When I started in full time ministry, generational studies were a fairly niche conversation. I had just accepted my first managerial role as the Program Director of a wilderness ministry. That first summer, being a boss and not just a guide, I trained and treated the new guides the same way I had been mentored. And it was an absolute failure. One of my board members took me to a seminar on generational cohorts and I learned for the first time about the differences between Gen X and Millennials. Everything they talked about named what I had experienced, what I had done wrong, and gave me strategies on how to do things better. In short, it was a game changer for me as a leader. 

Since that year I have maintained a living spreadsheet on the generations, adding to it both learnings for others and personal observations. To the normal academic categories of observation, I have added several of my own. As a disciple-maker, I am interested in how a generation identifies truth and how they define spiritual maturity. About 2017 I started interviewing articulate middle schoolers to hear how Gen Z was making meaning of their world, making predictions on how they would mature and holding out questions for continued inquiry. This summer, five years later, it felt like time to revisit the same questions and learn more from this generation and their perspective.

In July of 2022, I invited a group of young adults from NorthRock church to my house for dinner. They understood the purpose of a group interview and 7 brave individuals allowed me to spend the evening asking them questions. Most of them serve in ministry in some capacity, from heading up a ministry at the church to being part of the volunteer team that helps out with camps. Only a couple of them receive a stipend from the church. The following are their reflections to various questions about how they see the world, God, and the Kingdom.

Generational Reflections

The conversation started with a question about what reflections the group had about their generation. Instead of telling them who they were, I wanted them to tell me who they were.

Reyna opened the conversation with an interesting reflection. She observes 4 distinct groups in her Gen Z peers. 

1. The activists – these individuals are aggressively trying to change the world
2. The victims/martyrs – these individuals seem to be more easily offended and often blame towards others for what is wrong
3. The anxious/depressed – these are individuals who feel overwhelmed by it all
4. The hedonists – these are individuals who see the world in chaos and choose to lean into coping mechanism that provide escape

Reyna was firm to express that her friends who fall within these different groups still all cared deeply about justice, they just respond differently to the injustice around them. She said they all want justice and truth. This identification of justice as a core value of Gen Z supported my hypothesized generational core value from observations in 2017, yet I was surprised at how explicit it was compares to the implicit core values of the previous generational cohorts.

When asked to rate their underlying sense of despair at life and the world on a scale of 1-10, the answers were not what I expected. Their individual ‘dread’ ratings ranged from 5 to 8/9. One individual said they could sometimes get down to a 3 if they completely avoided the news. When asked what they worried about, most of them mentioned nuclear war. Most of them did not believe they would ever be financially stable. One said it was likely that they would all be dead by 60 and ‘it would be their fault.’ Several of them commented that they don’t look at the future too much because it only increases the feeling of hopelessness. Each of them admitted to lots of private crying at night.

I was surprised that no one mentioned the climate crisis, so I asked about that. They affirmed that they were concerned about it but, as one individual articulated, the problem is so big and overwhelming that it feels far away. Meanwhile, financial instability is something they face every day.

When asked what else they worry about, one person said that society tells them they are too young to make decisions, but they feel like they are healthier and ‘in reality more’ than the older generations. One person also mentioned a blanket mistrust in the media, saying it ‘skews the scales.’ It was not my impression that that was a political comment, but one about reliability. They also agreed that cancel culture was a problem, so many of them are scared to have convictions or step out and voice an opinion.

Identifying Truth

It has been my observation that each generation identifies ‘truth’ differently. How they identify truth is important for knowing how they make decisions and determine what is ‘right’. It is key to communicating the gospel effectively and connecting in a way that resonates. 

When asked how they know if something is true, one individual said that they don’t know, but that they are ok with that. Another commented that they use a combination of personal experiences and the thoughts of those they care about most. Another leaned more into personal experiences, saying that things which have proven themselves to work in the real world were what they believed to be true. One individual pushed back a little on their peers’ reliance on personal experience, reminding the group that experience can be biased, based on the mood of the person at the time. When asked about conflicting experiences, that individual said they often re-examined everything and started over, though trying not to ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater.’ One individual said they know something is true if they can see it and touch it, but gave the caveat that there were exceptions to that and bias was possible. 

When asked how they knew Christianity was true, one individual shared that they are ok with the confusion and ambiguity around God, because they have had real experiences with God. “He was there,” they affirmed. Though they know they may have bias in the experience, they choose to trust it but hold it loosely. Another was growing in their sensitivity to God speaking and was trying to live their life from that. Another commented, “He hasn’t failed me today.” Which brought an understanding laughter which signified both the uncertainty and short-term posture towards life. 

The lack of confidence in their world view was striking. Usually that is something that should accompany their specific age and stage of development. It seemed as if they were robbed of the stability of that stage of faith and precociously accelerated towards the uncertainty of the ‘dark night’ without either the time or experience to emotionally handle it. 

The nuance between truth and religion was also quite interesting and different from previous generations. Previous generations usually choose a religion based on its alignment with what they believe to be true. For the past 4 generations, a sense of truth precedes and dictates religion. But for this Gen Z group, that pathway was opposite. One individual expressed it best, saying that their religion/faith tells them what is true. This was quite shocking to hear, given its stark contrast to the research on previous generations and it left me with lingering questions.

When asked if there was a generalized ‘truth’ for their generation, they talked about justice and equality. They said one of the problems with each person finding their ‘own truth’ is that then no one can fully agree or have a shared ‘truth.’ For them this meant that no one’s truth was, in fact, really true.

They expressed sadness at this loss of ‘shared reality’ and I wondered if it was a contributing factor to the loneliness they felt. Connection is created in a deep sense by mirroring one another and having an experience of ‘mutual mind.’ This is where two people resonate with one another on a neurobiological level. The feeling of connection it creates is nonconscious and affects the whole body. But without a sense of shared reality, this type of connection would be quite difficult to make. The lack of ability to connect over past experiences would heighten the need to find connection through current, shared experiences.

Spiritual Maturity

In regards to faith and spirituality, the generations also differ on how they define a spiritually mature person. This means the implicit goal of spiritual formation is different for the cohorts, influencing to whom they look to for wisdom or advice. This was one of the easiest questions for the group to answer. 

They group seemed to demonstrate a shallowness detector. Shallowness was the opposite of spiritual maturity for them. One individual talked about admiring a person whose ‘fruit’ was deeper than surface level and were the same person when no one was watching. 

Another individual mentioned self-awareness, having the ability to sit with another person in their pain, patience with other people when they are in frustrating or struggling situations. Another added that a spiritually mature person is emotionally settled despite circumstances and not easily offended, but also not faking calm. Consistent, constant, not easily triggered, of a sound mind were added to the list. One said it was someone who has been through a lot of pain and become a resilient person, following God through it all. They said they would follow a person who has earned the capacity to sit with others in their grief and pain.

When asked how someone becomes spiritually mature, they said it was up to God and how serious the person was about being submitted to the Lord no matter what life brings. They saw people who learned how to advocate for others without enabling them. One person also mentioned it was about embracing character growth over skill growth.

Why ministry?

In the final question of the evening, each person in the room was asked to share why they participated in ministry, predominantly as volunteers. Again, the answers were surprising. Here are some quotes that were striking.

• God is not always who you want him to be. Sometimes he hurts your feelings.
• Part of community is responsibility, like doing household chores or being part of a family. 
• You can’t say you are a part of something and not participate in it. (Many echoed this.)
• As I have been comforted, I am commanded to go and comfort others
• In the church is where I have had relationships that have changed my life. I have to give my life to what gave life to me.
• If I am going to complain about church trauma, I also have to be part of the solution.

When asked if church was boring, they all gave an emphatic, ‘yes.’ When asked to expand on why they still choose to be a part of it, one said that the system is flawed and broken but that they want to help make it better. Another felt called into the gap created by a flawed church and to care for others so that they would not feel the same hurt. 

When asked what they want out of ‘church’ they gave the following list:

• A new wineskin
• To build and discern the next chapter together
• To co-create instead of being told
• Experiential
• Real-time updated communication
• To be invited into the conversation

Reflections

Gen Z might be the most inherently religious and spiritual generation in 80 years. Whether that religion is humanism, activism, hedonism, or one of the more easily recognized world religions, they are searching for justice and stability. From a Faith Development perspective, they were quite interesting. They had pockets of the group-think that characterizes Stage 3, but a receptivity of the ambiguity that comes from the transition from Stage 4 to 5. They were precociously developed in their lack of certainty without having experienced the benefit of stability that comes from decades of defining the world. In short, they are aware of too much and are not emotionally able to process it.

It was interesting that none of them are interested in full time or vocational ministry. It was not an ambition for any one of them. When asked about that, they mentioned the struggle they currently had for financial stability and a perspective of being ‘in ministry’ no matter what they did for a paycheck. They had an implicit integration of life and ministry/ being the ‘church.’  The separation or compartmentalization of the two was not in their articulation and likely not in their imagination. 

Every generation has its challenges, which carve and shape it into its own beautiful expression. And there is much to be optimistic about for Gen Z. They will have convictions that change the world. They will challenge us and make us healthier. And they will do this with or without us. If we can hear their hearts and meet them where they are, they will benefit from our longevity and we will benefit from their justice.