GenZ and the Church: An Interview with Josh Hall

Some conversations are so good, you just have to share them. As I was texting with my friend, Josh Hall of Beebe Nazarene Church, I quickly realized it was one of those conversations. With his permission, and a tad bit of editing, I decided to share his insights with you as I picked his brain about GenZ and the Church.

How would you define GenZ as a generation?

GenZ is a group that comes after millennials and before Gen Alpha. They were born mid-to-late 1990s to the early 2010s. Sadly they are what I would consider the first post-Christian Generation specifically in the US. That's not to say there aren’t any that are Christian. In fact, it actually sets the narrative for a super bright future in our Christian faith. Specifically, revival breaking out.

They come with an understanding of all things technology and answers at their fingertips from google and such. So, in essence, they sniff out falsehood easily. Because there was so much deconstruction from our generation (Millennials), it left a lot of questions for GenZ. They want truth. I would say a lot of Gen Z issues stem from our faults, such as our constant desire to create such a consumeristic church.

For instance, they don’t really care as much about all the lights and stuff. I’ve noticed this a lot with the youth group in the last five years. It’s like they don’t care for all the showy stuff. They really just want relationships and truth. That’s why we see things like revival breaking out in places where you wouldn’t think it would happen.

I mean, take Ausbury for example. It is a fairly conservative style of church service compared to others. Take a look at the services it didn’t have any fancy lights or anything and that’s happening all over the world right now.

I don’t think that GenZ is really deconstructing. I think they are just ready for answers from the Bible and that gives me a lot of hope.

Could we say that GenZ is reconstructing?

That's really interesting. I never thought of it that way, but yeah, I would say they're probably in the beginning stages of that. Though, sadly, we may not see it completely with their generation right now. Hopefully by the time generation Alpha comes into mid-high school and college years, we will see some incredible improvement.

That's not to say that we haven't had amazing days in our faith, because I didn't really buy into the whole deconstruction thing. To me deconstruction is a lousy excuse to try to leave the church. Maybe I don’t understand deconstructing completely. It just seems to me that healthy questions can have healthy answers. I feel like if millennials would have done the way that GenZ is doing now and searched for the answer instead of whining about it and just leaving the church, they would've found it in the Bible.

How have you restructured your services to reach GenZ in recent years?

Oh man. That's kind of a loaded question, because it's really been a whirlwind of things. In fact I went from being a youth pastor that knew a lot about doing Christian concerts and stuff like that, because that's what I did and that's what I liked as a teenager, to realizing they didn't care as much about a service that was all about music. I mean I had fog machines and everything and our attendance was poor. But as soon as I started to make it more discussion driven, we started to grow.

Strangely, we don't do as many songs on Wednesday nights as we used to. We only do like two now, maybe three, depending on what's going on. We do have an occasional night of worship, but even that doesn't succeed as much, so we have just gotten into the Word.

What I do now is after we do the music and do a couple of segments that are just kind of fun and crazy, I teach a lesson. But it is extremely hands-on, almost round table-like, and then we break off into what I call circle groups. They get so much out of that because they have the opportunity to answer and ask questions. And let me tell you, that makes a world of difference from trying to put on a show and give them entertainment. In fact something that really bothers me is when kids ministry and teen ministry is looked at and or ran more like a day care. It’s not fair.

You know what's weird? We had a guest speaker for a few nights in service with adults, and I had several teenage students who are GenZ that enjoyed it more than they would all the fun crazy stuff I do on Wednesday because it was real. So, no, that's not to say that we shouldn't do fun things. I'm just saying their strength comes from a desire to find answers.

Would you say that GenZ, despite the stereotypes, is not a "lazy generation of snowflakes", but actually a generation of strength?

One hundred percent. In fact, I kind of take great pride in being a youth pastor for this generation. I would say there's a lot of strength. It might just take the rest of us opening our eyes , and just being real and understanding.

I'm not sure if I would consider them lazy, so much as misunderstood. I would say that some of what would appear as them being lazy is more just them being unsure of what to do. They were never equipped to do anything because our parents, plus us millennials, never really gave them a good lesson on work ethic in general. We didn't display it very well, so to them, it's foreign.

I feel like they're misunderstood in general, because they are the generation that comes after millennials. I mean, let's face it, as millennials we were not looked at very respectably. Some of that was because of how we were, but I also believe lack of education and lack of wanting to know is why we were/are misunderstood.

I think older people would actually really enjoy being with GenZ more than they know. Statistically, they say that our grandparents would communicate better with GenZ than our parents with us.

Very interesting. Does that mean that Genz might feel more at home in a smaller, older church than, say, a larger to mid-sized, predominantly middle-aged congregation?

Personally, I would think so. Though it would take the older church being understanding and open, you know, for leadership.

Also, I do think it's interesting how the pandemic pushed a lot of churches out of their comfort zone to get on social media and it caught the attention of a lot of these GenZ students. For instance, my grandma attends a small church in Ozark, Missouri and they filmed their church services, and still do, with an iPhone. There was nothing spectacular and flashy other than the Word of God and I understand that they reached a younger crowd of people than they normally would. And that was because of the pandemic.

Do you perceive the pandemic as preparing the way for GenZ in the Church?

Yes, and no. I think it definitely helped churches like mine take a step back and stop worrying about how to reach the masses and start focusing on what's right in front of us. I think that's when you'll see numbers anyway because you'll see results when you focus on what's in front of you instead of what you could have.

Does the Church as a whole need to rethink the ways they do things, or do you think GenZ will make those changes gradually themselves?

I think the church actually does need to think about it. I feel like if the church isn't evolving, then GenZ is going to be super frustrated and will end up somewhere along the lines of creating new denominations again. That’s not to say that is bad. I just think that we need to step up and take a hard look at even kids ministry, adult ministry, or how we connect, etc.

We have a men's group in our church that just started up again for the first time in forever, and they wanted to know how we should get going. Well, one of the things that we all agreed on was that we were going to do mentorship with young gentlemen from the youth group. I, for one, was so excited about that. We're even doing roundtable discussions twice a month out of a great devo book for the men. Once a month our men will come together with the teen guys joining us. The hope is the rest of our ministries will catch on to that vision.

There are some GenZ that are lost in the mix, though. I have some young adult friends that are considered GenZ and they got lost in translation. It hurts because now they're just living for themselves, and they’re searching, but they aren't searching in the right place.

Also, something that we need to think about is that even though GenZ is not looking for flashiness, they still are the generation that was born into a world of technology. Therefore, all forms of communication kind of mixed up.

What are the best ways to communicate with and to GenZ?

They're not really sure how to communicate (or how we think they should). So sadly, they're even hard to talk to one on one but once you get them in a groove, they will talk. Provide a safe place like we do with the circle groups, where they feel comfortable asking curious questions. It takes a little bit but when they finally open up, it's great.

Now, I will say, on the weekly basis, I'm still struggling, but I've noticed that they love to communicate in forms of video. And not lengthy ones really. Like Instagram reels, Tik Tok videos and the occasional Instagram instant message or comment. It's weird because they will talk at length in text messages as well if they feel comfortable with you. But you have to find that place first.

I feel like the reason why it's so hard to communicate with them is two-fold:

1.) They're skeptical. i e. - They know how to sniff out the fake.

2.) They don't really even know how to communicate normally because the only way that they know how to communicate is through technology.

Speaking of smaller groups, I feel like smaller churches will be instrumental in reaching GenZ. Do you agree?

Oh yes, I think mega churches while they have a great place in ministry will have to really redefine how they do things. I think the smaller churches are going to do really well honestly.

I love Life.Church with Craig Groeschel, and I love the way they do their church services online, but as simple as my grandma's church was, they didn't have to sniff through very much to see the truth. I guess what I'm trying to say is simplicity is an important factor with generation Z, not just technology.

Do you think it's true that they have a shorter attention span, or is it more like a shorter tolerance for filler?

I definitely think there is a shorter attention span, honestly. And you are probably going to see a lot more mental health issues. For instance, I have for the first time in all my years of ministry, several students that are autistic. That was a huge change for me. I do feel very privileged to be trusted with students that have mental disabilities. God really uses our times together and they need Jesus just like the rest of us. Now, it may not be severe autism, but there are a lot of mental health issues and anxiety disorders in our group. It’s as though it’s just prevalent nowadays. Either that or the church of my youth years wasn’t open to learning how to reach out to people with mental health problems. So, we have to be mindful of that. And maybe that's where the “snowflake” perception comes from, because our parents and the generations before them never talked about feelings. They kept in all in and moved on.

Do you predict GenZ will assimilate into existing churches or mostly do church planting?

Both. I think it's 50/50. I believe that you'll see a lot of church plants come out of their generational understanding of the Bible, but I also believe that they will stay true to the local churches that help mentor them. The Church may look different. I'm not really sure what that looks like but I believe it's going to be very hands-on by the time my daughter Gracie, who is now 10, is in her 30s.

How do they feel about traditions in the Church?

Traditions are where it becomes a little iffy for me. I'm still trying to gather understanding, but I believe it's less about liking or disliking the traditions, and more about finding a way to help them understand why we do them. If there’s reason and not just "that’s how we have always done it", it becomes meaningful to them. This Wednesday I'm going to introduce the Apostle’s Creed to our youth, but I'm doing it through a lesson in a way that they would understand and in an atmosphere where they can ask questions.

How important are gender politics for them, really?

That's interesting, because I feel the gender thing is more of a push from our generation (Millennials), though I do think it's a problem. This is an area where we have to be careful, but diligent in our approach. We have to make sure that specific truth from the gospel isn't neglected, yet we speak with love.

I was listening to a podcast about a college student who at Asbury came across the revival they took him in knowing he was gay. He left after two days and learned the love he thought he was getting from men was attention he actually wanted from God. It was interesting.

Will they link political allegiance with their faith like previous generations have?

No. Their faith will have nothing to do with the political system. I think they will not want it discussed at all. With that in mind it'll be tricky to see where they land on certain things, like abortion.

Do they display loyalty when trust is won?

Very much so. More than you can imagine. I've got some super loyal GenZ people in our church. We gain that trust through authentic relationships. I have a group of incredible leaders at BNC Some from several different generations including GenZ adults, and they have built a great trust foundation. Look, it's gonna feel so small - a one person at a time kind of thing - but it builds quicker than you think. Kind of similar to the old way of youth pastoring before the big corporate style of ministry.

Do you have any predictions for how the Church will change in the next 10-20 years because of GenZ?

I would say we will see the church more in movement than years past. Maybe like missions even within our communities. Because when they do get the truth they will want so badly to use it and do something to change the world. In fact I would say because of all that has transpired, we will likely see the Church become more closely related to how Jesus and his disciples worked. Or that's the hope.

I'm not 100% sure on that because I believe that like I said they will stay true to the church that they are being mentored to but I feel like what we will see is more of a generational church outside of the walls of the building, so like the attendance may seem small, but the work on the outside of the walls is greater which could lead to more people in the congregation. I think that's why we need to be prepared to know how to relate to generation Z so that we can keep them within the ministries, but we can also grow and learn from them.

I think it'll look a lot like what we are seeing in these revivals that are breaking out. There will be so much skepticism from churches that aren’t doing the same thing, but GENZ won't care. They will just keep praying, worshiping, and loving. I believe we will see a huge movement of people sharing with each other their sins venerably.

Josh Hall is the Youth/Worship Pastor at Beebe Nazarene Church in Beebe, AR. He has sixteen years of experience in youth ministry.