http://www.nyitoday.org

NYIToday E-MagazineA bi-monthly e-magazine

of the NYI Office, Church of the Nazarene

www.nyitoday.org

Global NYI Director Gary W. Hartke

Executive Editor Kristen Bell

Editor Assistant Rachel Shald

Translation Coordinator Lisa Aparicio

Spanish EditorDavid Gonzalez

A special thank you to our team of translators!

Spanish:Daniel Moreno, Ruth Armendariz

Luis E. Guerrero, Benjamin CruzAbigaíl García Huerta

Portuguese:

Rob SimoesJoice Tulio Gomes de Souza

Thainá Milena da Silva DuarteMariana Pereira, Saulo Saad

French Translator

Milly Ibanda

Layout & Design Christian Cardona

Want to write an article or share your event news and information? Please contact us at

nyi@nazarene.org

Nazarene Youth InternationalChurch of the Nazarene

17001 Prairie Star ParkwayLenexa, KS USA 66220

www.nyitoday.org

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Why the Change?

3 Sources of Our Identityby Yeri Nieto

Youth Ministry AcademyHighlights

A Clean Slateby Jimmy De Gouveia

Old Words for a New Cultureby Walt Mueller

NYI News

Recommended Resources

Jesus for a New Generation

Timothy Award

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Every so often I think to myself, “Why does everything

have to change?”

Change is difficult: it provokes thought, it means finding a new rhythm, and it can imply that what was at one time is now no longer sufficient. However, I am

then reminded that change also means opportunity: an opportunity for transformation, an opportunity to

chart a new path, and an opportunity to refocus vision. So… why the change?

As a result of the changing world we live in, the NYI staff has discussed the need to make strategic amendments in our efforts to serve youth lead-

ers worldwide. We have produced two different newsletters every month for the past year – The Academy Today (designed to support and promote Youth Ministry Academy), as well as the NYIToday Newsletter (designed to inform and connect NYI leaders across the seven regions). We want to

present you with a high-quality publication that is meant to be an inspira-tion to all who serve Christ with a renewed passion.

With that said, we are happy (more like ecstatic!) to announce that the NYIToday Newsletter is merging with The Academy Today to become the

new NYIToday E-Magazine.

We have established a few goals for this new endeavor:

We hope you find these changes to be beneficial to you and your ministry.

Enjoy the new format and we welcome your feedback!

Blessings,

We want you to know what is out there as far as youth ministry programs and tools go – this e-magazine will give you ideas for implementation.

We desire to provide articles and news pieces that are engag-ing and a resource for you and your youth ministry team.

We hope that you will interact with this publication! Send us your responses, your news, any upcoming National, Field or Regional NYI information to: nyi@nazarene.org

Inform

Inspire

Interact

“Letter to the Editor”YMA asked: What is one of the most memorable times of worship you have shared with your teens?

It happened just this past Saturday, when we met in the morning to have a devotional. It turned into a Satur-day filled with blessing, something that hadn’t really happened for a long time. It is times like this that remind us why the church exists, because that Saturday we were able to share praises of thanksgiving, recognizing that God has always taken care of us. After sharing our praises of thanksgiving, we sang a song which was led by one of our youth; that helped us to have a moment of worship, in family, to our God. We had the chance to listen to each other and to know that God had blessed the lives of the youth, even in the middle of difficulties. It also gave us the chance to know that the youth are learning to worship God in this way. These moments rarely happen and when they do, believe me, they are full of blessing and unity in the Spirit! I thank God that I have a family in Christ, and I thank all the guys and girls who were there that day; it was a very memorable time of worship and fellowship with my little brothers and sisters in Christ. I hope that they continue to experience those moments, because they are what God desires for us, that we worship in spirit and in truth. God bless you.

~Daniel G. (a member of our Spanish Youth Ministry Academy community)

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It took Ulysses twenty years to re-turn to his homeland. During all of that time, even with his bravery and heroism being put continuously to the test, this mythical character of The Odyssey was never able to find his full identity. This is a literary condemnation of be-ing in exile which every person needs to learn: no one is able find their iden-tity while at the margins of the com-munity. Ulysses always sought to re-turn to his own, his family, his country

1.) Jesus Christ, our archetype, is the first source of inspiration and moti-vation. The God who revealed himself to Israel decided to reveal himself to the whole world by becoming incar-nate (Hebrews 1:1-4), that is, becoming like one of us, “pitching his tent among us humans” (John 1:14), clothing him-self with our flesh. The Scriptures teach us that God is the one who made the decision to live in communion with his creation, the one who always takes the first step of love. God is love (1 John 4:8), and this is not a theoretical love,

and his wife Penelope who suffered in his absence. It took him twenty years to return to Ithaca! How long will it take us, inhabitants of the 21st centu-ry, to return to community? Another twenty centuries?

I say “return” because in this era we, the new generations of Christians in the world, have forgotten our origins. I present here three great sources of our historical identity as Christians that point to the importance of com-munity:

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but a love which comes down from the heavens and inhabits the Earth, walk-ing among us, feeding the hungry, free-ing the captive, healing the sick, and resurrecting the dead. We, who are Je-sus’ followers today, need to walk more in our world, come out of our shells to proclaim his incarnated gospel (Luke 4:18-19). We need to remember that a community exists outside which needs us, that the whole world still needs the full revelation of God.

Alone we will not accomplish much. We will be able to develop to our full potential as Christians by being con-scious of the community which we are a part of.

2. The second historical source is the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. This reformation helped us to remember that at the heart of the Christian community is our confes-sion of faith in Christ. This is because the people of that time lived in a cul-ture that took for granted that they be-came Christians by birth. One became part of a community of faith simply by being born in a Christian country.

However, the Reformation helped us realize that we become a part of the Christian faith community because of the salvation which comes from Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us at the cross. We appropriate this salvation by faith in Jesus Christ and not our own works, and this same faith will lead us to live as the community of love which we find in the New Testament (Acts 2:42-47).

3.) The holiness movement of Eng-land in the 18th century, which John Wesley headed, is the third source of our identity.God does not want a multitude of individual Christians; the New Testa-ment affirms that the church is much more than a conglomeration of faith-ful individuals who get together to support and guide each other. The church is actually the body of Je-sus Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-26; Ephesians 4:1-16). While many think Wesley overly emphasized individual holiness, he taught that there was no individual holiness outside of social holiness. That is, Christians cannot claim individual lives of holiness out-side of the fellowship and nurture of the body of Christ.

The church is the means by which Christ exists in the world at this time, and each of us serves this church. It is necessary that the new generations of Christians in the world participate ful-ly in this Holy Communion: let us eat together at the table of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen.

Worship which has focused on indi-vidualism has resulted in superficial relationships among us. However, these three historical events which shape our identity remind us, as did Ulysses’ odyssey, that no one can find their identity at the margins of the community. If we desire to develop fully we must recognize this inherit-ance in our tradition as Christians, the cultivation of community.

By: Yeri NietoYouth Pastor, Primera Iglesia del Nazareno in Villaflores, Chiapas, Mexico.

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www.youthministryacademy.org5/NYITODAY/MARCH/APRIL

Leadership development is a signifi-cant aspect of the mission of Naza-

rene Youth International. The Timothy Award gives the Church of the Nazarene an opportunity to recognize, in a tangi-ble way, outstanding service, sacrifice, and personal commitment to youth. Net proceeds from the award become a vehicle for the development of global youth ministry through the NYI Fund. This fund has been established to provide a finan-cial resource base from which global youth leadership training, youth evangelism, and resource development can be built. Funds received for the payment of the Timothy Award over and above the cost of the award and shipping will be applied to the NYI Endowment Fund for Global NYI Ministry.

Q. Who can receive the Timothy Award?A. A person with a minimum of ten years of service to youth.

Q. How do I nominate someone for the Timothy Award?A. Complete the application and return to NYI. Make sure to include a one-page summary on why they should be considered for this award. NYI will help you through the rest!

Q. How much does it cost?A. Include $200USD ($125USD for those outside of USA/Canada) that covers the cost of the award and shipping and also supports the NYI Fund, which provides global youth leadership training, youth evangelism, and re-source development.

Q. Where do I go for more information?A. Get the Timothy Award application with full details and information can be found here.http://www.nyitoday.org/timothyaward

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By: Jimmy De GouveiaJimmy serves with Nazarene Youth International as the Regional

Youth Coordinator for the South America Region

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This was a woman whose life had been changed by Jesus. She had discovered a new beginning, a new reason to live. Out of her deep and uncontrollable gratitude she began to cry and her tears fell on the feet of Jesus…feet that were dirty and dusty from so much walk-ing. She immediately began to dry Jesus’ feet with her hair, without even noticing that her tears had mixed with the dust and that it had turned to mud in her hair. When she finished drying Jesus’ feet, she began to kiss them and poured perfume on them.

Simon did not understand what had just happened. So Jesus told Simon a story about two men who had a debt. One owed his moneylender an amount equal to one hundred days of pay and the other owed his money-lender an amount equal to fifty days of pay. However, neither of them could pay off their debt, so the creditor for-gave them both.

After this story, Jesus asked Simon a question. “…Which one of these men will love the moneylender more?” Si-mon responded, “I think the one who had the larger debt canceled.” Jesus said, “You have judged correctly,” then he explained to Simon about the pro-found love of the woman because of the great debt that had been paid for her. Jesus then turned to her and said, “Your sins are forgiven.” Incredible! She had been carrying this burden,

debtor to pay the debt, or to apply the value of the work of the debtor towards the debt.

If the debtor could not pay the debt, because it was outside their ability to pay, they were at great risk.

The debt of sin which we have with God is way beyond our ability to pay. We cannot work hard enough, pray enough, give enough, or live rightly enough to pay off our debt. God knew this and he gave us both Christmas (which means God sent Jesus to us) and the cross (which means Jesus died in our place) so that we could do some-thing about our debt. We needed our debt to be forgiven and paid, and God’s answer was Jesus.

3. We cannot cancel our own debt!The end of verse 42 says, “…so he for-gave the debts of both.” This is what Jesus did on the cross; he canceled my debt and paid yours as well.

In the book of Ephesians, Paul tells us that God has chosen to adopt us as His children through Jesus. (1:5) It is through Jesus’ death on the cross that God adopts us into His family when we accept what Jesus did for us.

When we are willing to really give our lives to Jesus and allow his death on the cross to be the price paid for our sins and we stop trying to do it our way and to begin to trust that Jesus did this for us, then we are forgiven forever. This is the gift God has for me and for you.

with such a heavy weight of guilt and shame for what she had done. And with a short declaration, Jesus lifted that burden, all the shame, all her guilt and he set her free. We ought to re-ceive this gift as well because…

1.We are indebted.“Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.” (Luke 7:41)

A denarius was equal to the salary of a working day. Although the amounts of the debts were significantly differ-ent, the fact is, they both had a debt.

Spiritually, we are all in debt, some of us are deeper in debt than others. The point is to simply recognize our debt.

2. Our debt is beyond our ability!“Neither of them had the money to pay him back…” (Luke 7:42)

For any number of reasons people get into debt beyond their financial ca-pacity and when they do, they must do something about it. According to Roman law in the days of Jesus, the moneylender could have arrested and imprisoned both debtors and forced them to work for him. The idea was to force debtors to sell any property that could have helped to settle the debt, force friends and relatives of the

L uke tells us about an intriguing inci-dent which happened one day while

dining at the house of Simon the Pharisee. During the meal a woman who had a bad reputation in the city, came to the house. Jesus was eating when she entered and walked towards him.

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Youth around the world have big dreams and big plans for sharing Jesus with their world. The only thing holding them back is a lack of resources. This is where you come in.

You and your local, district or regional NYI commu-nity have the opportunity to respond to these needs from around the world! Check out Jesus for a New Gen-eration to find a project that you can sponsor.

One project you may consider adopting is “Words to the World.” Did you know that there are over 6,000 different languages in the world? Our NYI leaders are charged with spreading the message of Christ despite language barriers. By giving to Words to the World, you are providing for the translation of promotional resources, disciple-ship materials, leadership train-ing materials, web stories, online youth ministry tools, & various other ministry resources into the many languages spoken by our brothers and sisters around the world.

As you hold events to raise the project money, please take pictures and submit them to JFANG@nazarene.org for place-ment on our website. We love to hear about the progress you are making!If you would like to learn more about Jesus for a New Genera-tion projects and how you can sponsor one, click here.

The need is great; respond now.

Tips for Sponsoring a Project:

Be creative!

Allow youth to choose a project that is important to

them.

Get your entire church involved!

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I grew up in a church tradition where we highly valued the use of the historic Christian creeds. During every weekly worship service, the congre-gation - young and old alike - would stand together to recite words that encapsulated the basic, unchanging truths of the Chris-tian faith. While I’ll be the first to admit that I usu-ally recited those memorized words without ever en-gaging my young mind, I now ap-preciate what often seemed liked nothing more than an empty ritual. Perhaps it’s the heartfelt and passionate words my father spoke to me whenever I would protest our

cern. I see far too many kids buying the lies. Created in the image of God and made to be in a relationship with Him, all our kids longingly live to have that God-shaped hole in their souls filled by the one true God. In that respect, this generation is not unlike any pre-vious generation. Their search for God leads them to try to fill the void with anything and everything. Recognition, relationships, achievements, material things – they’ll try all of them. Sadly, they’re also all false gods that can never fill the void.

But what sets this generation apart from others is the fact that they are deeply aware of the spiritual aspect of their lives and are pursuing their search for fulfillment with a conscious com-mitment. This is an exciting change! When I first went into youth ministry back in the mid 1970’s, this was rarely the case. Sure kids would show up for youth group and Bible study. But while we were spending time trying to teach

unchanging and boring order of wor-ship. “We recite the creeds for a rea-son,” he told me. “We do it to remind

ourselves of what Scripture says is true because we’re always in danger of buying lies and slipping into error.”

I’ll be honest - back then I was more interested in protesting rather than lis-tening to what my dad had to say. But as a par-ent of four chil-dren (three of them teens) and

full-time observer of today’s rapidly changing youth culture and its pow-erful influence on my kids, I now un-derstand and share my father’s con-

“We recite the creeds for

a reason,” he told me. “We do it to remind our-selves of what Scripture

says is true because we’re always in danger of buying lies and slip-

ping into error

”

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the truth, the kids who weren’t sold on Christianity maintained a posture of disengaged apathy. They weren’t par-ticularly interested in talking about the Christian faith nor did they care. What they were waiting for was the time to social-ize and eat pizza. Today, kids show up and assume the encouraging pos-ture of engaged skepticism. They want to talk about spiritual things. They are even ex-cited to talk about the Christian faith and Biblical truth. The challenge, however, is that they are skeptical about its validity. To them, Christi-anity is just one option among many.

your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door-frames of your houses and on your gates.” (Dueteronomy 6:4-9). Known as the “Shema” (Hebrew for “hear”), pious Jews still recite this passage daily as their confession of faith. As Chris-tian parents, these words remind us of our responsibility to lead our children to the living water that will satisfy their thirst by constant and consistent mod-eling and talking about what it means to be committed to the one true God.

I’m sure there were times my dad be-lieved that my boredom and disinter-est indicated that I wasn’t hearing what he had to say. If I remember correctly, he was right. But as someone once said, “Sound travels slowly. What you tell a teenager when he’s 16 might not be heard until he’s 35!” How true! That’s all the more reason to be diligent about lovingly impressing and speaking God’s commandments on our kids. They are looking for answers. They are listening and watching.

By: Walt Mueller – Walt, who previously served as a youth minister, has worked with the Center for Parent/Youth Understand-ing as a speaker and writer for the past 20 years.Previously published article provided by the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding. Used with permission. To view original posting or see more resources from CPYU visit www.cpyu.org.

Perhaps you’ve noticed that the entertainment industry has tapped into this interest with a host of spiritually-themed films, TV shows, and books aimed at teens. Pop music stars speak and sing openly about spiritual matters. Rarely, how-ever, do these outlets promote Biblical Christianity. More and more kids are investigating the occult, horoscopes, witchcraft, and new age religions. A recent Barna Group study commis-sioned by WisdomWorks Min-istries (www.planetwisdom.com) discovered that 66% of all teenagers have experimented with psychic and/or occultic activities including seances, casting spells, consulting medi-ums, etc. Spirituality is popular

and they’re investigating the options. Consequently, their search for God is

leading them to buy lies and slip into error.

Perhaps the best thing we can do to point our kids to the truth is to rediscover and live the words of this early creed: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord Our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These command-

ments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on

“WisdomWorks Ministries discovered that 66% of all teenagers have ex-

perimented with psychic and/or occultic activities

including seances, casting spells,

consulting mediums, etc.

”

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Africa NYINEWS Congratulations to Mr. Milly Ibanda (from DR Congo ) who is studying at Africa Nazarene University and Mr. Joseph Sibuyi (from South Africa) for completion of their online studies and being the first two Africans to earn a Certificate in Youth Ministry through the Youth Ministry Academy. For more information on the courses please visit www.youthministryacademy.org

Caribbean NEWSPuerto Rico East District NYI shares recent activities

Young people from the Eastern Dis-trict have been meeting every month in different churches in the Puerto Rico East District to praise and glorify God, to show other young people that life in God’s is amazing, and to share and see each other more often. Some of the churches that were visited in-clude: Humacao, Levittown, Valley Loiza, Santurce, Country Club and Rio Grande. These activities culmi-nate with the sharing of Christmas in the Church of CPA in Cataño where participants dined on typical Puerto Rican food (rice with peas, ham salad, macaroni and cheese, flan and vanilla and cantamos Bombas). In 2011 the Puerto Rico East district

Eurasia Regional NEWSImpressions of the Northern Europe Field Nazarene Youth Conference 2010-11 by Dolphy Biswas, Eurasia Communications

What did you do for your Christmas break? No matter what you did, the youth of the Northern Europe Field would tell you that they were at the best possible place they could ever be, do-ing what they loved doing. From 28 December, 2010 till 2 Janu-ary, 2011 around 200 young Nazarenes from all over Northern Europe gath-ered in Netherlands for the Nazarene Youth Conference (NYC) to celebrate the goodness of Christ in their life.Netherlands district hosted NYC 2010-11. The team of hosts helped the young people from around the field, along with some international participants, experience God in a renewed way in their life as well as experience the rich Dutch culture.The days were packed with workshops, Dutch food and games, a day of sight-seeing and some powerful evening messages from different speakers. The theme of the event was “God of this/your city” and so the focus for the week was not just on individuals but also the community around the young people.

hosted a Holiness Retreat: “Acts to be Continued...” Nearly 125 young peo-ple attended and saw how God works in incredible ways as attendees gave everything to the Lord in front of a bonfire. The district hosted training workshops on Holiness: Character (God uses the ordinary to do extraor-dinary things), Delicious, I - the Cast and Director (Character and Holi-ness) and Education 101 (Spiritual Formation) and a lecture: X-treme Makeover where Rev. Puig helped clarify doubts and taught participants that they can live in Holiness. During a service project day, people had an opportunity to minister in the town of Juana Díaz where they sang, painted, performed dramas, and prayed for the people that still do not know Je-sus. Three people accepted Jesus as their personal Savior. Later that night, the young people came together for a special time of communion and reaf-firmation of their relationship in obe-dience to God. On Sunday, speaker Nestor Hernández, through various games we were urged to be different, to not be confused, but to be young people who impact our society. “We are movies that the world sees … what is the content of your film?”If you would like to partner with oth-er district NYI’s to help make future youth events possible, check out the opportunites here.

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They were each challenged to go out and seek God for the people and the community around them, to stand up for each other, to know the needs of the people and to be missional in their approach with God as their focus. The workshops not only helped the young people work on personal maturity, but also showed them how they could in-dividually reach out to others in the 21st century and develop a strong re-lationship with God.There were young people almost every day at the evening services who de-cided to commit their lives to Christ, some to the service of Christ but most to be a support system for each other through their journey of living a Chris-tian life. It was a beautiful sight watch-ing the young people praying for each other after the service and showing how committed they were to Christ’s mission.NYC not only helped people experi-ence God in a special way, but also the culture and the people in a new way. Most of the young people went out with a renewed strength and burden for the community and for service to Christ.

For more pictures and videos visit the NYC NEF Facebook page.

Upcoming Events

Philippines National NYC “Against the Flow”Asia-Pacific RegionCebu City, Philippines 19-21 April 2011

National Youth Leader TrainingCaribbean RegionDominican Republic13-15 May 2011

India Field NYC “Called” Eurasia RegionChennai, India17-21 May 2011

If you have event information that you would like to share for a Field, National, or Re-gional event, please send you information to nyi@nazarene.org

South America NewsBrasil’s South Field hosts first Nazarene Youth CongressPr. Jeomakson S. Evangelista –Field Youth Co-ordinator Brazil South

The first-ever NYC for the Southern Field in Brasil was held 13-15 Novem-ber in Curitiba, Brazil. Over 150 youth attended from Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and Mato Grosso do Sul. The theme for the NYC was “Touching Our Generation.”

There were many obstacles faced in planning an event that is new to a field, but it was an event that had a deep impact on the youth and leaders that were in attendance. A variety of work-shops were held with topics to help prepare them to influence and min-ister to their generation. On the last day of the conference, attendees were able to participate in service projects and performed various community projects providing basic health neces-sities, physical therapy, haircuts, and face painting for children. Youth went house-to-house sharing the Good News, and while the service projects were going on there was a stage set up in the street where NYC participants performed dances and songs.

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