Jeremy is joined by Steve Zacharias to explore a topic most youth workers have wrestled with: how do you have meaningful conversations with students who are anxious, shut down, or unsure how to engage?

Steve draws from both personal experience and practical ministry to unpack how anxiety shows up in student behavior and how youth leaders can respond with empathy, curiosity, and calm. They talk about fight/flight/freeze/fawn responses, why students often seem resistant or disengaged, and what we can do to build trust, slow the pace, and help students feel seen and safe.

If you've ever walked away from a conversation thinking, “Did that even work?” this episode will help you rethink success, show up more helpfully, and ask better questions.

Have a question or want to dig deeper? You can email jeremy@youthworker.community or steve@youthworker.community

Here are a few of the practical next steps from Steve’s episode…

• Take a deep breath before youth group—your presence matters more than your pressure
• Learn to identify the four responses to anxiety: fight, flight, freeze, fawn
• Regulate your own anxiety first—what tone, pace, and posture are you bringing?
• Let students choose the space for deeper conversations (not always the foyer!)
• Ask fueling questions to explore anxiety:

1. “What are you feeling? How do you feel about talking with me?”
2. “What’s it like for you to feel this way?”
3. “When did you start feeling this way?”
4. “What was going on at the time?”

• Ask flipping questions to reframe the situation:

1. “If you switched places with someone else, what would you see?”
2. “Whose voice do you hear in the pressure you’re feeling?”
3. “What would you imagine Jesus saying to you in this moment?”

• Avoid “why” questions—reframe with what or how to reduce defensiveness
• Use Scripture gently to help students reflect, not just correct

In this episode, Jeremy sits down with Dr. Jason Burtt, sociology professor at Trinity Western University and former youth pastor, to explore the intersection of culture, discipleship, and what actually helps students grow and flourish today.

From pirates and pig roasts to positive sociology and generational shifts, Jason offers insights rooted in both research and real-life youth ministry experience. This wide-ranging conversation covers how students are formed, why embodied relationships still matter in a digital age, and how the love of Jesus is the most powerful and most often overlooked discipleship tool we have.

If you're a youth worker wondering whether your investment is really making a difference, this episode is a timely and encouraging reminder that your presence, love, and consistency are shaping students more than you realize.

Have a question or want to dig deeper? You can email jeremy@youthworker.community.

You can catch up with Dr. Jason and check out Trinity Western University by heading to twu.ca

In this episode, Jeremy and Sid sit down with legendary youth ministry scholar and practitioner Dr. Chap Clark to unpack how cultural shifts have radically shaped the identity formation of today’s teenagers and what that means for youth workers today.

Chap introduces the idea of “avatars” (the multiple versions of self that students present in different spaces) and explains why helping young people discover and integrate their real identity in Christ through community is more urgent than ever. He shares insight from decades of research , youth work, and teaching, and offers a powerful vision for building ministry cultures that move beyond transactional relationships toward healing, belonging, and purpose.

This episode is rich, deep, and hopeful. If you want to help your students thrive as whole people in Christ, not just perform as Christian teens, don’t miss this one.

Check out Chap’s books on Amazon or see what he’s up to these days at MinistryLeadership.Church.

Have a question or want to dig deeper? You can email jeremy@youthworker.community.