In our continuing series of blogs highlighting the characteristics of the new youth culture, Gen Z (those born from 1998-2015), we have previously outlined their views on identity, self-fulfillment, gender, worldview, and life goals.  Today, we’re going to peek at how they view the church and their participation in it.  What makes this striking is that their image of an exemplary church differs significantly from what is often seen in our world today, and ministry leaders and pastors better take notice of it.

Using the excellent resources from Impact 360 Institute (the book Gen Z) and the Barna Group (their book Barna Trends 2018), we get an intriguing look into what today’s youth prefer in a church.  As a majority opinion, most (59%) of the entire Gen Z population (professing Christians and non-Christians) believe “Church is not relevant to me personally” (Gen Z, p.72).  You would be correct to assume that a larger number of the non-Christian Gen Z’ers would hold to this view (64%), but would it surprise you to know that just under half (46%) of Gen Z’ers who are Christian think this also?  Almost half (48%) of all Gen Z’ers (both subgroups) believe that “I can find God elsewhere” and approximately 1 of out every 3 really think that “I can teach myself what I need to know” about religion and faith.  This helps us see a rising population that truly thinks on several fronts that the church is out-of-date with the times, and that many of her practices, rituals, and liturgies are hollow and without substance.

When asked to portray their vision of an “ideal church” (Gen Z, p.73), the most predominant, favorable characteristic was “a place where I can find community” (81%) vs “privacy” (19%), whose “environment” is more of a “sanctuary” than an “auditorium” (67% vs. 33%), more “casual” than “dress-up dignified” (65% vs. 35%), more “performance” than “ritual” (55% vs. 45%), more “variety” than “consistent” (64% vs. 36%), and more “classic” than “trendy” (57% vs. 43%).  To some degree, it was surprising (at least it was to me!) that a slightly larger percentage favored “traditional” over “modern” (52% vs. 48%).

In many respects, it’s not alarming to see the kind of church that appeals to more Gen Z’ers than others.  Yes, these “screenagers” want community, but in a controlled setting where they determine the environment (what they choose to wear, what they desire to hear, and how they decide to engage).  If the setting is not safe and conducive towards fostering interpersonal connection with a group that they know, your odds at keeping them are most likely slim.  That’s why the strategy of the herding principle is in order here.  You evangelize and disciple the Gen Z population in groups (herds), but you drill Christian worldview formation individually after you have established a relationship with the group.  As potential leaders in the group surface from evangelism and discipleship, those individuals need to be singled out and given specific private training in Christian worldview formation.  It is these newly trained, “worldview disciples” that will turn out to have the greatest impact upon their Gen Z peers, as they will be the ones who will influence them in greater ways towards the things of the Lord.

While Gen Z’ers like the identity and safety that comes from being in a community, they can be decisively led by someone from within their group.  So, the challenge for pastors, youth directors, and ministry leaders is to strategize their priorities around evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development through worldview formation.  This is not a “cookie cutter” program approach!  It recognizes that you start from the group to work in towards the individual in order to find the leaders who will lead the community.  In some respects, that is a different focus, but I believe it will be an effective way to let a “little leaven” (trained worldview Gen Z youth leaders) “leaven the whole lump” (the Gen Z community) in evangelism, discipleship and the creation of community.