Night a Mass event with speakers, singing, drama, and lots of surprises. The Theme is "REAL. PRESENT. GOD.", based on the Psalms. The gathering is an opportunity for the Synod’s 20,000 youth to get together every three years for worship, service, discipleship, evangelism and ministry.

This will be my sixth gathering. I didn’t go as a kid so my first time was as a Director of Christian Education at St. Paul’s in San Diego. We traveled to Atlanta, Georgia just after they hosted the Olympics. I remember visiting the Coca Cola Factory, Martin Luther King’s church, Stone Mountain, and Olympic Park. I also remember a rock opera that the gathering produced on the life of Christ. There also was a moment when a huge burning bush came down on stage. There was supposed to be fire works but they didn’t work. So God flared up some lighting and thunder outside to remind us of his real power.

Three years later, in 2001, I represented the Pacific Southwest District at the gathering. I was teaching at the Lutheran High School in San Diego and volunteered to man the district booth. We created a beach atmosphere where kids could take their picture in front of a scenic Southern California. I took a call to the central Coast at Lutheran Church of Our Savior in Santa Maria. We brought 16 kids to Orlando in 2004. "Beyond Imagination" was the theme. We played at Universal Studios, cleared a walking path for a service project, saw an alligator, and created memories and a bond that lasts to this day.  I’ve got to help in the weddings of two of those kids. In 2007, the gathering was supposed to go to New Orleans but Hurricane Katrina made that impossible. So we went back to Orlando to the same hotel, a different theme, “Chosen,” and had a great time. I remember standing in line at a roller coaster when one of my adult volunteers asked the question, “What is moral character?” Right there we had an incredible life and faith discussion.

I missed the 2010 one in New Orleans and the 2013 one in San Antonio because I was in Seminary. But in 2016 I got to lead a group from Alive in Christ, Columbia Missouri to New Orleans. This time, my daughters, Faith and Grace, got to go for the first time. When 25,000 sang “In Christ Alone,” Faith and I teared up. It was a momentary slice of heaven. This time we are joining with Concordia, Kirkwood. I don’t know what God is going to show us but I know it will be spectacular. Pray that our kids' faith is stretched and strengthened.