The Main Event!

July 13 - 21, 2024

We’re headed to New Orleans next summer to join with thousands of high school youth from across the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for the ELCA Youth Gathering, which is held every three years. We will experience Mass Gatherings & Worship with 25,000 Lutherans in the Superdome, servant projects throughout the city of New Orleans, nightly community life in hotels – dance parties, inflatable’s, & concerts, a larger-than-life Interactive Learning Center, featuring high-ropes, games, service learning and TONS of fun activities, group building with youth from across Nebraska and the nation, swamp and historical tours of the city, and great music, food, shopping, and culture in the French Quarter. Come love, deeply, grow spiritually, and share abundantly next summer in the Big Easy!

trip Costs

  • Early Bird (through Oct. 29, 2023): $725.00

  • Regular Registration (Nov. 2, 2023 - Feb. 14, 2024): $775.00

  • Late Registration (Feb. 15 - Apr. 15, 2024): $825.00

The estimated total cost for each student is $1800.00

These prices include the following breakdown:

  • Registration: $375

  • Lodging: $900

  • Meals: $300

  • Transportation: $165

  • Swamp Tour: $ 60

TOTAL $1800

To help keep the cost down for everyone, our plan is to utilize the following formula:

  • Student: $600

  • Fundraisers: $600

  • Church: $600

“We have been created to be ourselves. Created by the Holy One. Since the last time the ELCA came together for an ELCA Youth Gathering, our young people have experienced several major life events. Still today, we are experiencing an ongoing public health crisis mixed with an economic and political crisis. However, we can rest assured that we are created to be in relationship with one another.

  • We are created to be brave, to show up with an open mind and heart, willing to be challenged.

  • We are created to be authentic, to bring our whole selves and know that we are loved by our Creator.

  • We are created to be free, to be transformed by the gospel.

  • We are created to be disruptive, to work for justice for all our siblings.

  • We are created to be disciples, to be sent out into the world to love our neighbor just as we are loved by God.

Our host city, New Orleans, has always been its true, authentic self. Our theme, “Created To Be,” highlights the arts, music and soul of this beautiful, vibrant and resilient city. New Orleans was built to host and be a city where all God’s children come together.

We plan to dive deeper into justice, mental health and anti-racism conversations throughout the Gathering. These are hard conversations, but our church desperately needs to have them. We also hope to foster relationships and be a sanctuary for one another. We are saint and sinner simultaneously, and we need forgiveness when we aren’t or can’t be brave, authentic, free, disruptive disciples."