NYM Parent Blog | January 2023
NYM Parents,
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year with your families. I have certainly enjoyed this time but have missed being with your student(s). Our NYM team cannot wait to be back with your student(s) on January 11th! We have quite the next few months ahead with some exciting new series, and snow conference. Take a look at what's coming at Northridge Youth Ministry this January :
January 4th : NO NYM (New Years Break)
January 11th: New Series: Created: male and female he created them
January 18th: Week 2: Created: male and female he created them
January 25th: Week 3: Created: male and female he created them
This new series called created will discuss how we are created by God, and created in his image. We will also discuss how important it is that God created us the way he did, specifically and intentionally. This will involve addressing the significance of being created male and female, body and spirit, and what God has to say about our bodies. A resource for this series that I will be teaching, comes from the book: What God Has to Say about Our Bodies. You can find that resource at the end of this email.
February 18th : Snow Conference
We announced on Christmas Eve that Snow Conference registration is OPEN! The cost is $50. Your student can expect a day of fun with community and be challenged in their faith by this year's theme : Breakthrough: Personal Kingdom vs God’s kingdom. We want all of our lives to be built on the kingdom of God, not on our own lives. Your student(s) will experience 2 sessions from our guest speaker: Mike Thomas, a workshop by a guest speaker, loads of fun, lunch, dinner, baptisms, engaging worship, and a Mack Brock concert. In honor of our parents, guardians, and families, we want to invite you to be a part of that experience at 7:30 pm at the end of the night with your student(s). It is free of cost for you and your family to attend the Mack Brock concert at the end of the night. We believe it is going to be a day to remember, a day that will change their lives forever, for the glory of God.
Register your students for Snow Conference : HERE
Spiritual Encouragement :
Alongside my goals for this year, I regularly ask the Lord to give me a word or two for the new year. One of the words I believe God has put in front of me is prayer. What would it look like if my whole life, each day, each moment, was marked by prayer. A deep, consistent communion with God. This is a goal that must be pressed into. With prayer being at the center of my attention for the new year, I have reflected on the prayer life of Jesus. Many theologians refer to the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-56) and the High Priestly Prayer (John 17) when looking at the prayers of Jesus. In these prayers, and all of Jesus’ prayers, we see that Jesus prays from his “bowels” or what the Hebrew would translate as : the deepest part of him. What a challenge and what a goal to pray from the deepest part of our being. As followers of Christ, we ought to be a people that pray from the deepest part of our beings. Whether the prayer is for our lives, or anything in between - would prayer and communion with God be what marks every part of our lives. I pray that you would join me in stretching our prayer life this year. I'm thankful for you and how you are leading your families to do the same.
Partnering with you,
Conell Christiansen & NYM Team
Resource for Created Series :
What God Has to Say about Our Bodies : Sam Allberry
