Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 One of the things that I hear most from church leaders lately is this question of how can we reach more of Gen Z in our church? Well, to really do that, you have to understand who Gen Z is and what they're looking for. In this video, we're gonna break it all down for you. Let's do this. You are listening to the Reach right? Podcast, the show dedicated to helping your church reach more people and grow.
Speaker 0 00:00:26 And today we're talking about Gen Z and your church and what you need to do to better reach them. I think it's a good Yeah. Conversation for us to be having. Uh, let me just start by clarifying for our audience, gen Z is what you probably are thinking of when you use the term millennials for at least for me. Yeah, yeah. Like so for so long, millennials were the kids, but now Yeah. Yeah. Millennials, the oldest ones are 40, right? Correct. When they're in their forties. Really? So I, I missed being a millennial by one year. Uh, so I'm a Gen Xer by a year on most standards,
Speaker 2 00:01:01 So I missed it by two, but
Speaker 0 00:01:03 Yeah, I, well, two more like three, I'd say. But yeah. That's, that's neither here nor there. Two and a half <laugh>. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:01:08 My wife just made it.
Speaker 0 00:01:09 Yeah, that's it. She
Speaker 2 00:01:11 Was 81.
Speaker 0 00:01:12 But like, so for so long, millennials were the but of jokes and you know, they're, uh, we, I don't know. We said they were lazy and they were different, and I never really bought into that. Millennials love you guys that Yeah. And I'm not gonna do that with Gen Z either. I'm not gonna make the mistake of like being negative on Gen Z. They are just different and that's okay. Yeah. And it's something that, you know, I, there's things that I hope for them. Uh, and there's things that maybe I, I think we have to rethink as, as churches if we want to do a good job reaching them. And I think we haven't quite got there yet. And so, yeah, in this conversation we want to unpack a little bit of some of those things to better understand Gen Z. So, um, just so we know, uh, when we're talking about Gen Z, we're talking about people that are right around 12 years old to about 25 years old right now.
Speaker 0 00:01:57 Yeah. Uh, so people, uh, that are born after 1995, is that right? Or 19? Yeah, somewhere around that time there. That's, yeah. Yeah. It was from 81 to 95. That's millennials. Uh, so that's kind of the timeframe we're talking about with them there. Uh, so they are in college, a lot of them, they're graduated from college. Uh, we just hired two Gen Zers here on the Reach Right. Staff, and so we're trying to really, uh, get younger with some of our team here. We really, yeah. It wasn't that we hired them because they were Gen Z, but I have to, to say, I'm excited to have some Gen Z perspectives on our team here. Of course. So I think it should be good there.
Speaker 2 00:02:35 Yeah, that's good. And we'll kick it off here too, just by, you know, what churches should be focused on is how they view faith, what are their attitudes towards faith? And I think from a lot of that, I've seen, and you can share what you've seen too, Thomas, but, uh, you know, it's not that they're just not open to it. Uh, no, but they're just not engaged, so it's just kind of like a, a mek if we used that, uh, yeah. If what I've learned, so they're just not actively engaged toward, I don't think that it's a, I do think that they, we've seen that there's some negative, you know, thoughts that they have that they associate when they think of faith, when they think of organized religion or Christianity. Um, those views are out there and attitudes, right? So.
Speaker 0 00:03:20 Sure. Yeah. So I think that they're definitely spiritual, and we did it a whole episode about this, a few episodes back. You can go check the archives for that and dig into some of the actual statistics on Gen Z and dig through some of those. Uh, I will say that they are certainly spiritual, um, but I, I would contend that they are not yet Christians in a lot of cases that they Right. Are certainly less churched than any other generation in American history. So, yeah. Uh, and it is kind of a sliding scale, is that the greatest generation? Um, you know, the, the boomers are going to church less than them, and Gen X goes to church less than them, and the millennials go to church less than them. And Yeah. Then we have Gen Z below the millennials, and so they're, they're less likely to be reached with the gospel. So there's no question about that, but I would not categorize their faith as unopened or uninterested. I just think that we really need new wine skins in a lot of way. We need, the message has to stay the same, but we really need to analyze our methods to better reach Gen Z.
Speaker 2 00:04:21 Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 0 00:04:22 Yeah. So, and I guess one of the things we think about with that is like, so if we want to change the wine scans, we wanna change the methods, we have to understand like, how are, how do we do that? And I think one of the questions we think about is like, how do they communicate? How does Gen Z communicate and with one another and what's their thing? Again, I think that's something that is so polarizing for older people, for boomers and to some extent Gen Xers. Yeah. Um, is that they communicate completely differently. Um, I have, I have two Gen Z kids and one, I don't know what the name of it is, the generation below Gen Z, I have one that's that age. Uh, but my two Gen Z kids, like they are, um, and I don't want to out them too much on this, but they get really nervous talking to people on the phone.
Speaker 0 00:05:06 That's something that terrifies them having to pick up the phone and call an adult. And I, I have to, yeah. I mean, I was afraid of that a little bit when I was a kid having to talk to some professional, but my, my kids, that's something that they, they, they would, they'd rather pay a hundred dollars to have someone do that. That's why these, these apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats and a lot of these things, why they do so well, because they could eat. I mean, it's amazing. I see some kids that are willing to pay $19 for a, for a six inch, a six inch SA sandwich when they could just go get it themselves and, you know, talk to someone. They'd rather have it dropped off at their door and have no interaction, and they'll pay $10 for that convenience. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:05:46 So it's really kind of crazy. But that is something, and the way they communicate instead is everything is digital. So, yeah. Uh, a lot of times I think older generations were tempted to say, say, that's not real. If it's digital, like that relationship you have on TikTok or on Instagram, uh, or on chat or wherever it is, that's not a real relationship. That couldn't be further from the truth. That's just how they communicate. It's different and there's challenges that come with it for sure. But to minimize it and say that it's not real, I think we couldn't be more wrong than that. So, um, yeah, the answer is yeah, they, we have to realize they communicate very differently and there's implications for that for the church.
Speaker 2 00:06:26 Yeah. No, that's good. And, uh, so as far as we know, they're online and the first, you know, social media platform that comes to mind for me is, is TikTok, right? Yeah. I mean, I know my, my kids are on TikTok, so, um, and so yeah, that's, uh, is that the number one? One?
Speaker 0 00:06:43 Yep. Yeah, it definitely is the most widely used. Um, they are, um, they're the lion share still of TikTok, although if you think TikTok is only for teenagers, then you're dead wrong about that because Yeah. Uh, there are grandparents and all the way down to people that are way too young, uh, that are using TikTok now. Um, will it stay that way? I, I, I don't know. I tend to think not, there's always all kinds of conversation out there about TikTok being shut down. Uh, it is owned by Bite Dance, the Chinese company, and there's lots of speculation that it's used to spy on Americans. And so, yeah. Um, there ha it has been removed from all government phones in a lot of ways, and so who knows? Um, yeah, I also tend to think that some of our, um, biggest companies in the United States have a little bit of like just a developer leg up.
Speaker 0 00:07:35 So when I look at like a Meta or a Google, those two companies, they are the ones that make YouTube shorts. They also make Instagram reels. Uh, and so those are direct competitors to TikTok. And so I have a hunch that within a couple of gears, they may not be the lions share, uh, anymore. And you know how social media is, is that there's a new platform that comes out every single week, right? So it's all new stuff all the time. Now, that's not to say that it's gone, you should ignore it. Um, I certainly think that as of today, if I was trying to reach Gen Z I would focus on TikTok first. But, um, yeah, it's just not to say it's gonna be around forever.
Speaker 2 00:08:12 Yeah. That's good.
Speaker 0 00:08:14 Yep. Uh, next question I guess we'll answer is, um, what does Gen Z value at work? I think that's a question that I think if you want to answer how we're gonna reach them at church, I think it's important that we talk a little bit about what's working for them at work. And here's what I've found as someone who recently has hired Gen Z, is they value, uh, clear digital communication with clear boundaries, you know, really clearly stating, uh, what's expected. Uh, and at the same time, I think they really value the relationship that they have in an office situation. And this is coming from, uh, someone who runs a company that is a hundred percent remote, right? So we don't have an office, but all the statistics I'm reading, I'm kind of sad about in that, that in some ways, because I am seeing that Gen Z almost prefers a pivot back to office work. So we say all this because if you wanna reach Gen Z, you probably are gonna have to have staff and leaders within your church that are Gen Z. And knowing how to connect with them in a professional way is something that's really important there. So we've seen that they are looking for clear digital communication, and I'll say this to fewer meetings. If you can do it in an email, <laugh> do that instead, right?
Speaker 2 00:09:26 Yeah. Yeah. Amen. <laugh>. So, but, uh, well, good. So last but not least, we'll probably ask, uh, what are the biggest stressors and pain points that, that Gen Z has? That's obviously, if we wanna reach people with the gospel, reach this generation with the gospel, we gotta know what's, what's kind of affecting them.
Speaker 0 00:09:44 Yep. It's true. Um, so I've seen a lot of research on this, and there's all kinds of challenges, but the biggest over and over again is loneliness. I think that's what it comes down to, because, uh, as much as digital connection can be authentic and real, yeah. Um, we still remain wired for real human interaction, face-to-face touch. These kinds of things are important. That's why they don't maybe can e they can't even vocalize exactly why in a lot of cases why they want to be back in an office and in a cubicle or in a place where they're working with other people. But yeah, you know, in the end, this is going to be an epidemic. We actually are living, I believe, right now in an epidemic of loneliness. And one of the great things is that this is a problem that there is no one better equipped to solve than the church of Jesus Christ. Right? Right. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So we have, we are, the answer to that is that you can find real family, even when you don't have a family or your home is broken or whatever, you can find real connection there. Yeah. When you're feeling lonely and everything feels contrived and like it's put on and everybody's best Instagram face, you can find real people within the church there. So we have a beautiful answer to that question, and that's something we really have to learn to leverage as a church.
Speaker 2 00:11:01 Yeah, that's good. No, I think that's a good way to, good one to end it with because, uh, that's, that's what it's about. It's about reaching them, getting them connected to Christ.
Speaker 0 00:11:10 That's true. Absolutely. That's what it all, it's all about in the end. So if you guys have any other ideas of things you see that are working to reach Gen Z, let us know down in the comments, and we'll catch you next.
