Generation Z in the Church

As we’ve noted in previous articles in this series, gen Z, with all their anxiety and skepticism, are spiritually curious and willing to explore life’s deeper meaning. Aware of the chaos around them, they see through the empty promises of culture, both within and beyond the church. Gen Z carries a deep sense of angst and urgency, driven by a conviction that something is profoundly broken in our world. While skeptical of authority, they still long for truth they can trust. But where is that truth, and who defines it? In this third article, we’ll explore how cultural forces, such as individualism and secularism, have shaped both gen Z and the evangelical church itself.

While we anxiously lament our declining numbers, we must remember that God’s sovereign will continues to move us in his direction, according to his timeline. The church may, at times, struggle to remember who she is, yet she is poised to embrace a generation of youth who are drawn to Jesus’ high calling. Together—gen Z and the rest of us—we walk into this period of cultural upheaval as those who are part of a different kingdom.

But first, let’s take a moment and honestly face the reality of the Western evangelical church in general.

The Evangelical Church in the West

The Enlightenment’s legacy of exalting reason, individual autonomy and skepticism toward authority has contributed to the church’s fostering of a privatized, consumer-driven faith that resists biblical authority and communal discipleship. Due to the chipping away of 2,000 years of orthodox Christian faith, many Christians now feel at odds with a biblical worldview. Culture’s insistence on relative truth—“you do you”—has profoundly affected our faith.

The simplistic “sinner’s prayer,” along with regular church attendance, seemed sufficient when Christianity was at the centre of society. But it was ultimately weak when pitted against the steady march of modernity and secularism. The digital age enforces our cultural narratives, overwhelming us hour by hour with cynicism, doubt and “the bending of truth to desire and feeling,” as John Mark Comer writes in Practicing the Way, as well as the continued postEnlightenment insistence on the primacy of self.

According to key findings from The State of Theology: What Evangelicals Believe in 2022 by Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research, 73 percent of evangelicals believe that Jesus is a created being. Nearly 60 percent believe that God accepts worship equally from all religions, rejecting any notion of the exclusivity of Christ (in contrast, see John 14:6, Acts 4:12). And 57 percent of evangelicals believe that humans are not sinful by nature—that we sin occasionally but are basically good.

Perhaps most alarming, evangelicals in the West continue to doubt the authority of Scripture, preferring teaching that agrees with their personal worldview. We feel drawn to Christian celebrities with more culturally attuned theology that feels comforting, rather than following the, at times, challenging words of the Jesus we encounter in the Gospels.

Orthodoxy has to do with the shared theological commitments that have served as boundary markers for the faith since the early church. This has never been an easy task, yet in today’s digital age, with constant information and “tweaking” of truth, historic Christian faith is under attack. According to the American Bible Society, Scripture engagement among American adults is at its lowest point in the 14 years since it began commissioning an annual State of the Bible report.

Whether an obsession with sin and judgment, or tunnel vision in seeing only God’s infinite love, the great narrative of God’s kingdom is hindered unless we are brave enough to learn from the totality of Scripture, under the guidance of God’s Spirit, in the community of his people. Thus, it is increasingly difficult to sort out what is “Christian” from what is not.

This is the state of evangelical affairs at the precise time when we have a generation of youth interested in—and longing for—a biblical worldview that makes sense and a God they can believe in and trust.

Gen Z and the Church

What, then, are gen-Zers finding in our churches? Some suggest that the Western church is suffering from shallow faith and biblical illiteracy. In his book The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship, Dallas Willard wrote: “What lies at the heart of the astonishing disregard of Jesus found in the moment-to-moment existence of multitudes of professing Christians is a simple lack of respect for him.”

Too many gen-Z Christians are walking away from the church, disillusioned or simply bored by this shallow faith. The rest of us have been too easily distracted to take notice. One of the enemy’s tactics has been to keep us busy with church activities and denominational peculiarities. Yet the church is not a gathering of like-minded people who enjoy each other, with programs designed to suit our needs. We are to be a community of surrendered Jesusfollowers, gladly showcasing his kingdom to a chaotic world.

While we in the church are sorting through what it means to be a Christian, studies are showing that gen-Zers are curious about the Bible, wanting to read it for themselves to see how it speaks to everyday life. A recent American study shows that 54 percent of gen-Zs acknowledge the Bible as being transformative in their outlook on life. Did you catch that? While adults are reading the Bible less, this generation of youth are increasingly drawn to God’s Word. The same zeal is expressed among Canadian youth. According to Reviving Evangelism in the Next Generation by Barna.com/Canada, produced in partnership with Alpha Canada, 76 percent of church-going teens say they have talked about their faith with non-Christian friends in the last year: “For this generation, these conversations are happening naturally and take place in calm, comfortable, relational environments.”

Something is clearly up with gen Z. They may not (yet) be filling our pews, but they are bucking the trend in their general openness toward the Christian faith. (Consider the title of an April 2025 Vanity Fair article: “Christianity Was ‘Borderline Illegal’ in Silicon Valley. Now It’s the New Religion.”) And those gen-Zers who still attend church are looking for more: more Bible study, more social action based on Jesus’ call, more Holy Spirit empowerment, more gatherings of his people seeking his heart.

Gen Z and Spiritual Fathers and Mothers

Confusion regarding who we are as Christians has huge implications for gen Z and the church. Since they are determined to be part of the solution—not by preserving the status quo, but by radically reimagining what can be—Christian gen-Zers must be mentored and cared for by mature, Holy Spirit-led elders.

The gen-Zers who stay with us are passionately seeking more of Jesus and willing to do the hard work of following him. What we as the elders of this generation must wrestle with is our own faith experience—our young adults are watching us. What do they see? They need spiritual mothers and fathers who are all in, too. This will mean intentionally reading God’s Word, learning from 2,000 years of rich Christian faith, and regularly gathering with his people to prayerfully listen to his voice. It means being a committed follower of Jesus. In the next and final article of this series, we’ll take a closer look at this kind of discipleship.

I believe gen-Zers are meant to rise above the noise of a divided world and reflect the love, truth and justice of Jesus with courage and conviction. The kingdom way is the most beautiful way. God is moving powerfully all around the world, and lives are being transformed by the risen Christ. Contrary to popular opinion, his church is alive and well. The question is whether we are part of what God is doing. I do not want to miss this moment in church history. We were made for this time.

Major April McNeilly is the corps officer at Burlington Community Church, Ont.

Photo: Damion Hamilton/Lightstock.com

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