I’ve been convicted about my attitude. As a Gen X pastor, I’ve often bought into and even advanced generational stereotypes. Although not that far removed from being a millennial myself, I would roll my eyes at the tremendous amount of ink spilled by leadership publications insisting millennials were the future of the church.
Maybe it’s just the chip on my shoulder for my generation being overlooked on just about everything (Try searching for a book titled “Reaching Gen X”, and you’ll come up dry. Try “Reaching millennials” and you’ll get a whole shelf’s worth).
Now the publishing spotlight has turned to Gen Z and what it will take to reach this segment of society born between 1997–2012.
However, I’m no longer rolling my eyes.
Part of it is personal. I have two children who are in Gen Z, and I want to father and lead them well. I suppose it could also be because my heart is softer toward a generation that has been categorically defined as anxious. As a pastor, however, I’m thinking about the road ahead regarding the future of the pastorate and the church in America: What kind of church will outlive me? I want Jesus’ church to flourish and be healthy long beyond my years. For that to be the case, I must begin leading and shepherding in a way that doesn’t fuel cynical stereotypes about Gen Z but instead fuels the faith of this next generation.
It’s time to help Gen Z move beyond the label of the “anxious generation.” It’s time we started helping them to live with godly ambition.
When we picture Gen Z, it’s easy to see the caricature: kids spewing a strange language (“skibidi” anyone?), addicted to TikTok foolishness, aspiring to be the next YouTube stars, all while plunging from one panic attack to the next.
What will bring form and function to this chaotic generational lot? As I have pastored those in Gen Z over the last 25 years, several distinctive realities stand out to me with some pastoral opportunities to fuel them forward in gospel pursuits.
Digital natives need embodied adventure
If anything is true of Gen Z, it’s their intuitive mastery and understanding of the digital realm. Before reaching the age when I could spell computer, my children already knew how to utilize and program the digital technologies we handed them. They’ve never known a moment absent of the internet, streaming content, and social media platforms. Much of the content produced for them across the interweb is vapid and shallow “hot takes” of performative and curated lives. Life has become a mediated experience of watching others live.
Take, for instance, the streaming feeds on Twitch or Discord. For hours, students will watch someone else playing a video game or unboxing a toy or set of cards. Living through the avatar of whoever it is in the gaming chair on the other side of the screen is no substitute for an embodied life. But take a digital native out into the wilds of nature, and something shifts. It breaks through the veneer and shallows of a pixel-formed existence.
The church today can and should offer embodied experiences of what I’ll call “Christian adventure” to bring Gen Z’s heads up from the glowing blue-light of a smartphone. During the summer, my church, Woodside Bible Church, gives hundreds of students an experience-based practicum serving the Detroit metro area. By partnering with local parachurch ministries throughout the city, they roll up their sleeves and meet real needs, serving and engaging with people and projects beyond their lives’ normal scope. The directive activity of faith at work brings flesh and bones to the opportunities, needs, and real-life examples of the work of God in local communities.
I try to do the same with my own children. It’s been a goal of mine to take them out into the wilds by visiting national parks (beyond the visitor centers), backpacking, and experiencing the natural world in its unmediated form. We’ve faced hunger, hard hikes, storms, and wildlife and have received the incredible scenic rewards of a long hike up a tall mountain. These experiences have taught them lessons: Keep persevering. Don’t take the shortcut. Plan ahead. You can do hard things.
It’s the kind of formation Jesus modeled—teaching his disciples in a raging storm, among the tumult of a bustling city, or on a grassy meadow with a hangry multitude larger than the local Applebee’s could feed. A life of godly ambition isn’t cultivated in comfort. It’s carved out in the wilds.
When the church leverages these kinds of environmental experiences, Gen Z has a chance to see beyond Instagram to a larger world and more ambitious life.
Mental health awareness needs narrative placement
One of the most encouraging shifts in this generation is their ability to overcome the stigmas and stereotypes of mental health prior generations advanced. Gone are the days where we sweep aside anxiety, depression, and the need for sound professional care under a calloused axiom of sufferers just “not believing God.” The growing number of mental health care professionals and sound resources promoted within the church supports the theology of the church being “many members, yet one body.” Pastors do not have to (and should not) handle all the counseling and care needs of the body.
Yet, one of the critiques is this mental health-awareness movement has simply created more selfish, self-focused people who are evolving at light speed into the greatest “me-monsters” the world has ever known. While I reject the stereotype as a whole, I do see a potential for a kind of paralyzation that could keep many from godly ambitions for the Kingdom and the gospel. The thick life of godly ambition, however, can encourage and build care for mental health as well as prime young adults forward in active and ambitious activities.
What we need isn’t less mental health awareness but better placement within the story of God.
That’s where pastors can distinctly help. We can develop formational avenues to help Gen Z understand the greater narrative of God, the world he created, and the place it is headed. Our default practice has been to build programs and experiences that draw a crowd and entertain. But the church must be in the business of theological, moral, and spiritual formation above entertainment. Gen Z does not benefit when the church merely entertains them.
If we want resilient, empowered, active members of the church and community, then we must offer formation. Teach them the Bible. Rehearse Scripture’s story. Give them doctrinal categories. Challenge their character. Stretch their imagination with a God-sized vision. My experience has been that Gen Z will rise to the challenge, enjoy it, and grow if we feed them the deep things of God.
Spiritual hunger needs godly trajectories
If you are suspicious of the claims that Gen Z is experiencing a great awakening of spirituality, then you need to kill those doubts. It is happening. Across the country, university campuses report spiritual awakenings, revival, and increased fervor and desire among their student bodies. These movements are occurring beyond the environs of Christian colleges, extending into secular and liberal universities as well. Thousands of students are embracing the gospel of Jesus and expressing a vibrant faith right now. There is much to be encouraged about spiritually among this generation.
Our faith, not our suspicion, should be stirred.
Pastors and Christian leaders should reject the cynicism that can often occur when we hear of a movement of the Holy Spirit among younger generations. Every generation can fall prey to a skepticism of youthful exuberance and devotion. It’s tempting to wait and see what lasts. But maybe the greater question isn’t whether this generation’s faith is legitimate or not. Maybe the better question is “Will they be encouraged by older generations in their faith? Will we help fan the flame of this gospel spark, encourage them with godly wisdom, and support them as they grow into ministry leadership?”
Nothing will kill the advancement of the gospel among this generation more quickly than our cynicism, pride, and reluctance rather than our hearty endorsement and resourcing of Gen Z for future ministry.
The church doesn’t need more gatekeepers; it needs more shepherds.
We can pray for this next generation. Mentor them patiently. Call them into God-sized pursuits of service. Show them how God’s heart beats for the lost, the broken, the suffering. And cheer them on as they follow Jesus in his Kingdom agenda.
If we do, we just might see godly ambition and gospel flourishing take root in the anxious generation.
Jeremy Writebol serves as lead campus pastor at Woodside Bible Church in Plymouth, Michigan, and is executive director of Gospel-Centered Discipleship. He has authored several books including Pastor, Jesus Is Enough and Make It Your Ambition: 7 Godly Pursuits for the Next Generation.
