Now What?

In July 2020 Youthscape ran Now What? — a brand new online event designed to help you define your youth ministry vision in a COVID-19 world. If you missed it, you can catch-up on everything here.

We’re all tired. Something began months ago that’s changed everything. Still now, the jarring shifts keep coming, and the future is foggy. Some are making a success of it — enthusing with news of impressive online church attendance, abundant online Alphas, and apparently a renewed spiritual hunger across the country. Unless, perhaps, you’re a youth worker. The ‘good news’ narrative for those who work with young people is less apparent. The fringes have scattered, and the best you can do is cling to your core group. Even then, even with the signs of light, you’re still on the back foot.

You’ve been stuck in reactive mode, but you want to be proactive.

You want a vision for your work, not just endless uncertainty.

You’re surviving — but you want to be thriving.

We’re there too, and we want to help. Online church has offered lots of communication — but little connection, rare conversation. That’s what Now What is all about.

Let's have a conversation.

Now what happened?

Over the course of 24 hours we brought together youth ministry practitioners, key thinkers and experts to help you to address the big questions facing your youth work over the next 12 months. In this once-in-a-lifetime moment, fresh thinking and clear guidance are urgently needed to help us navigate a future that no one saw coming.

Through interactive sessions, focused seminars, coaching help and more, we journeyed together through the big challenges facing us in youth ministry right now, and sought God for his way forward.

You can see the rundown of the conference on the schedule further down this page. If there's specific talks you're interested in catching up on, you can use this to find them, and watch them via Youtube. You can watch the first evening session below.

YS Podcast Special Edition 26: "Now What?" Wrap Up

We loved joining with the youth ministry community last week for our online event, Now What. Martin and Rachel talk about what they found inspiring and where we can go from here.

The schedule

View the Now What? schedule & directory.

The 'Now What' resource

Now What is all about figuring out what your vision and plan is for youth ministry in the next 12 months. Giving you the inspiration and opportunity to start thinking about what God can do through you in the lives of young people. To help you do that, we've published a major new resource during the conference — a step-by-step guide to developing your vision and plan... and you're going to find it an essential tool in the months ahead.

Each double-page spread has a guided exercise to direct your thoughts and prayers. You can work through it alone or with your whole youth work team. By the end of the process, you'll have a clear sense of what your priorities and plans should be for the next year of your youth group or youth project in the context of the COVID-19 situation.

How does that sound? You can now get a printed version of this resource through the Youthscape Store.

Meet the contributors

Rachel Gardner

Director of Partnerships

rachel.gardner@youthscape.co.uk 01582 748909

Hi, I'm Rachel and I'm Director of Partnerships at Youthscape working from my new base in Preston in the North-West.

Martin Saunders

Director, Satellites & Deputy Chief Executive

martin.saunders@youthscape.co.uk 01582 748960

Hello, my name is Martin Saunders and I lead the Satellites festival alongside my role as Deputy Chief Executive.

Natalie Evans

Satellites Senior Events Coordinator

natalie.evans@youthscape.co.uk

Hey, I’m Natalie. I'm helping plan and organise the Satellites 2022 event.

Dr Kate Middleton

Kate Middleton is a psychologist with a particular interest in emotional health in the face of adverse circumstances and helping people reach their full potential.

Tim Alford

Tim is the National Director of Limitless; a Youth Ministry Specialist Lecturer at Regents Theological College; and a volunteer youth leader at The Source Church.

Craig Pinkney

Craig Pinkney is a Criminologist, Urban Youth Specialist, PhD Researcher, Founder and Director of Solve: The Centre for Youth Violence and Conflict.

Kenda Creasy Dean

Kenda Creasy Dean is an author, ordained pastor, and Professor of Youth, Church and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Azande Mbhele

Azande is the head of Youth Alpha in the UK. She enjoys working alongside youth leaders, using Youth Alpha to build up youth ministries across the UK.