Together 4 Good: Making Sense of Life and Faith

What Is It Like to Have Faith in High School and College Today? (Gen Z Speaks)

What does faith actually look like for Gen Z right now? In this episode of Together 4 Good, I sit down with two incredible young people, Addison, a high school sophomore, and Sophie, a first-year college student at Virginia Tech, to talk honestly about faith, friendship, and belonging in high school and college today. We talk about: * How friendships shift from middle school → high school → college * Why community matters more than having all the right answers * What it’s like to be Christian without making it your entire personality * How Wednesday night youth group became a lifeline * Why service, mission trips, and shared experiences shape faith more than lectures * Navigating faith with friends who believe differently — or not at all This conversation is thoughtful, funny, deeply human, and refreshingly honest. It’s not about forcing belief or having perfect theology — it’s about connection, curiosity, and finding people who help you feel less alone. Whether you’re a student, a parent, or someone wondering how faith connects to real life today, this episode offers a hopeful glimpse into what Gen Z is actually experiencing. 🎧 Listen now and join the conversation. 00:00 – Intro: Faith, Gen Z, and real questions 01:30 – Moving from high school to college 04:00 – Making friends when everything changes07:30 – Surface-level vs. deeper friendships 12:30 – Being Christian without pushing it on others 17:00 – Why community keeps people connected to church 21:00 – Wednesday nights, youth group, and belonging 26:30 – Denominations, differences, and curiosity 31:00 – Mission trips, service, and lived faith 35:00 – Final advice for students today

Is the Good Samaritan Really About Being “Good”?

We all know the story of the Good Samaritan. Most of us learned it in Sunday school as a lesson about being kind, helping others, and doing the right thing. But Jesus wasn’t just giving us another moral rule to follow. In this Sunday School Remix episode, I take a deeper look at Luke 10:25–37 and the moment that prompted Jesus to tell this parable in the first place. A lawyer—someone who knew all the religious rules—asked Jesus a familiar question: “Who is my neighbor?” Luke tells us he asked it hoping to justify himself. That detail matters. Because this story isn’t about earning goodness or proving you’re right. It’s about how easily religious rules can distract us from mercy—and how God keeps placing opportunities for compassion directly in our path. * Why Jesus tells this story in response to self-justification * How religious rules can become barriers to compassion * Why the priest and Levite walk by—and why that made sense religiously * Why making the Samaritan the hero was so shocking * How humility is the starting point for real compassion * What it looks like to notice the needs God places right in front of us The Good Samaritan isn’t a story about being a better rule-follower. It’s an invitation to live a life shaped by mercy—again and again. 📖 Scripture: Luke 10:25–37 * The lawyer’s question isn’t about curiosity—it’s about self-justification * Knowing the rules doesn’t automatically lead to compassion * Mercy requires humility first * Jesus centers the outsider as the example of faithful love * Compassion doesn’t mean fixing everything—it means noticing and responding Learn More at https://linktr.ee/bethanydenver In this episode, we explore:Key Takeaways

This Is NOT a Christmas Story: A Fork in the Road | 12 Days of Christmas Ep 12

This is not a Christmas story. This is a story about perspective.About how the same moment can mean everything to one person—and almost nothing to another. Over the next twelve episodes on Together 4 Good, we’re sharing real stories that remind us we don’t all experience joy, meaning, or even God in the same way. This is not a Christmas story.But it is a real one. In this episode of Together for Good, Pastor Gary shares a formative story from his teenage years—one that begins with a brand-new Schwinn bike, a scorching summer day, and a long ride toward Kings Island that didn’t exactly go as planned. What started as a straightforward journey quickly turned into a series of wrong turns, repeated hills, and decisions made without a map. And somewhere along those winding country roads, a deeper truth emerged: faith often works the same way. Many of us know where we hope our faith will lead—a deeper relationship with God, a sense of peace, meaning, or trust. But getting there isn’t always clear. Do we pray more? Read Scripture differently? Join a group? Try something new? Sometimes we choose a path that feels right… only to find ourselves back where we started, facing the same challenges again. In this reflection, Pastor Gary reminds us that those moments aren’t failures. They’re part of the journey. Sometimes the road that feels like a setback is actually teaching us something essential. And sometimes we have to climb the same hill more than once before we discover what truly bears fruit. The good news? God doesn’t disappear at the fork in the road. God stays—inviting us to choose again, to keep moving, and to trust that even the wrong turns can lead us closer to love. Learn more: https://bethany-denver.org [https://bethany-denver.org] faith stories, Christian storytelling, everyday faith, modern Christianity, spiritual reflections, faith and life, lived faith stories, faith beyond certainty

This Is NOT a Christmas Story: What My Daughter Taught Me About God | 12 Days of Christmas Ep 11

This is not a Christmas story. This is a story about perspective.About how the same moment can mean everything to one person—and almost nothing to another. Over the next twelve episodes on Together 4 Good, we’re sharing real stories that remind us we don’t all experience joy, meaning, or even God in the same way. This is not a Christmas story.But it is a real one. It starts with a snowy football game in Buffalo… and an eight-year-old who genuinely didn’t care who won. In this episode, Pastor Nate reflects on a moment that seems small—but ends up saying something big about faith, God, and the many ways people experience the divine. From family, football, and pancakes to worship styles, prayer practices, and spiritual assumptions, this story becomes an invitation to loosen our grip on certainty and make room for a God who can’t be reduced to one voice, one style, or one “right” way. If you’ve ever wondered whether your way of experiencing God counts—or felt uneasy when someone claims to have all the answers—this episode is for you. Learn more: https://bethany-denver.org [https://bethany-denver.org] faith stories, Christian storytelling, everyday faith, modern Christianity, spiritual reflections, faith and life, lived faith stories, faith beyond certainty

This Is NOT a Christmas Story: The Gift of Discipline | 12 Days of Christmas Ep 10

This is not a Christmas story. This is a story about perspective.About how the same moment can mean everything to one person—and almost nothing to another. Over the next twelve episodes on Together 4 Good, we’re sharing real stories that remind us we don’t all experience joy, meaning, or even God in the same way. This is not a Christmas story.But it is a real one. In this episode, Pastor Gary shares a story from his high school years—working late nights at McDonald’s, cleaning the store after closing, and still showing up for church every Sunday morning. What began as a simple family rule slowly became something more: a life shaped by discipline, freedom, and faith. This story is about how structure can create space for growth—and how discipleship is often formed long before we realize it. Learn more: https://bethany-denver.org [https://bethany-denver.org] faith stories, Christian storytelling, everyday faith, modern Christianity, spiritual reflections, faith and life, lived faith stories, faith beyond certainty