Shepherd of the Prairie joined thousands at ELCA Youth Gathering

The 2024 ELCA Youth Gathering, hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was recently held in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Pastor Ryan Mackey of Shepherd of the Prairie Lutheran Church in Huntley attended along with three youth Andrew Padget, Elise Padget, and Ashlyn Rankin, with chaperone Laureen Penev.

“With this year’s theme of ‘Created to Be’, we joined an incredible community including 16,000 youth and adults from all 65 synods of the ELCA,” said Pastor Mackey. “Each nightly gathering featured a different word to complete that phrase, such as created to be brave; created to be authentic; created to be free; created to disruptive; and created to be disciples.

Every three years, the ELCA hosts youth in a major U.S. city for five days of worship, service, learning and community. Each day is spent either fulfilling a service project in the community, worshipping with others, or engaging in interactive learning about the work of the ELCA organizations, such as Lutheran Disaster Response.

“When I asked our youth to sum up their reflections on the trip, they said the best things about the week were experiencing the rich culture of the city and enjoying the food,” notes Pastor Mackey. “They loved the way we were able to build community, making connections with youth from other states, and realizing we are all connected through the Holy Spirit and our shared faith. In addition, we helped clean up a struggling neighborhood; we danced, sang, applauded, prayed, communed, and walked.”

The 2027 ELCA Youth Gathering will take place in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

For more information about the ELCA Youth Gathering and Shepherd of the Prairie Lutheran Church, email pastorryan@sotpmail.com.

Shepherd of the Prairie Lutheran Church, under the leadership of Senior Pastor Mark Boster and Pastor Ryan Mackey, has served the Huntley community for over 20 years. Visit sotp.org.