Home » 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering » What to Expect » Program Areas » Practice Peacemaking — Interactive Learning

The mission of the ELCA Youth Gathering is to accompany young people in their faith journey to understand their vocation and articulate their faith in Jesus Christ. Practice Peacemaking will help young people become more conscious of their own call through focusing on how they can strive for justice and peace within themselves, their communities and the world. This justice and peace is achieved through Christ’s reconciling work in the world. We are invited to participate in this work by accompanying neighbors next door and across the world. At the Gathering, youth and adults will be invited to step into a global community of interactive learning as together we learn how God gives us the capacity to live God’s vision of “one new humanity” (Ephesians 2:15) through the cross of Christ.



Practice Peacemaking will turn the New Orleans Ernest M. Morial Convention Center into a space for Interactive Learning. In this space, participants will engage in multi-sensory opportunities that will invite them to reflect on God’s value for everyone, particularly those who are marginalized by society; discern how they can participate in the church’s efforts to express this love and actually practice peacemaking.

Through these efforts, we hope participants will be able to:

• Recognize when they hold the power in relationships with people who are marginalized and freely give that power away.
• Take a back seat comfortably (i.e., deny self, to reach a point where their self is no longer the most important thing in the world).
• Listen before speaking.
• Work toward reconciliation in Christ in all relationships.

Practice Peacemaking Interactive Learning Activities will include:

• A variety of interactive learning opportunities using several mediums such as art, music, technology, sports, community, fun and reflection.
• Worship as a gathered community that centers on the reconciling work of the cross of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.
• Opportunities to stimulate one’s desire to know more deeply the word of God — spoken (preached), written (Bible) and living (Jesus).
• Activities to engage youth in peacemaking within themselves, their community and the world.
• Encounters to challenge youth through experiences both within their comfort zones/skill sets and outside comfort zones/skill sets that respect the multitude of ways youth learn and honor the gift of each learning style.
• Places for youth to enter the deep faith questions like:
    —  What is my vocation?
    —  What do I believe?
    —  Who is Jesus?
    —  How am I a peacemaker?
    —  What walls of hostility am I building?
• Exercises to better understand what peacemaking is and how it differs from mercy or merely being nice.
• Invitations to introduce young people to many global organizations that are involved in peacemaking including organizations that are in partnership with the ELCA.
• A chance to embody, create and proclaim peace.