What’s Up With…? Questions from Gen Z

Generation Z

James Emery White wrote, Meet Generation Z, intending to reach Gen Zers attending his church. More specifically, it offers ideas to the older generations on how to engage the younger generation with the Gospel.

If you have lost track of the age range of our generations, this will help. As of 2025:

• Gen Z 13-28 years old
• Millennials 29-44 years old
• Gen X 45-60 years old
• Boomers 61-79 years old
• Silent Generation 80+

He explains that evangelism today is entirely different from fifty years ago. When I was a youth, most teens had been exposed to church, Jesus, the cross, and why He died for us. Today, many youths are entirely unfamiliar with not only the terms but the true meaning behind them.

Fifty years ago, Sunday school, door-to-door visits, church revivals, and community Christian events (Billy Graham comes to mind) were often all that was needed. The fruit was ripe; all it took was a little shake of the branch, and new believers would drop into the basket. Evangelism was event-driven.((White, Emery James. “Rethinking Evangelism.” Meet Generation Z, Baker Books, 2017, pgs 110-111))

Peter, Paul, And Apologetics

Consider the evangelism difference between Acts 2 and Acts 17. In Acts 2, Peter, speaking before the Jews, reminded them of the prophet Joel and what he said about the last days. Acts 2:16-21 Peter reiterated what they already knew, and then his culmination presented their Messiah, Jesus, who they hung on a cross. Acts 2:22-25 When Peter finished, three thousand repented, realizing their need for Christ. Acts 2:41

Billy Graham would explain to the crowd sin, death, separation from God, and everyone’s need for forgiveness and Christ. Graham was covering concepts they had already heard and understood. The fruit was ripe, and all he had to do was shake the tree. That is precisely what Peter did; he shook the tree.

In Acts 17:16-17, Paul speaks at a very different gathering of people. They were not versed in Jewish history or knew who Abraham, Joseph, and the prophets were. None of them would have read the Pentateuch or the Torah, or heard of Isaac or Jacob. Paul looked for something he could launch from and used their altar to an unknown god.

Paul told them he noticed how religious they were and their altar to an unknown god, then explained to them about the unknown God they worshiped. Acts 17:22-23 He described how human hands did not fashion God, but on the contrary, God fashioned us and everything we see.

When Paul was done on Mars Hill, some snickered, but others became followers. Acts 17:32 Paul found a commonality, something they could relate to. Sean McDowell writes, “In Acts 17:16-34, the apostle Paul engages in the only detailed example of New Testament apologetics in a pagan context. So it stands to reason (pun intended) that this should be a strong model for Christians who would defend the faith.”¹

Snackable Content

Generation Z is looking for answers. So many of them are entirely unfamiliar with the Gospel and its implications. What they have heard does not sound inclusive or forgiving.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6  However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. Deuteronomy 20:16-17

When someone asks, “What’s up with Jesus being the only way?” or “What’s up with God killing entire cultures?” We need to have an answer that is at least thought-provoking, if not short. I have been teaching Jr. High for many years, and they have a lot of questions. I have seen many an eye glaze over if my answers are too drawn out or detailed. Granted, we are talking about adolescents, but the same could be said for older teens and twenty-somethings.

Generation Z also needs a short story. Don’t picture them reading King James, the Gospel of John, and attending church next Sunday. It’s probably not going to happen.

In 2023, the American Psychological Association interviewed Dr. Gloria Mark, PhD, who has been studying the declining attention span of adults. She explained the study of attention spans began just over 20 years ago, in 2004. They measured how long an adult would stay on a particular task and found the average time was about 150 seconds, or two and a half minutes. Eight years later, in 2012, the focused attention time was cut in half to 75 seconds. By 2020, the time was down to an average of 47 seconds.

White writes, “Whatever it is we are attempting to convey, much less explain, will need to be communicated more frequently in shorter bursts of ‘snackable content.’ Why? Because members of Generation Z are the ‘ultimate consumers of snack media. They communicate in bite sizes.'” ²

The Box Checkers

The Pew Research Center completed its Religious Landscape Study (RLS) and found that from 2007 to 2024, the number of people in the U.S. who identified as Christian declined from 78% in 2007 to 63% in 2024. Some findings indicate the decline may have stabilized, but it is too early to tell.³

Most notable is the fact that our younger generation, ages 18-24, are much less likely to identify as Christian than our older generation, 46% vs 80%. Many who ‘identify’ as Christian do so by name only. Of the 46%, few attend church, read their bible, or pray regularly. Also, anyone identifying as a Jehovah’s Witness or Mormon considers themselves Christian. It is easy to check a box and call yourself a Christian. Walking that out in real life consistently is a whole other matter.

Among the box-checkers, two-thirds believe that many religions can lead to God, that is, everlasting life.((White, Emery James. “Rethinking Evangelism.” Meet Generation Z, Baker Books, 2017, pg 127)) That speaks volumes about those who check the ‘Christian’ box. They have a smorgasbord approach to their religion. With that mindset, you must ask yourself, what did Jesus die for? Coupled with that revelation, 25% of those under the age of 35 believe Jesus was a fictional character made up by those wanting to gain power and influence. Bart Ehrman, one of the most respected New Testament textual critics today, thinks it is foolish to claim that Jesus was not a real person in history.

As A Man Thinketh

Christians are not perfect and never will be, and neither can anyone else achieve perfection, despite what some write and teach about New Age enlightenment and Eastern meditative thought.

World views of karma, reincarnation, and spiritual growth toward perfection surround our youth. Some teach we will become Gods; others claim we will evolve into a higher form of consciousness, and we can shape our reality; our mind is the ultimate and final tool to achieve our wants and desires.

James Allen wrote a little book titled ‘As A Man Thinketh’; he pioneered ‘self-help’ thinking and was a philosophical author in the late 1800s. Allen mistakenly believed that our thoughts determine all we are and will be. He wrote, “Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction. It is an indication that the individual is out of harmony with himself, with the Law of his being.”⁴ I have to ask, what about infants who have cancer? Is their suffering due to their wrong thoughts and being out of harmony?

What’s Up With Questions

We must be prepared to answer those questions, as Generation Z is full of them. If Gen Z believes we can reach enlightenment on our own, what’s up with the need for Jesus? If 46% of our population checks the Christian box, then few could answer these questions:

• What’s up with the need to go to church?
• What’s up with the Earth being only 8000 years old, but science says there was a Big Bang?
• What’s up with thinking sex is so bad?
• What’s up with a loving God sending someone like Gandhi to hell?
• What’s up with all the evil in the world, but God is all-powerful?
• What’s up with hating homosexuals or transgenders?
• What’s up with so many Christians getting divorced?
• What’s up with God wiping out people in the Old Testament?
• If God is real, what’s up with him not showing himself to everyone?
• What’s up with God allowing slavery in the bible?
• What’s up with letting little babies suffer and die?
• What’s up with good people not going to heaven?
• What’s up with all the people who never heard of Jesus?

These are just a few of the questions you might be asked if you have a conversation with someone in Generation Z. Granted, many of those questions presuppose a particular view or truth, but are you ready to respond? Have you thought about what you would say to any of those questions?

James White caters to Generation Z and younger Millennials in his church. He platforms those he wants to attract to his church, because people are drawn to those of their own age group. He writes, “The individual needs and desires of the believer have become the center of attention, which is why most churches have as their primary focus reaching and then serving the already convinced. So the mission is not about making disciples but caring for them.”⁵

Indeed, we need to keep members in the church, disciple them, encourage them, and meet their needs as young Christians, but some churches tend to pit discipleship against evangelism. They overlap much like a Venn diagram. New believers will have questions, much like those who are unbelievers. White says, “The mission cannot be about us-it must be about those who have not crossed the line of faith.”⁶

It is often asked, “How could the early disciples turn the world upside down when millions of Christians can’t even keep it right side up today?” The answer is they didn’t conform their faith to match the world. They had the truth, and they refused to water it down. They had a faith that would not compromise. – Billy Graham

What’s Up With…? Questions from Gen Z © 2025 by James William Glazier is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0