Voices on Gen-Z and the Church
Recently, we completed our second Capstone project with some students who attend a Christian University. Their project was to assess the spiritual needs of Gen Z (those born between 1996 and 2010).
We specifically asked these Gen Z students to do this work because they often don’t get a chance to research (speak for) themselves but lots of research is done on this particular generation.
They were also a unique sampling since they were Gen Zs who still identified with the Christian faith and the majority attended a church regularly. This is certainly counter to a recent Barna Group study that stated that only 4% (in the USA) of Gen Z have a biblical worldview. These students are the 4% (or less in Canada, in my opinion)!!
The Capstone project findings and recommendations to the leadership of a denomination like The Presbyterian Church in Canada (and other similar ones) were as follows:
Make space in your buildings for youth events;
Focus on small groups and intentional community-building gatherings;
Be authentic - don’t try to be someone else, be yourselves;
Be genuine - Be a friend to young people first, and then you may have a chance to be a mentor or teacher to them;
Appreciate them for who they are - in the fullness of that expression. Don’t judge or see only their shortcomings; and,
LOVE first.
As you know, Brady Shearer (Creator of Pro Church Tools) will be our keynote speaker at our Creative Ways: Being Church Today conference. Brady released a video recently talking about Gen Z and the church. He offers a cautionary note about reviewing generational analysis - good points on that.
Dr. Ryan Burge is the author or co-author of four books including The Nones, 20 Myths about Religion and Politics in America, and The Great Dechurching.
Now, I’d encourage you to watch the whole video… but if you only have time for a shorter clip… I’d recommend starting at 6 minutes in.
He also references someone who does a lot of generational analysis - Ryan Burge. Burge often appears on podcasts sharing his data crunching about religious participation in the USA.
If you are interested in an amazing Canadian researcher in this area, I’d recommend Dr. Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme from the University of Waterloo.
Check out Dr. Wilkins-Laflamme ‘s presentation from last year on Religion, Spirituality and Secularity among Millennials:
Rev. Shalini Sankarlal, minister at University Community Church, Windsor
At our We Need to Listen (join us in June for our General Assembly debrief) session last week, we were joined by Rev. Shalini Sankarlal, minister at University Community Church, Windsor as our co-host.
Shalini’s ministry is unique in its creative outreach to Gen Z. Personally, I’m constantly inspired by the stories she shares. But what fascinated me with all of these intersection points (Capstone student's recommendations, University Community Church’s ministry and Brady’s recent video commentary)… was how they are all on the same page… and seem to be making an impact IRL (In Real Life as Gen Z puts it! Insert eye roll here if you are a Gen Z reading this!)
In the video above, Brady offers these pearls about reaching Gen Z with the good news. He says:
“Especially when the church isn't telling you they're different, but they're actually showing you. And that gets to the relative lack of programming compared to most churches… meeting around a table, Slack channel to facilitate get-togethers in-person beyond official church meetings, community groups, et cetera.
And then there's that community involvement which exposes the church to new people. It also embodies the value of not just being about us, the church, and inwardly focused, but outwardly focused also. How can we impact our world positively here where we live?”
Lots of food for thought this week. That reminds me… if you want Gen Z, feed them too!