Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 177:708 (Oct 2020)
Article: The Table Briefing: Ministering To Generation Z
Author: Darrell L. Bock

BSac 177:708 (October-December 2020) p. 481

The Table Briefing:
Ministering To Generation Z

Darrell L. Bock

and

Mikel Del Rosario

Darrell L. Bock is Senior Research Professor in New Testament Studies and Executive Director for Cultural Engagement at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas. Mikel Del Rosario is a doctoral student in New Testament Studies, Project Manager for Cultural Engagement at Dallas Theological Seminary, and Adjunct Professor of Christian Apologetics and World Religion at William Jessup University, Rocklin, California.

This has felt like such a unique time in ministry.” InterVarsity’s Area Ministry Director (Greater North Texas) Erin Waller Roy explains a key challenge for ministering to Generation Z in the midst of a global pandemic. “Instead of leaning on the things that God has done in our own lives in the past and helping students walk through something I walked through as a college student many years ago, I’m now helping students walk through something that I’m also walking through. . . . It’s not like I have ‘cope-with-pandemic’ checked off my to-do list, and now I can help others.”

We asked Christian leaders to share what they have observed and experienced while ministering to Generation Z during a pandemic. This briefing shares ideas from a series of Table podcast episodes, answering five questions: (1) What are the struggles of Generation Z? (2) Why do people in Generation Z leave the church? (3) How has the pandemic affected student ministry? (4) How has the pandemic affected campus ministry? (5) How can we equip Generation Z with biblical truth?

What Are The Struggles Of Generation Z?

The Barna Research Group’s study of Generation Z, conducted with Impact 360 Institute, defined this demographic as people born between 1999 and 2015.1 Impact 360 Director of Creative Strategies

BSac 177:708 (October-December 2020) p. 482

Jonathan Morrow runs a Christian gap year program, and he has observed both hesitancy and strength among the young people he serves. On an episode called “Mental Health and Generation ‪Z,” he notes key struggles surrounding ideas like tolerance, relativism, and identity.

Morrow There’s a crisis of knowledge. . . . I don’t think many people think there’s moral and spiritual knowledge anymore. Because they make that assumption, things about purpose, right and wrong, goodness . . . are left to “Well, just do what you feel. You do you.” You’ve got this culture of relativism . . . you have the idealism, the pragmatism. Now you throw a global pandemic on top of that in this coming...