It was fall semester 2024, and I’d managed to claim a table in the normally crowded student center at Taylor University. As I sat studying, a girl slid into the seat across from me and asked if she could join. We lived in the same building, but I didn’t really know her. Still, I said yes. She noticed the sticker on the back of my laptop. It read, “Biblical femininity, not feminism.”
“What is your definition of feminism?” she asked, launching us into a discussion about what the Bible said about gender, the role of women in the church, and the effects of different cultural movements.
Our impromptu conversation wasn’t the only time I’ve had conversations about controversial subjects with my peers. We’ve discussed abortion, immigration, marriage, racism, environmentalism, and more. I’ve discussed eschatology while standing in line for rides at Six Flags.
Generation Z prizes authenticity. We want stability. We’re searching for community. And we’re willing to engage with difficult topics to find them. Most of all, we want a gospel that tells us the whole truth. Gen Z does not need a soft gospel.
Born between 1997 and 2012, zoomers are younger than the internet. Our oldest members barely remember life before smartphones, and the youngest members don’t know a life without social media.
We’re a generation coming of age in a world that does not feel stable. Our public square is online, and we’re used to receiving filtered, edited, and one-sided information. We turn to social media, especially TikTok, to stay up-to-date on the news. We tend to distrust established institutions. Misleading news coverage on politics and social media’s platforming of alternative viewpoints and false information has made Gen Z skeptical. Everything seems fake, and zoomers don’t like it.
Gen Z came of age in a divisive political environment seemingly headed toward violent implosion. We watched as Western culture discarded traditional and natural boundaries around gender and marriage while calling any pushback bigoted. Many of my generation are still scarred by the forced lockdowns of COVID-19 and the anxiety surrounding both the disease and the response to it. And as we look to the future, many of us zoomers are worried we won’t be able to afford the cost of living, especially housing.
And then Gen Z is just lonely. More connected than ever through screens, many 20-somethings don’t have in-person communities they can rely on. For members of a generation whose mental health struggles are well documented, this means they’re suffering alone.
The need for authenticity, stability, and community might be why some members of Gen Z are shifting back toward traditional ideals. They’re aware of the competing thoughts surrounding marriage, gender, and life. Many are disillusioned by mainstream progressive solutions.
Children’s rights advocate Katy Faust summarized it this way: “One reason for Gen Z’s rightward lurch is they’ve tasted and seen how family breakdown has destroyed their lives. They have watched their friends try on every sexual label and still be depressed, anxious, and lonely. They have experienced firsthand the crisis of meaninglessness. They want an alternative.”
Unfortunately, Gen Z has reacted by seesawing back toward secular traditionalism. For example, many young men are increasingly drawn to a type of hypermasculinity popularized by influencers like Andrew Tate. This version of manhood teaches that masculinity is synonymous with physical strength, glorifies the lusts of the flesh, and encourages men to beat down the weak. Young men seem to be drawn to Tate types because they’re an antidote to the culture’s antagonism toward men.
Many young women, too, are drawn to the tradwife trend, which reduces God’s call to an aesthetic caricature, creates unrealistic expectations, and can twist the biblical doctrine of headship into dictatorship. Young women seemingly are drawn to this trend because it counters Western society’s idea that they must “do it all.”
But neither of these things satisfies, because they miss the real source of instability, fakeness, and loneliness. They try to fix the rift in humanity’s relationship with God through our own power.
Gen Z needs an alternative, and the story of the gospel provides it.
When people sugarcoat the gospel in an effort to make it seem nicer, they minimize it. It starts to look like the rest of the hedonistic, postmodern philosophies causing destruction in our culture. For a generation used to wading through edited information, filtering the gospel to make it appear softer makes it sound like another unstable ideology leading to broken loneliness.
Preaching “you’re accepted just the way you are” feels good, but it isn’t fully true. Yes, he will save us just the way we are, but he will not leave us just the way we are (Rom. 5:6–11). When we avoid preaching the seriousness of sin and the consequences of our broken relationship with God, we cheapen Christ’s sacrifice.
It’s good to speak about God’s love—he is love. But his love is different from the world’s definition of love. It’s actionable (Ps. 136). It doesn’t rejoice in wrongdoing—even popular wrongdoing—but rejoices in the truth (1 Cor. 13:6). It’s sacrificial (John 15:13).
Avoiding the parts of Scripture that are more difficult to preach will only provide people with an incomplete view of God and salvation. It makes it seem as if the gospel doesn’t have real-world impact.
The Bible does indeed address injustice, violence, financial security, and loneliness. Gen Z needs an answer only Scripture can give—but we need to share the whole of Scripture.
For a generation that craves authenticity, the Bible is honest about humanity’s sinful nature (Ps. 51; Rom. 3:23). Old and New Testament authors alike don’t shy away from discussing the often harsh realities of this fallen world. God’s Word is honest about the sole path to salvation (John 14:6; Rom. 10:9–10). Scripture proclaims truth without posturing or editing it first (2 Tim. 3:16–17; Heb. 6:18). It’s authentic.
Zoomers wants stability? God is a God of order (1 Cor. 14:33). He holds the world in his hands (Ps. 24:1; Matt. 5:45), established right and wrong (Mic. 6:8), punishes evil (Isa. 13:11; Rom. 1:18), and provides for those who seek first his kingdom (Matt. 6:33). He is the cornerstone and the firm foundation (1 Pet. 2:6). He provides stability, and he is stable (Luke 6:46–49).
Gen Z wants community? God promises to never leave nor forsake us (Deut. 31:8; Heb. 13:5). He sends the Helper to be with his followers (John 15:26–17). He loves unconditionally (Rom. 5:8) and won’t let us stay in our messes (1 Thess. 4:3). Christians have a built-in community of believers to do life with (Eph. 2:19). And Christ himself provides community.
We Christians need to share that Christ died for our sin (Isa. 53:5). He experienced the full wrath of a just God against evil (Rom. 3:23–26). God will save anyone, no matter how degenerate a sinner, but he does not leave people the way they are. Freedom in Christ is not a license to keep on sinning (Gal. 5:13). His kindness is meant to lead to repentance (Rom. 2:4). Belief in him is the only way to salvation. Living in sin will result in slavery to sin (Rom. 6). Knowing that Christ is the only way to salvation strips away the mask that obscures the results of prominent cultural ideologies (10:9–10).
There’s a church near me that does a wonderful job preaching Christ’s death and resurrection. But because it only ever preaches those elementary doctrines of Christ (Heb. 6:1), many young adults have left. They want churches that will speak to what is happening in the world around them and that will show them God has a plan for their specific pains. They need to see that these core doctrines—the gospel—connect to their life. A watered-down gospel won’t do that.
Generation Z is open to Jesus but wary of religion. Religion seems fake and disconnected; Jesus seems real.
One of my younger sisters came home from her freshman year at Cedarville excited about Jesus because she realized that her faith is a relationship. Jesus is someone she can spend time with and know better. He isn’t disconnected from what’s happening in the world.
Now is a perfect time to speak to Generation Z about the whole gospel, even though it’s offensive to the world (1 Pet. 2). My generation needs to know we’re not crazy for wondering why the LGBTQ culture feels wrong. We need to know why living for ourselves makes us feel anxious or depressed.
There’s an understanding among zoomers that the status quo isn’t right, but many are looking for answers in the wrong places. Secular conservatism is just as dangerous as secular liberalism. Without the stability, authenticity, and community Christ brings, nothing will change. Honest discussions with Gen Z, where all of Scripture is embraced—including the parts this world hates—will draw my hungry generation to Christ.
Kenna Hartian is the Habecker fellow at Christianity Today.
