Youthscape Podcast

Martin and Rachel are back again with a brand new series - Into God Knows What.This season of the podcast is all about looking ahead towards the future. In a world that feels uncertain and ever-changing how can we as practitioners help young people navigate paths that we haven't travelled ourselves? How do we chart out safe passage for ourselves, let alone those who are looking to us as we work with the teenagers around us? Come join us as we delve into the unknown, chat to experts and decipher and discern what this could mean for our youth work in this next season.Today we sit down with Dr. Gemma Madle as she brings her reflections and thoughts from the research she's been sifting through as part of the team at the Youthscape Centre for Research. If you want to explore some more of the wonderful research and work that the team are producing, head over to youthscape.co.uk/research

Buckle up for the last episode of this season where we've looked at some of the most difficult questions within youth ministry. Martin and Rachel are in the hot seat answering rather than asking the questions and we dive straight in!

Make sure you're sitting down as Martin and Rachel answer as many of the Tough Questions for Youth Ministry that we weren't able to get through during the rest of the season - in Martin's own words "like a highlight show, but you've never heard any of it before". Plus, we finally get to hear the whole of the 'hotel story'...

This week's guest is Alanzo Paul, part of the team at The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. Martin sits down with him as they discuss how Alanzo came to faith, how to inspire young people to love the whole Bible as well as tackling the 'tough question' for this week, what do you do when parts of the Bible that reveal God's character appear to us to be inconsistent?Meanwhile back at Youthscape HQ, Rachel also tells her latest woes in a minibus debacle... 

Rachel sits down with Reverend Alan Gault, youth-worker-turned-vicar in Blackburn as they pick apart Alan's journey to ordination and what it looks like to help prioritise youth work even when you're not the youth worker. Meanwhile Martin and Rachel discuss cold showers and the time Martin got a letter from the Dean of a theological college...

Rachel sits down with John Reynolds, content creator and current volunteer youth worker. John chats about his life, and some of the challenges he's faced and how he's adjusted to them while understanding where God has placed him. Meanwhile, Martin and Rachel dig into the wider narratives about young people today.

Rachel sits down with Youthscape's newest member of the team, Alice Smith. Alice has just joined from the team at Christians Against Poverty and discusses where youth ministry fits amongst the pressing needs of poverty in a community. Meanwhile, Martin and Rachel confess the parts of youth ministry that they're not very good at...

Today's guest is John Wheatley from the Frontier Youth Trust and Martin sat down with him to discuss an often hidden question of the socio-economic makeup of youth groups. Rachel and Martin also resurrect 'Dog Talk' and discuss youth groups that look like them...

This week, Martin sits down with Clare Williams from GET REAL and the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. They take a deep dive into the difficulties that the arise when people have used the Bible for their own agendas and whether this causes any problems. Meanwhile Rachel and Martin talk about some of the trouble they have had trying to hire youth workers.

Martin chats to a familiar voice of the podcast for dedicated listeners - Charles Merritt. Together they look at the different disciplines of youth work and children's work and grapple with the similarities as well as the challenges of co-existing. Meanwhile, among the intros that will remain in the archive, Martin and Rachel talk about night-hikes, cheese easter eggs and the impact teachers have on us even as adults. 

Martin sits down with the wonderful Linda Geevanathan, a long-time friend of Youthscape and local youth worker in Luton, as they chat about unity in the context of differing beliefs. Meanwhile, Rachel and Martin talk about April fools and times when pranks don't always go to plan...

Rachel sits down with Katie Madanat as they discuss what expectations youth leaders should expect around modesty and what their response should be in those difficult scenarios. Meanwhile, Martin and Rachel figure out the books that they wish they had written and we hear from another unsung hero of youth work.

Martin sits down with Robbie Thomson, Events Director for Satellites, to discuss the importance of making sure summer events have the right weighting in our youth ministry calendars, and how they fit into a wider understanding of discipleship. Rachel and Martin also talk about the newest purchase at Rachel's church, a flappy man...

Rachel sits down with Claire Banham as she shares some of the story of her journey to creating the Haven, a safe space for young people suffering from anxiety and how that started with walking her own teenage daughter through her anxiety. Martin and Rachel also tell us about how they've changed their youth work styles as they've grown up and an incident with starbucks earlier today...

Trigger Warning: This episode contains conversation about abortion.Martin sits down to Gareth Cheesman from Acet UK as they discuss a whole host of questions around relationship and sex education including, condoms, polyamory and what AI means for future tough questions we might want to be asking in youth ministry. 

Rachel sits down with the wonderful Richard Passmore as they unpick ecclesiology and what church for young people could look like. Meanwhile, Martin and Rachel share their reflections on the recent events coming out of Asbury college in America. 

Martin sits down with Director of South West Youth Ministries, Paul Friend, who has just come off a three month sabbatical to discuss something we all know is important, but often find is at the bottom of our to-do list: rest. They chat about what Paul has learned from his time on sabbatical and how do you manage to build in rest when there's never a clear and easy time to do it. Meanwhile Martin and Rach discuss their own barriers to rest and sabbath as well as an interesting documentary Rachel has just seen...

Martin sits down with Youthscape's own Alex Drew (for the second time), as they discuss training, volunteers and how to best set up other members of our youth teams to win. Rachel and Martin bond over their dread of becoming a 'challenging volunteer' and they troubleshoot some of each other's difficult situations.

Martin sits down with Ruth Jackson, former editor at Premier Youth and Children's Work magazine and current presenter and producer of Unbelievable? apologetics radio show and podcast. They discuss the relevance of apologetics in today's age and how you as a youth worker should respond to the challenging question of suffering. Meanwhile, Rachel and Martin update us on the latest exploits with their dogs, and Rachel pitches her new idea for something called "The Guilty Youth Worker".

In this week's episode, Martin sits down to hear from Naomi Allen from Open Doors as they try and tackle a question that includes suffering and looks at doubt in the midst of leading young people. Rachel and Martin discuss the 'dark night of the soul' and Martin lets us know what strange request he received around a recent funeral.

Martin and Rachel kick off the new year with a new series where they delve into the tough questions of youth ministry. Sitting in the hot seat today is Matt Summerfield, author, church leader and chair of Youthscape's trustees. He shares stories from his time leading Urban Saints and Martin and Rachel share some of their 'Elephants in the Closet'.

In this final episode of the mini-series, Martin sits down with the Director of the Institute of Youth Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary, Megan DeWald. They discuss the Forum, IYM's event, as well as what it looks like to help build long-lasting faith in young people in the run up to the National Youth Ministry Weekend.

Martin chats to Philip Jinadu, church leader of Woodlands Metro in Bristol and one of this year's National Youth Ministry Weekend contributors. They chat about long-term discipleship and look at how mentoring plays into that. Meanwhile, Rachel and Martin figure out who would win in an arm wrestle.

Martin and Rachel delve into the world of evangelism and share some of their (more regrettable) stories from their youth. As we look toward the National Youth Ministry Weekend in November, Rachel sits down with one of our contributors, Daniel Eduardo from The Message and discuss what this year's theme means in the context of sharing our faith with young people.

TW: Abuse and traumaRachel and Martin sit down to chat to another of this years National Youth Ministry Weekend contributors: Amy Orr-Ewing. Amy shares the story of the Reboot event, and the vision to equip young people to address tough questions with their friends as well as some of the difficult season she's been through over the last few years.

Rachel and Martin are back in the new academic year with the first episode of a mini-series building up to the National Youth Ministry Weekend in November. They chat to Youthscape's CEO and one of the speakers of this years conference, Chris Curtis about the story of Youthscape and how we ended up with the this year's theme: Stronger - growing faith in young people.

ft Melinda Tankard ReistRachel sits down with Australian author, speaker, media commentator, blogger and advocate for young people, Melinda Tankard Reist. She is best known for her work addressing sexualisation, objectification, harms of pornography, sexual exploitation, trafficking and violence against women. Meanwhile, Martin and Rachel take a look back at the 'Big Conversations' season and wonder what the important topics of the future will be and how we as youth workers will need to address them. 

ft Lahna Pottle Martin and Rachel get hung up on a very green coat and sit down with Lahna Pottle, youth and young adults pastor from Shoebury & Thorpe Bay Baptist Church, to delve into young people's relationship with social media and the world of technology, as well as what our role as those who work with young people looks like to model healthy practice.

Martin and Rachel talk about Twizzle, octogenarians and sit down with Dr Lucie Shuker (from Youthscape's Centre for Research) and Dan Randall (from Hope Together) to chat about some new research all about peer-to-peer evangelism amongst young people.

Rachel and Martin sit down once again to chat about how we navigate messy and murky world of money with young people. Rachel picks the brain of Shane Claiborne, author, activist and leading figure in the New Monastic movement to understand the role of young people in world changing movements. 

Martin and Rachel are back from their mid-season break to chat about dynamic range, not missing bin day and most importantly, sitting down with LessWasteLaura to unpick how to have conversations with young people about the climate.