I recently asked a church to imagine a world without teenagers. I wanted to illustrate how our thoughts concerning age groups and generations are often adopted from the wider culture without questioning their validity or helpfulness.
For thousands of years, there was no such thing as a teenager. Yes, certainly there were young people between the ages of 12 and 20, but that’s not really what defines a teenager. In much of the world, a teenager is someone who is no longer considered a child, but also not quite ready to be an adult for one reason or another. This concept is only a few decades old.
Following World War II, in the U.S., as the economy grew, even 13-19 year olds had disposable income. So, marketers wanted to tap into that spending capacity, but they had to create a new market. They needed consumables—clothes, gadgets, music—which weren’t made for children or adults, but for ‘teens’.They had to convince these young people, and their parents of course, that there was such a thing, that these young people were different from the older and younger generations around them. They needed to be singled out, set apart. They couldn’t possibly fit in with those around them anymore.
Within a couple of generations, the idea was cemented into Western society, and it spread. In cultures which once practiced structured transitions from childhood to adulthood through apprenticeships and rites of passages, a similar gap has formed. Factors beyond Western marketing, as diverse as urbanization, the AIDs epidemic, the internet, and job markets, have contributed to this gap.
Instead of a boy becoming a young man through communal preparation and recognition, increasingly, he became an adolescent, caught between play and work, childhood and adulthood. These years have become a season of stunted growth, extending childhood when they used to be the launch of mature adults.
Are these things helpful?
To question the validity of the concept of adolescence today may seem foolish, but we must do so. We must ask questions of where it came from and if it is helpful. We must ask, does it serve Christ’s cause in the world, his church and his mission? Is it producing more mature, healthy adults? Is it good for kids, families, churches, and society? Is it helping us make disciples of all nations?’
These are the sorts of questions that come to mind when I think of generational studies.
I ask them because I continue to hear older mission leaders describe young people as if they are aliens, an incomprehensible species they’ve read studies about, but hope they don’t meet in the wild.
I ask them when younger people start to use generational titles as an insult
(‘OK, boomer’) or an excuse (‘You shouldn’t expect me to make a commitment.
I’m from Gen _’).
I ask them because they seem to be doing more harm than good.
I begin to wonder if perhaps there’s an Enemy who wants to keep us divided so that young women remain immature and older women feel outdated. So that young men never embrace joyful and sacrificial service, and older men feel pressured to ‘get out of the way so someone younger can lead.’ Who benefits from such divisions?
I also ask them because I’m afraid they teach us to focus on the wrong things. What social media do they use? What does their slang mean? How savvy are they with technology? And when we begin to hear about something meaningful about them, such as their desire for community, we are quickly pointed back to cosmetic answers such as simply embracing virtual reality or other online spaces in order to ‘reach’ them.
What if we aren’t so different?
No wonder older leaders are intimidated. We’re made to think that these young people are so very different from us. But, what if that’s wrong? What if younger generations are just like older generations in all the important ways, in all the most human ways?1
Consider this. When I ask younger leaders about their hopes, fears, struggles, and needs, these are the sorts of answers I get:
- They want to be courageous (‘fix the world’), but are often anxious.2
- They want to connect deeply, but they are lonely, even in so-called online communities.3
- They want to understand how they can discern their role in God’s mission.
- They struggle with pride, selfishness, lust, envy . . . among other things.
- Most, though not all, don’t know the word of God very well.4
- Some aren’t sure if they are supposed to share their faith, and if so, how to do that.
This is what they are experiencing deep down. When you hear that list, what comes to mind? For me, two things become clear and exciting:
First, all of those concerns are true about my own generation. In fact, they are all to be found throughout the Old Testament! These are not new.
Second, if this is true, if these are the concerns and dreams weighing on the hearts of young people today, then older generations are well prepared to walk with them, because they’ve already walked through these things themselves.
What happens when we miss this? If we focus on the cosmetic, those surface things that appear to be so different between generations, we never end up at the heart. Even if you could master the slang and the apps, that’s not the goal. The goal is transformation of young men and women by the power of God’s word and Spirit. The goal is making disciples of all nations.
What happens if we train youth ministers and parents in the cosmetic, instead of the heart realities? We won’t reach young people, and we won’t reach the nations through young people.
Real Differences and Real Change
I want church and mission leaders to know that what every generation has in common, the shared human experience, is more important than whatever differences they have.
“Even if you could master the slang and the apps, that’s not the goal. The goal is transformation of young men and women by the power of God’s word and Spirit.”
Again, I don’t want to ignore real differences between age groups and generations. Those old enough to remember 1994 in Rwanda will be truly and dramatically shaped by the genocide. Such events are a real factor, as are larger cultural shifts.
Think again about adolescence. If we delay maturity, how does that affect generations? Just 65 years ago, the average American man married between 22 and 23 years of age. Today, that number is over 32.5 A 22-year-old American man today isn’t as mature, typically, as his peer a few decades ago. A friend shared recently that Japanese university students are considered only as mature as high school students from previous generations, according university lecturers. That’s a reality that we must be aware of and adjust to, in how we hire, equip, mentor, and empower younger leaders.⁶ But all of this, in my mind, supports the argument that we must focus on the deeper issues of the heart.
What every generation has in common—heart-level hopes, fears, and struggles— is more significant than whatever differences they have. It’s also more strategic. How so?
Back to the Great Commission
We are finding that churches focused on the heart, instead of the cosmetic, are bearing amazing fruit in these days. Similarly, campus ministries sharing the gospel, challenging young men and women to find hope in Christ and their role in his kingdom, are seeing conversions. They are seeing their Bible studies grow in number and depth. They are seeing an earnest desire for prayer and repentance. This ministry is without gimmicks. What is attractive about it is that it’s answering humanity’s deepest questions and concerns. It’s not even pretending to understand Gen Z slang.
Some of it is happening online, but much of it is happening in person as so many young people seem to recognize their own need, like earlier generations, for incarnate community.
This is the heart of the Great Commission. This call to focus on the main things is simply a call to make disciples. We must teach them God’s word. Teach them to pray. Walk with them. Model Christlike service. In other words, teach them to observe all that Christ has commanded. The mission does not change based on generational oddities or even based on massive generational shifts.
A Place for Generational Studies
So, let’s use generational studies to understand the differences that really matter. And let us leverage that learning even as we build our ministry on the things that are central to the human experience no matter the generation, culture, or age. Such studies can help us know both what’s worth giving attention, and how we might address those in ways that deepen our overall discipleship from generation to generation.
Endnotes
- I’m not denying that there are, indeed, some real differences. I’ve written previously to help older leaders navigate those at https://lausanne.org/about/ blog/help-im-scared-of-younger-leaders.
- Research supports this observation. “Addressing the Unprecedented Behavioral-Health Challenges Facing Generation Z,” McKinsey and Company, January 14, 2022, accessed February 14, 2022, https:// www.mckinsey.com/industries/health-care-systemsand-services/our-insights/addressing-the-unprecedented-behavioral-health-challenges-facing-generation-z
- See Cigna Group, “Loneliness and the Workplace,” accessed February 14, 2026, https;//www.cigna.com/ static/www-cigna-com/docs/about-us/newsroom/ studies-and-reports/combatting-loneliness/cigna2020-loneliness-factsheet.pdf
- Dr. Michael McGarry explores how Americans, age 18-34 year old, self-identifying Christians answer basic theological questions at https://www.youthpastortheologian.com/blog/a-summary-of-the-state-oftheology-what-do-genzs-christians-believe.
- U.S. Census Bureau
- For some thoughts on doing this, see Erlacher, Jolene Cassellius. 2022. “Three Strategies for Engaging Gen Z in Missions.” Evangelical Missions Quarterly 58 (4): 33–36. EBSCOhost.