Ted's Blog

Beyond Imagination
by Ted Mallory Thursday August 12, 2004


“Have a good vacation?” people kept saying.

“What vacation?” I’d ask.

“Aren’t you going to Orlando with those kids?”

“Well, yeah, I guess, I didn’t figure it was a vacation…” I’d reply.

Being responsible for ten teenagers, getting up for 7 AM meetings everyday but not getting to bet till after 1 AM, and walking for miles in stifling humidity and heat sounded more like work than vacation to me.

But I have to tell you, if a vacation is supposed to be fun and give you a recharge then the National Lutheran Youth Gathering definitely fit the bill. Forgive me for ever saying it wasn’t and thank you to the parents and members at St. John who sent Bethany & I along with their Lutheran Youth Fellowship.

For one thing we had an awesome bunch of kids. They rarely complained and then only about the heat. They came to learn and grow in Christ and I really believe that they did. They didn’t get into any serious mischief (that we know about) and best of all they had great senses of humor and were a lot of fun to be around.

In fact, they were all so responsible and mature, I hardly have any stories to tell you about them. How boring is that? There are just a couple I can share.

Saturday morning, before the Gathering itself got officially underway, we visited ‘Gatorland.’ It’s a little campy, but it’s a lot cheaper than the major theme parks, and it gives you a taste of what Florida once was. At least three of the eight boys bought themselves these “pimp” walking canes with alligator heads on them. Granted, Jason Kuhlmann really needed the thing since he got caught in a cattle gate the night before we left and had quite a limp. Why another kid needed a bull-whip I’ll never know.

We were at Gatorland’s “Up close and personal” animal show. After bringing cockatoos, lizards and scorpions into the audience, the animal trainers asked for volunteers to help them with a bigger animal. Our dear, diminutive cousin Lacy Neddermeyer stepped forward. She should’ve suspected that something was up when they asked her to call a coin flip.

“Heads,” she called.

“You asked for it!” they said.

Next thing she knows she’s holding on to the business end of a twelve foot python.

The other thing is having 33,000 Christian teenagers in one place at one time. Convention center and hotel personnel raved about how patient, polite and relatively clean they were. And you should know, there were all kinds of kids there; country kids, “Gothic” kids, punk kids, nerdy kids, athletic kids, “hippie-esque” kids- you name it. Every race, class, size and type was represented.

The Gathering’s theme, “Beyond Imagination,” based on Ephesians 3:20-21 said id all. Rock concerts and baseball games don’t compare. Now I’ve attended at least two Promise Keepers’ men’s conferences and 16,000 men worshiping together is an awesome thing, but to see 33,000 high school kids all actually singing praise songs together really rocks the house.

The way that the National Youth Gathering is set up, everyone attends about an hour and a half “Mass Event” each day in the morning and again in the evening. In between, kids attend three one hour sessions with one hour breaks in between. Kids can attend seminars on everything from sex, prayer, missions, and music, to art and the occult.

Some speakers are nationally known like the Christian rock groups “Audio Adrenaline” or “Lost and Found.” Some are professional speakers, a few were comedians, a few were pastors, and some were survivors. We attended one given by a former witch who’s now a pastor’s wife, one given by Drake University’s assistant basketball coach, and another from an FBI chaplain who was on the scene at the Pentagon following the 9/11 attack.

We didn’t run into quite as many former colleagues from Lutheran High Schools as we did three years ago at the last gathering in New Orleans. But Concordia, Seward did host a reception where we visited with a few classmates that we hadn’t seen in eons. That’s always surreal. Either you’re hearing about how they’re pastors now or how many children they have. Often they look almost the same as a decade ago only fatter and grayer, maybe more wrinkled. I suppose they thought the same of me.

The new college President, Brian Friedrichs addressed the alumni and prospective students. I understand that his father was once pastor at St. John in Charter Oak. And the final speaker to address the kids Tuesday night was Rev.Keishnik, the recently re-elected President of the Lutheran Church~Missouri Synod.

His message was an important one that I think echoes true for teens of any denomination; Luthearn, catholic, Methodist, or otherwise. He told the crowd that they aren’t just “the future” of the Church, they ARE the church!

Sometimes we all need to be reminded that a Church is not a building or a pastor or priest, or even a board or council. The Church- the very “Body of Christ,” His arms and legs, His hands and feet on earth, are you and me. We are the Church.