Happy birthday, Google: What you need to know about ministering to Gen Z
Did you know Google celebrated its 21st birthday last year? Wait, what?
Gen Z’s unique world
The millennial generation may have grown up as technology made new strides, but Generation Z has grown up with the world being just a click away, thanks to technology. However, don’t picture today’s kids glued to their computers. Smartphones have taken over their world, and technology is mobile. They don’t follow their parents’ habits of going home and catching up on Facebook. Instead they inhabit a world of constant access to YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram. It is estimated that Gen Z teens receive an average of over 3,000 texts a month!
After 30 years in ministry with kids and families, you will often hear me say “we are not in Kansas anymore.” It is estimated that kids have an 8 second-attention span, and to say that families’ schedules are packed is an understatement. Kids expect instant answers, and their brains are being wired to receive information visually.
As you can tell, Gen Z’s has a different mindset. These are mostly post 9/11 kids who have always known about terrorism and military conflicts. They are growing up in a global world with global challenges. Moral relativism continues to rise, and biblical worldview continues to decline. The older Zers are seen as embracing relativism, valuing dialogue and prioritizing changing the world.
Time to think and respond
Before we all get overwhelmed, here’s a reality check. Remember Psalm 139? God made us extra special (that’s a preschool paraphrase). The fact is that from the beginning God wired us for a relationship with Him. We have the capacity to sit and wonder about God. Hearing the stories of faith from Scripture still connects with the heart, and we have a longing for our world to make sense. We are designed to need a moral compass that doesn’t change.
So, while I embrace the opportunities that the Gen Z world brings into my classroom, I try to create a space where kids are expected and welcomed to chill (or whatever the gen Z word is!). I want to be sure that kids have the time to truly hear the Scripture, whether that’s through an exuberant interactive telling or a quiet hear and think time. I expect kids to think about what they are learning.
No, truth is not found by Googling, as one of my sixth-graders once told me. I journey with my kids through the age-old process from hearing to understanding to allowing God’s word to radically transform our tomorrow. Most importantly, I am constantly on the watch for opportunities for kids to connect with the Holy Spirit. It might be in the contemplation of a thinking question, a response time to the Gospel or woven into the questions and conversations throughout the myriad of games, activities and zaniness of our time together.
I love my Gen Z kids, even when they try my patience and make me long for Kansas. I am thankful for every day that I get to work alongside their families and the kids’ ministry team to build foundations that are unshakable in these young hearts. What I bank on in the face of the changes and challenges of today’s world is this: God’s commission has not changed, nor has His promise to be with us to the very end of the age.
Janiss Fowler is a volunteer preschool/children’s ministry specialist with the Baptist Convention of New England. She is a member of First Baptist Church in Manchester, CT, where she serves as the kids’ midweek program coordinator.