Why I'm Bullish on Generation Z

Don't Listen to the Doom and Gloom, Generation Z Has a Lot Going For It

Generation Z gets a lot of bad press. We are constantly hearing about how smart phones have wrecked their psyches. We hear about how fragile they are, how much trauma they have, etc.

Despite the very real problems Generation Z faces, I’m actually bullish on this generation.

Every generation seems to get talked about negatively at first. “Kids these days” must be the oldest complaint in human civilization.

Nothing could be more normal than having having challenges in high school. Nobody has it all figured out in college. I saw a stat that said only 4% of employers thought Gen Z was the most culturally aligned with their business. But when have twentysomethings ever concerned themselves with being culturally aligned with a business?

I think there’s a very good chance that Gen Z grows up and matures into something far better than most people think possible.

I’m sure my experience is not representative, but when I meet Gen Z people these days, I’m very impressed. The folks I’ve met at American Moment are very impressive. My former colleague Alex Armlovich recently said, “I'm stunned by the quality of the intern applications we've been getting. Hard enough to narrow down interviews; picking between finalists is even worse.”

There’s a lot of great Gen Z talent out there. And the best of them have their act together in ways well beyond what my Gen X slacker generation did at their age.

A pastor who does college ministry recently shared some of his thoughts on Generation Z with me. While he acknowledged their problems, and was not ready to say that everything was alright with them, he had a number of positive things to say:

Here’s my hope with Gen Z: They know something is wrong with the world we’re living in. These kids have seen every institution fail them (schools during Covid, science during Covid, politics since 2016, journalism since 2016, the economy and current economic realities,  Hollywood movie malaise and even music.) They know something is wrong, and they know all the answers provided for them by all the places that claim to have answers don’t work. I just found out a few weeks ago that my students love early 2000s music because they say “all our music is depressing.” Hence a lot of the 90s revival that’s been happening in fashion, movies, etc. FINNEAS’ song “The 90s” describes this really well. 

He also notes that those who are Christian have a very different attitude than the previous generations in relating to this world:

This current group of students (mid to late Gen Z) gives me a lot of hope. They’re all kind of “based Christians” in Gen Z lingo. The Christians students are openly Christian, and don’t care what other people think about it. They want to reach their peers, study the scripture, and participate in worship - A LOT. In his Rebuilders Podcast (which I highly recommend) Mark Sayers thinks the Gen Z may actually be Gen Zeal. They even wear openly Christian clothing, which I NEVER would have done! It’s like I’m living out the “Awakening" idea in Howe’s 4th Turning framework. I’ve not really changed anything I’ve been doing in my ministry, but the fruit has come in and its falling off the trees.

This reminds me of the way Rod Dreher describes young Catholics in France.

As I’ve noted before, there’s a curious optimism in a segment of Gen Z. I think about someone like that Redeemed Zoomer character, who has a plan to revitalize mainline Protestant denominations.

His plans might be quixotic, but they are animated by positivity, energy, a can-do spirit, and optimism about the possibilities of the future that you would not see in prior generations.

A young man who is planning to go into the ministry explained his rationale in similar terms:

If you become a pastor now you have very little competition for jobs/mentors/scholarships/etc. You don't have to fight through the crowd like in tech or academia, you can walk right in. Plus, the average senior pastor is 60 years old so there are a huge number of openings coming down the pipe. Guys who came out of seminary 15 years ago in the great recession and the recent high point of seminary enrollment were doing unpaid internships, youth pastor gigs, in general fairly undesirable pastoral roles. Now with so little competition, the job market is a lot better for pastors looking for churches. In my denomination in [redacted] there were about 10 full time openings and a couple dozen part time openings in 2023. How many full-time residential 3 year MDiv students does [redacted seminary] have graduating this spring for the my denom? One, just me. There are some part-time students and second career people and some other seminaries, but the traditional path to ministry has just about been abandoned here in [redacted]. 

And if like me you think American Christianity is going to rebound not in the next three years but probably in the next 30 years, getting in as a pastor now will set you up to be at the height of your experience, influence, responsibility, etc. in the 2050s when the church is strong again. [emphasis added]

Again, note the positivity, the optimism, etc. It’s a completely different attitude than Gen X or Millennials.

I draw a parallel to the generational experience of cities. Baby Boomers came of age during the “urban crisis” era. They lived though, and often suffered horribly from, the collapse of the urban industrial economy in the 1970s and 80s. Generation X’s formative years were a period of urban decline, though we also experienced the start of the urban renaissance.

The Greatest Generation through to Generation X were people who experienced the decline of cities. That sense of decline, of loss, of grief - in some cases of shame - profoundly shaped their relationship to cities.

But the Millennials had a completely different experience. From their earliest memories, cities were on the rise. They didn’t have the baggage of the loss of the old factories, or the downtown department stores. They saw the cities through different eyes, as places of growth, excitement, and possibilities. They embraced the city with optimism and a completely new attitude.

Maybe it’s the same with Gen Z. Boomers and Generation X spend our days bemoaning the decline of America. Millennials are angry that the amazing future that was laid out for them thirty years ago (such as in Strauss and Howe’s book Generations), was never realized.

But Generation Z doesn’t remember the 1980s, or the dotcom boom and bust or whatever. They never experienced any bygone glory days. They never had an expectation of a prosperous future they were lied to about. So they have a completely different relationship to America and the world.

They aren’t quite like Millennials and cities in that America and their fortunes are not yet definitively on an upswing. But we can see that their life experience gives them a completely different way of relating to the times.

Rather than mourning about past losses, or fighting over who is to blame for them, they can see possibilities.

There’s no guarantee for the future, but I’m optimistic about what Generation Z might be able to accomplish once they mature a bit and Boomer leadership finally does exit the scene.

Cover image credit: Cmglee/Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0