The Generations Present in Your Church, Part 5: Gen Z

There are many contributing factors that give Gen Z the unsettledness they have about our world.

My great-grandfather was a stonemason who laid brick on the upper east side of Manhattan. Buildings you see there were built by Irish laborers like him who often started working at age 17, got married around the same time, and had a big family.

Work and family were the focus. The times started young. Life was, in a sense, simpler back then, even if in some ways it was much harder. And, the times shaped my great-grandfather’s generation.

Today, we have the newest generation. They are often called Gen Z, though some call them by other names. This generation, born from 1997 and forward, is now entering adulthood.

They stepped into a very divided world politically. Barack Obama was elected as president—and Donald Trump followed him. (That there's a pretty shocking contrast between the two is an understatement.)

I should add that it is hard to have a cross-generational conversation and not feel the angst that younger evangelicals are often feeling about older evangelical support of the current administration. It doesn't mean that they have abandoned all that the older generations cherish, but it does mean that they are uncomfortable and wonder how things got to be the way they are.

Social Media

There are many contributing factors that give Gen Z the unsettledness they have about our world beyond political divisions. Social media plays a big role—more than any other generation. It's a different world, and parents of Gen Z are grappling with many issues they didn’t have to face when they were younger.

The New York Times had an article entitled "A Dark Consensus about Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley." It described parents in the tech industry who are moving away from allowing ...