gospel
Since the start of 2020, I served in a progressive part of Sydney as an outreach/mission pastor for 5 years. That’s where I started to notice a real shift in what God was doing among Gen Z. With the intergenerational teams I built, we were very intentional with our relational evangelism, we were faithful in prayer – but what happened was entirely a move of God. Like most Aussie churches it was normal for us to see 1 or 2 adult conversions per year. But in 5 years, we saw 48 adults, many of them Gen Z, come to Christ. And most of them are still in a church and being discipled. At this Anglican church of 300-something adults we hosted an Alpha course of 101 people. I’m still riding that spiritual high!
As I’ve been in conversation with other church leaders and consulting, I’ve seen a consistent pattern emerge: the best-placed person to reach Gen Z is a Gen Z Christian. An unchurched Gen Z needs Christian friends. Not all of these Christian friends have to be peers, the generational diversity of the church community also plays an important part, but they do need some peers who are navigating similar challenges and lifestage (Jay, 2021). In our secular, unchurched context most people belong before they believe. As they belong, they see with their own eyes what it could look like to follow Jesus and can start to imagine it being true for them too. This is how faith in Jesus becomes plausible (Chan, 2018).
Don’t worry, you’re not off the hook! In the collective work of evangelism, we all have a part to play. As a church leader, your role is to raise up Gen Z Christians to be missional leaders in your Christian community:
- It’s crucial that you create opportunities and pathways for Gen Z Christian leaders to be missional leaders. They need you to see them and tap them on the shoulder. The role of leading people together is undoing a false story given to Gen Z: that we are somehow powerless because we are emotionally sensitive in a seemingly hopeless world. God is calling us to inhabit the story of a gospel which transforms and we walk in the power of the Holy Spirit who raised Christ from the dead.
- Walk alongside them in and beyond their role at church. Stepping into Christ-like leadership is integrated with all parts of life. When God empowers a young person to actually lead a work of reconciliation, without neglecting justice or forgiveness, the impact is profound. I’ve had a front row seat to young people break intergenerational legacies of abuse and dysfunction with grace and truth.
- I think there is a specific opportunity for the prophetic witness of Gen Z who inhabit 2 worlds: like 2nd Gen migrants and those embracing the Christian sexual ethic while actively loving the queer community. They embody the complexity of their generation. Just by following Jesus, their lives preach the Risen Lord Jesus through who they are.
Leadership Lessons
My encouragement is to take Gen Z seriously. We know we have generational weaknesses, we are far too aware of them, and often crippled by that awareness. We need your support and we’re looking for it from older leaders we feel like we can trust. If you worry that may not be you, perhaps you might need to recognise if you are dismissive of Gen Z: rolling your eyes or making cheap shots at things that matter to us (I don’t think I can bear another sermon joke about Taylor Swift). Christian love calls us to hope for the best in each other. In his wisdom, God has assigned Gen Z next in line to lead God’s people towards his purposes: evangelism being very high on his list of priorities.
I cannot emphasise enough that we cannot do this without you, church leaders. Consider David Thomas’s leadership during the Asbury Outpouring of 2023 as an exemplar of how you might entrust Gen Z leaders with real responsibility but also supporting them through the process, “priority was given to Gen Z at every level. Emerging adults were seen as the makers of the original move, the primary concern, the key leaders, and the prophetic voices of the outpouring. They are not the “future of the church”—they were church now. Students held the front seats. Older generations carried a calling to be intercessors for their healing and shade over their boldness. Many moments of intergenerational prayer exhibited this commitment.” (Thomas, 2023)
So who are the Gen Z Christians in your church community you’re investing in now? Who might you have overlooked? How are you cheering them on in evangelism? Let us join together in prayer and collaboration for this harvest God has entrusted to us?
References
Chan, S. (2018). Evangelism in a Skeptical World: How to Make the Unbelievable News about Jesus More Believable. Zondervan.
Jay, M. (2021). The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and how to Make the Most of Them Now. Grand Central Publishing.
Thomas, D. (2023, September 21). Lessons from the Asbury Outpouring of 2023. Seedbed. seedbed.com/lessons-from-the-asbury-outpouring-of-2023/
