The Word in Youth Ministry - A CPYU Podcast

Our summer series concludes as Kyle, Linda, and Matt take a look at Chapter 4 of God's Four Part Story - Consummation.  Matt helps us see consummation as the bringing together of heaven and earth, or of God and man. Linda helps us see that what we are looking forward to is not just a restoration of what existed in the Garden, but something even better. We also think about vocation, creativity, and...

Our summer series continues as Kyle, Linda, and Matt take a look at Chapter 3 of God's Four Part Story - Redemption. We answer the question, "What is the Gospel?" and discuss various ways we can encounter and teach the truths of the redemption to our students. How do we walk along students and encourage them to realize Jesus as their savior, first and foremost, rather than as just an example to fo...

Kyle, Linda, and Matt continue our summer with part two of a four part podcast series. Over the summer we are going to be looking at God's four part story of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation. In this episode we take a closer look at the Fall. We discuss sin and the effects of the Fall and how it impacts our relationship with God, our relationship with ourselves, and our relationships w...

Kyle, Linda, and Matt begin our summer with part one of a four part podcast series. Over the summer we are going to be looking at God's four part story of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation. In this episode we take a closer look at Creation. We discuss God as creator, God's image, humans as God's image-bearers, the cultural mandate, and more.

The book of Jonah is the passage of Scripture that Kyle, Linda, and Matt dive into in this episode. They discuss various approaches to teaching the book of Jonah, including outlines and themes. Historical context is discussed to help listeners, and in turn, our students better understand the setting, meaning, and message of this text. Ideas of evil, sin, and the greatness of God's mercy are topics...

Kyle, Linda, and Matt invite Cameron Cole on as a guest to discuss Rooted Ministry. Cameron offers helpful insights on "Killing the Bear", how to use C.I.A. when teaching the Bible to students, and he also reminds us we have "one shot, one kill." Cameron encourages us to have grace-filled, gospel-centered, and biblically-saturated youth ministries.

Another episode where we take a look at a passage of Scripture and work to apply it in our youth ministry settings. How do we teach particular passages to students? In this episode we take a look at Matthew 7. What is the proper role of judgement? What does it look to gently correct and restore our brothers and sisters in Christ? Matt, Linda, and Kyle discuss these topics and more in this episode...

Kyle, Linda, and Matt get a chance to interview Sean McDowell. Together they discuss apologetics, popular culture, youth ministry, education and more. Sean McDowell encourages us to ask good questions to get students engaged. He also provides tips on different ways we can incorporate and weave apologetics into our youth ministries. Kyle prompts a conversation about mis-used verses in the Bible and...

This episode focuses on teaching from James 2: 14-26. We discuss what this passage has to say about works, faith, and justification. We compare what it says to other biblical passages and work to explain and understand how sometimes seemingly different messages actually complement one another. This can spur us on to have great teaching moments and conversations with our students.

Youth pastor and author Greg Meyer joins Kyle, Linda, and Matt to talk about his book A Student's Guide to Justification. Greg helps us understand his heart for writing the book, and why it's an important topic that we much teach to our students. He offers suggestions on how to approach teaching justification and uses a great personal illustration.

Kyle and Linda hold down the fort while Matt is away. Together they look at how to teach and approach Psalm 73 with practical insights we can use in various youth ministry settings. They also more broadly discuss the benefits of teaching from the Psalms. Kyle explains how understanding literary genres, such as poetry, helps us understand the text in more meaningful ways.

Kyle and Linda interview Doug Franklin of LeaderTreks. They tackle the topics of leadership, discipleship, relationships and more. Doug discusses how we can develop student leaders, and why it is so important to do so! They also address youth pastors who may be hesitant to give leadership to others. Doug makes the case that building up student leaders gives them a sense of ownership and allows the...

Kyle, Linda, and Matt take a close look at John 3:16-21. They each offer insight and practical ways you could approach this text with students when teaching it in a youth ministry setting. They also address the familiarity of the passage and how we can engage students who might think they've already heard everything they need to know about the passage. We hope this offers value in not only offerin...

Kyle, Linda, and Matt discuss various teaching formats in our youth ministry settings. They discuss their favorites, why some formats might be better used in certain settings, and why it's important to think through these questions when preparing to teach the Bible to students.

Kyle, Linda, and Matt take a close look at Genesis 1. Each of them provides a different approach to how youth workers could teach Genesis 1 in various youth ministry settings. One of the goals of this episode is to not only provide useful and helpful teaching ideas for this specific text, but to provide models for teaching any passage of Scripture.

Founder and president of CPYU, Walt Mueller, joins the podcast to discuss his latest book A Student's Guide to Navigating Culture . Kyle, Linda, and Matt pick his brain on why he wrote the book, ask questions about the "World, Word, Walk" paradigm the he lays out in the book, and discuss the role of relevance as youth workers balance being biblically but also culturally informed.

Kyle, Linda, and Matt discuss theological concepts regarding heaven and hell and how to best teach these subjects in our youth ministry settings. We look at what Scripture says about heaven and hell and we also provide very helpful suggestions about questions we can ask students to make these topics applicable in the here and now. Is heaven something that we long for? How do we help students live...

In episode 15, The Word in Youth Ministry podcast discusses technology, social media, and youth ministry. How can we help our students see the importance of building in-real-life relationships? How can we address the issue of rest? What are some of the trappings that call out to our students in the realm of technology, and how can youth workers lead student's into the better narrative of God's red...

Jonathan Holmes, author, counselor, and pastor, joins the podcast to discuss biblical counseling. What does biblical counseling look like? What is the proper role of a youth pastor in counseling?  How can youth pastors work together with families, teens, and counselors to help minister the Gospel? Kyle, Linda, and Matt discuss these topics and more with Jonathan, plus Jonathan offers a list of hel...

Can we trust the Bible? Why do we have the books of the Bible we have? Is the text reliable? Kyle, Linda, and Matt discuss all these questions and more. Plus, our sponsor, Crossway, has given us a dozen books to give away! Fill out the Google Form here to provide us with a little information about yourself and automatically be entered for a chance to win.  

Small groups are an important part of youth group. How do we use small groups effectively to help students learn more about the Bible? What kind of leaders do we look to help us in our youth ministry, and specifically in small group settings? How do we select and pick them? How do we equip and train small group leaders effectively? We want relationships to grow in our small group settings at the s...

Kyle, Matt, and Linda converse with guest, Dr. Stephen Nichols, president of Reformation Bible College and chief academic officer for Ligonier Ministries. Nichols shares his heart for students and youth pastors and discusses how youth pastors can embrace topics like theology, church history, and apologetics to better help student's understand the Bible. Listen to this episode of The Word in Youth...

Our hosts take a look at biblical hermeneutics, helping youth workers realize the importance of teaching the Bible in proper context. We take a look at passages in Jeremiah, Romans, and Philippians as examples of how we often misuse Bible verses in our churches and ministries. We discuss ways in which we can help students properly understand the Bible passages they are reading.

In this episode, Kyle, Linda, and Matt discuss distinctive of the church and why it's important to teach these concepts to students.  We even take a walk down history lane and mention the Belgic Confession of Faith and what it has to say about preaching the gospel, the sacraments, and church discipline. We discuss what sets the church a part, why it's important to play an active role, and we share...

In episode 8, Kyle, Linda, and Matt help us see all of Scripture as a story. They discuss how teaching students that the Bible provides a large narrative that falls into four chapters of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration is a helpful framework to help our students learn biblical truths and see how their own lives fit into God's big story. They provide a brief overview of each of these ch...