The focus of power in the gospel message has changed for this generation. Gen Z is looking for different kinds of evidence. We don’t care so much if the gospel is true, because lots of things in life can be true at the same time. We want to know if it works. Will the gospel change my life for the better? In all the confusion and messiness of a Gen Z’s world, we want something real and transformative for my life right now.

Church leaders have been preaching to young people about finding their identity through Jesus in recent decades and it’s time we adjusted our approach. This might seem counterintuitive when the lens of identity politics seems so prevalent in our society. Interestingly, I’ve observed millennials engage with identity politics in a way that is different to Gen Z. While the majority of Gen Z are socially progressive (Chowdhury, 2024) they also don’t seem to need socially prescribed labels in the same way that their millennial counterparts do. Gen Z are far more fluid and unserious with their sense of identity. 

Interestingly, this focus on Identity has been uniquely specific to the western church in the last 50 years or so (Morell, 2022). It’s been a contextual response: applying Biblical categories more connected to doctrines of adoption or union with Christ. The topic of identity is still very relevant to Gen Z, but we need to communicate it with the depth and richness that the gospel offers:

1. The story of adoption integrates our stories with God’s story of redemption in the world. Identity deepens from being a propositional statement, “I am a child of God” to a story we are invited to walk in. It also helps Gen Z see the here and now power of adoption, not just the eternal reward of heaven.
2. The paradigm of adoption moves beyond a formal legal change to a new relational experience. This experience of God’s family connects profoundly with the longings of Gen Z for safety, connection and belonging. Familial framing also helps us with the deficiencies of an individualist, vertical relationship with God and connects us to the collective, horizontal relationship with God’s people.
3. Adoption is more than a static position like “saved” but a dynamic experience that assigns us purpose and takes us to the heart of the gospel. It helps us go beyond identity marker labels to a multi-faceted and richer sense of self as children of God. This assures the curious and confused that there is relational space for wrestling with God and his Word.

Leadership Lessons

Keep talking and preaching about identity with Gen Z. Just go deeper than a platitude about finding identity in Christ or critiquing the identities that the world values. Reframing your idea with the story of adoption. In many ways, adoption is at the heart of the gospel story: Jesus lived, died and rose on our behalf so we could be part of God’s family. It is a beautiful way to speak into the counter-narratives of identity and objections about sexual ethics or suffering by keeping the main thing the main thing: relationship with God.

Help those you are walking alongside see the personal and communal implications of the doctrine of adoption (Moore, 2015) You can do this by highlighting the way that you and other Christians share their experiences about their relationship with God. It powerfully joins the dots for the not-yet-Christian between the concept of something like unconditional love to the relational experience of it. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1 (NIV)

References

Chowdhury, I. (2024, February 1). Australia’s young people are moving to the left – though young women are more progressive than men, reflecting a global trend. The Conversation. theconversation.com/australias-young-people-are-moving-to-the-left-though-young-women-are-more-progressive-than-men-reflecting-a-global-trend-222288

Moore, R. (2015). Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches (Updated and Expanded Edition). Crossway.

Morell, C. (2022, February 9). Stop Finding Your Identity in Christ. American Reformer. americanreformer.org/2022/02/stop-finding-your-identity-in-christ/