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 parents in today’s world, we need to pay attention to this advisory, and look for ways to proactively minister to the parents in our churches and communities. Stick with us for my roundtable conversation with youth workers about the advisory and our response, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

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 the Moms in Prayer ministry about how to pray for our kids as they navigate life in a changing youth culture, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

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 embracing an identity which has been given to them by the creator of life itself. I’m talking with Jonathan Holmes about his fantastic new book, Grounded in Grace: Helping Kids Build Their Identity in Christ, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

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 about our kids, mental health, Haidt’s insights, and Haidt’s four simple rules for remedying the crisis, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

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 the cost. On this episode of Youth Culture Matters,  I chat with biographer Ellen Vaughn about Elisabeth Elliot, a modern-day follower of Christ whose ups and downs filled life and devotion to Christ offers a powerful example of what it means to live counter-culturally for the sake of the Gospel.

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 kids in deeply damaging ways. Now, a growing number of detransitioners are speaking out from their own experience about the insidious and damaging transgender ideology. We welcome author, filmmaker, and the executive director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture, Kallie Fell, to take us into the very personal and compelling stories of detransitioners, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

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 day. Alisa Childers will help us understand how to listen to evaluate and respond to these cultural lies as we talk about her new book, Live Your Truth and Other Lies: Exposing Popular Deceptions that Make Us Anxious, Exhausted, and Self-Obsessed, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

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 most helpful leadership book I’ve ever read and I believe it would be for you, too. Stick with us as I engage in an energizing chat with the book’s author, Rico Tice, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters. 

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 Monroe to get their take on Shrier’s new book, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.

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 you’re looking for some good summer reading, all of them related in some way to faith, life, youth work, and parenting in today’s world.

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 workers about how The Breakfast Club is still very moving, and in many ways timeless, on this episode of Youth Culture Matters.