YTH.NYC YTH.NYC

Do people of the world enjoy life more than people that follow Jesus? This is the question Keithen unpacks in this week's youth teaching. Jesus offers his disciples a life of joy, adventure, spirit power, and purpose, yet many Christians live suppressed lives, longing for the pleasures of the world. Does it have to be this way? In this teaching walk through the gospels and alongside theologians to find that celebration is actually a "Spiritual Discipline" and central to the life of an apprentice of Jesus.

Discipleship is an all in journey of becoming like Jesus. We give up all aspects and every dynamic of our lives in order to receive what he called, "life and life to the full". This week Keithen leads us in a frank conversation about the relationships of our lives. What does it look like to live a consecrated relational life as a student in New York City? We want to recognize the "crowd", the '72", the "12", and the "3" in our lives and leverage all relationships toward hosting the presence of God on the earth.

Psalm 139 reminds us that there is nowhere that God is not, yet we often function in our world as if there are some spaces where he is, and others where he is not. The death and resurrection of Jesus begins a new era in human history, as the presence of God floods the earth. Yet many Christians want to live as though God's presence remains only in "religious" spaces. Raegan leads us in a discussion around our ability to grow to see God like Jacob who is, "surely in this place" yet we are "unaware of it"?

We are kicking off a new teaching series titled “All”. Jesus’ invitation to follow him was a call to give all in allegiance to him, yet much of youth discipleship in the modern church look like asking the least you can of a young person as long as they affiliate themselves with the Christian religion at some level. This is far from the faith that the martyrs of history and around the world today have given their lives for. In this series we will see that Jesus asks ALL, but also that he gives ALL. If he is the prize of our lives, we will willingly sign up for the sacrifice willing to be his disciple.

Three questions distilled down from conversations with students across the series and then live questions at the end. We loved the honesty in this dialogue and welcome any further discussion. Any additional questions can be sent to youth@church.nyc

Does God still heal physical bodies today? Is the gift of healing for our time or was this just something we observe in the life of Jesus? Shelbi Shutt guides us through this conversation as a person living with an ongoing physical disability, yet has seen healing happen around her. She is a perfect guide to understand the “now and not yet” of God’s Kingdom.