{"id":5300,"date":"2018-07-25T17:21:06","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T17:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=5300"},"modified":"2018-10-01T17:27:49","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T17:27:49","slug":"today-at-nyc-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2018\/today-at-nyc-wednesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Today at NYC – Wednesday, July 25, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Church of the Brethren Newsline
\nJuly\u00a025,\u00a02018<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
A panorama group photo of the NYCers and Boys and Girls Club children at the Day Care Service Project on Wednesday afternoon at NYC 2018. Photo by Laura Brown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body\u201d (Colossians 3:14-15).<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Quotes of the day:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDraw the circle, draw the circle wide.\u201d
\n— A phrase from the anthem sung by the NYC Choir for Wednesday morning worship.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cCan we all agree that everyone deserves the grace of God? Can we all agree that everyone has a place with God? Can we all agree that everyone should receive the love of God?\u201d
\n— A covenant that Taylor Dudley of Smith Mountain Lake Church of the Brethren in Franklin County, Va., one of two NYCers who spoke for Wednesday morning worship, asked the conference to agree to.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are joined together trying to reach the same goal…. We are joined in this journey together, clothed in the love of Christ.\u201d
\n— Elise Gage of Manassas (Va.) Church of the Brethren gave one of the youth messages on Wednesday morning.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAt Calvary we see that God is the hated Samaritan…who offers us gratuitous grace.\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 — Jarrod McKenna, a prominent Christian leader and peace activist from Australia, who preached on the parable of the \u201cGood Samaritan\u201d Wednesday evening. This was his third time at NYC, having spoken in 2010 and 2014, where he coined the term \u201cDunker Punks.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He called for a revisiting of the parable to recognize it is not about a \u201cGood Samaritan\u201d but a \u201chated Samaritan\u201d who symbolizes God who is \u201ccamouflaged\u201d as those who are hated and despised.\u00a0<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 McKenna closed with an altar call for both youth and adults in the Church of the Brethren to recommit themselves to \u201cthe revolution of the towel,\u201d the Brethren tradition of feetwashing which he lifted up as a means for the church and the world to seek healing. Calling for repentance and turning away from the divisions in surrounding society, he urged the adults present to become true role models for the youth by not letting the culture wars find a place in the church.\u00a0<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He called the youth to become leaders in the church in order to return it to true discipleship to Christ that identifies with the suffering of others.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLord, would you send us out with tenderness to turn this world upside down with love.\u201d
\n— Jarrod McKenna\u2019s prayer at the close of the Wednesday evening service<\/em><\/p>\n

NYC by the numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the end, National Youth Conference is defined by the numbers–how many individuals were involved, and how many others will be helped by this conference.<\/p>\n

But of course, much of the NYC impact can’t be measured by numbers. The impact of messages from the speakers, new thoughts expressed during small groups, countless hours spent in community during service projects, miles of hiking trails, fellowship in the cafeterias. These have no numbers attached, but become the essence of church for the youth and adults who were a part of it all.<\/p>\n

1,809 attendees<\/strong>\u00a0including 471 advisors and 92 staff and volunteers and youth workers<\/p>\n

1,536 people<\/strong>\u00a0hiked in the Rockies<\/p>\n

230 diapers<\/strong>\u00a0made, and\u00a0 1,800 t-shirts received and processed to make diapers for use by Midwives for Haiti<\/p>\n

$394 received<\/strong>\u00a0in monetary donations for the work of Midwives for Haiti<\/p>\n

400 Clean Up Buckets<\/strong>\u00a0assembled for Church World Service disaster relief<\/p>\n

$2,038 received<\/strong>\u00a0in monetary donations for Clean Up Buckets<\/p>\n

$7,040 received<\/strong>\u00a0in an offering for the NYC Scholarship Fund<\/p>\n

700 pounds<\/strong>\u00a0received in donations of canned food and other nonperishable food items for the Larimer County Food Bank<\/p>\n