The RLTK Podcast

Jordan and Chris chop it up with Will Cumby. He is the Network National Director of Fuel Networks in partnership with UYWI & DVULI and is a youth pastor at his home church, Fountain of Praise. Will shares his wisdom and experience in working with young people, discussing topics such as leadership development, mentorship, and the importance of community. He also touches on his challenges while navigating the current social climate and offers advice for other youth leaders facing similar struggles.

We dive into why collaboration is crucial for thriving in urban youth ministry. From sharing resources and ideas to building supportive networks, collaboration allows us to do more together than we could ever do alone. Our Guest is Rev. Thomas Brackeen from the DMV. He is the Minister to Youth and Families at Metropolitan AME.

Join us for a thought-provoking and timely discussion on how Gen Z is making their mark on today's political landscape. From viral memes to powerful marches, this generation is using their voices and influence to bring about change. As youth pastors, it's important for us to understand the intersection of politics and gospel in order to guide and support students. This conversation is not just for youth pastors - it's relevant for anyone who wants to understand the next generation and their perspectives on justice.

Chris & Jordan dive into the conversation of Gen Z's culture and explore the need for digital discipleship for a generation that lives in the digital world.

Language has changed. Postmodernism and social constructivism have made communication with the next generation difficult. In this podcast, Chris and Jordan discuss the importance of understanding youth culture and effectively communicating with today's youth.

As you listen to this podcast, keep in mind that connecting with young people requires more than just using slang or trying to stay up-to-date on the latest trends. It's about genuinely understanding their world and speaking their language.

But don't worry; we're not advocating for influencers to start using TikTok or trying to be "cool." That's not the point. Instead, we want to encourage you to listen and engage with young people on a deeper level. Show them that you care about their interests, struggles, and experiences.

It's not just about preaching to teenagers but also about walking alongside them and being a Godly influence in their lives.

Are you struggling to connect with Gen Z? Feeling like there's a gap between you and this generation? The key may be in asking the right questions. In this video, Chris & Jordan discuss the power of asking questions and how it can bridge the divide between generations. From understanding their values to connecting on a deeper level, we'll give you practical tips on asking impactful questions that resonate with Gen Z.

Jordan and Chris reflect on what they've learned about students in 2023 and what they hope can happen to reach more students in 2024!

Start reaching the "unreachable" of Gen Z! In this video, we explore how to effectively and authentically reach out to students around us with love and compassion. We'll be discussing the macro ideologies that shape our understanding of the Gospel today and how Gen Z needs to hear the Gospel in order to best respond. Whether you're a pastor, mentor, or just someone looking to plant seeds of hope, this video is for you! Join us for an inspiring journey on how we can make a lasting difference in our world.

Chris, Alex, and Jordan continue to explore the confusion that characterizes relationships today while staying rooted in the Gospel.

Relationships have become increasingly more challenging to navigate. We are more connected and more lonely than ever. Chris and Jordan explore the roots of this phenomenon and what we can do to help young people navigate the confusion that characterizes relationships today while staying rooted in the Gospel.

In a world of chaos and uncertainty, have you ever stopped to ask yourself what shapes young people's identity today? Chris & Jordan deep dive into identity formation and the Gospel to explore how it has impacted the lives of today's youth.

Join us as we explore the basics of theology and discuss a framework for students to grow into. Mike McGarry joins us to share his experience of theology in the youth ministry context, why it's important, and what youth leaders can do right now to begin engaging theology well.

Join us as we explore the powerful impact of Gospel-centered proximity in urban youth ministry. We'll examine how more meaningful relationships empower young people to rise above their circumstances. Get inspired by stories from Jesse Lobato, a youth pastor in Lynn, MA on the ground making a difference: veterans leading by example and innovative leaders who bridge divides to create transformation in our cities. Don't miss this thought-provoking exploration of urban, Gospel-centered ministry!

Are you curious about how Gen Z thinks and feels about faith? In this video, we'll explore their beliefs and attitudes toward the Gospel and what makes faith important for this younger generation. Join us as we talk with Ray Robles, a professor at Grand Canyon University who spends most of his time with Gen Z .

Are you passionate about ministering to urban youth? Looking for practical tools and tips on how to make a lasting impact in their lives? This is for you! Join us as we explore innovative strategies to share the Gospel with urban youth and make a meaningful difference in their lives.

Are you ever curious about who holds power in our world? With the Gospel of Jesus Christ as our foundation, join us in a conversation about how faith, power, and vulnerability intersect. Whether you’re a believer or a non-believer, this meaningful discussion will spark thought-provoking dialogue.

Are you a member of Gen Z? If so, you know how amazing this generation is. From their creativity to their passion for impacting the world, Gen Z is redefining culture as we know it. In this conversation, we'll explore the culture-making waves, discover what makes Gen Z unique, reflect on the positives and negatives of our cultural shifts, and discuss how influences can engage Gen Z well amid their rapidly changing world!

Feeling overwhelmed and discouraged with your mental health struggles? Are you watching a GenZer experience mental health challenges and not sure what to do? If you need help finding hope, this video is for you! Join Jordan and Chris for an inspiring conversation about discovery, resilience, and how to reframe your mental health journey with the Gospel!

Are you curious about how Gen Z sees the world differently? Join us as we dive deep into the unique perspectives of this rapidly growing demographic and explore the ways in which their worldview is shaping current trends, social movements, and much more. Discover what makes Gen Z tick and learn how to engage with them on a deeper level. Get ready to take an inside look at the world through Gen Z's eyes!

Life is full of choices. What should I do with my life? Where should I do it? Who should I do it with? We live in an age where options have multiplied exponentially and these new choices fall squarely at the feet of Gen Z.

Confusion, anxiety, and fear abound. How do we help them navigate this new world? How do we navigate it for ourselves?

Chris and Jordan discuss the blessing and the curse that is the ability to choose.

Generation Z is a demographic marked by controversy. They are challenging every system and idea we hold dear. Sexuality, gender, religion, politics, justice, war, education, climate. Their ideas are so different form ours and they are ready to challenge us on what we think!

What if we were willing to wade into these waters with them and meet them here? Can we go to them on their playing field and still connect with them? Can we make our conversation about connection instead of winning?

In this episode, Alex, Chris, Jordan, and guest Dre Harris discuss controversy and our need to be comfortable with it in order to influence Gen Z.

The Fall is fast approaching and students are getting ready to reengage life on their school campuses. Much has changed since then. How do we engage Gen Z as they reengage their world through the institution of school? What kind of mental and emotional responses will we see from them? How can we come alongside them and love them? Jordan, Chris, and Alex discuss reengaging in the fall of 2021! 

2020 was an unprecedented year in many ways; but do we stop to think about its implications for our young people? No graduation, no sports seasons, no goodbye to friends or teachers. For those that are just getting back, motivation is at an all time low, dreams have been crushed, lives have been forever changed. 

As influencers, how do we move into these spaces with compassion and love? How do we bring wisdom to Gen Z that is going to help them keep pressing forward to create the world they want to see? 

Chris, John, and Jordan discuss a generation stripped of its rights of passage.

Middle school students are a unique group, they have their own set of challenges, needs and wants. How do we engage them in a meaningful way? What makes them different from high schoolers? What do they look for in someone they want to follow? How should influencers go about engaging them? 

In this episode, John, Chris, and Jordan discuss what they are seeing in Gen Z middle schoolers and what you should and shouldn't be doing with them.

The younger generation is often misunderstood. They are our future, but we do not know how to engage with them.

There are many who have tried to connect with this next generation of leaders and failed miserably because they did not understand what makes them tick.

How do we approach them in a way that builds connection and trust? How do we prepare this next generation for the world that awaits them? John, Jordan, and Chris explore these questions and more on this episode of the RLTK podcast.

Have you ever felt lonely? You're not alone. Loneliness is at an all-time high across generations. But how much more so for a generation that has grown up in the digital age? How do we engage our own loneliness as influencers? How do we connect with Gen Z and teach them how to connect with others? In this episode, Jordan, John, and Chris process through the topic of loneliness together.

Gen Z is the first generation of kids that have grown up with social media. They're very aware and critical of their culture, especially when it comes to politics and social issues.

The current cultural climate is one where we are constantly canceling each other for our opinions on topics like immigration, gun control, abortion rights, etc. It's almost impossible to engage in a meaningful conversation about these topics without getting into an argument. Gen Z is watching, how we navigate these issues are of upmost importance.

Our podcast aims to give people a safe space to talk about these controversial topics without fear of being canceled or attacked for their opinion. 

Listen in and join the conversation!

Every generation has characteristics that make them unique.

What are those things about Gen Z?

Knowing these trends can be the difference between connection, relationship, and trust, or failure.

John, Jordan, and Chris share what they have discovered about Gen Z that makes them unique and how we can engage them well.

Mental Health has become far easier to talk about in this day and age, but part of the conversation is emotion. How big of a role do our emotions play in the way we navigate the world? How has Gen Z's emotional health been affected by 2020? How can we connect with Gen Z in 2021 understanding their challenges and our own when it comes to emotional health? These are questions we must have answers to, as we seek to build trust with Gen Z in 2021. Jordan, John, Alex, & Breanna wade into this conversation.

Alex, Breanna, Chris, & Jordan look to our future in 2021. 2020 for so many of us was in general, a year to forget. Will 2021 be any different? What hope do we have for Gen Z in 2021? How can we as influencers connect with them well at the beginning of this new decade?  

This was one of the most difficult years in memorable history, one that has shaped all of us and perhaps no generation more than Gen Z.

A pandemic, mental health crisis, loss of job, loss of life and political unrest.

No one saw this coming.

How has this affected our world? How will this affect Gen Z? How can we come alongside them as influencers?

Join the crew in this conversations as we reflect on 2020 and look to the future!

Civil unrest, a global pandemic, an attempt to overthrow government and a generation of teens suffering in ways we still have yet to fully realize...

Most of us are desperate to find peace in these troubling times.

Our guest, Chris Townley shares his thoughts on how peace really works.

Many of us think it's the absence or opposite of conflict and suffering.

The reality is that peace does not come by avoidance but from doing what is righteous.

Until there is true justice there can be no real peace.

What are the things you feel you need to make right in order to find peace?

In this final installment, Jeff Skeens (MDiv, LMFT), give us some key insights and perspective on how to think about the topic of mental health and how to best engage the young people in our sphere of influence!

In this episode, we jump into dialogue with one of our long time friends, Cody Kiwaczyk, a youth pastor in Arizona.

As he engages teens on a weekly, he shares with us what is working, what is not, and where the mental state of his students are.

We checked in with Sarah, a college student in the Phoenix area on what she is seeing with mental health in her world!

Ryan (Life Coach) & Jessica (LPC), give us some more insight into the importance of connecting during the holidays!

Mental Health during the holidays is something we should all be talking about.

Life Coach Nicole Clifton joins us to discuss how we can care for ourselves and the young people in our lives during the holidays!

In this episode John, Jordan, and Alex explore what it means to be people of faith who believe in this thing called the Kingdom. Why is it a core value or RLTK? What bearing does it have on what we do? Why does it matter enough to be a core value? We explore these questions and more! Enjoy!

John and Jordan discuss core value 3 for RLTK, TRUTH. A hotly debated topic in our world today, but essential to how we understand life and everything it entails. What is truth? How do we know something is true? Why do we value truth? Why is truth important? Why is truth such a debated topic in culture? How does Gen Z See truth? 

So many questions to ask and so much to say! Enjoy! 

At the core of us, we desire to be loved and love. But in our world today there are many things that get in the way of this. Our fear, shame, doubt, pain. This is why love is at the heart of our core values. Without it, what do we truly have?

As we kick off season two, we wanted to share with our listeners, the core values that drive us. We want to create a culture that allows anyone, anywhere to have REAL TALK. We believe this is part of the way to start this process. Also, this season we want get realer and rawer so we hope these values become a reference point as you continue to journey with us. So here is our thoughts on our first value, real.

Everything that is happening in our world today has caused issues in our culture to rise to the surface.   

We see this with the Black Lives Matter Movement and the calls for police reformation.   

One thing we do know is that there are other people of color in America that have also experienced oppression and hardship.  

In this episode, we talk with Jonathan Rivera. A creative pastor at Calvario City Church in Orlando, Florida about Latinos in America, the church, and the future of this growing people in the united states.

This week, we discuss current trends regarding GenZ.  

Get on any social media platform and look at what is trending.  

It isn't just "the news", it is the news that people are paying attention to.  

Comment threads are treasure troves of research concerning exactly what GenZ thinks and more importantly what they care about.  

Social media also gives us an up close look at what we truly care about.  

In this episode, we unpack a few of those things with Gen Z and the future at the center of the discussion.

Right now racial tensions in the USA seem to be boiling over.

Many seem to think that racism died with the civil rights movement.

While there was progress made, we have much further to go to reach the ideas found in our constitution.

What is the reason for our current state of affairs and why does it seem we are headed in the wrong direction?

There are elements in the USA that keep this tension alive.

Chief among them is the legacy of conquest and subjugation which call for the dehumanizing of “others”.

This manifests itself today in the current racial tensions we are witnessing.

Do whites care about this issue the way they should?

Since the abolition of slavery, many whites have felt threatened by the emergence of black America.

Caleb a former white supremacist shares how white supremacy manifests itself today in a post-civil rights era and describes the subtle ways it still influences culture.

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The word trauma gets thrown around a lot these days but what does it truly mean; more importantly, how does it affect us?   

This is such an important issue mainly because it touches all the big stuff like our relationships, our work, our plans for the future, pretty much everything that matters.   

So, how is this affecting GenZ?  

To have a meaningful relationship with someone, you have to make a serious effort to try and understand them.  As you learn their story, you will discover what they've been through.   

This shows us how to best love and serve them.  

Our good friend Sanghoon Yoo heads up The Faithful City.   

He has been a champion for this cause here in the Valley.  

In this episode he shares how Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences impact our daily lives.  Anyone working with families, in particular GenZ, should find what he has to share extremely beneficial!

In America, education has always been touted as the way for someone to move themselves up into a higher echelon of society.

It is assumed that everyone has the same opportunities because we are all apart of the same system.

But is that really true?

Braden Sparks, a high school teacher in the inner city, shares with us what he sees first hand watching GenZers in high school from different walks of life, wrestle to achieve their desired future.

He also give us insight into how best to walk alongside these students as they navigate their complex lives.

Many issues in our culture often carry stigmas that prevent people from really talking about what is going on in their lives. Mental and behavioral health is no exception to this.  People are suffering every day from issues that are undiagnosed or ignored.   

In this episode, Kyle Morris, a behavioral health professional, who has years of experience working in the foster care system gives us some insight into what’s going on in this world.  

Why is this still so difficult to talk about?  

What kind of help do people need that they may not be getting?  

How can people get the access they need for help?  

How is Gen Z changing the conversation on Mental Health?   

How can influencers help GenZers struggling with mental health issues?

At times like this, it is easy for us to get focused on self, protecting what we have and our own families. There is a big wide world out there and we have a tendency to forget about this, meaning we lose a proper perspective.

All over the world people are struggling and suffering in unimaginable ways. Do we care about this the way we should? Does GenZ care about this?

Chris Todd joins us to share about his work in Lebanon with Syrian refugees who’s lives have been destroyed by war and what it’s like for him to raise a family in the midst of serving people.

Anna Todd (his daughter), also joins us as a GenZer raised in a family that gave up life in America to serve refugees. She shares her perspective and how it all affected her!