The Pop Culture Parent: Helping Kids Engage Their World for Christ

“When our children were young, I made a bargain with them: I would listen to Police if they would listen to Duke Ellington. The deal was well intentioned. I thought it was rather generous of me to enter into their world. And all was not lost. I still enjoy the erstwhile popular rock group today, while they like jazz. But I wish I had possessed this book. It would have cautioned me against my paternalism. Ted Turnau and his friends Stephen Burnett and Jared Moore have articulated essential counsel for parents struggling to adopt the right attitudes toward guiding their children, and themselves, into being ‘in the world but not of it.’ The book is founded upon nonnegotiable biblical principles: respect for children, the gift of culture, and the gospel against legalism or perfectionism. It is honest, at times painfully so, and real-life examples abound. But what permeates these pages is love, love that is based on God’s grace and reflected in our understanding devotion to the family.”

“In The Pop Culture Parent, Ted Turnau, Stephen Burnett, and Jared Moore not only effectively remind us that the gospel is relevant to every square inch of our lives but also practically equip us to parent our children with wisdom and discernment. A helpful, thoughtful, and encouraging book.”

“As parents of four and a wide age range, my wife and I just entered our fourth decade with small children in our home. The struggle to raise children to know and honor the Lord in a fallen world is real! The Pop Culture Parent is a wonderful and welcomed resource to help parents leverage culture as we seek to ground our children in the gospel. I only wish it would have been written sooner!”

“This book gives us clarity of vision on how parents and kids can navigate the confusing and complex works of entertainment around them. If your desire is to give a Christ-centered vision of enjoying and engaging culture, then The Pop Culture Parent is most certainly for you.”

“I currently have the good fortune to be the parent of three teenagers, and I’m always wondering, Have we done enough to keep our children from godless influences they encounter in movies and music? Have we unwittingly given them over to the culture to a point that we’ve abdicated our responsibility to train them up in the fear of the Lord? Have we made Christ shine more brightly than the brightest pop culture stars? As the first generation of parents with children who have smartphones, this is a heavy task. I am grateful this compelling book has come along just in time to provide so much winsome, balanced, gospel-centered wisdom to help parents in shepherding our children’s hearts toward green pastures of godliness even as myriad attractive voices clamor for the throne of their hearts.”

“I have always believed the comic con crowd to be an unreached people group, largely overlooked by evangelical Christians who would rather create subcultures than reach the broader culture head on, so I am always pleased to discover books like this that speak to geeks like me. Christian parents can neither hide their kids from all forms of pop culture nor altogether ignore its influence on their worldviews. But as Turnau, Burnett, and Moore show us in The Pop Culture Parent, we can teach our children how to engage the culture in such a way that they discover what is beautiful about it, spot its idols, and connect the dots between it and the gospel.” ”

“The Pop Culture Parent is a great recipe. Step 1: Take a teacher, a storyteller, and a pastor—all who love Christ, love their families, and love pop culture. Step 2: Shake vigorously. The result? Biblical, wise, authentic, and practical nourishment for all ages.”

“Pop culture is not an escape from the real world; pop culture is the real world, and parents cannot ignore its influence on their children. This gospel-centered book takes a thoroughly biblical approach to deepening Christian parents’ relationships to their children and cultural consumption by instilling discernment through discipleship. Practical personal stories, conviction, compassion, and a clear sexual ethic will ensure you come away grounded not in fear but faith.”

“Here’s an impressive and engaging resource for the church: circumspect (noting rocks on both sides); broadly conversant (with Scripture, Christian commentators, and cultural phenomena); practical (providing an excellent, five-question, analytical tool for sorting things out); and edgy, (with provocative takes, ripe for discussion). All in all, it’s well suited not only for use in the home but also for group study within the broader family of faith.”