It's taken me a long time to write anything about youth ministry, likely because I'm fully aware that I'm still learning in all areas of life. Therefore, I'm not sharing this as an expert on youth ministry, or Generation Z, or church, but as someone who has been in the trenches of a youth ministry to Gen Z for almost 9 years.
Some background: I deeply believe the Church is the hope of the world. However, the large shift in worldview (from modernism to postmodernism) that's taken place over the last 30-50 years has created a new and very unique generation, beginning partly with Millennials, but culminating in Generation Z (or the iGen, per some psychologists). The hard truth is that Gen Z poses a specific new challenge for the Church, which is, in many ways and areas, still trying to minister to a culture that's passing away quickly. If the Church does not shift with new generations, it will lose them, and their beautiful spiritual gifts, voices, and contributions along with them.*
And sadly, we're watching this take place before our eyes. Per lots of research, Gen Z appears on the surface to be the least religious generation that has ever existed. For the past decade or so, pastors, parents, and youth leaders alike have baffled at the number of youth and young adults leaving (or disassociating with) the western Church. Though there are likely many complex reasons for this pattern, I wanted to simply lend a few thoughts on things I think the Church must get right with Generation Z. [These are not all-encompassing. This is a blog post. :) ] 1. Authentic community > Institutionalized religion For Gen Z, belief in God is definitely not the ‘default option’ anymore, which is startlingly different from previous generations where 'being religious' was the norm. Generation Z appears to be searching for spirituality, but organized religion seems to be one of the last places that Gen Z would expect to find meaning in their spiritual search. However, this is likely not because today’s teens aren’t spiritual at all or don’t have the desire to be spiritual, but because Gen Z has more of an issue with the institution of Church as a whole. In focus groups with teens in Australia, researchers found that “their perceptions [of church] are of a big, structured institution rather than a community of people with a passion and a purpose.” The latter is, of course, the biblical vision for church (ekklesia, the Greek word used in the New Testament, means literally the "called-out group"). This should be a wake-up call for churches to reevaluate what 'doing church' really means for them. Though Gen Z might not be crazy about the Church institution per se, they do have an innate need for connection and community, just like the rest of humanity. It’s no secret that today’s teens are more digitally connected than any other young people in history, but teens are realizing that social media friendship might not be the authentic connection that they truly crave. Barna finds that “social media is where [teens] feel most “seen” – but the version of themselves that is being seen isn’t authentic.” I believe that this is the crucial task the Church must rise to: allowing Gen Z to be authentically seen and heard. Creating spaces for teens to process their doubts, questions, identities, and faith - and most of all, to be known and loved. Because, of course, it’s easier to imagine that there's a God who sees, hears, knows, and loves you if a real person does it first. A community-family is what the church was supposed to be, and we must get back to it. The 21st-century church 'preaching station' model isn't working.
2. Discipleship as a 'companioned journey' Discipleship with Gen Z has to look very different than the traditional Sunday school teacher at the front of a classroom unloading doctrine. I'm not hating on teaching; obviously, teens desperately need good teachers at this crucial point in their lives (especially spiritual teachers). But what kind of teacher they need is the essential question! The traditional mode of teaching (information overload from a distant teacher seen once a week) isn't working - if your goal is spiritual transformation, that is. Today’s teens don’t need more information (they have all the information of the world at their fingertips), they need incarnational spiritual relationships with adults who are authentically walking with Christ. They need teachers of discerning God's voice, teachers of transformation, and teachers of the Living Word. How on Earth do we teach such things? Well, in short: good teachers must be teaching by the example of our lives. And of course, this is how Jesus taught: he walked with his disciples through the ups and downs of life for years. Church father Clement of Alexandria gives us a great example of the type of educators that the church desperately needs. In his work Christ the Educator, or Paedagogus, (which translates as ‘tutor’), written around the turn of the third century, Clement writes that Christ acts as a ‘companion educator’. In the first few centuries A.D., this type of educator was actually a family servant who walked with children to school, kept them safe, helped them with their education, and helped them learn to make decisions as they grow through all stages of childhood. Today’s teens need this teacher! They need much more than someone who is looking down at them from the front of a classroom; they need authentic and vulnerable and wise adult friends who can go with them, on their level, on their faith journeys. As we always say in our youth ministry: teens don't need more lessons, they need more leaders.
3. Motivate and validate their concerns for social justice One of the most unique markers of Generation Z is that they are showing very mature political and social concerns (likely due to their increased connectivity). In a recent study, 94% of teens reported being concerned about human rights issues, 89% are concerned about poverty issues, and 87% concerned about racial inequality. These are issues that teens deeply care about, and someone has to teach them that God deeply cares about these things as well (or they will walk out). The Bible is clear that God is on the side of the disenfranchised, the refugee, the poor, and the outcast. He calls His people to do the same. The echo of God throughout the narrative of Scripture is that He desires justice for all people The continuous lament and call of the prophets to God's people (who were supposed to be international leaders in pursuing justice) is this: "Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living" (Amos 5:23-24 NLT). I see the prophetic voices of Gen Z calling the church to more of the same, and it must be taken seriously. Deep down, teens do not want a fragmented faith that is evident on Sundays and absent the rest of the week. They know that the ‘spiritual’ cannot be a part of our lives disjointed from the rest – spirituality is comprehensive, infused and integrated into all that is. What happens on Monday, at work and in the streets, has to be of equal or greater concern to the church than what happens on Sunday mornings. Christianity MUST bring shalom to our cities, a less violent world, and greater justice among all people. The church must be present to all that is, which includes the social and racial struggles of the world. Practically, this may look like helping teens learn to lament, be honest with God about the world, and ask the hard questions about what they see going on around them. And certainly, it'll look like encouraging them to take their place pursuing justice in all its forms across the world.
Teens (16-18 year-olds especially) are at the critical point in their development where they need to be invited to do something with their lives that matters. Jesus offers us this invitation to meaningful work as we follow His way of life. And I pray that the Church would be able to extend this invitation to Generation Z. Only leaders who model humble lives of authenticity, vulnerability, and surrender to the way of Jesus will have the ability to lead Gen Z gently back to the church. And hopefully, as Gen Z begins to integrates their spiritual journey into every part of who they are, they will change the world, and continue to bring the Kingdom here on Earth as it is in Heaven.
* Of course, the DNA of our Christian faith must stay the same, but it also must progress in shape and form with the times. This is not a new concept, as some might think, but a widely discussed and accepted belief of the Church, dating back to the the first centuries A.D. Vincent of Lehrins' Commonitorium is a good place to start on this.
* Statistics and poll information are from FEED research reports on Gen Z.
Comments