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Transcript

Better together · Fostering Faith

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  Welcome back to season two of fostering faith. We are so excited to have you guys
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  back this season. We have a whole new plan of action. We have guests coming on
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  this season. We have merch on our in our descriptions and on our YouTube page and
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  so we already have made orders and so make sure that you check out our merch
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  for the store and we are gonna dive right in as we have came off our week of
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  refresh. We were able to go to a conference. So Gia, what have you been
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  doing since you've been off? I have been doing school and studying and this
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  week we went to refresh on our week off. And so what's refresh? It was basically
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  this thing that is not gonna be yearly at City Hill Church and basically it's
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  like a whole day thing starts at 10 to like maybe like 7 right? We were there
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  till 9 so we were there for over 12 hours. So we were there for about 12
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  hours and so we were there from the very beginning to the very late at night. So
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  what did you experience at refresh? A lot of things. I feel like us teenagers
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  united a lot. We worshiped together. We went to the altar. We all prayed for
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  each other and I feel like there it was very competitive at refresh. There's
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  different colors like blue, green, red, and black. I was on black for the best
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  team but we didn't win but it's okay. And so I think that we should back up a
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  little bit and so this refresh youth conference was based out of our home
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  church City Hope but they united with all the other local churches and so we
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  had several different churches under one roof worshiping one God and learning and
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  communing together in small groups. And so did you guys did your youth did you
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  guys care or did you find it exciting to have other churches in your church? Yeah
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  it's very exciting because we usually we don't have to like we have a lot of youth
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  people but like I haven't seen that many in our church in a long time. As you went
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  to another church camp this summer with that that unity as part of the the
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  common theme how do you feel after you've been united with other believers? I
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  feel like very good that I got to be united with everyone else. It was really fun. Is there a
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  difference between just uniting with the people that you go to church on a
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  regular basis? Do you feel it's more powerful when more people come together?
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  I feel like it's more powerful when other people come together because there's so
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  many people there they can meet and unite with. What does scripture say about unity?
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  Psalms 133, how good is a pleasant it is when God people live together in
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  unity? I feel like that's a big verse. And just having unity in the body of Christ
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  I'm studying now in 1st Corinthians 12 12 through 14 and how we are the body of
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  Christ and so it doesn't matter what church you go to? No we're all the same
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  church basically we're all worshiping the same God we might have a different
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  style of everything but it doesn't mean we're worshiping different gods. As far
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  as 1st Corinthians 12 12 goes it says for just the body is one and many
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  members and all the members of one body with many are one body so is it with
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  Christ and so we have one spirit we're all baptized with one body Jews and
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  Greeks slaves and free are all made to drink from one spirit and so just
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  because you go to a Methodist church or a Baptist church or a non-denominational
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  church do you feel like youth is thirsty and hungry for unity? Oh definitely. Us youth we love seeing other youth people we love seeing our general
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  worship our God unless there's so many of us we love it. And then so did you
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  guys feel intimidated did you guys feel like if we you seen one go up to the
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  altar to pray I mean did you're like oh no I can't go they don't belong to our
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  church or? Oh no everyone went to the altar we all prayed all together. Do you feel the the sense of maybe like a revival happening
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  amongst the youth like with everything that's happening in the college lately
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  and the revival is happening for days and days and days do you feel like God
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  is moving us towards unity? Oh yeah for sure our generation I feel like would be
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  probably like the best generation yet for worshiping and like everything like that. And even just if you look into the unity in John 17 20 through 23 Jesus
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  prays for all believers to be one as he and the Father are and talking about the
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  significance of prayer how was it to be able to now know different youth names
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  and to be in prayer over and to have stories could you guys connect it over
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  small groups? How is that beneficial to be in a small group if you don't even go
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  to church with them? Because it's about us uniting together and getting to know each
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  other so when we do come back to see each other we'll remember oh this happened to this
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  person this happened to this person and it's for us to pray for them to to get to know them and to just think of them constantly. And I think that it's a
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  great thing too because they're not all from your church but knowing that you're
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  saturated in prayers in different towns and so people came from different towns
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  and knowing that someone in a different town is praying for you I think that can
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  be you know very moving. When the early church in Acts described you know early
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  believers were united in their faith and actions and resulting in growth and
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  miracles do you see the youth trying to come in and do action? What was
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  the takeaway from Refresh as far as action is concerned? What are we gonna
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  do what could we do as youth to move into unity? To spread the word and like not be
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  afraid to like go up to someone random and say like have a good day or like
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  you're blessed by God and really fair like that. To be more bold? Yeah. Do you feel like the youth today is bold in their faith? I mean yeah for sure we oh I feel like we are. And
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  and together we're we're better together right versus you know City Hope youth
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  versus another youth versus another youth and they're doing things on their own
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  but collectively we are stronger together correct? Yep. What do what would be some
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  practical tips that a youth could do to unite their churches locally? Um I feel
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  like making like posters and everything like to unite them. What do you feel
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  would be a obstacle that people face whenever they are trying to be united?
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  Difference in opinions and practices I feel like. Okay what would be the common
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  denominator? I think love. Love is a common denominator in unity because we
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  all love God and God has commanded us to love all and so to unite the other
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  churches and coming in together more frequently to have more conferences to
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  have more you know revival nights to have worship night we're so lucky here
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  in town that we have local bands that bring us together we have 618 nights
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  that is a local band that brings all the schools together all you know different
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  church organizations and we're all under one roof you know worshiping you know I
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  think that we are so fortunate to live in a such a small community that we are
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  able to to do things like that kind of frequently what are how do you families
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  unite how can families unite on a on a daily basis? I feel like at the dinner
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  table like and talking about their day and everything or when someone comes
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  home and everything like that just talking is a good way to unite. You know
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  I think that we've discussed it before and it you know having that unity in the
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  family over supper maybe even doing like a you version Bible plan to create unity
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  in your house and therefore maybe that unity could branch off into your
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  friend's house and then they could discuss that and have those ideas for
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  their family and then maybe you guys could do it as two families together
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  could the unity in the church what about like involving kids with small groups?
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  Do you think that small groups could help youth out? Yeah for sure because
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  like in like I feel like small groups do help cuz like small groups are where you
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  just keep it in the thing and you're not like supposed to be judged or anything
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  like that. And so again surrounding yourself with other people that are
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  like-minded that we are you know because we're to bear each other's burdens
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  right? And so whenever we talk about the the power of prayer and so whenever we're
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  in small groups you know Ephesians 4 3 says make every effort to keep unity in
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  the spirit did the bond of peace and and knowing that we are different but we can
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  come together and love on each other I think is a great way to look at
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  encompassing you know different things. Are you looking forward to next
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  year's refresh? Yeah for sure. Did you meet any new friends?
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  Were you able to get phone numbers in your small group? New people to pray for?
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  I knew everyone in my small group so. And in your you knew them because of the
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  community that you're in? Yeah. And so you already had united with them do you feel
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  that ways to seek out action to build and maintain unity in the circles what
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  could we do to a practical way that we can make unity a thing that sticks?
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  What do you mean by that? And so yeah you guys come together at refresh and it's great
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  and like whatever but how how are you guys gonna stay connected? By going to
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  church every Sunday and like just hanging out all together. Texting throughout the
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  week. Sending encouraging words. You know just like hey I need prayer. You know do
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  you feel like youth is comfortable in that? Asking for help? Asking for prayer?
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  Or do you feel like there is pride issues and they don't feel they don't
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  want to be vulnerable? It just depends on the person really. So how could you
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  encourage someone that doesn't want to let go of their you know like they're
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  scared to? They're scared to open up in small group. Most churches are coming into
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  small group season and some people might be very like standoffish and like no I'm
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  not gonna go talk to other people. How could youth benefit from doing small
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  groups? By letting off all their burdens and everything like that. And does you know does Christ say like give
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  each other your burdens? Yeah. And so should people be scared about small
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  groups? No. Has great things came from small groups? Yeah. You had you went to
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  small groups last season and you had a fun time. You guys played. You guys were able
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  to talk through things and you learned. And even just speaking for myself I mean
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  small groups for adults are a great tool. I met my best friend several years ago
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  through small groups and we've walked through different books together and
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  we've been I've been leading a women's small group and lives are changed with
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  unity. People that you may not normally talk to we were able to connect during
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  small groups and unity and so we are just so thankful for the unity in our
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  churches in the small groups that are open to the community. You don't even
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  have to belong to the church. But you just come and you unite over your your
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  problems your worries your concerns you know all these different things and so I
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  think that would be a great way to maybe end the podcast is with encouragement to
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  have unity in your churches in your community about small groups and as we
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  are completely refreshed from this time off that we've had we are so excited
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  for this next season. Gia do you want to pray us out? Yep. Dear God thank you for
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  our stay thank you for everything you've done. Thank you that we got to refresh
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  over the weekend and while people are watching this podcast right now I pray
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  that everyone just has an amazing day that people get to let out their burdens
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  and then and that they go to a small group and that they learn how to unite
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  that they do unite with every other church and Jesus gonna pray amen. Amen
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  make sure you guys subscribe rate and review on your podcasting channel that
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  you're listening to and leave us a review on YouTube have a great rest of
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  your week and stay tuned for next week bye