Youth Culture Matters - A CPYU Podcast

If you’ve read Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation, you know that one of his most talked about remedies to teen anxiety is for schools to take steps to keep the phones out of students hands during the school day. While that might seem to be something easier said that done, how can we move schools in that direction, and how do students respond? I want to invite parents, youth workers, and school administrators to find out as you listen in to my conversation with two school administrators who followed Haidt’s advice, on this episode of Youth...

The new Netflix four-part drama series Adolescence has received rave reviews. Here at CPYU we have watched it, and we applaud the way it raises so many of the issues and problems facing teenagers and their families today. If you’ve already watched Adolescence, we encourage you to keep listening, and if you haven’t we recommended taking the time to watch before listening to this episode of our podcast. If you care about kids, the Adolescence mini-series is one we highly recommend, and it’s what we are talking about on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

If we haven’t been there ourselves, we have no idea what it’s like. When Anna Meade Harris’s husband went to be with Christ back in 2010, she suddenly found herself navigating the new and difficult world of being a widow and single -parent to three young boys. In many ways, she lost her place in the local church. Now desiring to help families, churches, and youth ministries navigate the unique realities of single parent families, Anna has written a book that will help all of us understand and respond to the unique needs of single parent families. I chat...

Because we live in a rapidly changing world, it’s important that parents and youth workers keep their fingers on the pulse of youth culture, taking the time to know just what our kids are navigating, along with how to help them understand what God’s Word has to say about living to His glory. My friend Micah Marshall is a youth worker who has taken this calling seriously and does it well. Listen in as I chat with Micah about how to build meaningful connections with kids in order to effectively communicate the timeless truth of the Gospel, on t...

In I John 2:6 we read these words written about what it means to be a follower of Jesus: "Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did." In his new book, "Radical Like Jesus", Greg Stier helps us to understand what it means to be in Christ and to live like Jesus. I'm excited about this book and how we can use it in our homes, our churches, our youth groups, and our own lives. And, I'm especially excited to be chatting with my passionate and engaging friend, Greg Stier, about his new book, on this episode...

You don’t even need to listen carefully to hear our culture nurturing us and our kids into a consumer mentality of get, get , get. That message is everywhere! But the gospel is one that tells us to respond to the grace we’ve been shown and given, with a lifestyle of give, give, give. What does this mean for youth ministry and how we do discipleship? My friend Dave Coryell recently wrote a book built around a metaphor involving hippos and honey bees that can help us shift our youth ministries to better reflect gospel priorities. Stay tuned as I...

It’s that time of year between thanksgiving and Christmas when so many of us are watching and talking about our favorite holiday movies. As with all things in life, Christians need to think differently about movies. What is it that makes a movie good? What can movies tell us about the human condition? And how can we use movies in our homes and ministries to advance the Gospel? Stick with us as we engage in a winsome, fun, and informative conversation about movies with our movie-loving friend John Perritt, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

Truth be told, I’ve yet to meet a parent who hasn’t at some time felt like a failure. Fear, guilt, shame, and regret are feelings that visit us all from time to time as we think about how well or not so well we are doing as Dads and moms. But for the Christian parent, there are truths about our God and ourselves that we need to hear, ponder, embrace, and live out. Stick with us as I chat with counselor Lauren Whitman about her helpful new book, “when parents feel like failures”, on this episode of youth cu...

As a parent and now a grandparent myself, I have lived through the ups, down, stresses, strains, opprotunties and joys that come with raising kids in today’s world. Recently, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory regarding the troubling state of the mental health and well-being of parents. Because youth workers are strategically positioned to come alongside, encourage, and ministry to parents in today’s world, we need to pay attention to this advisory, and look for ways to proactively minister to the parents in our churches and communities. Stick with us for my roundtable conversation with yout...

When Fern Nichols sent her two oldest sons off to junior high school, her heart was heavy, knowing that they would be facing all kind challenges, choices, and temptations. Her concerns were shared by other mothers and they gathered to pray for her kids. This happened 40 years ago back in 1984. This was the beginning of Moms in Prayer International. Today, I’m chatting with two moms who are part of the Moms in Prayer ministry about how to pray for our kids as they navigate life in a changing youth culture, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

One of the most pressing developmental tasks facing all of our kids is the task of identity formation. It’s during the period of adolescence that the question, “Who am I?” is front and center. Because our kids are growing up in the world that pummels them with conflicting messages directing them to find their identity in what they do or how they feel, they need voices that will steer them into embracing an identity which has been given to them by the creator of life itself. I’m talking with Jonathan Holmes about his fantastic new book, Grounded in Grace...

One of my go-to sources for information and thoughtful analysis on today’s youth culture is social psychologist, Jonathan Haidt. In his newest book, The Anxious Generation, Haidt offers insights and practical responses to the mental health epidemic sweeping through the population of children and teens. I’ve invited a group of youth workers who have read Haidt’s book to a roundtable discussion about our kids, mental health, Haidt’s insights, and Haidt’s four simple rules for remedying the crisis, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

How can we teach our children and teens to live out their faith and devotion to Jesus Christ in a culture that is largely ignorant of and even averse to the Gospel? One powerful teaching tool which we oftentimes overlook are the stories we can pass on regarding those who over the course of church history have devoted themselves, warts and all, to faithfully following Jesus Christ, regardless of the cost. On this episode of Youth Culture Matters,  I chat with biographer Ellen Vaughn about Elisabeth Elliot, a modern-day follower of Christ whose ups and downs filled life and d...

How can we best care for and love our kids as they navigate life in a confusing culture that encourages questioning whether or not they were born in the right body? As Christians, we are called to root our convictions on identity and gender in the unchanging word of God. Still, there’s been lots of confusion among youth workers and parents regarding the issue of gender, leading many to misguide kids in deeply damaging ways. Now, a growing number of detransitioners are speaking out from their own experience about the insidious and damaging transgender ideology. We welcome author, fi...

This episode was originally released on April 26, 2023.

Don’t judge. You do you. Be authentic to yourself. God just wants you to be happy. These are just some of the cultural mantras that saturate the soup of today’s culture. If we aren’t careful, even followers of Jesus Christ can get swept up in the spirit of the times and believe these lies that we see and hear on social media each and every day. Alisa Childers will help us understand how to listen to evaluate and respond to these cultural lies as we talk about her ne...

If you’re a youth worker or parent, you’ve been called to lead. As followers of Jesus Christ, learning to lead properly and to his glory is essential if we hope to nurture our kids in the Christian faith. I recently read a short little leadership book that took me on a deep and helpful journey into looking at who I am as a leader. The book, Faithful Leaders, And The Things That Matter Most is the most helpful leadership book I’ve ever read and I believe it would be for you, too. Stick with us as I enga...

Journalist Abigail Shrier is no stranger to controversy. She hit the topic of rapid onset gender dysphoria hard in her first best-selling book, Irreversible Damage. Recently, she released a new book, Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up, which calls out therapeutic practices which she believes hurt rather than help our kids. Stick with us as I chat with counselors Julie Lowe and Dr. Phil Monroe to get their take on Shrier’s new book, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

The school year has come to a close and we’re launching into the summertime, a season that the old popular tune tells us is a time when the living is easy. If you’re like most, the summer months are a time for vacation getaways and getting your nose into a good book or two. On this episode of Youth Culture Matters, I’m going to share a very fast run-through of twenty books from which to choose if you’re looking for some good summer reading, all of them related in some way to faith, life, youth work, an...

Over the course of our years studying youth culture here at CPYU, there are a host of films that have offered us helpful peeks into the adolescent experience. One of the most provocative of those films is 1985’s The Breakfast Club. As the fortieth anniversary of the film is coming up, it’s amazing how well the film still captures the realities of teenage life. Today, I chat with a couple of youth workers about how The Breakfast Club is still very moving, and in many ways timeless, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

What is it like when undeserved mercy confronts undeniable evil, when kindness upends condemnation, and when heaven engages hell? Today, I interview two members of a family about how these things became real for them. It’s a story we need to hear, to consider, and to share with our children and teens as a way to learn about God’s amazing grace. Listen in as I chat with Tim Rogers and Megan Shertzer about how mercy is more powerful than murder, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

Our children and teens are growing up in a world marked by a confusing mix of ever-changing challenges, choices, pressures, and expectations. These realities make it increasingly difficult for them to know what to believe and how to live in the world as faithful followers of Jesus Christ. How will they know right from wrong? How can they develop Biblical wisdom in order to be able to discern truth from lies? We are talking about practical ways to cultivate wisdom and discernment in our kids, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

It was back in January of 2007 that Apple CEO Steve Jobs spoke prophetic words to the attendees at the Macworld Conference. Jobs famously said, “Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.” He was talking about the smartphone, a device that has changed just about everything. Stick with us as we have a youth worker roundtable conversation about the latest findings on teens, tech, and social media, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

We begin the podcast with a fun discussion about music. Then CPYU Research Fellows and Youth Workers, Jason Engl...

One of the questions youth workers are asking more than any other is this: What can I do to come alongside of and help parents as they seek to love their LGBTQ+ kids? Because all of our kids are divine-image bearers and we are called to parent them with grace and truth. I invite you to listen in as I chat with Joan McConnell and Joy Worrell, both members of the Parent and Family Ministry Team at Harvest USA, about how to best support our youth ministry parents as they navigate these tender, sensitive, and difficult issues in ways...

Culture is changing at breakneck speed, and today’s youth workers need to not only keep up with the host of new challenges facing our kids, but they need to respond in ways that communicate the truths of the Gospel so that our kids might embrace a life of faithfulness to Jesus Christ as His disciples. Today, I pull together a group of boots-on-the-ground youth workers to help us learn more about where culture has gone over the last year, where it’s headed, and how we can practically respond as we nurture kids in our churches and homes. I in...

“The feminist movement has given birth to many things: one of these is the popularization of gender, a concept that drives a wedge between sexed identity and embodiment.” Those words are written by Abigail Favale in the autobiographical chapter simply titled “Heretic”, in her new book, The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory. Abigail’s personal story and thoughtful book on the gift of our embodiement as male and female is a must-read for anyone hoping to lead kids through the current muddied and confused cultural narrative on sex and gender. I invite you to listen in to this conversati...

The way that we parent and the way that we do youth ministry is always informed by the theology we embrace, whether that theology is embraced consciously or unconsciously. Of course, unless we work to consciously embrace a biblically-faithful and orthodox theology, we run the risk of thinking about God and Jesus in ways that are inaccurate and not even Christian. One hundred years ago, J. Gresham Machen faced and addressed this same dilemma, and he did so in ways that are helpful and informative for us today. I chat with my friend Dr. Steve Nichols about how Machen’s...

All of us in the youth ministry world have heard the experts tell us about the differences in generations. We have to realize that all of these statements are generalizations that are sometimes accurate and helpful, and sometimes not so accurate and less than helpful. What should we think about generational theory? And how can we as people who care about and love kids use it with wisdom and discernment in our youth ministries? Listen in as I chat with my friend Crystal Kirgiss and three of our youth worker friends about the good, the bad, and the ugly...

As Christians, our lives must be marked by a never-ending passion to know and live the truth. This is especially necessary in those aspects of life where convincing and easily-believed lies have taken root and grown, not only in the culture, but in our lives as well. What we believe about sex and gender is too often shaped by lies, rather than the truth of God’s will and way for His creation. Today we chat with someone, who like all of us, has believed and lived lies. By God’s transforming grace, she has also been brought out of d...

Here in the United States, over 45 million children and teens participate in organized sports every year. It’s no secret that over the years youth sports are costing families more and more in terms of time, effort, and money. If we allow it, this growing commitment can cut into our commitment to live a life of faithful Christian discipleship. Many youth workers and pastors lament how youth sports are taking so many kids away from opportunities for Christian nurture and growth. Today, I’m talking to our youth worker friend, Jason Engle, about how we can best navigate youth spor...

It’s no secret that conversations about sex and gender are front and center in today’s world. This creates challenges for those of us who want to communicate God’s good design for sex and gender in our homes and churches. What voices are our kids listening to? And what should we be teaching regarding what it means to live lives of gender and sexuality regarding God’s design? Today, I’m chatting with one of the most trusted and helpful voices regarding biblical sexuality, Dr. Christopher Yuan, on this practical and helpful episode of Youth Culture Matters.

This episode was originally released on October 19, 2020.

Recent research tells us that about half of our eleven to twenty-one year old girls regularly alter their photos to enhance their appearance online in order to find acceptance. Researchers also tell us that our girls are much more likely to experience anxiety and depression than their male peers. What are cultural forces that are shaping and even mis-shaping girls in today’s world? Why are more and more of our girls struggling to figure out who they are and how to live in the world? And what can parents an...

This episode was originally released on June 5, 2021.

People have always had questions, doubts, and objections to the Christian faith. Kids growing up in today’s youth culture are no exception. As they marinate in a cultural soup that encourages them to rely on their own intuition rather than biblical authority, the challenges to embracing a lifetime of following Jesus are very real.  And I fear that the nurture taking place in our homes, churches, and youth groups all too often remains shallow, leaving kids to simply embrace the cultural narrative, rather than engaging with solid biblical answers to...

It’s been just a few days since Tim Keller went to be with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A pastor, writer, and theologian, Keller has had a profound impact on so many during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. I, for one, have been blessed by Keller’s ministry. Today, I’m going to converse with some youth ministry friends about the life, impact, and legacy of Tim Keller and what it means for all of us moving forward, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

Don’t judge. You do you. Be authentic to yourself. God just wants you to be happy. These are just some of the cultural mantras that saturate the soup of today’s culture. If we aren’t careful, even followers of Jesus Christ can get swept up in the spirit of the times and believe these lies that we see and hear on social media each and every day. Alisa Childers will help us understand how to listen to evaluate and respond to these cultural lies as we talk about her new book, Live Your Truth and Other Lies: Exposi...

Our kids are growing up in a world where questioning one’s birth gender is an encouraged option. With more and more of our kids questioning their gender and even taking steps to transition, we need solid guidance on how to compassionately walk alongside them and minister to them in ways that glorify God. Stay tuned as I chat with my friend Nicholas Black about what to do say and what to do with those who are experiencing gender confusion on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

It’s mind-boggling, isn’t it? I’m talking about the rapid advances being made in technology and social media. As parents and youthworkers, it’s essential  that we not only keep up with these changes, but that we also develop biblically-faithful strategies for helping our kids and their families navigate the use of these tools in ways that bring glory to God and advance our human flourishing. Knowledge, caution, and wisdom are necessary. That’s what we’ll address as we chat with Chris Martin about his new book, The Wolf in their Pockets: 13 Ways the Social Internet Threatens the...

Where is God in the midst of the trials and suffering we face in life? Jesus told us that in this world we will have trouble, and the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation is filled not only with testimony to this fact, but with a theology of suffering that we must know, embrace, and pass on as an inheritance to our kids. If you’re like me, you often wonder how God works in the lives of those who face unimaginable suffering. When all seems hopeless is there any hope? Today, I chat with some young youth worker fr...

So today, I’ve got great news for youth workers! CPYU has put together a youth ministry training opportunity that we know will encourage and equip you as you look for ways to effectively minister to kids and their families. And I want to invite you to join us for four days in March to hear from sixteen gifted youth ministry trainers in five plenary sessions and your choice of twenty-eight different breakout sessions. Listen in as we introduce the Northeast Youth Ministry Summit and how to bring biblical hope to anxious hearts, on this episode of Youth Culture Ma...

We can’t answer the question What am I to do?, until we first answer the question “What am I to believe?” As Christians, we are called to listen to God’s Word, seeing it as the light that shapes our beliefs and guides our choices. Perhaps there’s no more urgent place in today’s world to embrace this reality than in God’s good gifts of marriage, sex, and gender. In an effort to help us recover and live out God’s will and way in these areas of life, Dr. Tim Tennant has written a fabulous book that will i...

Because our children and teens are vulnerable, they need to be protected. After more than two decades as a family counselor, our friend Julie Lowe has seen how important it is to help parents and caregivers think wisely and biblically about the dangers children face. Instead of living in fear or denial, parents and caregivers can equip children to assess people and situations and model for them how to live by faith in a world where evil exists. Today, we chat with Julie to get insights from her brand new book, Safeguards – Shielding Our Homes and Equipping Our Kids, on...