Youth Culture Matters - A CPYU Podcast

Summer’s over and a new youth ministry season is here. If you’re a youth worker, your youth group schedule is ramping up and you’ve no doubt been planning. . . or should be planning. . . your teaching and ministry schedule for the coming school year. So let me ask you, have you done your youth ministry planning? What goals, objectives, and priorities have guided your planning? What do you hope to see happen in the lives of your students and their families this year? Effective ministry requires a combination of faithful prayer and careful planning. Stick with us as we talk to four youth workers who share how they have incorporated prayer and planning into their plans for this year, on this episode of youth culture matters.

It’s that time of year when the fall sports season is heating up, everywhere from the pre-school soccer fields to the NFL gridiron. Our sports-obsessed culture will be in full gear as we do everything from playing to spectating. If all of a Christian’s life is to be an act of worship, how can we engage in our playing, sports-parenting, and spectating to the glory of God? How do we push back on a culture that encourages us to idolize sport, winning, and sports stars? And how can we shift our priorities so that youth sports don’t eclipse the necessary task of nurturing the faith of our children and teens? We’ll be talking with John Perritt, author of a new book on youth sports, about these important issues, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

What did you learn about sex and how did you learn about it when you were growing up? Christian parents, with assistance from youth leaders and the church, are given the responsibility to bring up their children in the nurture and instruction of the Lord. This includes talking about God’s order and design for sexuality. And because we live in a hyper-sexualized world that’s providing its own narrative on gender and sexuality, taking on this responsibility to instruct our kids about God’s design is non-negotiable. It’s especially important that we correct the erroneous narrative the culture is throwing at our daughters. What should we be teaching them about sex and sexuality? How can we communicate the biblical narrative on this good gift from God? Stick with us as we chat with Tim Geiger about a letter on sex and sexuality that he’s written to his teenage daughter, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

Somewhere along the way, many of us came to believe that if you are a follower of Jesus, you are promised a happy and carefree life. But when you read the Scriptures, you see that to follow Jesus means that you are also called to take up your cross. For most of us, it doesn’t take long to figure out that living life in a broken and fallen world means that you will encounter suffering and hardship. And, for the Christian living in this broken world, the Scriptures tell us to be prepared for additional difficulty and persecution because of our faith. What is suffering? What are the benefits of suffering? How are we to navigate a life filled with suffering? And how can we as parents and youth workers rewrite the narrative for kids so that they are prepared to live with suffering? We’ll talk about these questions and more with Dave Ripper, co-author of a new book, “The Fellowship of the Suffering: How Hardship Shapes Us for Ministry and Mission”, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

The poet John Donne once wrote that “no man is an island.” Donne was stating a basic truth about life. . . that is that human beings tend to do things not so well when we are isolated from others. We need community to thrive. That’s certainly what the Scriptures teach from Genesis to Revelation. If we’re in youth ministry, community is vital to our flourishing both personally and in ministry. Youth workers who have run the youth ministry race effectively for a long time are always networked and working with other youth workers. While we’ve encountered countless effective youth ministry networks globally, one that stands out is the long-standing youth network in western Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh area. What makes an effective youth ministry network? How can we get ourselves networked? And what can we do together than makes us all more effective? We’ll be talking to longtime networker Travis Deans about these questions and more, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

I was a twenty-one year-old college student when I first heard the term anorexia nervosa. I scratched my head for a moment, and then asked, “What’s that?” Yes, eating disorders and disordered eating were present in our culture forty years ago. But they were largely unknown and misunderstood. Today, the pressure to be thin and perfect is an ever-present part of our lives. Consequently, virtually all of our young middle school students are familiar with the names of these eating disorders. Many struggle with disordered eating themselves. As people who care for and love kids, what do we need to know about eating disorders and disordered eating? How can we recognize, prevent, and respond to the cultural pressures and the resulting health issues? Youth workers Susie Broms and Nick Mance join me to ask questions and learn about the epidemic of eating disorders from counselor Julie Lowe, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

One of the most controversial and often discussed Netflix series of all time is 13 Reasons Why. When season 2 of the series was released two weeks ago, our curious kids began binge-watching, just like they did last year with the release of season 1. Because of the shows controversial content and concerns about the influence on children and teens, 13 Reasons Why has been a hot topic for discussion and even disagreement among parents, counselors, teachers, youth workers, and media critics. Should we be watching 13 Reasons Why? How about our kids? Should we be letting them watch the show? What are the takeaways for parents and youth workers? How should we be talking with our kids about the show and its content? We’ll be talking about 13 Reasons Why Season 2, these questions, and a whole lot more with a round table of friends who have watched, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

With the culture changing at breakneck speed, we need to know the culture so that we can contextualize the unchanging Good news of the Gospel in ways that can be heard by a changing world. As a result, we talk a lot about the need for relevance in our churches and youth ministries. Is it possible that our commitment to relevance can lead us to focus too much on forms, with the result that we forfeit our knowledge of the Gospel? And, can we become so committed to relevance that we find ourselves falling into theological compromise and relativism? These are important questions for those who minister in today’s world. We’ll be discussing relevance, relativism, and a whole lot more with veteran youth ministry experts Dr. Duffy Robbins and Dr. Marv Penner on this episode, of Youth Culture Matters.

You can argue that if there is one band that’s been significant and enduring over the last thirty-plus years, it would be Ireland’s U2. Their story, their music, and their message has vaulted them to this place, making them one of the most beloved rock and roll bands of all time. What is it about U2 that makes them so provocative and compelling? How has the Christian faith played into the ethos of the band? And how should we be interpreting and processing the band’s music? Belfast native, pastor, and music critic Steve Stockman has written about U2 in his book, “Walk On.” Stay with us for a fascinating conversation with Steve about U2 on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

One way our culture has changed is the growing openness to new beliefs and behaviors related to sexuality, sexual orientation, and gender. Because we minister and parent on this changing landscape, we find ourselves engaged in all kinds of conversations with young people who express different beliefs and practices. As Christians work to be faithful to the Scriptures, we will encounter a variety of interpretations of the passages dealing with sex, sexuality and gender. How are we to look at and interpret these passages? What should we believe regarding God's order and design? And what posture should we assume as we engage with those from the LGBTQ community? We'll be chatting with author and theologian Preston Sprinkle about these questions and others, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.