Youth4Life

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What do you look for in a spouse? How long should you know someone before you start dating? How long should you date before getting engaged? Should you have a long engagement? Most importantly - how do you date in a way that upholds God's gift of LIFE? Y4Life Director Michelle and Y4Life Intern Emma talk all things dating, relationships, and preparing for marriage.

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Y4Life Director Michelle and Y4Life Assistant Cori chat about what dating looks like in our current culture and how Christians can navigate dating, dating apps, looking for a spouse, and more.

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Y4Life Director Michelle and Y4Life Media Resource Assistant Diana chat about the importance of friendship, how worldly friendships differ from Christ-centered friendships, how to have conversations about life issues with friends, and more.

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After a baby is born, we immediately think about caring for the new baby. But what does it look like to care for mom and the rest of the family? Michelle chats with Deaconess Rachel Geraci this week to talk about postpartum mental health and what it means to uphold the lives of mother and baby.

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Deaconess Rachel Geraci is a wife, mother, and most importantly, Baptized Child of God. Living in Milan, MI, Rachel supports her husband, Coleman, who is a called Pastor to two LCMS congregations as well as to the US Army Reserves as a military chaplain. Together, they delight in the raising of their three children, Augustana (6), Simeon (4), and Magdalena (2), and daily marvel at the richness of God's goodness. Rachel is a deaconess in the Lutheran Church and previously served as the Mission and Ministry Director at Lutherans For Life from 2018-2020. Her Masters in Deaconess Studies degree came from Concordia Theological Seminary - Fort Wayne, of which she is a proud 2017 alumnus. She also has a background in nursing and graduated from Indiana University with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2011.

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Discover your Gospel-motivated voice 4 Life at Y4Life.org.

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When we encounter the life issue of abortion, we often wonder how to best help the mothers choose life for their unborn children. Operation Saving Life offered a tangible solution to those wondering how they could help mothers with unplanned pregnancies or who were in situations where they felt forced into abortion. Rev. Patrick Darnell was a driving force behind Operation Saving Life, connecting pastors and congregations in Tennessee with abortion minded women who desired to choose life for their babies. Join us this week as we chat with Rev Darnell and learn more about Operation Saving Life and the work it carried out in Tennessee.

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Rev. Patrick Darnell is a Lutheran pastor based out of Nashville, Tennessee. He is ordained with the North American Lutheran Church as well as the Lutheran Church in Mission for Christ. He has served congregations across the United States, led multiple non-profit organizations, and has spoken on several national platforms. Until recently, he also served as the Executive Director of Operation Saving Life - a faith-based non-profit committed to providing physical, financial, and Spiritual support for abortion minded women who have chosen life. This organization, recently acquired by a national partner, continues its mission today for women and families across the country.

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What does God’s Word say about organ transplant and organ donation? How do we as Gospel-motivated voices respond to questions about organ donation and transplant? What can we do to uphold the live of those waiting for organ donation? Y4Life Director Michelle and Y4Life Intern Emma answer these questions and more in this Y4Life Staff Chat!

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Discover your Gospel-motivated voice 4 Life at Y4Life.org.

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What does it mean to be human in the digital age where we can get lost in online worlds and create internet identities separate from our bodies? And what about transhumanism and AI? In this episode, Y4Life Director Michelle and Y4Life Assistant Cori chat with Vicar Josh Pauling, analyzing these challenging issues, how we must ground our identity in the wonders of the created and redeemed body, and how the incarnation of Christ is the ultimate answer to such questions. From this proper foundation, Vicar Pauling gives practical tips to help better serve and love our neighbors in body and soul and be prepared to sacrifice and suffer, too.

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Joshua Pauling is vicar at All Saints Lutheran Church, contributing editor at Salvo, columnist at Modern Reformation, and has written for a variety of other publications including Areo, Forma Journal, Front Porch Republic, Logia: A Journal of Lutheran of Lutheran Theology, The Lutheran Witness, Mere Orthodoxy, Merion West, Public Discourse, Quillette, The Imaginative Conservative, Touchstone Magazine, among others. He is a frequent guest on Issues Etc. Radio Show/Podcast. Josh also taught high school history for thirteen years in the public school setting and now spends a portion of his time as a classical educator and running his own business making custom furniture and restoring vintage machinery. He also speaks and writes at the intersections of Christianity and culture. He studied at Messiah University, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Winthrop University, and is continuing his studies at Concordia Theological Seminary.

Read Are We All Cyborgs Now?: Reclaiming Our Humanity from the Machine by Josh Pauling and Robin Phillips

Other books referenced in the episode:
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman

The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World by Rosaria Butterfield

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Discover your Gospel-motivated voice 4 Life at Y4Life.org.

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As the loneliness epidemic continues to spread, a new trend of AI powered friendships, familial relationships, and even romantic affairs is sweeping the globe. Sounds like a sci-fi novel gone wrong, doesn't it?

The truth is, artificially generated images, text, voice (and soon video) present major challenges for distinguishing what is real from what is false. AND...as more and more of the essential activities of all human relationships are conducted through the disembodiment of a screen, the difference between a genuine human interaction and its artificial replacement becomes harder and harder to distinguish.

Join us as we chat with Rev. James Neuendorf about the not-so-impossible world of AI relationships and hot to respond to the reality from a Christian perspective in this episode of the Youth4Life Podcast.

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Originally from Michigan and a graduate of both Concordia University Ann Arbor and the Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN, the Rev. James Neuendorf is a missionary and church planting pastor in Puerto Rico serving with the LCMS Office of International Mission. He lives in Ponce on the south of the island together with his wife Christel who serves alongside him as a deaconess. The Neuendorfs have worked in Latin America as LCMS missionaries for more than 15 years.

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Technology is just a tool, they say.  We should make good use of tools, and almost all tools have a good use, they say.  But, what about artificial intelligence? Is artificial intelligence just a tool, or is there something more we should consider?

You are made in the image of God. You are one for whom Christ died. All else flows from this, including our use of technology, but especially our use of artificial intelligence.  If you do a concordance search for “artificial intelligence,” you won’t find those words in your Bible, but God actually has much to say about this ever-changing technology. Mrs. Jocelyn Benson joins us to teach us about the theology of technology this week on the Youth4Life Podcast.

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Jocelyn Benson grew up in Fort Dodge, Iowa, attending Lutheran school through 8th grade. She has a B.A. in English-teaching and an M.A. in Educational Psychology from the University of Northern Iowa. She also completed three and a half years of doctoral work in Educational Psychology with emphases in Technology and Education and History/Foundations of Education at the University of Iowa. She loved teaching English and coaching many sports at the high school level before returning to school full time. Jocelyn lives in Chatfield, MN, with her husband, Justin, and their four children—Asher, Malachi, Ephraim, and Miriam.

In her free time, Mrs. Benson enjoys spending time with her family, reading, watching sports (especially college football), and spending time outside. 

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Discover your Gospel-motivated voice 4 Life at Y4Life.org.

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Social media was created to connect us, to make communication easier. But one quick glance at X, Instagram, or Tik Tok, and we see how easily social media divides us. What are some best practices for engaging in life-affirming ways on social media? How can you be a Gospel-motivated voice for life? How can you be a witness of God’s grace and goodness as you interact with others? Join us as we talk with Rev. Trevor Sutton, an expert author on the intersection between social media and Christianity, to discover some of the best ways you can uphold life in public and on-line forums.

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Rev. A. Trevor Sutton is Senior Pastor at St. Luke Lutheran Church, a multi-campus congregation with locations in downtown Lansing and Meridian Township, Michigan. Sutton began his path toward ministry with a soccer scholarship to play at CUAA. At CUAA, Sutton earned an English degree (2008), served as captain of the soccer team, and was a proud resident of Hannah dorm. Sutton went on to earn an M.Div. degree from Concordia Seminary (2012), an MA degree (Digital Rhetoric and Professional Writing, 2017) from Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. (Doctrinal Theology, 2023) from Concordia Seminary.  

Rev. Sutton has written several books including Redeeming Technology (co-authored with Dr. Brian Smith, MD, 2021), Clearly Christian (2018), Authentic Christianity: How Lutheran Theology Speaks to a Postmodern World (co-authored with Dr. Gene Veith, 2017), and Being Lutheran (2016). Sutton’s writing has appeared in Houghton-Mifflin’s Best American Essays Anthology, the Washington Post, Relief Journal, Christian Century, Concordia Journal, Religion and Liberty - The Acton Institute, Faith and Leadership - Duke Divinity, and Religion New Service.  

In addition to serving as pastor and writer, Sutton also occasionally teaches courses at Concordia University – Ann Arbor, Concordia Seminary, and Lutheran Theological Seminary in Twshwane (Pretoria, South Africa) and is a frequent speaker at conferences.  

Rev. Sutton is married to Elizabeth Sutton and they have two daughters, Grace and Hannah. The Sutton family enjoys fly-fishing, hiking, literature, and dance parties in their living room. You can connect with Rev. Sutton through his website, www.atrevorsutton.com.

Support the show

Discover your Gospel-motivated voice 4 Life at Y4Life.org.