Claim OwnershipThe Word in Youth Ministry - A CPYU Podcast
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© 2021 Center for Parent/Youth Understanding
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A podcast by youth workers, for youth workers, from the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding. The Word in Youth Ministry equips and encourages youth pastors to preach God's Word in their youth ministries and develop biblical literacy among teens.
97 Episodes
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Kyle invites former youth worker and middle school volunteer Reagan Rose to join the podcast to talk about productivity. What does it look like for youth workers to prune their schedules? What things do we say "no" to? How do we avoid burnout? What are practical ways we can ensure that our schedules are focused on the right things? Kyle and Reagan talk about all these issues and then turn to addressing productivity with our students. Reagan offers us some Scripture passages we can focus on ourselves, as well as teach our students.
Katie Polski joins the podcast to discuss her book "Beyond the Back Row: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Local Church for Your Family." Kyle and Katie discuss stirring an affection for The Church among our children and teens. They talk about some of the reasons church attendance has declined in importance while also warning against it becoming a legalistic endeavor. Listen in to gain some great insight on the importance of The Church and how we can help our kids not only see the importance but also develop a love for The Church themselves.
Kyle invites return guest, youth pastor Foster Toft, to have a discussion about dating. They address the reality that parents and families are each going to have their own philosophy about dating and what is appropriate for their own kids. From there they take a look at ways we can reframe the dating conversation. Foster encourages us to note that marriage and dating are not the same. He introduces 3 biblical truths about marriage that can appropriately help us look at dating from a biblical perspective.
Kyle invites his sidekick Josiah Rios to interview him about 5 book recommendations. Though these books are great reads for anyone, Kyle specifically chooses these books as ones to put into the hands of our high school students. We also get a nice glimpse into the ministry at Old North Church, where Kyle and Josiah are pastors. Kyle also shares ways to create a culture of reading within a youth ministry.
Pastor Sean DeMars joins the podcast and Kyle interviews him about his book Redemption Song: A Primer on Singing for the People of God and what we can learn from it when it comes to leading our students to worship well through song. This episode covers topics like me-centered songs vs. God-centered songs, practical steps in helping congregations and youth groups join in singing, the nature and importance of community in worship, using songs to teach theology, the regulative principle of worship, and much more.
Kyle, and side kick Josiah Rios, interview author and Children's Pastor Hunter Williams about the importance of teaching theology to children. They discuss the book Hunter co-authored titled How to Teach Kids Theology: Deep Truths for Growing Faith. Hunter offers encouragement for youth leaders and volunteers who want to teach theological truths but feel ill-equipped. They discuss the idea of intelligibility and how to appropriately teach truths to children of different ages. We want to teach children biblical truths in language that they understand, but there are times where we also want them to be blown away by how big God really is even if they Won't fully grasp it. Hunter also emphasizes creating a pathway in your church to accomplish the ministry and discipleship goals that you set.
Kyle invites Dr. Rich Brown of Next Gen Matters to have a discussion about how to equip our students to reach other students. Rich recognizes that students are the ones who are best positioned to reach their peers with the Gospel. To that end he offers great suggestions on how to equip them to do so. We as youth workers can provide support to our students as they work to evangelize and disciple their own peer group!
Kyle invites Teaching Pastor and CPYU Research Fellow Jason Engle to the podcast for our summer series discussing preaching books. Jason discusses the book Why Johnny Can't Preach by T. David Gordon. He encourages us to be first transformed by the Word as we interact with Scripture in order to best communicate the Word to our students. Together, Kyle and Jason tackle sermon prep, multi-tasking, digital tools, and the importance of abiding in Christ.
Kyle invites 2 women on staff at his church to discuss ministry to teenage girls. Bethany Hearne, Student Ministry Coordinator, and Beth Harrell, Women's Ministry Director at Old North Church provide great insights on what it looks like to minister to teen girls. How are the experiences of teenage girls today different from the past, and how does that impact how we reach them with the Gospel? When is it appropriate to separate girls from boys in youth group? Together, "The Beths" also answer some questions submitted by listeners through our Facebook Forum, including how to effectively equip female volunteer leaders.
Youth and Families Pastor, Scott Herron, joins the podcast with Kyle to discuss growing as a teacher in our youth ministries. The words from Scott offer encouragement to youth leaders young and old alike. He emphasizes how an early important lesson he learned was that he didn't always have to be "the guy." His ministry thrives most when he remembers to get out of the way. He shares about how his teaching has changed over the years and ways he's improved as a teacher of God's Word as he's learned to be patient with himself. Scott also shares tips regarding whether or not to use curriculum. This episode also includes a discussion about not getting hurt or upset when students don't attend youth group when they are engaged in the body of the church on Sunday mornings and serve in other capacities.
Tim McAlpine joins the podcast to recommend and discuss one of his favorite preaching books, On Preaching by H.B. Charles, Jr. He and Kyle discuss some of Tim's favorite chapters and talk about the importance of staying true to the text of Scripture in our preaching. Tim also includes some advice to free us from the weight and temptation of trying to be funny or entertain when we're teaching student's God's word. There's also some great conversation about proper use of illustrations, and how illustrations from Scripture itself are the best ones! Tons of great advice for youth workers trying to be faithful to Scripture and teach the Bible well.
Kyle invites friend of the show and Assistant Pastor Greg Buchanan on as a guest co-host. Together they interview Tim Keesee of Frontline Missions. Tim helps youth pastors know how to cast a vision for teens to be a part in advancing and expanding the Kingdom of God through missions. He helps set real expectations about the work of missionaries and the role that suffering often plays in the lives of Christians who live in parts of the world that are hostile to the Gospel. They end with a great list of missionary biographies that are recommended reading for youth pastors and teens alike.
Kyle invites Chelsea Kingston Erickson, Editor of Youth Ministry Content and Director of Publishing for Rooted, to join the podcast to discuss the importance of not forgetting to teach The Old Testament within our youth groups. Chelsea provides listeners with great practical tips on how to do this well and shares plenty of great resources that youth workers can use. Kyle and Chelsea not only dive into the importance of teaching the whole of Scripture but also offer up examples on how they've approached doing so in the past.
Alex Duke, Director of Training and Sending at 3rd Avenue Baptist Church and Senior Editor at 9 Marks joins the podcast. Kyle and Alex discuss the perils of separating youth from the larger Church body as well as some principles healthy churches should strive for. They cover topics like communion, baptism, membership and more. Alex and Kyle agree that healthy churches are likelier to produce lasting disciples. Alex explains the goals of expository preaching and encourages youth pastors to stick around for the long haul as we never know what kind of seeds we are planting and what work the Holy Spirit will do later in the lives of the students we've ministered to.
In a first for our podcast, Kyle invites one of his students to join the conversation. Kyle and Malachi have read 15 theology books together of the last 4 years. Together they discuss what this looked like, what some of Malachi's favorite books have been, and how Malachi has grown. Throw in some fun banter about Ohio State vs. Penn State, a snake being brought to a recent youth group meeting, and how Malachi and his friends "bet" on how long the Sunday morning sermons will be, and it makes for a fun and lively discussion. More importantly, the conversation provides encouragement to other youth leaders who might want to try reading theology books with students. It is possible! And this episode provides an example to show the way.
Kyle and youth pastor RJ McCauley of Magnolia Church in California have a great discussion about sermon illustrations. They use the book "Illustrating Well: Preaching Sermons That Connect" by Jim Wilson as a discussion prompt. They talk about when to use illustrations, how to determine if an illustration is worth while to use in the first place, whether we should limit the number of illustrations we use, and more. Ultimately, they stress that illustrations should always point back to the text we're trying to teach.
Kyle invites Jeremy Meeks of the Charles Simeon Trust to help us with practical tips to become a better preacher and teacher. We walk through many of the question used during the Charles Simeon Preaching Workshops. We look at concepts like structure of the biblical text as well as context of the text, cultural, historically, biblically, and more. Jeremy also tells us about the helpfulness of commentaries, but issues a strong warning not to rely on them too heavily. Jeremy also explains the importance figuring out what the main point of the biblical text is, rather than trying to communicate something we think is important that might not actually be part of the text. We're also encouraged to ask the question of "how does the passage connect to the Gospel of Jesus Christ?" and Jeremy helps us think about doing that properly without falling into some common traps.
Kyle has a fun conversation with Mike McGarry of Youth Pastor Theologian. They encourage youth pastors to be intentional about how they teach and preach to students. Mike explains how we can teach theology in ways to will connect with students. They also discuss practical tips regarding planning a teaching calendar, when or when not to use curriculum, and even the length of time we should be teaching our students in various settings.
Kyle welcomes two guests this episode as we take a look at practical ways we can use camps, conferences, retreats, and other special events to ignite spiritual growth in our students. Foster Toft, Pastor of Student Ministries at Bethel Church in Indiana joins us as well as Eric Miller, Executive Director of Ministry at Momentum Ministry Partners. Together, they walk us through properly valuing special events within a larger scope, sequence, core values, and purpose within our existing ministries. They encourage youth workers to utilize these trips (and the car rides to and from!) as a way to poor into relationship building with the teens they serve.
Kyle invites Youth Pastor and CPYU Research Fellow Mike Terry to co-host this episode featuring Valerie O'Brien of Aspen Ministry. Valerie tells us about Aspen Ministry's 10,000 question project where they are collecting questions about faith and life from students in order to better hear them and point them to Jesus based on where they are and the questions they are actually wrestling with. Valerie reminds us of the importance of answering the questions students are actually asking rather than the questions we think they're asking. How do we answer questions in a way that is both truthful and communicated with a heart for the asker?
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