The world of K-Pop is often dazzling with choreographed precision, catchy beats, and polished images. Yet beneath the polished exterior, themes go deeper—exploring refrains of darkness, inner battles, and the desire to be free. Among these recurring motifs is the figure of the “demon hunter”—a symbolic warrior who stands against invisible demonic enemies. Enemies (external or internal) that represent evil-doers, past trauma, insecurity, or societal pressures.

For Christians, the imagery of fighting demons is not unfamiliar. Scripture speaks frequently of spiritual warfare, the battle between light and darkness, good and evil and the necessity of confronting battle (of sin) from within. But how do the themes expressed in K-Pop’s demon-hunter archetypes align with or diverge from biblical truths? Let’s place them side by side and consider what they reveal about the human condition.

Across music videos, concept art, and lyrics, K-Pop artists frequently portray themselves as fighters against darkness. Sometimes this is literal—wielding swords, guns, or supernatural powers in fantasy-driven visuals. Other times it is more metaphorical, as in songs about breaking free from inner demons, emotional turmoil, or the crushing weight of others’ expectations.

Young people resonate with these depictions because they mirror real struggles. In modern culture, “demons” often serve as shorthand for mental health battles, toxic relationships, or lingering shame. The demon hunter is the one who refuses to remain a victim, choosing instead to fight for a better identity, hope, or that which is good.

This figure taps into the universal human longing for deliverance. We all sense that something is not right in the world—or the need to wrestle with the demons within us. The demon hunter offers hope that darkness is not the end of the story.

The Scriptures also employ vivid imagery of conflict. Paul reminds believers in Ephesians 6 that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Here, the Christian life is framed as a battle—but not one fought with swords or spectacular stunts. Instead, believers are armed with the “armor of God”: truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and the Word of God. These are not flashy weapons, but they are powerful because they root the believer in Christ.

Unlike K-Pop’s lone hero imagery, the Bible places the emphasis on dependence. The Christian is not the ultimate demon hunter—Christ is. He defeated sin, death, and the devil through the cross and resurrection. Believers fight, yes, but they fight as those who stand as His followers. They also fight against the battle that rages within themselves – doing so by utter dependence on the One who paid the price for us.  

Despite differences, the parallels between K-Pop narratives and biblical themes can be made.

• Existence of  Evil/Darkness – Both recognize that human life is marked by struggle. Whether framed as personal “demons” or spiritual enemies, the reality of conflict exists.

• Call for Courage – K-Pop celebrates resilience, encouraging listeners not to collapse under pressure. The Bible, too, calls for a different kind of courage, urging believers to “be strong and courageous” (Joshua 1:9) because the Lord is with them.

• The Hope of Victory – We hold out hope that battles can be won. For K-Pop, this might be through self-empowerment or community support. For Scripture, it is through Christ who has already secured the decisive victory.

Yet the differences are equally significant.

• Self-Reliance vs. Divine Strength – K-Pop often frames victory as a matter of inner strength: believing in oneself, rising from the ashes, or refusing to be defined by pain. While these are inspiring, the Bible teaches that human strength is insufficient (and the source of our hubris). Sin and spiritual forces run deeper than personal willpower. True freedom requires the intervention of Christ, who alone can set captives free.

• Temporary Triumph vs. Eternal Victory – In K-Pop, overcoming demons usually means achieving peace in the moment—breaking through today’s struggle. But struggles inevitably return. The Bible offers a hope that transcends the temporary: a final and eternal defeat of evil when Christ returns to make all things new.

• Individual Hero vs. Dependent Disciple – The demon hunter is often portrayed as a solitary warrior, admired for her independence. By contrast, Christians are called to fight not in isolation but in the Spirit’s power.

So what should Christians make of K-Pop’s demon hunter motif? On one hand, it can be received as a cultural echo of biblical truth. The human instinct to battle against darkness is real and good—it reflects our God-given desire for light and justice. On the other hand, we must discern carefully. Without Christ, the message is personal power and the fight risks becoming a cycle of striving without ultimate deliverance.

At its best, K-Pop’s demon hunter imagery reminds us that life is not neutral. There are forces—internal and external—that war against the soul. But the Christian must remember that we do not fight for victory; we fight from victory. Christ, the true Demon Slayer, has crushed the head of the serpent.

Engaging with these themes as Christians invites us to use cultural artifacts as springboards for gospel conversations – especially with young people. When a song depicts fighting inner demons, it is an opportunity to share the hope of the One who has already conquered sin and death.

Julie Lowe is a counselor, author, and one of the main speakers for RYM Local, a special training series designed to encourage and equip parents, youth leaders, and others who are passionate about training up students with the gospel. This year’s theme, Cultivating Resilient Youth, focuses on helping the next generation grow in faith amid today’s challenges. To learn more about RYM Local events, check out the event page.

As we squeeze the last bits of summer from the sun and ramp up for the fall and its attendant school year rhythms of ministry, I have been thinking a lot about the relationship between wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence. I realize that may make me sound like the biggest nerd you’ve ever met (I may well deserve the title), but I can assure you there are reasons for my epistemological exercise:

It is the task of God’s people in every age to have discernment as it relates to “knowing the times.” In an otherwise orderly listing of divisions within King David’s army, there were 200 chiefs from among the tribe of Issachar who were noted as being “men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chron. 12:32). Jesus Himself, in one of those rarely boring interactions with the Pharisees and Sadducees, rebukes them for having a sort of “secretive knowledge” of the sky while remaining ignorant of the vastly more important spiritual “signs of the times” (Matt. 16:3). Later in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus expends considerable effort with His disciples, seeking to teach them how to discern and know more about His coming kingdom (ch. 24ff).

But amidst all of my own thinking about this topic, I am brought back to this simple truth from Proverbs 9:10: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”

Oh—to fear the Lord! And not just know things about Him—such that we might pass an exam or attain some level of prestige—but to know Him. In all of His beauty and fullness. In all of His saving love and kindness. In His wondrous pursuit of us. Yes, us—in all of our disordered desires and personal pursuits of lesser lovers.

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

There is nothing artificial about that. To know it is to be known by the Source of knowledge Himself.

All for Jesus,
Brent Corbin
Executive Director

The month of May is not for the faint of heart if you are someone with children or are connected to them vocationally, or otherwise. So many school programs, athletic tournaments, recitals, not to mention graduation ceremonies, which are wonderful! (and sometimes...very, very long). But we've almost made it through - keep your head up!

Speaking of - we are headed straight for our summer conference season, which a good occasion for me to share something that I came across recently. Olivia (THE Olivia Zellner, who helps us with Communication and Advancement) and I were working on a grant application, and part of the proposal included attaching a few references from people who had participated in our programming. I thought, "Great! I always like asking people to write things down which communicate that we're really awesome!"

Jokes aside, we received some very kind statements from a few seasoned youth leaders. One of those leaders was Kate Wartak, who, until very recently, served at Downtown Presbyterian Church in Greenville, SC. Kate wrote:

"RYM’s summer conferences have been particularly impactful for my students, but especially for one student named Caroline. Caroline had been attending our youth group with her friends, but her family was not actively involved at our church. Caroline was invited to the RYM summer conference, where she heard a message from the speaker that opened her heart to the gospel. When she came home, she began pursuing a relationship with God, reading the Bible, and being discipled by youth volunteers in our church. A few months later, she professed her newfound faith in Christ, was baptized, and her parents even became members of the church. This is the ripple effect of a program like RYM’s summer conference. Because of the powerful message Caroline heard at the conference, her parents began their own journey of faith, and now their whole family is being discipled by our church. I am confident that RYM’s future ministry initiatives will continue to impact youth like Caroline, and their families, for the sake of the gospel.”

This testimony from Kate really got me thinking about our summer conferences, and the potential (if not actual) impact that they can have not just on students, but on whole families. My thinking went something like this:

What happens when a student comes to a conference and hears the gospel...and the Holy Spirit opens their heart to receive it...and then they go home and talk to mom and/or dad...and mom and dad decide they want to be in a church (and perhaps themselves get converted?)... I mean, you talk about changing a family's trajectory! That is pretty encouraging to consider for a moment. We know it's true, but it's sometimes really wonderful to remember afresh - God is always at work.

When God's Word is opened, preached, taught, discussed, and meditated upon, we should EXPECT that God is going to do great things, for His glory, of course, and also for the building up of His church.

And also...for the changing of a whole family's spiritual trajectory. Which on this lovely late spring day has me all fired up. Conferences can't come fast enough. Let's do this!!!!

All for Jesus,
Brent Corbin
Executive Director

Why do I love our Youth Leader Training conference so much? I have been thinking about this since I recently returned home from my 4th time at YLT, and I can honestly say that my joy and appreciation for what we have the opportunity to do during that week is increasing year by year.

Okay, we get it, but why? When I began my ‘career’ (it always feels weird to call it that, not sure why) in ministry after a short stint in commercial banking, I remember heading to Georgia to gather with fellow RUF interns from around the country for 2 weeks (!) of staff training. I remember how formative those weeks were for me as a new-to-ministry person as we spent time learning, sharing our hopes and dreams, and, in time, celebrating and lamenting the highs and lows of ministry. After seminary, I would again attend these RUF training events as a campus minister, which by that time had switched to 1 week, twice per year. And once more, I remembered why I loved these times…I needed them!

So, I do think there is an aspect of my love for RYM’s youth leader training that is borne from my nostalgic sense of knowing that ministry people need and benefit from getting together, exhaling from the day-to-day pressures of ministry life, and letting others pour into them. 

But there’s more to it than that for me. Over the Christmas holiday, while driving from Louisiana to Oklahoma to visit some family and friends, I listened to a wonderful book entitled Unreasonable Hospitality. I enjoyed it so much that I listened to it again as soon as I finished. 

Hospitality is one of RYM’s core values. Given that we will welcome 6,000+ people to our events and conferences this year, we would do well to pay attention to these things! I could share so many quotes from the book, but I’ll spare you that exercise and leave you with just one: “People will never forget how you made them feel.”

When we gather hundreds of ministry leaders from across the country together at YLT, we (the RYM Staff) get to look at them in so many ways throughout that week and tell them: YOU are worth celebrating. The work that you do with young people, leading them to and discipling them unto Jesus, matters SO, SO MUCH. The Lord loves you and delights in you, and we think you’re really, really great. For all those reasons and more, we want to give you a wonderful week and make you feel just how special you are. 

So it is, for 5 days a year, we pull out all the stops and bless them. So that they, in turn, might be a blessing to others.

All for Jesus,
Brent Corbin
Executive Director

“I remember having a breakfast 7 or 8 years ago with an older friend in my life (he was a mentor of sorts, as he too was a ‘girl dad’) and talking about the exhausting nature of having so many young children at the same time under our roof. I am positive I also talked about how much I loved my young daughters, but I’m equally sure I talked about how exhausting it was. In fact, I can hear myself uttering the phrase: “It. Is. A. Grind.”

He looked at me and said, “Those are the longest days…and the shortest years.” Those words came off of his lips and tattooed themselves in my mind. It was such an apt description of how my wife and I were feeling. Loooooooong days complete with all manner of spills, bumps, bruises, tears, screams, meals, requests for attention and invitations to play. And yet, just like that, those days are behind us. Short years, indeed.

If I were to turn the phrase just a bit more and adapt it to our current stage of life, it would be: the shortest days and the shortest years. The sheer pace of life with primarily middle and high school children is dizzying. We’re no longer needed in the same way that we were when the kids were young, but we are still VERY needed. Yep, you guessed it - we’re primarily needed for our ability to drive them places.

Perhaps you are, or have been, in this stage of life yourself. Maybe you too are wondering where to find the time to actually connect with your children. Time to connect about something more than just schedule coordination and homework completion. I want to talk about their heart, their faith, what excites and depresses them. I want THAT kind of time. But here’s what I know: this kind of time cannot just be found. The activities and the pace of life are too fast. This kind of time must be created.

I am convinced that to connect with our teenage children on a deep level and speak with them about the more substantive issues of their lives, we must create time to do so. We must carve out time for them. I have historically not been good at this. Work always seems pressing. Church and relationships in town are high values for us and get some of our top billing. Times in which I sit with one of my daughters and speak with them on a heart level are pretty sparse. But I can manage an occasional walk with one of them. Or go lay out on the trampoline on a (soon-to-arrive) fall afternoon with another one. You might even really score and get a night away to log some serious hours together. Whatever you can manage, it will be worth it. I never, never regret creating time for my children. They are always worth it. It’s a joy to serve in a ministry that is seeking to help churches (and the parents therein!) reach and equip their youth for Christ. It’s an even greater joy when my “day” job reminds me that my primary job is to love and serve the family that the Lord has given me.

We are grateful for those of you who are trying to love your families well, and for others of you who are serving as “family members” for people around you, whether at church, or in your neighborhood, or wherever else the Lord may have you.

Never stop starting to create time for those the Lord has given you to love. You’ll never do it perfectly, but they and the Lord love when we at least try!

All for Jesus,
Brent Corbin
Executive Director

For the first edition of "The Hot Seat," we delve into the mind of Joe Deegan, RYM's Director of Conferences. After firing off a series of burning questions, we hope you'll enjoy his answers and an opportunity to learn a little more about the man behind the mic of RYM Worship.

I grew up in Tuscumbia, AL (birthplace of Helen Keller), and I live in Houston, TX now.

I’ve been coming to RYM since 2007 when I chaperoned for First Presbyterian, Tuscumbia as a college student. I then worked as a youth leader in Houston for 7 years, and we brought our youth group to RYM Conferences almost every summer. After my time in youth ministry, I decided to pursue music which led me to joining the RYM staff full-time as the Worship Leader in 2018. It’s been a dream job for me these past 6 years.

My favorite thing to do is probably hang out with my family. That sounds like a cop out answer; so, to be more specific, I’ll say playing and watching sports with my family. I come from a big basketball family, so anytime I can do anything basketball related with my wife or kids, I’m all in.

I’m still a sucker for the TV shows and movies I fell in love with when I was a teenager (e.g., Lord of the Rings, the Office)—lots of early 2000s stuff. So, my answer for the best TV show today is one that started when I was a teenager and is still going strong 24 years later—Survivor.

My most beloved article of clothing is an old, red “Shoals Stallions” basketball t-shirt that my dad gave me in 1996 when he was coaching basketball in Alabama. It’s been through a lot and has been sewed up a few times, but it’s still hanging in there.

I would tell youth-aged people today that the most important thing you can do to prepare for adulthood is to go to church. That may sound like too simple of an answer, but the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve come to realize that nothing has shaped my life more than the church. Nothing shapes anyone the way the church does because it’s the thing God instituted to be in relationship with His people.

I didn’t always go to church for the right reasons when I was teenager, and I can’t count the number of hours I’ve sat in a sanctuary and walked away and immediately forgotten everything I heard, learned or experienced. Yet, even then, God was using the church to shape, mold and make me who I am today—I would be lost without it.

I would tell parents not to be afraid to "force" your kids to go to church. I know we can be scared to force Jesus on our kids because we want them to want Jesus on their own. But I had the privilege of doing youth ministry with some amazing families over a decade ago, so I have some interesting data to look back on now.

Almost all of the parents who prioritized church in their families are seeing the fruit of grown kids in their 20s and 30s who go every week and are thriving within the church community. Even the kids who didn't want to go during high school and avoided church in college, living like the prodigal son, are back because of the Lord's work. So, don't be afraid to tell your kids that church is not an option in your family. God uses the cumulative effect of all those Sundays to prick them with his grace as they get older.

Joe currently serves as RYM’s Director of Conferences where he continues to lead the music as well as the Summer Interns and Conference programming. In addition, Joe has recorded several worship albums under for RYM Worship, including: “Promised Land," "Sing Over Us," and "A New Creation.”

Read more about Joe and others from the RYM staff >>

We’ve had a good start to 2024 as we have now wrapped up our two largest Training events in Nashville, TN and Ligonier, PA. We cherish these opportunities to serve and pour into over 300 Youth Leaders at these multi-day training conferences.

You might wonder, “What exactly happens at these Training events?” or “What specific skills are you training?” Those are great questions! But before answering, I thought I might share a bit about our Training event attendees.

Between both events, we hosted youth leaders and volunteers, with 65% men and 35% women attending from 34 states and provinces across North America. They represented 12+ denominations. Among these attendees, 55% attended an RYM Training event for the first time, 21% returned for their second year, and 24% returned for their third year or more.

RYM Training events have a threefold purpose: 1) to equip youth leaders for the specific work of youth ministry, 2) to encourage youth leaders in the gospel for their own hearts and stamina, and 3) to connect youth leaders with others who are also doing youth ministry for idea-sharing and friendship.

Between the two Training events, we (the RYM Staff) taught or brought others in to equip attendees on topics such as:

• Preparing Christ-centered talks/lessons for youth students
• Engaging disabilities in your youth group (mental, physical, etc.)
• Working within a church system
• How to respond when a student opens up about a traumatic life event
• Developing and utilizing a volunteer team
• Helping lead students to Jesus in the formative teenage years
• Preparing teens for life outside the home
• How to work alongside parents in the discipleship of their children
• and so many more!

As you may know or imagine, it’s common for people engaged in ministry—telling others about Jesus or encouraging them in their walks with Him—to forget the same gospel truths they give others. I’ve heard this referred to as ‘Gospel-Amnesia’— amidst all the busyness of toiling for Jesus, we forget to rest anchor and rest our own lives in Jesus, who He is and what He has done for us. Because of this reality, we consistently invite good preachers and teachers of the Word to these events to offer words that comfort and encourage these often-weary youth leaders. Their messages remind them of their immense value and worth to our great God, no matter what their life and ministry circumstances might be “telling” them.

Lastly, we aim to connect youth leaders with others engaged in the same ministry work. For all of us, having peers in our field who understand the unique challenges and opportunities we encounter on a daily basis is invaluable in helping us do our jobs more faithfully and fruitfully. Youth Ministry is no exception. To achieve this, we organize prayer groups where individuals are grouped with 4-6 others to share more intimately about the highs and lows of life and ministry. As attendees return year after year, they reunite with these groups, fostering deeper relationships over time. When we ask youth leaders why they attend our Training events, they often mention coming initially for the equipping but staying for the deep friendships and connections they develop over the years. These prayer times, coupled with several days of sharing meals and informal time, cultivate the strong bonds necessary to thrive during challenging yet rewarding youth ministry work for many years to come.

Reformed Youth Ministries exists to serve the Church in its efforts to reach and equip youth for Christ. Through its conferences, training and resources, everything RYM does is oriented to help churches as they seek to raise up the next generation of the Church with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.