Kyle, Linda, and Matt begin our summer with part one of a four part podcast series. Over the summer we are going to be looking at God's four part story of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation. In this episode we take a closer look at Creation. We discuss God as creator, God's image, humans as God's image-bearers, the cultural mandate, and more.

The book of Jonah is the passage of Scripture that Kyle, Linda, and Matt dive into in this episode. They discuss various approaches to teaching the book of Jonah, including outlines and themes. Historical context is discussed to help listeners, and in turn, our students better understand the setting, meaning, and message of this text. Ideas of evil, sin, and the greatness of God's mercy are topics covered. We also address the possibility that students are so familiar with this story that they may have missed some of the key elements we can learn from, and how to encourage them to dig deeper in the Bible study.

Kyle, Linda, and Matt invite Cameron Cole on as a guest to discuss Rooted Ministry. Cameron offers helpful insights on "Killing the Bear", how to use C.I.A. when teaching the Bible to students, and he also reminds us we have "one shot, one kill." Cameron encourages us to have grace-filled, gospel-centered, and biblically-saturated youth ministries.

Another episode where we take a look at a passage of Scripture and work to apply it in our youth ministry settings. How do we teach particular passages to students? In this episode we take a look at Matthew 7. What is the proper role of judgement? What does it look to gently correct and restore our brothers and sisters in Christ? Matt, Linda, and Kyle discuss these topics and more in this episode of The Word in Youth Ministry.

Kyle, Linda, and Matt get a chance to interview Sean McDowell. Together they discuss apologetics, popular culture, youth ministry, education and more. Sean McDowell encourages us to ask good questions to get students engaged. He also provides tips on different ways we can incorporate and weave apologetics into our youth ministries. Kyle prompts a conversation about mis-used verses in the Bible and points out a great video resource that Sean has available on YouTube.

This episode focuses on teaching from James 2: 14-26. We discuss what this passage has to say about works, faith, and justification. We compare what it says to other biblical passages and work to explain and understand how sometimes seemingly different messages actually complement one another. This can spur us on to have great teaching moments and conversations with our students.

Youth pastor and author Greg Meyer joins Kyle, Linda, and Matt to talk about his book A Student's Guide to Justification. Greg helps us understand his heart for writing the book, and why it's an important topic that we much teach to our students. He offers suggestions on how to approach teaching justification and uses a great personal illustration.

Kyle and Linda hold down the fort while Matt is away. Together they look at how to teach and approach Psalm 73 with practical insights we can use in various youth ministry settings. They also more broadly discuss the benefits of teaching from the Psalms. Kyle explains how understanding literary genres, such as poetry, helps us understand the text in more meaningful ways.

Kyle and Linda interview Doug Franklin of LeaderTreks. They tackle the topics of leadership, discipleship, relationships and more. Doug discusses how we can develop student leaders, and why it is so important to do so! They also address youth pastors who may be hesitant to give leadership to others. Doug makes the case that building up student leaders gives them a sense of ownership and allows the youth ministry, and ultimately the Church, to thrive. This episode also makes the case that transformation happens in relationships and small groups and provides encouragement to those working in smaller youth ministry settings.

Kyle, Linda, and Matt take a close look at John 3:16-21. They each offer insight and practical ways you could approach this text with students when teaching it in a youth ministry setting. They also address the familiarity of the passage and how we can engage students who might think they've already heard everything they need to know about the passage. We hope this offers value in not only offering various ways to teach from John 3, but also in providing models for teaching any passage of Scripture.