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More than just conferences...

Higher Things® has been known for our youth conferences that provide an intense week of Lutheran worship, catechesis, and fun. But we also have a ton of resources available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year to help you learn (and teach!) what it means to be Lutheran—that you believe that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Here you’ll find new podcasts and videos being posted every day, highlighting all sorts of different subjects: worship practices, theology and philosophy, social issues, history, and whatever news is flying around social media this week. (We take requests, too.)

Our goal is to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to bear on any and every issue facing youth today and equip parents, pastors, and youth leaders to do the same!

Since 2005, Higher Things® has provided free daily devotions, called Reflections, for youth and families. These Reflections are centered in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and are based upon texts from the one-year lectionary and Luther’s Small Catechism.

Drive to School

You spend an average of one hour a day in the car or bus on your way to and from school. Join Higher Things as we tackle all the tough topics facing you at school and how your faith applies to the world around you.

2000 youth signing hymns from our conferences. A little slice of heaven right here on earth.

We Believe is a huge project by Higher Things full of videos, articles, and studies to help reinforce the core teachings of our Lutheran faith. Rooted in the teachings of the Small Catechism, we tackle quarterly topics from a variety of perspectives grounded in the same biblical teaching, all pointing to the same gifts of Christ Jesus our Lord. Join us on YouTube, sign up for content email blasts, listen to sermons, and grow in faith and understanding.

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...Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth." (Colossians 3:1-2)

In 1998, several LCMS pastors began planning a smaller, more regionally minded, cost-effective conference for youth, designed to be uniquely Lutheran. A year later, those plans were unveiled for the Dying to Live national Lutheran youth conference, held in the summer of 2000. Over 700 youth and adults from 25 states attended what was, for all intents and purposes, the first Higher Things conference. Based on the success of that first conference, more plans developed for what would become Higher Things.

The name for the emerging group was chosen just before the first conference, as it had become obvious by then that the event would serve as the impetus for something worth continuing and expanding. The new organization’s theme verse was: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Colossians. 3:1-2).

Twenty years ago, Higher Things was started by a handful of pastors and laypeople who cared very deeply about the young people of the church. Today over 1700 LCMS congregations have been impacted by the mission of Higher Things.

Higher Things is many things, all of which seek to keep young people focused on Christ and His gifts as they grow and mature in their faith. It is parents teaching their children the catechism. It is youth workers and volunteers reinforcing what is preached from their congregations’ pulpits and confessed in their pews. And it is pastors keeping their young sheep Lutheran as they grow up.

In two decades, we haven’t wavered in our mission to assist parents, pastors, and congregations in cultivating a distinctly Lutheran identity among their youth and young adults. We work to bring the Gospel of Christ, and Him crucified to youth via our events, app, confirmation curriculum, Reflections, videos, articles, VBS curriculum, and more! Higher Things strives to be available to youth from their cell phones and computer screens all the way to their summer plans.

Our plan for the future? We will keep putting the Gospel in the ears of youth as long as the Lord allows!