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The Lutheran Youth Organization
(LYO) is an organization of all high-school aged young people
who are members of congregations of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America. There are nearly 100,000 ELCA youth across the
United States and the Caribbean. The LYO is one place where the
voices of young people are lifted up in the church. This takes
place through a variety of ways in which young people get
together to discuss the issues that are important to them
concerning youth ministry, the larger ELCA community, and the
world.
The Lutheran Youth Organization
was created in 1987 by youth delegates sent on behalf of the
three Lutheran church bodies that merged to create the
ELCA
also in the same year. They were visionary with their ideas for
how young people are to be engaged in the church as leaders
today, not just as the leaders of tomorrow, taking
1 Timothy 4:12
seriously: “Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers
an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity…”
(NRSV). In addition, the LYO has always held diversity as a very
high value, intentionally including in its leadership young
people of color or whose primary language is other than English
and definitely-abled young people.
While the LYO in one part of the
country may look very different than the LYO in another part of
the country, the core elements that hold true across the board
are spiritual formation and leadership development. Whether it’s
young people gathering in a synod to embody the theology of
servant leadership and learning, young people advocating for
fuller inclusion in the larger church, or young people sharing
in a Bible study and modeling discipleship to one another, the
ministry of the LYO is taking place! This ministry is about
providing a context through which young people can share in the
oneness of Christ by proclaiming through word, deed, prayer,
worship, Bible study, fellowship, and service the gospel of
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Adults who serve as LYO advisors
across the ELCA stand with young people in this ministry
providing support in immeasurable ways. We are grateful for
these adults and many others who are supporters of the ministry
of the Lutheran
Youth Organization!
rev: 01/04/08
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