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.

Here’s a fact of life regarding something that we all have in common: We’ve all been made by God to worship. The question is, who or what will we choose to worship. True and proper worship is our active response to God whereby we declare His supreme glory and worth, not just when we gather to sing, but with every fiber of who we are in every moment and endeavor of our lives. What are we doing to prepare our kids to worship this way in spirit and in truth, both now and for the rest of their lives? Listen in to learn how to curate deep, counter-cultural, and meaningful worship times with your kids, as we chat with seasoned and thoughtful worship leaders, Tom Yarbrough and Tammi Rhoton, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

I’m guessing you and all your kids are familiar with Taylor Swift, and most likely you know about her music. In recent days, she’s received lots of publicity for her new album, The Life of a Showgirl. And there’s one particular song on the album that’s garnered attention for it’s blatantly sexual and obscene lyrics. Because kids are listening and singing along, we need to teach our kids to think critically and Christianly about all music and media, and this particular song is a perfect place to start. Stick with us we chat with a couple of youth workers about the song, their students, and how they will be addressing it, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

You’ve seen the headlines. You’ve read the data. And you know doubt have heard and even lived in the growing number of stories. Teen mental health is a growing concern, as our kids deal with what seems like unprecedented amounts of anxiety, stress, and pressure. . . all being experienced during the vulnerable years of adolescence. As parents and youth workers, we need help, and a new book from our friends Dr. Danny Kwon and Dr. Monica Kim is one resource we can’t do without. Stick with us as I chat with Danny and Monica about how to understand and address the teen mental health epidemic, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

We love our sports, don’t we? We play, our kids play, and we are increasingly involved in indulging our allegiance to our teams. Over the course of the last couple of weeks, sports outlets have run story after story about players and fans behaving badly. Would you agree that the level of behavior on the fields and in the stands is getting somewhat less than civil? With Jesus as the Lord of all of life, what difference should our faith make for how we play and watch sports? And, how can we effectively teach our kids about integrating their faith into their engagements with sports? That’s what we’re addressing on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

It's summertime and here on Youth Culture Matters we're devoting our time to shorter episodes where we're talking about "Purposeful Parenting." We'll be addressing timely topics to encourage and equip you as parents to help your kids navigate their world in ways that bring honor and glory to God. Take a few minutes to listen in today as Walt Mueller shares ways to teach your kids about how to navigate body image pressure.

It's summer time and here on Youth Culture Matters we're devoting our time to shorter episodes where we're talking about "Purposeful Parenting." We'll be addressing timely topics to encourage and equip you as parents to help your kids navigate their world in ways that bring honor and glory to God. Take a few minutes to listen in today as Walt Mueller shares ways for you to help your kids navigate the epidemic of teen stress and anxiety.

It's summer time and here on Youth Culture Matters we're devoting our time to shorter episodes where we're talking about "Purposeful Parenting." We'll be addressing timely topics to encourage and equip you as parents to help your kids navigate their world in ways that bring honor and glory to God. Take a few minutes to listen in today as Walt Mueller shares ways to teach your kids to hear and follow God's will.

It's summer time and here on Youth Culture Matters we're devoting our time to shorter episodes where we're talking about "Purposeful Parenting." We'll be addressing timely topics to encourage and equip you as parents to help your kids navigate their world in ways that bring honor and glory to God. Take a few minutes to listen in today as Walt Mueller shares ways to teach your kids how to reclaim the gift of paying attention to each other in a screen saturated world.

It's summer time and here on Youth Culture Matters we're devoting our time to shorter episodes where we're talking about "Purposeful Parenting." We'll be addressing timely topics to encourage and equip you as parents to help your kids navigate their world in ways that bring honor and glory to God. Take a few minutes to listen in today as Walt Mueller shares ways to talk to your kids about making wise as opposed to foolish choices.

It's summer time and here on Youth Culture Matters we're devoting our time to shorter episodes where we're talking about "Purposeful Parenting." We'll be addressing timely topics to encourage and equip you as parents to help your kids navigate their world in ways that bring honor and glory to God. Take a few minutes to listen in today as Walt Mueller shares ways to talk to your kids about biblical sexuality during this "Pride Month."

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 Culture Matters.