Season 6 Intro: Who We Are

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to the YA podcast. [00:00:05] Speaker B: Lean in as we dive into the. [00:00:06] Speaker A: Practicals of life with Jesus as spirit filled young adults. [00:00:27] Speaker B: Welcome back, everyone, to the Young adults Podcast. This is Jess, and I am so excited to have you joining us again for season six for 2026. And I am joined by five of my closest friends. Why don't you guys introduce yourselves? [00:00:41] Speaker C: My name is David. I have ginger in my pocket. Apparently. Apparently that's like the first thing I should say. Ginger is really good for you guys, by the way. It's good for your immune system, like energy instead of coffee. It's a really Good. So, yeah, 85% of the time, I've got ginger in my pocket. So if you want some ginger, you know where to find me. And, yeah, I'm going to pass it on. [00:01:06] Speaker D: Believe it or not, it's David. You know, you might think he's joking about the ginger, but he actually had. [00:01:11] Speaker A: Ginger in his pocket. [00:01:14] Speaker D: My name is David. My fun fact is I don't have a middle name, which I know is a bit controversial, but that's, that's, that's what I really wanted to share what was on my heart. [00:01:26] Speaker B: Thank you for sharing. Thank you so much. [00:01:29] Speaker C: I reckon we should give David a middle name if. Okay, if we could all give David a middle name right now, what would it be? [00:01:36] Speaker E: It should be Jeremy. For context, Jeremy's middle name is David. [00:01:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Or for being really legalistic, it could be Jeremiah. [00:01:46] Speaker D: Okay. Okay. [00:01:47] Speaker A: Technically my first name. [00:01:48] Speaker C: Yeah, you know what? [00:01:48] Speaker D: I'll take it. I'll take it. [00:01:50] Speaker F: Hey, my name's also David. I'm joking. What? Sorry. My name is Hadassah. I promise, guys, I'm not gross. I don't know what happened then. Yeah, I have four mid names, so I can probably give you one of mine. [00:02:07] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:02:07] Speaker F: Okay, well, not four middle names, but four names. [00:02:10] Speaker D: Okay, let's hear them. [00:02:11] Speaker F: Hadassah, Rosa, Misanya, Chirui. Yeah, so I can give you one of mine. [00:02:16] Speaker C: Okay, which one do you think? [00:02:19] Speaker F: I think that would be really cool. [00:02:21] Speaker E: Like. [00:02:24] Speaker B: Is that a female name? [00:02:25] Speaker F: Yeah, but like, I mean, it technically isn't. It's not necessarily gendered. It's like. [00:02:29] Speaker B: Yeah, what does it mean? [00:02:31] Speaker F: I don't know, but I know that is okay. [00:02:33] Speaker B: So I'm thinking you should look it up. [00:02:36] Speaker F: Yeah, I definitely will. [00:02:38] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:02:38] Speaker B: All right. [00:02:39] Speaker E: Hey, guys, My name's Amy. I don't have an exciting middle name. That's my fun fact. I have, like, literally the most basic white girl middle name ever. [00:02:51] Speaker B: Can we guess? Yeah. [00:02:52] Speaker F: Is it Grace? [00:02:58] Speaker B: That's Crazy. [00:03:01] Speaker D: That's crazy. [00:03:02] Speaker B: I love that Christian girl, right? [00:03:05] Speaker E: Who would have thought? [00:03:06] Speaker A: Who would have thought? No shade to anyone named Grace. [00:03:09] Speaker D: No, we love you. We love you. [00:03:12] Speaker C: Just don't come to Newman. [00:03:16] Speaker B: Everyone is welcome here. [00:03:19] Speaker A: Come as you are. You can get your name changed later. Joking. I am another David, but that is my middle name. This is Jeremy, in case you hadn't guessed. And apparently my fun fact, according to another David, is that I'd be famous for the cookies that I make. [00:03:34] Speaker D: Like to make. They're amazing. [00:03:36] Speaker A: Which I feel like amongst the young adult community or some people, cookie cooking is quite. It's a well regarded skill. [00:03:45] Speaker B: It is a well regarded skill. [00:03:46] Speaker D: It's a growth area. [00:03:47] Speaker B: I just. I feel like it should go on record though, that some young adult did actually do a comparison between mine and your cookies and I won, so. But. But I will gladly retire from the cookie baking business so that you can. So that you can win. [00:04:04] Speaker A: Oh, I appreciate it. [00:04:05] Speaker B: They're actually really good. So good. Well, these guys are a lot of fun, in case you hadn't figured that out already. We just want to introduce you guys to the young adult community. Whether you're new here, it's your first time listening, your first Sunday in church, or whether you've been coming for years, we want to welcome you and we want to introduce you to who we are, what we do. So, guys, what is. What is new? Young adults, who are we? Amy, why don't you start us off? [00:04:29] Speaker E: Who, who is NUMA Young Adults? We are the young adult movement of NUMA Church and we are aged between 18 and 30 ish, as we all like to say. I think we're just, we're a community. We all love each other. We all get along super well. We all love Jesus most of the time. [00:04:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:49] Speaker E: And we're just. We're just committed to each other and moving forward. Loving Jesus, being part of church. [00:04:55] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And what kind of things do we do to connect with one another? [00:05:00] Speaker E: Well, we have life groups, Young adult life groups. They're so much fun. Definitely get in one if you are not in one yet. It's a great way to build community. We have socials throughout the year which are super fun as well. There'll be plenty of those happening this year. What else do we do? [00:05:18] Speaker A: I love the quality reels that I. [00:05:20] Speaker E: See on the Instagram, actually. That's so true. [00:05:24] Speaker F: Yeah, yeah. [00:05:25] Speaker B: The social media. We love Jesus. We love sharing him with. With other people. What else do we do, guys? [00:05:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I reckon to just hop onto that Sort of like community aspect of it. I think that's like one of the major things that we do here in terms of like getting together. Because we all know, like, even in the Book of Acts, like one of the first things the church used to do was literally getting together, sitting down, having meals together, sharing everything. And I just feel like, you know, this Christian walk in the day and age we live in as young adults especially, you can't do it on your own. You need those relationships, you need the, you know, the fellowship aspect of it. And I think that's one thing that we do really well. I'm sure every single person that's come here has said, like, this is a place where people become like a family type, which is I think one of the big sort of things that we do here at. [00:06:24] Speaker B: We love it. [00:06:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:06:25] Speaker F: And I, I feel like a lot of it is organic. So it's not like, oh, we do this, this, this, this, this. A lot of it happens organically, like people having lunch after Sunday service together and just catching up during the week and just bringing people along. Anyone who's sort of like around. You know what I mean? So I feel like they might not necessarily be like specific things on the calendar, but a lot of it just happens naturally. Cuz there's a really big culture of not leaving anyone behind and just like looking out for people, which, which is really good to see. [00:06:54] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, so good. And if I can just jump on that, like the, the organic nature happens when you're a proactive person. And it's really easy, especially in a big church, to get lost in the crowd. But as we be, as we're proactive, like going after. Yeah, getting into a life group, meeting people, then you can have this beautiful community. And yeah, some people do actually genuinely really struggle to get plugged in. But I always encourage people, hey, like, be bold, go talk to someone. See someone across the room, just go talk to them. Everyone's mostly pretty friendly, not too scary. I love it. One of the things that I think we carry really beautifully as a church is that we're not just a gathering of people. And I think Pastor Sheree said this the other day, she was like, church without a mission ceases to be a church. Like, we have to be on movement, we have to be moving, we have to be on mission. And so from that, the word that the Lord gave me this year for, I mean, it's not a this year thing, it's an always thing for young adults was Ephesians 4. And I just want to read that to you guys from verse 11, it says he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of faith, of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature man manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Schemes rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. And I know that's like a long passage, but I love talking about the whole body because we're all like such different people even in this room. We're all different people. We all come from different backgrounds and each of us play a role in that, like making up the beautiful body of Christ. So it's not about all just trying to be the same or doing the same thing, but as we're equipped together, we all do the work of ministry. And I actually really love, like, how it talks about speaking the truth in love. And I. That's something that I really want to see. For our young adults. That would be a place that we can openly, transparently share with one another, encourage each other, but also like, you know, call out other people, other people's stuff if it's. They're like, you probably shouldn't be entertaining that behavior or, you know, whatever that thing is. So that's something that I also really want to see. Now, young adults, what are some of the other things that you guys, like, would love to see, like, developed and cultivated in our community? [00:09:50] Speaker E: I think one thing that like, the Lord's really put on my heart this year for our community is I just really want to see like each and every young adult, like, gain a revelation of like, the gifts and the gracings that the Lord has placed on their life. Because I know that, like, for me, when I, like, began to realize like one, like my identity in Christ, like, that's something that we should all have that, like, root of to begin with. But when I began to like, yes, see the, the gifts, giftings and the graces that the Lord had placed on my life, like, I felt like, like you were Saying, like, I could have that movement and I could have that mission. So, like, I am just, like, so excited this year. Like, my heart is for our young adults to see, like, yeah, the gifts and the graces that the Lord has placed on their life and to, like, step into that and to actually, like, step out and operate in those gifts and those graces. Because it's not just up to leaders. It's not just up to our pastors. Like, we're all called to, you know, step out and operate that way. So that's something that I really am excited for this year. [00:10:44] Speaker F: Yeah, I'm just going to add on to that. It's just thinking back to what Jess was reading for us just a little bit earlier. I think that's why it's really important to equip people so they can be growing, because I feel like sometimes we get really comfortable in the spaces that we are. Whether you're a leader, whether you're doing anything else in church, you get really comfortable in your zone. And we do that a lot in life as well. But it's really important for people to be growing, you know, and whether that's on leaders to really think about what am I doing, how am I discipling people, how am I pushing them beyond where they're at, calling them to hire, you know, and also on people to just, you know, think about, like, where you can grow and where you. There's opportunity for you to become even more than you thought. And I think one thing I'm really excited for this year is for people just going beyond where they're at. So whether that's on leaders to really start looking at people and calling what's on their lives out and just releasing people into things. I'm just so excited for people to be released and. And go out and things to multiply, because people are just multiplying themselves, multiplying leaders, multiplying every sort of. And facet of people in church as well. So it's not just like one person is known for something, but it's like this spirit or character that this person has, it's just multiplying everywhere. So, yeah, I'm really keen for that. Yeah. [00:11:59] Speaker C: I love the part of the verse that goes, when each part is working properly, because I think a lot of church culture sort of maybe celebrates some gifts above another gift. But actually, according to the word, every single part, every single piece, person is important. There's another verse, I think it's Corinthians that speaks on how even the. The parts that you know, no one sees are actually held to, like, higher respect and regard. And. Yeah, I'm just to sort of like, make that a bit more practical. All the people who might feel like, oh, their gift is insignificant, or they don't even feel their gift is a gift, I feel like, go step into it. If your gift is, you know, encouraging someone being like, oh, hey, you're really good at this, you're really good at that. We need that. If your gift is, you know, serving really well, like, let's say we have events and you're like, really good at, like, cleaning tables up or bring. That's like a massive thing that we need. And it's like until. Yeah, it's like until every single person is, like, working in that part. You might think, okay, this person does this. Just leads the whole life, the whole young adult. So it's like, okay, cool. But it's like we need that for the whole body to actually work properly. And until we actually start having every single person operating in their gifts, not someone else's gift or not the gift that they think that, oh, this is what people want me to be or want to see, it's like your actual gift. Until we all start operating in that, I don't think us as a body, like, we're ever going to function properly or actually be able to operate. [00:13:39] Speaker D: Yeah, I think I. I love that theme that everyone's sharing on, on that passage. And it's great when you see someone that's fully embraced the gifts that God's given them. And it doesn't even have to be like some spiritual. What we think of as a spiritual gift, but just ordinary. What seems like ordinary things are actually extraordinary when we do them in our identity with God. And I think. I think there's a lot of untapped potential in our young adults and even in. In us individually, because we diminish some of those things. And when we as a body call those things out in each other, just as you've just said, I think it's a beautiful thing. So I'd love to see that more this year in our young adults. [00:14:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I feel like for myself, I guess especially probably around the time that I started coming to numa, it wasn't long after that that, you know, I didn't even have, like, this full understanding and awareness as to what my gifts were. And it was, you know, other people can have a much better perspective of who you are and the gifts you have and even areas of growth as well. But it was people calling out the Things in me that I didn't really believe or know about myself to be a gift where I feel like. Felt really encouraged by that. And that's where I've lent into it, or that's where I've, you know, taken up, you know, being a part of different ministries and things like that. And so I think it's so important that we do encourage each other and call it out in other people, because so often I think people don't believe that about themselves as being a gift or a strength or whatever it is until someone else tells you that it's there. And that's. That's when we can lean into it. [00:15:08] Speaker B: So, yeah, it's so good, I think. I mean, that's been my story as well. I think most of us can attest to that of, like, maybe, you know, something is true about yourself, or it's like it's in infancy, and then when someone else sees it and just, like, brings it to the line, calls that out. It's like, then you can actually fully grow into the person that you're called to be. Yeah, that's good. I love that. Yeah. What are some other things that I guess, define us as young adults? What are some of the things that we especially like in this community? Some of the things that we really. We want to, like, go after this year, and we would love to see fruit in. Like, I can say, I would really love to see the culture of prayer just be reignited in us. And we have a value at church that prayer fuels power. And, like, we see the power of God move when we come together and pray. And like, the scriptures say, when two or three gather together in my name, like, I am in the midst of them and just, like, gatherings of prayer, but also seeing people built up in their prayer life and in relationship with God and hearing God's voice, and I think that's obviously a lot related to what you were saying, Jeremy, about how, like, yeah, knowing things about yourself, but also other people calling it out of you comes from hearing God's voice. So I think that's a really important marker as well, that every young adult would hear God for themselves. Yeah. What are some of the things you guys think? [00:16:27] Speaker F: I think worshiping in spirit and in truth and really just people being comfortable with being able to express how they feel in that moment with the Lord without comparison creeping in. So I feel like if for you, that is just sitting quietly on a chair, that's not any less holy than someone who's, like, running around the room or someone who's you know, waving the flags around the room or anything like that. There's no sort of holier than thou expression of worship or intimacy with the Lord. I think just really being confident in what the Lord has for us that day. You know, for someone, it might be, you know, they were called in front and they had a prophetic word and there was so much going on for them. And for you, literally, it was just the love of God. But then even just being confident that that's, that's good and that's what God had for you, and that was beautiful. And again, there is no higher than the other, holier than the other. Because I feel like we have a beautiful culture of worshiping here and worshiping freely and going after the Lord in those spaces. But I really just want people, I just want us to be protective of, really doing it in, like, in honesty and of the, of the truth of what the Holy Spirit is actually doing in the room. And if it's quiet, it's quiet. If it's loud, it's loud, whichever way it is, whatever in between, like, we're just comfortable with letting Holy Spirit truly move however he wants in us and in the room in general. Yeah. So that's something I really want us to go after this year. Yeah. [00:17:58] Speaker E: I think, like, in general, just from that is, like, I would love to just see a comparison squashed, like, in our young adults. Like, comparison is such a killer. And, like, it's something that I'm sure every single person at this table still journeys through at times. But, like, I know in my life, like, it's been such a journey to learn not to compare myself to others. And I know that, like, I don't know if this sounds crazy, I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but I found that in church, I actually find myself comparing myself less naturally to people. So, like, I don't necessarily compare naturally with another person, but I compare so much spiritually and it's such a killer. So I think, like, to see that just like, out in young adults, like, this year would just be so cool and just like what we were talking about before, like, we're one body, many members, and we all have our gifts and our contributions. And like, yeah, just like what you were saying about being comfortable with what the Lord is doing, like, in our own individual lives. Yeah. [00:18:54] Speaker C: I reckon one thing that I really want to see, young Christians, young adults, and maybe even youth is growing in their understanding of grace. So I think, especially at a young age, because we do things with so much like, you know, passion and vigor. I think the down can be way worse in the sense of when the devil will like use that opportunity to really beat people up. Where, when you feel like, oh, you know what I mean, I'm not perfect, I'm not this. And you kind of like make a mistake and then you kind of like fall away because of like, you know, that shame. But then like actually understanding that what the sin was weakened to do because what we were weakened to do because we were weakened by the sinful flesh, God did by sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. So it's not our righteousness that we are sort of like boldly approaching God's throne with is the righteousness of Christ. And when God sees us, he sees us with that lens, he sees his son, he sees that sacrifice that he's done. And it's like people need to stop running away from God in those moments. But coming to God, stop beating yourself up and come to your Father boldly. I think that's one thing that as, you know, young Christians, we can get really caught up by. [00:20:22] Speaker B: I think, yeah, and I think there's also like, I don't know if stigma is the right word, but there's this approach of like, oh, if you have too much grace, then you like, you just get away with stuff or like you won't actually be ever learned to live righteously. And actually a mentor in my life pointed this scripture out to me when I was wrestling through that myself. In Titus 2. It says in verse 11, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self controlled, upright godly lives in the present age. And it's actually saying that the grace of God actually teaches us how to live godly lives and not that, oh, if we receive grace, then you know, we're just going to go off and keep doing, yeah, like he just doing the wrong thing. But actually like, it's not about legalism, it's not about living by rules, but that as we receive God's grace, we can actually be liberated to live for him and be trained by his love to live for him. And I think that's something like there tends to be a pendulum swing from like legalism to what some people would call like extreme grace. And actually the truth is that grace is supposed to have us somewhere in the middle where we, we desire to live holy lives. We desire to live for God, not because, oh well, there's rules and there's a certain way that I'm told I. [00:21:40] Speaker E: Have to do it. [00:21:41] Speaker B: Good. So what, what can we be encouraging our young adults? Like what do we want to see them like expectant for? How can they posture themselves going into 2026? [00:21:52] Speaker F: I think prepare to be uncomfortable because I would love to see people, people grow in like an all rounded way. So sometimes we like love to grow in our giftings. Like, oh, I'm a worshiper, I'm going to join the worship team and grow in that. But it's like also the Lord wants to develop your outreach and your, your living on mission as more than just operating in your giftings and all of the stuff that's uncomfortable, you know, that you don't love to do. I think just posturing ourselves in a way where if the Lord asks us to go left and we're so sure it's right, we, we're willing to go that way even though it's difficult because I really feel like there's a lot of growth in the valley. And so, yeah, just really posturing ourselves to be uncomfortable and because the Lord can do a lot more when we're willing to go wherever he directs us, even though that might not be where we necessarily want to be going. So yeah, I think that's something I'm really encouraging us to do this year is just live in a little bit of uncomfortability where the Lord can really work in us, you know? [00:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:57] Speaker D: Yeah. My, my encouragement would be to ask, ask the Lord to give you hunger for him, for prayer for the Word because it's, it's, it's not something you can conjure up. Like you can do things for sure to position yourself like fasting and praying. But I've always noticed in my own life when I ask the Lord to help me with those things, he really does. And the more, the more we are hungry for those things, the more we will make space for it, the more we will also obey when he speaks and things like that. And we'll get to see God move in amazing ways in our lives and see amazing growth. [00:23:33] Speaker B: That's so good. I have a little note in my car that says, lord, make me humble and hungry. And it's like I always want to come back to those things. Especially when you're leading in church or like God's revealing all this stuff to you and you feel like, whoa, there's all this cool stuff happening to me. You suddenly like feel like you're super special and you're like, no that's actually, that's, that's, you know, we're all loved by God equally. And so just the reminder, Lord, just keep me humble, but also keep me hungry. Like, I don't want to, like, push aside those things because I'm just trying to be a humble person to corner quietly, you know what I mean? So that's, that's my personal prayer, and I think that's my prayer for you guys as well throughout this podcast. We really hope, like, the purpose of, of us bringing this podcast to you guys is so that you would be equipped and from that posture of, you know, how can we encourage you? How can we speak into the things that maybe you guys are struggling or wrestling with? How can we tailor even what, you know, the series that we're going through on a Sunday and bring that into a really specific young adult context? So that's what you can expect this year with the podcast. We're looking at doing the whole year as one season, slightly less frequent episodes, but bunch of different voices and people coming on here. So I hope you guys will stay tuned throughout the rest of the year. But to my friends in the room, what's your. What's your final. What's the one thing that you want to say to this community before we tap out this, this episode? No, it's just Hadassah. She just loves to sing. [00:25:10] Speaker F: I love just Yappa. [00:25:13] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:25:13] Speaker F: I just want to say that there's a reason God has you here. And if he's called you to this house, there's something he has for you here. You belong here. And he sees you. He sees you. So, yeah, I'm just want to encourage you that the Lord has a plan for you in this house and in this season. So, yeah, I'm just excited to see what he does in all of your. [00:25:31] Speaker E: Lives and going off the back of that. We love you. If you're like, my encouragement would be like, if you're struggling to find community, keep persisting. For me personally, it took me a while to find community, but I just want to encourage you guys, like, if you are new or if you're struggling to find community, please reach out, let someone know. Like we talked about earlier, we are a community. We love each other. We are family. So, yeah. [00:25:58] Speaker A: If we're going around the room this way, I think it's a balance of both being bold in what your convictions are and what you feel as though the Lord is calling you to or the areas that you're wanting to step in and grow in. I think be bold but at the same time, we have to be so loving. I think when we're bold, we can often come up and, you know, beat up against people who have differing opinions or maybe have other perspectives. And I think in a culture where everything seems such high tension and I can't have a different opinion to someone else, it's about approaching everyone with love as you do have. Take that courage and step into whatever you feel as though is next. [00:26:38] Speaker C: That's really good. And if you want to get married, if you want. If you want prayer from us, my pay ID is we don't do that yet. Nah, nah. But on the real, lock the doors. Ashes. That's good. That was good, though. But on a real note, just delighting in the Lord, I think, this year. Take time to pray. Take time to read your word. Get to know God on a personal, like, one on one. Because God wants to know you more. [00:27:20] Speaker A: Than you want to know him. [00:27:21] Speaker C: That's facts. Yeah. Read some psalms and find out. Just, you know, that thirst, that longing, you know, as the deer panther for the water. So my soul. That's a verse, Hadassah. [00:27:35] Speaker D: Wow. [00:27:40] Speaker C: Well, I'm passing it on to David. [00:27:42] Speaker D: Now because, by the way, David is single. The one. I can't. I can't add. [00:27:51] Speaker C: I can't. [00:27:51] Speaker D: I can't add anything to that. What everyone just said, I think. Yeah, follow. Follow what the Lord's putting on your heart. And remember that he loves you so good. [00:28:01] Speaker B: And I could probably add about 15 more things, but that's all right now. I love it. My encouragement to you guys is, yeah, be bold, get uncomfortable, do the hard thing. And sometimes the hard thing is not, you know, going off on your own and doing something really scary. But sometimes the hard thing is actually just putting yourself out there and, like, committing or submitting to other people. And so, yeah, I want to encourage you guys. Like, I say this at least once a day, but, like, don't make decisions out of fear. Don't. Don't be driven by fear of missing out or fear of not being enough or fear of disappointing someone or fear of being lonely or any of those things. Just, like, listen to the voice of the Lord. Create space in your life for him. You know, it's really easy to create a lot of space for other people and socialize all the time. If you've got lots of friends or even you don't have lots of friends, maybe you're spending lots of time online, you know, doing other things, but really create space for God in your life and he will bless that he will meet you in the midst of that, and we're here to support you on that journey. We love you so much, and we're super thankful that you chose to listen to this episode, and I'm thankful to all of you guys in the room for joining me and for being a part of this today. We pray that this has blessed you, and we look forward to connecting with you in the next episode. See ya.