THE FINAL 24

Literally speaking, it doesn't quite make 24 hours, but the title sounds good. The Gathering is now over, and I think we all agreed that the last 24 hours were the best part.

The Final Mass Gathering gave us a chance to be on the floor level, a goal every teen at the gathering seems to have. The music was familiar and when the program started, we had a visit from the Mayor of New Orleans who enthusiastically thanked us for lifting the spirit of his city. That brief speech was followed by Bishop Hanson's reading of a letter to the Gathering from President Barack Obama.

The evening program included several other speakers, one of whom was the author I read a year ago. He had a Christian message and told us that there is the "Evil One" who is at work in God's world trying to spoil what God created good. Others spoke, including a woman who told us she was told to speak about environmental issues but chose instead to focus on God our Creator. She believes that caring for the environment is ultimately a theological issue, not a political one.

Others spoke and their concerns were important, but one shared he regret that she grew up without any faith at all and wished she had what she saw present in the teens here.

There was a final singing group, the Katinas, who come from American Samoa. Their faith was clearly articulated in their songs.

In the morning we headed out to the Dome for the closing service. Again the music was familiar and clear. The Procession included many teens carrying the supplies and the equipment they used on servant days. The sermon was pretty good until the bishop started listing what he saw as "evils" in our world including racism which he said was caused by white power and privilege and religious extremism and fanaticism which he didn't further define.

Following the service we headed out to the French Quarter. Along the way we stopped at the boarded up entrance to the former Comfort Inn where I served as Hotel Life Pastor in 1997. Later we ran into Pastor Kathleen Koran who now serves as an Assistant to Bishop Rimbo. She was with the teens from her former church in Brewster.

The French Quarter was not very impressive to me. Much of it seemed so seedy that I felt embarrassed being there with the teens. Fortunately a brief shower came up and diverted our attention as we headed out toward Bubba Gump Shrimp Company Restaurant. After a waiting period we went into a room where a group from Massachusetts was having lunch before hitting the road for their 24 hour journey home.

Looking over the last 24 hours the theme seems to have been clear: "We can change the world—there is power in One." I wonder whether that is the point the teens got from the event. Changing the world CAN be good, but looking at the way change is coming about in our country these days, it's obvious that change isn't automatically good. Perhaps the better way to state the theme would be: "God is at work changing our world, and if we are willing, he will even change the world through us." Now that's the kind of change I can believe in.