Today’s teens and young adults want more than surface answers. Ashleigh Hull thinks that Christian families can create space for real conversations, deep doubts, and faith that stands up to scrutiny
Imagine that your son or daughter in their teens or twenties comes to you with a question about faith. They’ve found a thorny problem in the Bible, or they’re wondering about the basis for some of your religious habits as a family or church. I wonder how you’d respond to them. And I wonder how they would feel about that response.
Our teens notice when we don’t have satisfactory answers, or when we dodge a question
As I write, Gen Z roughly span the age bracket from 13-31. If you’re parenting a teen or a young adult (or indeed interacting with others in your church, youth group or workplace) then you’re interacting with Gen Z. And according to some recent research from the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), here’s how they feel about some of our responses:
“Gen Z students express frustration when church leaders, parents, and even IFES movement staff dismiss their inquiries, offer superficial responses to their theological questions, or cannot articulate the foundations of their beliefs. In some contexts, this frustration is fuelling generational doubt and scepticism and prompting members of Generation Z to think that they have little to learn from older generations. They are also placing pressure on church leaders to be intellectually honest and thorough, and – in some cases – losing respect for the competence and authority of local church leaders.”
This report from IFES offers insights into Gen Z’s values and perspectives. I’d recommend reading the full report (or listening to the accompanying podcast series), but here I just want to pick out this one insight into the way Gen Z want us to approach questions of faith.
to meet this emerging generation in their legitimate faith questions, we must be willing to ask some hard questions of ourselves
For previous generations, simply being told something by a parent or respected teacher would be enough. Not so for Gen Z. Probably due in large part to their exposure to so many different voices and views, they’re asking different questions and challenging traditional answers. They want to hear from people who are “intellectually honest and thorough,” who can “articulate the foundations of their beliefs” and offer more than “superficial responses to their theological questions.” Our teens notice when we don’t have satisfactory answers, or when we dodge a question. Our young adults are frustrated when our faith seems to have no authentic roots. Gen Z are sceptical when our beliefs seem to be poorly considered or held unquestioningly.
I wonder, do you find this challenging?
Read more:
4 ways Christian parents can respond to the ‘Gen Z stare’
In order to meet this emerging generation in their legitimate faith questions, we must be willing to ask some hard questions of ourselves.
Why do you hold the beliefs that you do?
Can you articulate them clearly, understanding some of the objections that others might hold to your views?
On the way to answers
Now, if you’re feeling intimidated by this, I have some reassurance. We don’t actually have to have all the answers. If it were the case that we need to know everything before sharing our faith with our kids, discipling a fellow believer or teaching the church, then Christianity would never have made it beyond Jesus himself!
You don’t need to have all the answers. You just need to be willing to ask the questions.
We must be willing to wonder, to think, to admit what we don’t know, to dig out answers together
Gen Z want something real, something honest and authentic. And really, this is a wonderful gift to the church. It’s not good enough for us to go through the motions of faith, to do or say things because it’s what we’ve always done or said. If we do that, we risk losing this generation.
Instead, we must be willing to have genuine conversations, even if we aren’t sure where they’ll take us. We must be willing to wonder, to think, to admit what we don’t know, to dig out answers together. We must trust that God’s word will actually stand up to scrutiny and bear the weight of this generation’s questions, as it has borne the weight of every question that’s ever come before. Perhaps this truth-seeking generation will challenge us into a more grounded and more authentic Christianity.
As a next step, why not chat to the Gen Zers in your family or your church, and ask them what their questions are?
