Youth Culture Matters - A CPYU Podcast

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 pod...

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 rea...

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...

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 espe...

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 bui...

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...

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 coun...

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 parent...

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...

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 emb...

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 abo...

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 th...

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 ki...

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 da...

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...

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 Mo...

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...

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...

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 Shertze...

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...

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 fin...

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 H...

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 w...

“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 embod...

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...