Christian podcasts are surging in popularity

– 2025 could prove their breakout year.   

by Thomas Casemore , 

This is part of an article appeared in the Catholic Herald 17 January 2025 pm

In this article Thomas Casemore says: That Christian podcasts are attracting more and more attention nowadays, especially among young men.

At the same time, the aggressive atheism of recent years is becoming more nuanced. They are beginning to see the differences between Christianity and Islam. As their over-simple world-view is failing to help people find meaning in life, fewer atheists are being as strident in their criticism of Catholicism. They are beginning to feel challenged intellectually.

It is a very interesting read, please click LINK HERE and it will take you to  the article.

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Pope Francis shares a message for Christian communicators

 by Ariane Sroubek.

This article appeared on the website,   Where Peter is 27 January 2025

Pope Francis explains that Christian communicators have obligations which include creating content that kindles hope by rejecting fearmongering, hatred, oversimplification, untruths and the weaponization of language. The work that communicators do must heal and nurture human relationships.

If you would like to read this article click on  LINK HERE  and it will take you straight to it. 

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Young people with no connection to church are coming anyway.

It’s called ‘contactless curiosity’ By Dave Kemp

This article appeared on the Premier Christianity website, 31 January 2025

In the middle of October last year, a teenage girl went home and told her mum she wanted to find out more about Jesus. This girl’s family had no church background, so they asked for advice from someone they knew to be a Christian. This person pointed them in the direction of our church; they went on the website and got in touch.

This girl, who had no experience of church, ended up coming to our Tuesday night small group and brought a friend. The next week, the friend brought her sister. All three girls are now regularly attendees.

Contactless curiosity

I recently shared this story at a youth leaders meeting, and discovered I’m not the only person to have observed what could be an intriguing new trend.

In the past ten years, young people would only end up in our church because of some kind of relational link or invitation. Perhaps a Christian friend or family member had invited them, or they’d connected with a church outreach programme. We’d never known one, let alone three, young people connect with our church without an invitation. To my surprise, of the six groups represented on our table at this youth leaders meeting, three reported seeing the same thing in recent months - also not having seen it before.

We were from different denominations across Wales and England, yet were seeing the same sort of encounter which, for the sake of brevity on our sheet of paper, we dubbed ‘contactless curiosity’.

God and Gen Z

I’ve done enough statistical analysis to know that three anecdotal stories does not equal a definitive trend. But I also don’t think our experiences should be ignored. God is stirring the hearts of the young people of this nation. Covid-19 revealed a lot of institutions to be less solid than they seemed, and I have seen one key question growing in the younger generations over the last few years: “Is anything permanent?”

This question is, inevitably, leading a good number to explore faith. To wonder about the bigger questions. Young people have never been ignorant of, or uninterested in, these things. In fact, they have the most curious minds of any group I’ve pastored.

But the question is: How do we respond to it?

07/02/2025