Come to the 2025 Missouri District Youth Gathering!
Cross Pointe Retreat Center – Rocky Mount, Lake of the Ozarks | April 4-6, 2025 | Grades 6-12 | Joplin Youth Sign Up Now Through February 23
BELIEVE – John 20:31
The weekend-long Youth Gathering Trip is open to all active students in grades 6-12 at Immanuel Lutheran Church and Martin Luther School in Joplin!
Join us as we gather our junior high and high school youth with other Lutheran congregations from around the state to worship and pray, celebrate and play — experiencing the living Word of God and the love of Christ together — April 4-6, 2025 at Cross Pointe Retreat Center in Rocky Mount, MO. Specific Interest Center presenters and other information will be available soon.
Accommodations
Cross Pointe Retreat Center features hotel-style lodging (most rooms feature 2 Queen beds to house up to 4 youth per room). NOTE: The hotel rooms are GETTING FULL! We will be staying in their bunk bed dorms this year. We’ll need to bring sleeping bags and pillows and towels too! During the District Youth Gathering we will make use of the large worship center for our general sessions, break-out rooms in several of the retreat center’s buildings, and large indoor recreation center. Age-specific programming for younger and older youth will also happen each day.
Those attending the MO District Gathering from Immanuel-Joplin will only pay $80 of the full registration cost. Our youth ministry will cover the rest… By the way, those helping to make and sell Super Subs on Super Bowl weekend will receive a discount. Other financial aid is also available. Just ask our youth minister, Jason Glaskey.
But these are written that you may BELIEVE that JESUS is the CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD, and that by BELIEVING you may have LIFE IN HIS NAME.
John 20:31
Main Presenter: Pastor Brian King
Rev. King serves at the Lutheran Church of Webster Gardens in Webster Groves, MO. Raised in the Detroit area with a brief stint in Chicago, Brian graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1998, only notable because his father was a proud ROTC graduate of “the” Ohio State University. Moving to St Louis and marrying his wife Liz that same year, Brian joined the staff of the Lutheran Church of Webster Gardens. He then received his MA in Systematic Theology, followed by his Pastoral ordination at Concordia Seminary in St Louis.
Pastor King lives in the St Louis area with his wife Liz, son Simon (sophomore, University of Missouri) and daughter Alice (freshman, Lindbergh High School), where he continues to serve at Webster Gardens as the Pastor of Family Ministry, and is frequently referred to as “Pastor BK”. In his free time, Pastor BK is a powered paraglider pilot (imagine a parachute with a propellor attached to a lawn chair), Bob Dylan fan, and is in the process of teaching his daughter to drive in his 1988 Oldsmobile station wagon.
Tentative Schedule
Friday, April 4
- 4:00 PM — Load cars in the Youth Parking Lot and leave for camp. (Send cash for supper along the way.)
- 6:00 PM — Registration/Fireside Hangout/Rec
- 8:30 PM — Welcome/Community Building/Leader Meeting
- 9:30 PM — Devotion/Band
- 10:30 PM — Church Group Devotions
- 11:30 PM — Lights Out/Quiet Time
Saturday, April 5
- 8:00 AM — Breakfast
- 8:45 AM — Band/Announcements
- 9:00 AM — Session 1
- 10:30 AM — Community Building/Breakout 1
- 11:00 AM — Rec
- 12:00 PM — Lunch 1
- 1:15 PM — Band/Announcements
- 1:30 PM — Service Project/Breakout 2
- 2:30 PM — Service Project/Talent Show Preview
- 3:00 AM — Rec/Talent Show Preview
- 4:30 PM — Rec/Talent Show Preview/SR High Leadership
- 5:30 PM — Dinner
- 7:00 PM — Session 2
- 8:00 PM — Talent Show
- 9:00 PM — Rec/Bonfire
- 10:30 PM — Church Group Devotions
- 11:30 PM — Lights Out/Quiet Time
Sunday, April 6
- 7:30 AM — Breakfast 1
8:30 AM — Pack & Clean
9:00 AM — Final Session & Worship
10:30 AM — Wrap Up & Photos
11:00 AM — Head for Home (Send cas for lunch along the way. - 3:00 PM or so — Arrive at the Immanuel Parking Lot. (Youth will call parents from the road with specific arrival time, so they can be waiting for our arrival.)