ELCA News Blog
July 8, 2006
'A church is waiting for you," Jim Wallis tells Youth Gathering
by Melissa Ramirez Cooper, ELCA News Service
According to the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners and organizer of the Call to Renewal, there is "a lot of confusion about what we mean by faith, by religion." Wallis spoke July 7 to more than 15,000 high-school-age Lutherans attending the 2006 Youth Gathering of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The Gathering is bringing together about 40,000 young Lutherans and adults from across the United States and around the world in two back-to-back events -- July 5-9 and July 12-16 -- at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
"You've got a job as a new generation," Wallis said. "Your job is to clear up the confusion about faith," he said. "What changes history are social movements. There is a hunger for spirituality, and there is a hunger for social justice, which is what the world is waiting for today. Faith is the substance of what we're waiting for," he said, adding that "you are the ones we've been waiting for. A church is waiting for you. The nation, the world is waiting for you. Your generation has come," and "we have a lot invested in you."
Wallis spoke on stage at the Alamodome during the ELCA Youth Gathering's morning session. Other highlights of the morning production included Bible study and a musical performance from singer and rapper, Kelly Glow, Atlanta.
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