Imagining the Impact if NYC 2023 Overflows onto the Rest of Us
Our Central Church students are at NYC today. Not New York City. Nazarene Youth Conference. It’s in Tampa. Tampa in January is great. Tampa in July? Think: Sauna. Don’t believe people who say, “It’s not the heat; it’s the humidity.” It’s the heat AND the humidity. In spite feeling like they’ve been hit in the face by a wet blanket fresh out of the oven, our 45 students and five adults are part of a gathering of 10,000 students from across USA and Canada in steamy Tampa.
NYC is an every four year conference (although the next one will be in three years), where youth gather for worship services, Christian concerts and lots of fun. My son, Alex, went to NYC in St. Louis in 2007 and Ben went to NYC in 2011 in Louisville (Ben went back to NYC in Louisville in 2015 when he worked the summer with non-profit Forge Flint). It’s a great event. One could argue, it’s the best thing that the Church of the Nazarene does.
Imagine with me (maybe “Pray with me” is the more correct phrase, but I’ll stick with “Imagine”). Imagine if God Almighty came in such a powerful way that those 10,000 NYC students were forever changed. Now (keep imagining) those 10,000 students then went home. On fire, not because of Tampa’s heat wave, but because of an unforgettable encounter with Jesus. Changed. Empowered. Infused with the Holy Spirit. Some of those students live in homes that are already on fire for Jesus. Great. An on-fire-for-Jesus student returns home and makes a great family even better. But some of those students are from homes that are filled with dysfunction and brokenness. Do you think God could use an on-fire, Holy Spirit empowered teenager in that circumstance? I do. Paul would agree. That’s why he wrote Timothy these words: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” (1 Timothy 4:12).
Imagine (are you still imagining?) those NYC students come home and do just that… set an example for the rest of us. Whether we are living for Jesus or not. They come home and set the example in all areas of life (Paul left nothing out on the above list). 10,000 students leading the charge, setting an example and making a difference could have a powerful effect not just upon the churches and homes to which they return, but upon our world.
Here’s what I mean: If 10,000 NYC students came home and splashed (not the sweat from steaming Tampa, but the Holy Spirit’s fervor) on just 4 people, now we were at 50,000 people influenced for Jesus. Imagine (don’t stop imagining now, we’re just getting to the fun part) if those 50,000 people splashed on four people, now we are at 200,000 people. You get where I am heading, don’t you? Splash. Splash. Splash. Splash and our country (and Canada too) would be reached for Christ. I am imaging that… no, I’m praying for that eventuality. The theme of NYC 2023 is Overflow. I hope, imagine and pray that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit overflows from our students, and onto our church and onto me.
Old people like me tend to watch too much news; hear too many bad reports; believe too many tales of the world going down the tubes. But if 10,000 NYC students returned to their cities, schools and churches filled with the Holy Spirit and leading by example—only God knows the impact they can have. I’m praying for NYC 2023. I’m praying that it doesn’t stop in Tampa, but rather the Spirit’s moving ‘overflows” and splashes onto us too!
Just imagine what God could do!
