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The following is a report on the 2004 LCMS National Youth Gathering in Orlando, Florida attended by some 35,000 LCMS Youth. During his sermon, President Kieschnick announced that he would take a break. During the "break" Mrs. Kieschnick then began to speak in her husband's place.
If fatigue or whatever were a reason for the "break," Mrs. Kieschnick was prepared to speak.
During the 2004 LCMS Convention, President Kieschnick may have been the first LCMS President never to relinquish the gavel to another Synodical official during the entire Convention. However, after 15 minutes at Orlando, President Kieschnick needed to take a break during the middle of his sermon.
Perhaps this will be a precedent for all LCMS pastors to have their wives speak in the middle of their sermons while they take a "break."
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"A Report on the National Youth Gathering 2004"
By Stan Lemon at insyderhomielc.com
Every three years the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod gathers their youth together for the study of God's Word, reception of His Sacrament, and fellowship amongst each other. This year 35,000 young individuals and their leaders gathered in Orlando, FL with the theme "Beyond Imagination" dealing with Ephesians 3:20-21. The following are my personal thoughts/concerns/reflections regarding what I
experienced during the days I was in attendance at the National Youth Gathering. This report is no
intended to be an exhaustive synopsis of the gathering, nor does it intend to highlight every issue or problem, which may have come up, it does intend to discuss several important concerns regarding our Lutheran identity and theology. Some allusions and comparisons may be made to the 2001 National Youth Gathering in New Orleans, LA that I attended.
On the first evening we had our opening ceremonies, which involved the band Echelon and a bunch of Contemporary Worship songs. The MC's were introduced as they road into the event in BMW's, Mercedes' and other expensive vehicles. Several individuals offered up prayers, none of which were ordained, and there were also several Scripture readings from the book of Ephesians. There was also a
Confession and Absolution. It was not specified by name, but one of the MC's asked us to confess our sins into our hands (cupped) and then when we were done lift them to the sky and release them, where they would be no more. The words he spoke before hand were similar to the preface to Confession and Absolution in our liturgies; they involved texts from the Gospel of John. Concluding our
Confession the MC proceeded to announce God's grace, and while it was not announced as a Confession and Absolution, that is what it was.
The First speaker was a woman named Michelle, who got up and spoke regarding our theme text and the promise of God's Grace, which was "Beyond Imagination". From the fact that there had been prayers, Scripture readings, and a Confession and Absolution it was difficult not to see this as a Homily of some sort. While I do not believe she should have been on stage giving a homily, she nonetheless
gave a wonderful testimony to the Gospel, one of the best that we heard during the gathering - she just didn't hold the office to which she was attempting to fill.
I quickly grew a concern over the emotional hype that kept getting built, individuals would get so excited when the Bible Study leader would ask "Say 'yeah' if Jesus rocks your face off!" The play of emotions on things like September 11th, sexual sin, etc. made it easy to lose sight of the Gospel. Emotion is not a bad thing, but our faith should never be built on it, and any experience where
our faith is central should also not be built on it. I wonder how people would respond if asked the question, "What do you remember most from the 2004 National Youth Gathering?" Would it be an emotional high? Or some edifying Scriptural statement made by a pastor?
All of the MC's were college students, several from Valparaiso University, another from a Roman Catholic University, and then other Universities around the country. Sadly none of these students were from our Concordia University System. I thought that it would have been helpful to showcase our higher education system by having our MC's be from those schools, but apparently those in charge
don't agree with me.
The first night our Gathering Drama also began. This drama spanned the entire period that we were in Orlando and was finally concluded on the last day. The Drama dealt with a young girl who had lost her father and had reproduced him as a program in "V-space". The reproduction of an individual was illegal, but she felt she needed some way to be intact with her father even after his death.
Meanwhile this young girl's friends had met another individual in "V-space" who "changed" them, making them more violent, rude, and self-centered. Eventually the conclusion was made that this young girl's "V-clone" of her father had gone rebellious and was also the one "changing" her friends - with his ultimate goal being to leave "V-space" and become human. After getting caught by the
government and eventually sacrificing herself she was able to help her friends return to normal and eliminate the bad "V-clone" of her father.
During the drama when the young girl first discovered her father also played the bad "V-clone" there was a passing reference to Baptism in a letter he had written to her when she was first born. Aside from this, though there was sadly very little theology and biblical substance in the drama. Not just mine, but also others had the general consensus that this Drama was not helpful and contained
very little which could be identified as Christian.
On another night Bob Lenz, director and founder of Life Promotions Inc. spoke to us. Bob Lenz is well known for his high involvement with ELCA ministries. He is NOT a Missouri Synod Lutheran, which is my first concern. There are more then enough pastors in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod that we do not need to out-source to members of the ELCA to speak on Grace. Bob Lenz sadly had very
little Sacramental theology, and rather then focus on what truly defines a "free gift" he spoke of civic righteousness, what we as teens and individuals could do because we love God. What would have been more helpful is if a Missouri Synod Pastor had gotten up and told us how God had already taken care of the love in our relationships when he washed us clean with the waters of Holy Baptism.
Bob spoke regarding his life, how bad it had been and how his love for God had helped him get through it. It would have been more helpful had Bob used Scripture passages and illustrations from the Bible to bring out his points. What was most frustrating for me though was when he decided to criticize long, elaborate, wordy prayers. He specifically referenced those, which use words like
"beseech" and "thee". It seems it would have been more helpful to qualify what belongs in a prayer, the content, rather then how it is said.
Another lady, a Lutheran social worker from Chicago spoke to us about her life, mainly how she had had an abortion and lived a life of drugs and other not healthy things. Her story was very powerful and I did appreciate it, however once again there could have been some emphasis on her Baptism and when she received the Lord's Supper, etc. Certain things that characterize Lutheran theology and
should have been present were either weak or simply not there. More concerning though was a drama used to lead up to her presentation. It appeared to be a battle between two men (one who had a gang with him) over a woman. We were told at this stories conclusion that this was a battle between good and evil for the woman who then presented. I was somewhat disappointed because during the drama I
kept thinking how cool it was to watch Jesus fight against Satan for His bride the Church, but unfortunately I misinterpreted the drama.
Overall there was sadly a loss of Sacramental theology in the presentations. Thankfully the Pastor who lead Bible study hammer out many good references to Baptism, but at other times when such references seemed like they would have been very helpful they were not taken. For example on the night that the theme was "love" the MC's stood up and talked about sacrificing oneself for each other and
service but never spoke of the love which was in the promise of Holy Baptism which saves us from eternal death in Hell. Nor did the MC's address how at Mass we receive Christ's very body and blood which was shed for us because He loved us, and that when we eat and drink of these things we receive the forgiveness of sins, which is given in love by Him.
On Tuesday evening, the night before we would depart, the Worship service was held. I was bothered that Mass was not held on Sunday morning, however there is no real argument against moving it except that it breaks the routine that the 35,000 in attendance are used to. In New Orleans the Mass was less then reverent, but it was Divine Service II from Lutheran Worship, so it was familiar to me
and I was easily able to identify this time as "sacred time", time which had been set apart to receive the gifts of the Lord. Orlando suffered from the same lack of reverence that New Orleans had, kids on their cell phones during distribution and kids blowing soap bubbles, tossing toilet paper and other similar things do not help individuals focus on the gifts that they are to receive.
Mass clearly had elements of it that were taken from Lutheran Worship's Divine Service II, however such simple things as the Confession and Absolution were newly written an unfamiliar to those in attendance. This was common throughout the whole liturgy, certain elements hinted, but others were entirely new. The processional in featured dancers who eventually made it on stage during the opening
song. This was somewhat distracting, but what were more distracting were the dancers during the drama time. The drama itself was out of place, not connecting in with the periscopes, which strangely were done as videos, and dealt with the texts from Eastertide and not with the season of Trinity (Pentecost) which we are currently in. This was at least bothersome to myself because I am not clear
as to what happened this week in the rest of the churches in Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Much of the hymnody were songs that are not in our Synodically adopted and approved hymnals (Worship Materials), which begged the question, why are we using them? Furthermore the distribution hymns ended quickly and the band on stage felt the need to fill the time with some contemporary rock tunes,
such as Lord I Lift Your Name on High, Sanctuary, Every Move I Make, all of which would present more of a Reformed Understanding of the Lord's Supper then the Lutheran one. I was saddened that we were unable to use materials such as those Synod had recently approved in the Synodical Convention.
Synodical President Gerald Kieschnick gave the Sermon during Mass. The first part of his Sermon was rather good, it was packed with Scripture and Sacramental theology flowed in and out of it like a good Lutheran Sermon should. President Kieschnick also did a wonderful job dividing the Law and Gospel. This was the third time I have heard President Kieschnick preach, the previous two times I had
been very disappointed, however this time I was rather impressed, until he decided to invite his family on stage. Some fifteen minutes into the Sermon President Kieschnick invited his wife and two grandchildren up onto the stage with him, he even announced that he would be "briefly taking a break from the Sermon", mind you this was still the Divine Service. At this juncture Mrs. Kieschnick was
invited to address the crowd and did such. She spoke very wonderfully about how we were given the gift of God's grace, and we needed to cling to this and share it with everyone we meet. Sadly, this was neither the time nor the place for her to do such, and mixed in with her presentation of the Gospel was the introduction and lauding of their grandchildren - which are not bad things,
but once again it is a matter of time and place, both of which should not have been then.
The National Youth Gathering also had many sectionals, a few which I was privileged to attend, and there was also the exhibition hall which had booths from our schools, districts, RSO's, and other organizations affiliated with our Synod. These things were wonderful and very helpful. The exhibition hall I found very useful as many of the kids in my group received the opportunity to learn about
things like Concordia Theological Seminary, or the Concordia Mission Society, things which they had not known about before. The sectionals, for the most part were also very helpful to many of them, granted Bob Lenz, David Benke and other individuals which are not necessarily in accord with historic Lutheranism spoke, but apart from those who were clearly divisive because of their pasts many
youth found benefit in attending the sectionals. I would recommend that more pastors from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod lead these sectionals though, simply because they are the ones with the education and accreditation to lead some of the topics that were being dealt with.
I did not see much value, if any in the presence of non-Lutheran outreaches and ministries, such as many of the Contemporary Worship bands, and Christian Music corporations, in addition to Life Promotions and other pan-Christian (and in some cases pan-Lutheran) groups. It is clear that the non-Lutheran institutions do not believe in such fundamental doctrines of the faith as Baptism, the
Lord's Supper, the New Obedience, etc. and yet they are given a venue to our youth to share their erroneous theology. Furthermore, pan-Lutheran organizations which have ELCA clergy and laity involved were given time and space, yet in 2001 the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod declared them to "no longer be an orthodox Lutheran church body" not to mention the ELCA's continuing move toward the
ordination of homosexuals (and their already existent problem of RSO's supporting the gay agenda) is clearly contrary to the Missouri Synod's understanding of homosexuality as a sin. These relationships which offer the opportunity for false theology and which mislead individuals into thinking an agreement exists between ourselves and that theology are and have become stumbling blocks to youth,
laity, and even clergy.
It is clear to me that where many had expressed to me that the New Orleans gathering had been an improvement over past years in many respects, but was still far from perfect, the Orlando gathering was a major step in the wrong direction. Things that New Orleans had worked to fix were undone, and things that were still concerns at New Orleans were left alone, if not made worse. What was most
troubling to me, as a Lutheran was that I was unsure this was in fact a Lutheran gathering, and furthermore I almost felt shunned at times for being a Lutheran!
It is my recommendation to both my home congregation and also other Lutheran congregations in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod that they do not send their youth to the National Youth Gathering until the Synodical Youth Commission works to correct many of the issues which have been cited in the past and were raised again this year. It is my sincere and honest belief that these issues are
serious enough that they compromise our Lutheran identity and worsen the growing lack of catechesis that exists in our Synod. I honestly think that the National Youth Gathering does harm to those who attend by the false witness of the Gospel and foreign theology. I would recommend that if my home congregation, or any other congregation in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod desires to offer
Youth a retreat time where they can have fellowship with other Missouri Synod Lutherans and have time when they can grow in their faith around Word and Sacrament that they seek to form unions with other like-minded congregations or consider and investigate into Higher Things gatherings which have been occurring for the last couple of years. Such opportunities, in my opinion, offer a level of
catechesis that is not present at the National Youth Gathering and respect our Lutheran tradition in ways with the National Youth Gathering did not.
In conclusion I would like to state that I honestly believe those who are in the Synodical office and prepare the National Youth Gathering truly wish to help Youth and witness the Gospel to them. As in all things, I think that the National Youth Gathering has been affected by our sinful desires too much and is now no longer accomplishing the purpose to which it was created. I would urge all to
keep those in charge of the National Youth Gathering in their prayers, so that they might bear a better and more faithful witness to the Gospel in the future.
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