5 Things that Frustrate Gen Z Christians

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

by Jacob Murrie

What should older Christians know about Generation Z in order to best disciple them and reach them with the gospel? To be sure, this is a big topic, and I’m just one member of this generation (born between 1997–2012)—which is not a monolith. But it might be helpful to share a few aspects of contemporary evangelical culture that generally bother my generation.

The goal is not to shame older Christians or suggest we young folks are enlightened. The goal is to offer some fodder for discussion that might lead the generations to better care for, think with, and serve alongside each other in a changing world.

To that end, here are five things that tend to frustrate young evangelicals.

1. When Partisan Politics Reshape Faith

In the past few years, we have grown increasingly weary of the meshing of politics and the evangelical faith we often see among older believers. This is not because we don’t value many of the same causes; it’s that often our parents and grandparents will question our Christian orthodoxy if we don’t align fully with their political affiliations. When we shift slightly to the right or the left, our faith is often assumed to be endangered.

It sometimes feels as if older generations want us to “pick a king,” 1 Samuel 8:6–8 style. But many in my generation do not wish to be identified as conservative or liberal, as much as they want to be identified as Christlike. Because of this, many of us joined the 35 percent of people under 30 in voting independent in the 2020 general election. This approach is sometimes considered “innocent” or “naive,” but for many Gen Z Christians it’s the most reasonable and biblical choice.

2. When Apologetics Outweighs Relationships

Let me be clear: Christian apologetics is important. It’s vital we know why we believe what we believe, and why those beliefs are reasonable. But many in Gen Z have seen apologetics weaponized against nonbelievers. I left my private Christian school ready to duke it out with the atheists of the world, assuming they would be hostile and seeking arguments with me. But instead I found young adults who at worst thought Christianity was weird, but more often were lonely and looking for meaningful relationships.

In many of my friendships with nonbelievers, apologetics became a valuable tool after a relational connection formed. I had thoughtful answers to tough questions, like “If God is good, why does he allow evil?” But instead of these questions being hurled at me by Professor Jeffery Radisson (God’s Not Dead), they were asked in vulnerability by hurting or inquisitive peers. Should we still be prepared to go toe to toe with Richard Dawkins if he wants to debate Christianity? Absolutely. What we know shouldn’t change, but perhaps the tone and timing of how we talk about it should.

3. When Christians Don’t Live What They Believe

We felt this acutely during the 2020 general election. We were faced with two presidential candidates who, whether in character or policy, reflected decidedly immoral and un-Christian values. For many of us, that was a dealbreaker. Yet many Christians looked the other way or found ways to defend their favored candidate. My generation is hyper-sensitive to hypocrisy, and we saw it all around us. We are also sensitive to theological hypocrisy and selectively applied doctrine.

Biblical sexual ethics are cited to oppose same-sex marriage, but ignored on other matters like divorce or cohabitation before marriage. The imago Dei is correctly invoked to advocate against the cultural system of abortion, but not to fight racism. We insist that sin can take structural forms and infect entire societies, but we’re selective about which systemic sin issues we want to call out. Many in Gen Z recognize that living faithfully requires applying Scripture consistently, even if it conflicts with your political alignment.

4. When Christians Are Known More for Judgment than Love

Judgment and love are both part of God’s character. Grace and repentance are both part of the gospel. Jesus responds to sinners in love, while also commanding us to “go and sin no more” (John 8:11). But today, many Christians are more defined by judgment than love. Of course, the culture around us has warped definitions of both. There are biblical commands that appear judgmental to our culture, but are truly loving. Challenging a brother or sister when they’re in sin may appear judgmental but ultimately results in life for them—which is loving.

Our secular culture’s distorted, small vision of love is actually an opportunity for us to more robustly live out biblical grace and love, even as we don’t compromise on truth and holiness. Accusations that Christianity is “too judgmental” should be expected to some degree—the Bible’s moral demands will always come across that way to some—but my generation’s hope is that a reputation of radical, Christlike love would also define our faith and attract unbelievers—as it did in the early centuries of Christianity in the Roman Empire.

5. When Christians Aren’t Serious Thinkers

At a time when careful, critical thinking is generally on the decline and intellectually lazy behavior is on the rise, Christians sadly have a reputation for being among the worst offenders. Evangelical Christians are particularly adept at avoiding expert advice they don’t like, all the while participating, knowingly or unknowingly, in misinformation campaigns.

You probably have a Christian aunt who regularly shares incredulous articles or conspiracy theories on social media, showing a reckless willingness to believe dubious information without bothering to check facts. This is just one byproduct of a larger trend we see that frustrates us: a distrust of academia and intellectual life generally.

This is frustrating not because academia is the ultimate truth, but because God is (Psalm 19:7). As believers in the God of truth, Christians should be the most intellectually vibrant. We have the resources to do that. While academicians are not infallible, they do have expertise, and that should matter to Christians.

By downplaying rigorous scholarship, credentials, and expertise, Christians have retreated from the forefront of culture-shaping disciplines, are playing catch up, or in some cases are actively resisting these culture-shaping arenas. With Scripture as our solid foundation, Christians ought to be the most intellectually curious thinkers and culture-makers in the world. We should value learning and education—not for our glory, but for God’s.

Source: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/things-frustrate-gen-z/

Everyone Can See The Log Hanging Out of Your Eye. Why Can't You?

Published September 22, 2016 by Matt Rogers

It’s hard to miss Jesus’ point in the Sermon on the Mount. The imagery is just too clear.

“Look at the birds and the flowers, I take care of them and I’ll take care of you also.

“Don’t hide your light under a basket. It’s useless there.”

“Invest in things of eternal value. Things on this earth will just fall apart or get stolen anyway.”

And then this one:

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do you not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:3-5 ESV)

The contrast is compelling, almost comical, and the implications are straightforward. Before you judge the actions of another person, address your own sins, which may be far greater in com-parison. This passage, and others like it, are often misread to imply that we should not point out the sins of others. That’s not Jesus’ point. Christian love requires that we call one another to holiness. But before we can do that with a tone of grace, a posture of kindness, and a motive of restoration, we must first consider our sins and seek, by God’s grace, to turn from them. We’ve got to take out our log before we can point out another’s speck.

But here’s the problem—at least in my own life. The log is so hard to see. It doesn’t seem to make sense considering the image Jesus uses. No one should miss a log hanging out of their eye, much less be able to notice the meager speck in someone else’s. But we do it all the time. Why? Why is the log of my own sin so hard to see?

On one level, the answer is pride. At the root of my sinful actions lies a prideful heart that is unwilling to acknowledge and turn from my sin. True enough. Since Augustine, pride has rightly been seen as the ground of all sin, the well from which all sorts of sinful actions are drawn. Yet, pride is a somewhat nebulous concept, an easy target to place blame and a challenging enemy to address. Bubbling up from my pride are a number of concrete factors that shape my inability to see, and remove, the logs of my own sin.

THE LOG HAS BEEN THERE A LONG TIME

Logs don’t develop overnight. They’ve been around for a while. The subtle, almost unrecog-nized, growth of a log over time blinds us to its existence. Like a scar, we just get used to it being there. Someone else might immediately recognize the blight, but to us, it’s just a part of who we are.

The log might begin as a dry wit that masks deep insecurity during a person’s middle school years. Over time, this dry wit morphs into biting sarcasm that eviscerates other people in loveless hostility. Or, the log might begin as a feeble lie meant to make yourself look better than you actually are. Rather than addressing the subtle speck, in time, the log grows to the point that you’ve become a mere caricature of the good Christian who’s all style and no substance.

THE LOG IS EXCUSED AS PART OF YOUR PERSONALITY

As a result, we are prone to conflate our sinful actions with our natural predispositions or inborn personality traits. The log has been around for so long that we assume it’s just how we are made.

Take the sin of worry for example. If I allow the sin of worry to fester in my heart as a teen-ager, then the log will continue to grow. Over time, I’ll get used to the log and fail to notice that it’s there at all. Then, when I do notice it—most likely when someone else points it out—I’ll excuse it away as just part of who I am.

“Well, I’ve just got an anxious personality,” I might say. Or, “I’m just the kind of person who speaks my mind” rather than “I’ve got a sin issue with controlling my tongue.” Such excuses more deeply embed the logs we are meant to extract.

WE’VE TRIED TO REMOVE THE LOG BEFORE AND FAILED

The best time to remove the log is when it first starts growing before you get comfortable with its existence. Some try—they see the sin for what it is and seek to extract it. But they fail.

It’s much like the process of removing a splinter. You get out the needle and the tweezers and go to work—but it hurts, the splinter is deep, so you give up. Intuitively you know that an ingrown splinter will lead to greater pain in the future, but for now, you’d rather not endure the pain.

Anytime you are reminded of the splinter you remember the pain of the last time you tried to remove it and quit before you even begin. Then, if you ever go to remove the splinter in the future, you find an infection that makes it painful to even touch the skin around the splinter. Now, any hope of removing the culprit will come with great pain.

THE LOG IS SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE

So the logs remain, glaringly obvious to others but hidden from our eyes. To others, our speck looks like a log, and to us, their speck looks like a log, so few are actually seeing logs for what they are.

This problem is compounded by the cumulative effect of logs in a culture. If enough people fail to remove their logs, and their logs look a lot alike, over time certain logs become the cultural norm. Everyone has one. Like flannel shirts and skinny jeans, if enough people have them then no one is willing to call attention to how funny we all look with logs hanging out of our eyes. Logs of materialism or sexuality are difficult to address if everyone else is walking around with the same log protruding from their eyes as well.

WE KIND OF LIKE THE LOG

All of these factors build up a head of steam in our lives. We’ve had the log for many years. We begin to assume it’s just part of who we are. We think we can’t get it out if we tried. And, we start to spend our time with a bunch of log-eyed people.

In time, we find that we start to like the log. We begin to think we should just embrace it—after all, we couldn’t get it out if we wanted to. So, masked behind the foolish cliché of “just be yourself” we begin to flaunt the log in our eye. We wear it as a badge of honor and foolishly call “what is evil good and good evil” (Is 5:20).

This process, over time, makes the simple command of Christ one of the most difficult to practice. It produces a horde of log-eyed people who simply can’t see their log anymore. Not only are we blinded to our own sin, but we are incapable of helping our brothers and sisters address their sins either. Far better to assume today that I have a log in my eye, begging the Spirit to allow me to see it for what it is and remove it before it’s too late.                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                                              Source: http://theblazingcenter.com/2016/09/everyone-can-see-the-log-hanging-out-of-your-eye-why-cant-you.html?utm_content=buffer3c84a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

5 Ways Leaders Can Make Discipleship "Normal"

by Jeff Vanderstelt

It's one thing to believe and agree with the fullness of the Scriptures and Gospel.  It's another to behave as we believe.  Jeff Vaderstelt brings about a challenging way in which Christians must live true to Christ's Commission, beyond mere agreement, but in full action.

Jesus commanded us to make disciples who make disciples. We can make disciples formally and informally. In formal discipleship you need to consider all that you want people to:

Know — key doctrines all people should know

Believe — truths that motivate and transform your identity and behavior

Do — the activities that the gospel leads us to practice

Informal discipleship, in conjunction with formal discipleship is crucial in making followers of Jesus who both hear and obey. Here are 5 ways to make disciples informally:

1. Encourage a disciplemaking culture.

God commanded through Moses (Deuteronomy 6) and Jesus commanded the disciples (Matt. 28:18-20) to develop a disciple-making culture where all of life becomes the platform for disciple-making.

Seven questions to determine if you have a disciplemaking culture:

◦       Are the few doing the ministry for the many? Or are the few equipping the many for the ministry?

◦       Do we spend the majority of our time equipping, training and developing leaders?

◦       Is it apparent that every member is to be a full-time minister in your church?

◦       Do new believers get called and sent into the mission upon conversion?

◦       Do you celebrate those who leave to start new works?

◦       Is there shared leadership within the local body?

◦       Do you intentionally create vacuums for other leaders to fill?

2. Make your life visible and accessible to others.

To be an example for the flock (1 Peter 5:1-3), others need to see our lives as an observable example of gospel ministry, mission and ordinary life. We also need to observe their lives – to see if they are faithful (2 Timothy 2:2). The areas we need to observe one another includes marriage, family, management of our household, love of neighbors, our leadership, our training, and our discipling, as well as conflict management, exercise, prayer and how we use money.

3. Live with your leaders in community.

Jesus said the greatest apologetic for the gospel is our love for one another (John 13:31-45). We practice the “one anothers” of scripture in community. If you’re not developing people to love one another, you’re not making disciples. And you will not make disciples who love one another if they’re not in consistent community where others are building them up.

4. Live as servants together.

Ephesians 4:11-16 tells us that God gives some to equip the saints for ministry, and that the means by which we grow up into maturity is when each part is doing its work. We will not grow up if we are not all ministering. We grow up as we build up the body and serve together.

5. Make sure your leaders live on Mission.

Living life on mission requires getting in the game. Is your missional living more of a chalk-talk (sermons and teaching) or an actual game? Is it just a scrimmage among other Christians or are we actually engaging the lost? If we are not in the game of mission, we will not become disciples, but rather just a spiritual formation group.

Source: http://www.vergenetwork.org/2015/12/14/5-ways-leaders-make-discipleship-normal/

Serve and Respect the Elder Saints

Great Idea by Josh Etter.

I have so many great memories of my grandfather (Gugga) and grandmother (Guku/Mama).  My Grandparents impacted me in huge ways and their influence is like nuclear energy.  In February I finally got the chance to visit them after about ten years of being away.  I was so refreshed and inspired by their godliness, wisdom, and love.  I even had a chance to drive my Gugga to the doctor’s for his monthly check-up.  Our time together overwhelmed me with such great joy and my cup is still overflowing.

You know what, I can say the same for the many “elders” in my church through the years.  I pray that my younger, same-aged, and slightly older peers experience the same.  It is so awesome, in words inexpressible, to have someone older to lovingly walk alongside with in life.  But as much as they give to us, we should also give back to them.  It’s an amazing paradox.

Charles Spurgeon writes:

Some are like the sun going down in the west; they will be gone soon. Serve them, dear brethren. You that are in health and vigour, comfort them, strengthen them, and help them all you can. Be a joy to that dear old man, who has been spared to you even beyond the allotted threescore years and ten, and praise God for the grace that has upheld him through his long pilgrimage. Look on his grey hairs as a crown of glory; make his descent to the grave as easy as you can. He once was as young as you are; he once had the vigour that you have. Console him, cheer him, give him the respect that is due to his many years. Do not let him feel that you consider him an old fogey who lingers, superfluous, on the stage; but learn from his experience, imitate his perseverance, and ask God to be with you in your old age, as he is with him.

Excerpted from Charles Spurgeon's Own FuneralSermon.

Original Source: http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/serve-and-respect-the-elder-saints

I Needed A Mentor

How Could I Invest In Others If Nobody Was Investing In Me?

By Mario Zandstra

I was surprised when Laura, my oldest child, wanted to take me to lunch. While at our favorite Mexican food restaurant, Laura and I made small talk, visited about the weather and school, and then she asked me how I was doing.

I gave my standard response: “I am fine.”

She was not satisfied with my answer, so she pressed me. I went on to tell her that I had been thinking a lot lately about losing both of my parents in a short period of time. I explained that work had been tough, and I did not feel like I had much control over my life. She seemed content with my response, so I breathed a sigh of relief.

Then she totally changed the subject. She asked if I was investing in anyone in a mentor/discipleship relationship. I told her I was spending time with a couple of guys at Pine Cove and another guy in Dallas. She asked if I was keeping up with some of the dads from Family Camp, and I told her I was.

Tears were brought to my eyes when she said, “I am so proud of you, Dad.” I beamed. My adult daughter was proud of me!

She went on to ask if anyone was investing in me. I mentioned a man, and she asked when I had last met with him. As it turns out, it had been almost 15 months. In a not-so-subtle way she said, “I don’t think that is much of a mentor relationship if you never meet with him. Dad, you cannot truly invest in someone else if no one is investing in you.”

After that statement, she asked me if I remembered an incident from earlier in the summer. “Dad, do you remember the problem we had with our lawn mower earlier this summer, when it quit working and you found all that gunk in the fuel filter?” I told her yes. She then asked if I remembered what the problem was. I said, “Yes, we went to get gas at a local gas station, and as it turns out, we were getting the dregs from the bottom of an empty gas tank.”

She went on, “Dad, you can’t give if your spiritual fuel tank is empty.”

I sat there speechless. She was absolutely correct. In many ways, I was giving those around me the gunk in my spiritual tank.

I thanked her for her wise counsel and then went back to work.

A few days later, I began to pray for who I would ask to mentor me. Two guys came to mind. I called the first, and he responded, “Why would you want to meet with me?”

I thought, Well, if you do not know why I would want to meet with you, then you’re probably not the one I should meet with.

So I called the next guy, and he was very excited to meet.

That was two years ago, and I cannot begin to tell you how much I have grown and how much more effective I have been able to minister to and mentor others.

After realizing my need for a mentor, I quizzed about 100 guys about the subject of mentoring. It was amazing to learn that out of those 100 guys, only 15 had someone investing in them and those 15 were each investing in another person.

Ironically, the Bible tells us to “‘Go therefore and make disciples ...’” (Matthew 28:19a), yet the church leaders, pastors, and camp guys I quizzed were not involved in a discipleship relationship at all.

I asked a deeper question, “Why not?” I expected the issue to be time. Instead, the answer was an unwillingness to be that vulnerable with someone about what was going on in their lives. Additionally, many admitted it was spiritual pride.

All of us should find someone more mature in the Christian life to invest in us and likewise should find someone who is younger in the faith and impact them, too.

Swallow your pride and find someone to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ.

I did—and it was great.

Mario Zandstra is president and CEO of Pine Cove Christian Camps, in Tyler, Texas.
FamilyLife is a donor-supported ministry offering practical and biblical resources and events to help you build a godly marriage and family.

Source: http://www.familylife.com/articles/topics/faith/essentials/growing-in-your-faith/i-needed-a-mentor