Youth Culture Matters - A CPYU Podcast

Several years ago, a concerned father approached me during one of our CPYU seminars to pose this question: “How can I expect my 13-year-old son to hear the still small voice of Jesus with all those other voices out there calling him to come and follow, come and follow?” Like this man, our greatest desire should be to see our children and teens launch into adulthood as faithful followers of Jesus. How can we trumpet the life-giving message of the Gospel in a world filled with competing voices? We’ll look for answers to that question as we chat with Katie Polski as she gives us three helpful reminders regarding the effective spiritual nurture of our kids, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

One of the great questions we face as Christians in today’s world is this: how do we lead young people to embrace biblical truth when the world they live in is obsessed with the "sovereignty of self"? They’re swimming in a culture of self-made truth, governed by the unholy trinity of me, myself, and I. Recently, I read a book for teens and young adults that pushes back against these false narratives—and does it with incredible kindness and grace. It’s called God-Breathed: Connecting Through Scripture to God, Others, the Natural World, and Yourself. Today, I’m chatting with the author, Rut Etheridge, to talk all about it on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

All of us who do youth ministry know peers who have lasted a long time in youth ministry, and those whose time in ministry has either been a flash in the pan, or perhaps a flitting around from position to position, never staying long enough in one place to really nurture students into a deeper faith. This is not surprising in a culture that doesn’t value commitment. Can’t we change this? Jody Livingston has identified ten essentials for longevity in youth ministry. That’s why we’ve invited Jody in to talk about his new book, Staying Power, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

It seems like every other day brings a story of a Christian leader, whether well-known or not, that falls into moral failure. How should we respond? Do we continue to use their teaching and writing after the revelations of sin come to light? And perhaps most importantly, are there lessons we need to learn about ourselves from the sins of those who have been entrusted with leadership? That's what we're talking about on this timely and sadly necessary episode of Youth Culture Matters.

With 2025 coming to an end and 2026 right around the corner we want to invite you to listen in as we talk today about devotional resources that can help us grow in our faith. Resources that we can put into the hands of our teenagers, resources for youth workers, resources for parents, and resources for the rest of us to all grow in our faith. We'll be discussing some of the best devotional resources we've found in this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

If I was to list the many ways in which today’s cultural narrative is misdirecting and misshaping our kids, the topic of identity would have to be at the top of the list. This is especially troubling when we realize that the search to figure out who I am is front and center in our kids lives as they grow through adolescence. Our friend Mike McGarry has written a book to help teenagers know and live out the beautiful reality of finding one’s identity as a divine image bearer. Stay tuned as I chat with Mike about leading kids to the truth about who they are, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

It's a pretty sure bet that everyone of us has been lonely at some point in our lives. In today's world, loneliness has reached epidemic proportions, especially among our children, teens, and young adults. Shelby Abbott has written a great new book on loneliness... it's causes and cure... and that's what I'm talking about with Shelby, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.