We celebrate the value of community that we work to build at Calvary Lutheran Church. Every three years, high school-aged ELCA Lutherans from across the country form a large community as they turn a stadium into a worship space. They worship, sing, and praise God with over 30,000 other people.

Mission Trip / Youth Gathering Schedule

• Saturday, June 23: Travel day to Refugio, TX
• Sunday, June 24: Tuesday, June 26: Hurricane Rebuilding in Refugio, TX
• Wednesday, June 27: Travel Day to Houston and the Gathering begins (Call Changes Everything!)
• Thursday, June 28: Youth Gathering Synod Day (God’s Love Changes Everything!)
• Friday, June 29: Youth Gathering Service Day (God’s Grace Changes Everything!)
• Saturday, June 30: God’s Hope Changes Everything!
• Sunday, July 1: Youth Gathering Worship (Jesus Changes Everything!)
• Monday, July 2: Travel day back to Calvary

We are excited to share with you the theme for the 2018 ELCA Youth Gathering, “This Changes Everything.” Our primary scripture will be Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”

Grace is a foundational and distinctive piece of the Lutheran faith. This gift, undeserved and freely given, changes lives and perspectives as people realize they are enough because of what Christ has done and are called into the world to serve their neighbor and share the good news.

Our logo is a visual representation of our theme and the 2018 Gathering experience. It incorporates the coming together of a mosaic to reflect the diverse host city of Houston, as well as the idea that we are a church where all are imperfect and incomplete, yet we each belong in – and have an important place in – God’s masterpiece. The cross at the center of the logo is the focus – it is God’s grace, through Christ’s life, death and resurrection, that changes everything for all people.

In her book “Woo: Awakening Teenagers’ Desire to Follow in the Way of Jesus,” Morgan Schmidt identifies the three central desires of teens.

All youth desire:

• Someone to become
• Somewhere to belong
• Something to do [that changes the world]

Throughout the 2015 Gathering and the evaluations and conversations that followed, we heard our young people echo these desires again and again. As young people desire and struggle to find someone to become, somewhere to belong and something to do, the Gathering seeks to be a ministry that helps define some of that or at least open up pathways of discovery. Ultimately, we want youth to understand the fierce love that God has for them, just as they are, and that by grace, through faith, they have been saved. When young people (or really any age person!) truly claim this reality, it indeed changes everything.