Generation Z’s New Vision for Faith and Opportunity

Generation Z is forging a new path, unshackled from Boomer cultural dominance, with fresh perspectives on faith, institutions, and America’s future

Generation Z is America’s first post-Boomer generation.

My Generation X was enculturated into the Baby Boomers’ world. Thinking about the songs from my youth in the 1980s, it’s amazing how many of my favorites were literally about the Boomers, such as Bryan Adams’ “Summer of ‘69” or much of Bruce Springsteen’s oeuvre. Phil Collins was never more Boomer than when he sang, “My generation will put it right / We’re not just making promises / That we know, we’ll never keep.”

I long noticed that while I could easily have a conversation with people my Boomer parents’ age, there was always a disconnect when talking to those from my grandparents’ Greatest Generation. They were just culturally different. There was a cultural gap between us that wasn’t there with the Boomers.

The Millennials for their part were also often raised by Boomers. And they too seem very oriented around the Boomer world. Think about the way so many Millennial evangelicals are dedicated acolytes of Boomer or older leaders, or at least view them as their heroes. Collin Hansen wrote a book about Tim Keller and runs a center named after Keller. Matt Smethurst just wrote a another book about Tim Keller. Megan Basham is effusive in her praise for John MacArthur. William Wolfe wrote a piece for First Things calling on today’s leaders to, “Dare to be a James Dobson.”

Generation Z is the first generation fully free from the Boomer cultural grip. For example, while speaking to someone who works for a major Christian non-profit, he observed that his younger staff were confused at the press over James Dobson’s recent death, because they didn’t know who he was. They’d never heard of him.

Gen Z is not wedded to these Boomer figures, may not even know who they are, and are certainly not concerned with any sensibilities around them.

Redeemed Zoomer, who was one of the guests on my podcast episode from yesterday, not only doesn’t lionize John MacArthur, he pointedly says that MacArthur was a Nestorian. (I’m not an expert on either MacArthur or Christology, but it does appear that he made statements about Mary that are similar to what the Nestorians said).

While he may not be entirely representative of his generation, Redeemed Zoomer is a great example of how many Gen Z people see the landscape of America very differently than previous generations. Rather than suggesting leaving for the most conservative evangelical denomination or church one can find, he advocates joining a mainline church and working for renewal within. He thinks that if enough people do this, the faithful will inherent these denominations. He calls this “Operation Reconquista,” and I interviewed him about it two years ago.

I’m not sold on the idea that his plan is feasible. But his thinking illustrates the way that Generation Z is taking a new look at a very changed landscape. Many Boomer conservative Christians endured bruising battles with liberals in these institutions, which they lost. This has shaped their thinking, and in turn that of the generations they raised or influenced.

Gen Z is arriving on the scene after mainline decline has reached a much more advanced point, and in which some of the older veterans of previous denominational wars are no longer around. They view these denominations an an opportunity zone.

I saw something similar happen with Millennials and cities. Boomers and Gen X lived through the era of urban decline - of deindustrialization, white flight, decay, etc. But when Millennials came on the scene, the urban turnaround was already starting to happen. Rather than being shaped by the memory of the steel plant that closed or the now-closed department store their mother used to take them to for tea or memories of the old neighborhood, they only ever knew cities that were getting better. They were able to get in early in many cases and ride the urban revival escalator upward because they saw cities in a completely different way from older generations. They had a completely different psychology around cities.

Gen Z is going to have a completely different view of religion in America because they never knew anything but a Negative World. They aren’t mourning over a lost Christian America because they never knew one. Now, unlike cities, it’s not clear if Christianity in America will rebound. But what is the case is that Gen Z is not nearly as shaped by the experience of Christian decline as previous generations were.

Another example of the way Gen Z is going to perceive the opportunity landscape differently is Cory Cook, who posted an interesting video about why he decided to pursue ministry in the PCUSA (mainline Presbyterianism) and not in the PCA (evangelical Presbyterianism).

Cook is a seminary student with a family who was going into debt for his studies. He was told by people at his seminary that if he wanted to become a pastor in the PCA, he’d have to first do a stint in campus ministry, then wait for retirements to open pulpits that he could compete for. And he’d be going deep into debt to pay for his own education.

By contrast, in the PCUSA, not only would they pay for him to attend seminary, but they paid off the debts he’d already racked up. He was also able to get a student ministry internship where he could be a de facto pastor immediately. And there’s such a shortage of pastors in the denomination, he’s likely to find a position quickly. He sees it as an opportunity to preach the gospel to people who need it, and who otherwise might end up as sheep without a shepherd (or, worse, with a bad one). Also, he just felt more welcomed by the PCUSA, where people were willing to step up and start doing things for him immediately.

Again, his big dreams there may not pan out. Perhaps he’s naïve. Maybe they won’t ordain him after all. He’s talking a big game of working well with liberals in the denomination, but are they willing to say the same in return? Maybe he’ll just fail. There’s still risk here.

Also, I think the information he was given about the PCA might be dated. It probably was true 15 years ago. Today, I keep hearing about how there’s a shortage of qualified ministry candidates there. So there might be more opportunity in the PCA than he was told.

Nevertheless, I think this shows the way in which Gen Z is simply facing a different opportunity landscape. For a very long time, Boomers were holding onto the reins of many institutions. A young person who wanted a chance to lead something really did have to get in line and spend years kissing the ring. They had a long pathway of college ministry positions, assistant pastorates, etc. to work their way into a lead pastor position of their own. The risk, including the financial risk, was largely on them.

Today, Boomers finally are going away, some via retirement, some through death. Younger generations are smaller. The number of people getting ministry track degrees in seminaries has reportedly fallen a lot. This means Gen Z has the realistic chance to go straight into a pastor position, at least in smaller church.

When I had NYC pastor Jon Tyson on my podcast, he noted that Gen Z didn’t aspire to plant churches the way Millennials did. I heard someone else talk about this who noted that one reason Millennials planted churches was to get to be a pastor. Otherwise, it was going to be a long lead time to that opportunity. And the only real way for them to get taken seriously by Boomers would be to start a church that grew to a huge size, which in fact a number of Millennials did do successfully. But Gen Z today can realistically get pastor opportunities at an established church right out of the gate, so they don’t have to go the high risk entrepreneurial route. Hence some of their declining interest in church planting.

Gen Z is not going to be forced to live life in the shadow of the Boomers. This creates a different opportunity landscape for them. They are likely to see the world very differently and make different choices than previous generations.

A lot of people don’t like that. A lot of people were critical of Cory Cook’s decision. Redeemed Zoomer’s Operation Reconquista also seems to draw almost entirely criticism from evangelicals.

In fact, RZ is a good example of how Gen Z is moving forward into a post-Boomer world. In some ways, RZ operates as a kind of Tim Keller for his generation. He’s the person who is their cultural and institutional strategist. As Keller talked about the strategic nature of global cities, RZ talks about the strategic value of mainline institutions. He’s got a plan for influence there. People like Cory Cook are listening to and following him.

He’s paired cultural and institutional insight with enormous success as a communicator, influencer, and movement builder. His Youtube channel has over 600,000 subscribers. His Operation Reconquista Discord has lots of people in it. Movements and institutions like Presbyterians for the Kingdom are spinning out of it.

Yet, as near as I can tell, no major evangelical figure has reached out to RZ to encourage him, fund him, mentor him, or otherwise support him. That’s not the Boomer way.

But unlike with the Millennials and Gen X, he doesn’t need them for anything. He doesn’t have to kiss their ring. He doesn’t have to avoid saying anything that might offend their army of Millennial fanboys. The world has changed in ways that has opened new doors. He’s one of the people that sees it.

If renewal is going to happen in America and in the church, I think a lot of it is going to happen through Generation Z. The Boomers are coming to the end of their run. Generation X is getting skipped over in many cases. And even for those Gen X people who do end up in leadership positions or running institutions, they don’t show many signs of doing much with them. (There are exceptions, of course, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis). In the evangelical world, Millennials also seem too dedicated to prior generation leadership and approaches to really change the paradigm.

It’s Gen Z and Gen Alpha that have the opportunity to shape post-Boomer paradigms. One thing I’ll give myself credit for is that I want to see younger generations soar. I don’t want to force them into my box. I want them to get their own opportunity to get on stage and show what they can do. And I’m eager to see what they come up with and what they do.