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Youth Ministry and Generation Z · Centrally Speaking

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Centrally Speaking is the Central Schwenkfelder Church's podcast.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: It speaks about issues that would be of interest to our society.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: In particular, it addresses how a Christian worldview intersects with Western secular culture.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: In the spirit of the church's founder, we take the perspective of the middle way, which is in agreement with the historic Christian Church.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Dr.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: Drake Williams, Minister of Mission and Theology at the Church.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: Our website is www.cscfamily.org.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: We're very pleased today to be able to have Johnny Radcliffe with us to talk about youth ministry and generation Z.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: Johnny is the National Coordinator of Resource Development at National Network of Youth Ministries.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: He grew up in Southerton and now lives in Harleysville with his four children, age 10 and 8, and 5 and 20 months, and his wife, Sarah.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: He received his undergraduate and pastoral leadership at Liberty University as Master of Divinity at Grace Theological Seminary.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: And he's been involved with youth ministry now for 15 years.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: Johnny, we're very glad to have you.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the show.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Appreciate being here.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, great to speak with you about uh youth ministry.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: But I wonder if you might just first start off and talk with our audience about how you came to know Jesus Christ in a personal way.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: And did you do so when you were young?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: And uh why do you feel this type of relationship is so important for youth to have today?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: So in my life, it's been hard to tell my story without going down the typical, I grew up in a Christian home.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but it's true.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: I both sides of my family have a long legacy of following Jesus.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: I've had amazing family members who followed Jesus.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was modeled for me from a young age.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I did give my life to Jesus when I was about six or so.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: But I think shortly after that, my walk became more about understanding the correct version of God as opposed to the version that I was picking up on.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: And and what I mean by that is at first, it was, I guess I just saw God as this like big, scary dude up there that you had to obey, otherwise, he was going to send you lightning bolts.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so whenever I tell my story, I have to include my junior year of high school because it's this time when my youth group was such a huge formation in my life.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: We had a new youth pastor at our church, and he just brought the Bible to life.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't know if it was his teaching, I don't know if it was being with friends who were also chasing after Jesus, but just something clicked.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I refer to that as my renaissance.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: That was the moment where the idea of a relationship with Jesus that actually made sense.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't this obligatory thing, it was something we get to do, and he actually likes me.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, whoa, okay, God likes me.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like that, some people are like, Yeah, I've always known that.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that took a long time to sink in.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: So while I've been following Jesus for a lot of years, I really feel that my junior year of high school is where there was a vibrancy that just came in.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that was done by people modeling it in my life.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: That was my faith community at church, and it just clicked.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: Now you're so involved in youth ministry and trying to help people have that same type of relationship that you've had.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: Why do you feel youth ministry is so important in speaking to young people about this relationship specifically in uh their high school years?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, this was never the plan.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: I went to Liberty University to get into history, maybe get into law and just see what I could do through politics, through teaching history.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I really had, I never believed in the call before that.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: I thought people were just saying, Hey, I want to do this, and they kind of deified it a bit.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: But man, I had an Isaiah six moment where I was at a chapel in college and they were talking about the need for people to go into ministry.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I just had this thought, like, man, who's gonna do this?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like, who's gonna carry this forward?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I felt like God just kind of shrugged at me and was like, if it's not you, who's it gonna be?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it was at that point I was like, okay, I need to take this seriously.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: I called my youth pastor up, asked his advice, and he said, Usually when people are asking these questions, it's God sending them into ministry.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, ah, nuts.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: I guess I gotta do this.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: So uh, but it's been a fantastic choice.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: And the I didn't know where that would take me, but through internships and godly leaders, I just kind of took the opportunities in front of me and it landed in youth ministry.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the reason that there's such an appeal for it is because the stats are outrageous of what age people come to know Christ.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's something around like 85% come to know Christ before the age of 14.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Because once you arrive at 16, there's a large part of your soul that is decided and entrenched, and life changes harder.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And God can do anything.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: But I love the idea of ministering to them when they're younger to see if we can catch them earlier, to avoid some heartache, some sin patterns, and just honestly kind of had that same vibrancy and explosion with Christ that I had.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, my hope is to offer that same youth group experience to students.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: And students, of course, have changed over the years, uh, from when you were a student to certainly when I was a student.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: And now we're in a time of generation Z.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: What is that?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: What is generation Z?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh what age group that is for sure.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm a millennial, so uh for a long time it was just millennial was synonymous with young kid that annoys me.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, but now that's not the case.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Now we're in our 30s and I guess some are 40s.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: But Gen Z is typically anyone born between 96 and 2012, and there are different opinions on that.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: But the bottom line is generational studies are they're a moving target, but they're super helpful because they're trends that the whole generation generally embraces.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: And there's some fun things about this generation.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: I have I've read articles, I've done deep dives into it, and I'm just convinced every generation has different talents that God can really bring to the surface to create a new expression of his kingdom.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: And there's some things that drive us insane.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: There's some things that, as older people, we're like, I just don't get it.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: I don't even understand what this lingo is.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like there are things, and we can kind of dip into you know the kids these days attitude.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: But this generation really needs us to look at their strengths and call it up.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: And there's some fascinating things.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: Gen Z is actually most similar to the silent generation, which is their great-grandparents.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that fascinating?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: So as you play it out, you you kind of think it through.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, okay, these kids grew up during the 2008 recession, seeing parents lose jobs or have to move, finances getting tight in a similar way that the silent generation had World War II.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: That was a real like codifying experience, but also a scary experience.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: September 11th might predate them a little, but it's been a different world.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: There were just some real life situations that came up really soon.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: This generation is also known as penny pinchers.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that crazy?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because we want to say, like, it's materialism, they're all about stuff.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And while, yes, they do tend to gravitate towards things as opposed to experiences, experiences are more of a millennial thing typically.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the whole like, I want to drop out of college and backpack through Europe.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's more of a millennial manifesto than it is Gen Z.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: But Gen Z has a shrewdness about them, so much so that the secondhand stores, like the Goodwill or uh Second Avenue, those stores around here, that is a$36 billion industry per year.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because of this generation, they're expecting it to go to 77 billion by 2025.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it's because this generation loves a good deal, which is it's so funny.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: There's this one student, every time she'd come to youth group, she'd be like, yo, see this whole outfit?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: Four dollars.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, You're something I like.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: So there are just so many cool things about this generation that makes them unique.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: They're so career driven and always thinking about their college resume.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's all students talk about.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: It seems like, oh, I'll volunteer.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: That'll look great on my resume.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, or it's a good thing to do.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, there's some things that are out of line, young people, this and that, but but there is something very specific about this generation, too, where they're they're ready to stand up and fight in good ways and in bad.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we can talk about cancel culture, we can tease that out different ways, but I believe it is a generation that's ready to do some action once they get into positions of leadership.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's very interesting.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: They it have a characteristic of shrewdness, prior generations, millennial boomers, busters, gen Y, do they have that characteristic of shrewdness at all?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: You'll find it in there, but not as much as a generational identifier, I would say.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: Do the questions change now from generation to generation?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: Certainly the characteristics do, but what are some of the questions that a Gen Z person might be asking?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think they do.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, the two things that I really see as questions, some are questions, some are just objections to the Christian faith.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, the first one is in the realm of intellectual issues.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's no secret that there is a rise of the nuns, as they call it, N-O-N-E-S, the idea of having no religious affiliation.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: There's this thing that's starting to rise that the idea that science is objective, religion is subjective.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: So anything in science automatically trumps anything in religion.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: And there are things that I love scientific discoveries, I love archaeology, I love that kind of stuff.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: But there is definitely a bias towards those things to the point where it's hard to recognize that even in science, there are biases.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: There are things that are presented as this is fact that it just isn't.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: It takes a measure of faith in that realm as well.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: But I will say that I've had plenty of conversations with teens that their big hang up with the faith are very intellectual or parts in the Bible that are hard to understand that will present an intellectual hang up.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus says to do this, this, this, but I look in the old testament and then the God of the Old Testament does this.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of God of the Old Testament issues that I see rise.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing is this there are a lot of love thy neighbor issues that pop up.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Now, it's not necessarily with the faith as it's constructed, some of it's understanding and some of it's how we as believers carry it out.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: The thing about this generation is I think there's a huge well of empathy.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Now, some people are hearing that being like, Well, my Gen Z kid just lashed out at me this morning.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't seem empathetic.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: But there is this consideration of, well, how does that impact this demographic of people?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: How does that impact my uncle over here?
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: When you talk about these theological issues, there's a huge concern for other people.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: And that empathy can sometimes take the place of truth.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: So when it comes to love thy neighbor, for we'll just go for the hobby horse issues, LGBT issues of the day, they're not necessarily thinking, how does this exegetically line up?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: They say, Well, what about my friend who's gay?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: What about someone who has these feelings that doesn't fit the hetero norm?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: How come they can't have what they want?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you and you can kind of hear this beautiful, this empathy in what they're saying.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: But it's also the idea that, listen, the truth isn't intrinsic in us.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: The truth is from God and we align with that.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: There are some things that kind of get conflated, but there are strengths out of that where I think there's more care for the poor in this generation.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's more care for racial equality, which these are things that God can really come alongside and use for the kingdom.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: There are issues of intellectual hangups, there are issues of social hangups, but overall we believe that the gospel as Jesus presented it overcomes both of them.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: And when we understand them as they are, then we're going to walk in the fullness of God.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: So the Bible above all else, when it comes to that.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's interesting you point out both of those characteristics.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: I too see a rise in empathy.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: I have children who would be Gen Z also, and this constant care and impact for others and feeling uh for others.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: They uh would speak about the problems of hypocrisy you might see in the church or in society, and that's that's a really big thing.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have anything you might say about hypocrisy?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: This goes through my mind a lot.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: I would say this is 50% true.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: There are plenty of hypocrites that you can point to in the church, people who aren't doing it great, also leaders who fail, who look super shiny on the outside, and their failures do like cause a ripple effect.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why the Bible talks about those who teach have a greater responsibility.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like we're going to be held to account even more.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: So there is some of that.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: But I also do think that the narrative has kind of blown out beyond reality to some degree.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: For example, let's go back to LGBT issues.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: The idea of someone who's trying to take a traditional view of marriage and says that as I go through scripture, this is my conclusion.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: There will be teens in this demographic who be like, Well, you're such a hypocrite.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: You say you're about love, but you don't think this is okay.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's kind of a misguided accusation of you're a hypocrite.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's not hypocritical to say, I believe the Bible says the traditional view of marriage.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's not hypocrisy.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's just an exegetical approach that I would vouch for.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: But there are some teens who will sit there and say, Well, that's antiquated, that's not loving, and you're a hypocrite.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a little dissonance, but I will say the church has done plenty to earn that the hypocritical title as well.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a both and.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: No, and it doesn't necessarily only apply to LGBTQ issues for sure.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: If somebody says they care for the poor, but on the other hand are not, uh, I think this generation sees through that much more clearly.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: Would you agree with that?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: I would believe that on both party lines, when it comes to politics, they're admirable things that good God-fearing Christians believe.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think this generation actually is doing a good job of accentuating those aspects in politics that actually align with scripture, if that makes sense.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: So some of it's misinformed, but others, I do feel that when it comes to social issues, I mean, most of it is social issues, and rightfully so.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: But I think there are a lot of teens on both sides of party lines that can point to different things in the different parties and say, This I can get behind, and this I can get behind.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: And that that's actually encouraging.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think that is, and maybe that's where some of the hope is for the future of the nation, with polarities that we're seeing right now.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: But back to this issue of empathy, I think that this really is a strong point of Gen Z and wanting, at least we're seeing in our church, wanting to help out, let's say in a soup kitchen in the city.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: That seems to be appealing, even if they're not able to attend at times.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: But the uh desire to help those who are on the streets, I think is very real.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's what's exciting is uh there's some teens, you know, teenage years are typically ones you're trying to find yourself, you're naturally me centered.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: I honestly think there are more percentage of teens who are other centered than there were when I was growing up, at least.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: Speaking about our growing up times, Gen Z seems to have a fair amount of technology that they're dealing with, and it's just part of the fabric of living than uh other generations.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: How do you think that's affecting this generation and the way that young people think about Christianity?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, again, this is a both and thing because as adults we'll come in and say, you know, how they're always on their phone and we'll swoop in and have these cranky types of approaches.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: But the stats show that teens are actually able to connect and create amazing things they wouldn't be able to otherwise.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I think it's something like 55% of teens say they can be more creative online and through technology than they can without it.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: So there's some hope there that, you know, this is an expression thing where for crying out loud, I feel like my nine months when my kid was nine months old, she was able to unlock my phone.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the idea of they are digital natives.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we had to learn this.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: I had dial up, I had AOL instant messenger.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: Good grief.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: But they've just grown up with it around them.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: But there are mental adverse effects for sure.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: They did some studies and they said they listed a bunch of obstacles before teens and they said, which do you think?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think this is?
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: A huge issue, an issue, a little issue, or not an issue at all.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: The number one thing that came through was anxiety.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: 70% of teens said anxiety is a huge issue for this generation.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then another 20-something percent said it is an issue.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: The way that technology is affecting us can have a huge negative impact.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: Because picture this when you went to high school back in the day, you were comparing yourself and your insecurities and figuring out who you are, your talents, who are your people.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: You used to compare against like a couple hundred kids.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Now you're comparing against the world.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like imagine you're learning guitar and you finally figure out this one song and you're playing it, and you're like, man, I'm making progress.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: This is great.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, then you're scrolling through Instagram and you see a video of a kid in Australia who's 10, who plays it even better than you do.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: And oh, by the way, they can play every other song you can't.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: That feeling of like, ugh, I guess I'm not that great at this at all.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you, that's not just as a teenager, that's like a real life example from me as a guitar player a couple of months ago.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it's so true.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, this Australian kid is playing this song better than I could.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, man, I guess I'm not good at guitar.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: So imagine that as a teenager, you have all of these images of, well, I guess I'm not pretty enough, or you'll see a girl, a popular girl who posts a picture of a dandelion and it gets like 700 likes.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then you put a post out there and you get 30.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: And you're like, well, why does she get how does how does this work?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's a tough environment to navigate, and we're seeing the internal turmoil from it.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: Well, social media can also give false narratives.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: Do you find that also affecting youth or how happy?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what though?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: There are kind of hashtags or conversations that are kind of a counter movement to this.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: One thing we have to realize is we we can become so fatalist when we talk about Christianity in America.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: I believe that the more the world rises and shows fakeness, the more that the genuineness of Jesus is very appealing.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: There are kids who are seeing through the lies.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: They're seeing through this.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: They're saying, like, oh yeah, that's that's how you look from that angle, but I see you day to day.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like they're able to kind of see through, and I think the narrative is growing of social media isn't real.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: This comparison game hurts, it's caustic, it's not great.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Selena Gomez, she's like a list celebrity.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: She actually shut down her Instagram because as she's scrolling through, she feels bad about herself.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: And this is like the pantheon of American gods that we're saying, right?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like our celebrities are our idols.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: And she's even saying she's reached the top and she's like, Man, I feel bad about myself.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: She had to cut that out, and there's students who are making that same decision.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: They're saying, Hey, I'm gonna get off of Instagram or take a break.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: It it's pretty remarkable to see there's some path of discernment coming in and good conversations being had.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: How do you think COVID-19 has affected this generation?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: How's that changed the way Gen Z thing?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was two years of social stunting to the point where a sixth grader acts like a fourth grader or has the social cues of a fourth grader, or a tenth grader is you know, just a few notches behind where they might typically be.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I've also seen that anxiety in public spaces has risen for sure.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Just kind of those social environments.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: But I think it has also increased the need for being together.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the fears that we had in leadership was oh man, doing this church online thing, does that mean all of our teens are gonna think they can just get Jesus on the fly and they don't need genuine community?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Springtide research has done some fantastic research on this topic, and they polled students, and this is what they said the statement is this a totally online religious community could meet all my spiritual needs.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: 33% of students strongly disagreed.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: 34% disagreed.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: So two out of three teens are saying online isn't real enough to accomplish what I need for my faith community.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's incredibly encouraging because face to face is so much more important.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: There's some benefits out of COVID.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: For example, same study, teens were polled and said, What was a benefit of lockdown?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: 54% said getting more time to myself.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: The next thing, 45%, was getting more family time.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a great reset.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: It was a chance for us to realign our priorities.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: It was to force us to be around the dinner table.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I think there's some good family values that caught.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think there was some good ability to get a little more into your introvert nature and not just numb yourself with activity.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I think there's some good things coming out of it.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: But there are studies out there too that show that there's still mental anxiety that we're kind of clearing out from that experience.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's interesting, the uh desire to be more connected to family as a result of COVID.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: I guess it could have gone another way.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh get me away from uh my family.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm around them all the time.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but that's interesting.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: Stats would say more interest in being together.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: I guess that becomes very important then for someone who's interested in a relationship with Christ, a relationship with church is the value for family.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: I know you're working with youth in youth groups, but tell me how you promote being together as family as well as being together with the community of faith.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's becoming a more common phrase in youth ministry, and it's so true.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's the idea that the parent is the primary discipler in the home.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a phrase that's starting to turn some cultures.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: There's some youth groups out there who are doing like really revolutionary type things that is 100% breaking out of the mold of youth group.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I still believe youth group has its place.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think if we were to think of youth group as a kid's small group, in the sense of that's kind of how it functions in adult world, if we were to use that terminology, but nothing replaces the influence of the parent in the home.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: As a church, we're starting to move away from the concept that we drop our kid off so they can get fixed up, tuned up, Jesus, and then they return to me a committed disciple.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: And parents are really starting to have more of those conversations.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: One of my favorite things to do, and if anyone listening to this wants more information on this organization, I promote access all the time.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: My wife and I actually flew out there in Colorado to speak with leadership one-on-one and get a specific training because it's all about equipping parents to be the leaders.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: We have some great resources that are available for any parent who's listening and saying, like, hey, I want to tag into that.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a huge asset to helping parents just wrap their mind around how can I lead my kids when number one, your kids see the worst of you.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: The people who should have the lowest opinion of me are the people who live in my house.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's just how it is.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: But they also need me the most.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: They need me to figure out how to model Jesus in my home.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: And my job is to help parents think through that.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: So it's so important.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of the biggest factors of whether a kid will stick with the faith or move on after college.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: The care for the home, so so very important, integral for youth ministry.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I understand you're combining youth groups from various churches and meeting here at Central Schwenkfelder Church on Monday nights at seven.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: Can you tell us why you're combining youth groups together?
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: So this has been a vision that's probably four or five years in the works.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it's great to see it out of the gate start to take root because during my time I've I've felt a burden for churches that are trying to get momentum with their youth group.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's hard to do it if kids are busy with sports and activities and this and that, and it feels like everyone's scattered.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: But even as far as the church, if we're able to show the world that we are one body, that we follow one Jesus, and because we have Jesus in common, we have all things in common that are necessary.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: So the hope is to bring more teens into a space to learn from each other, challenge each other, and to chase Jesus together.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because the bottom line is my teens at my church need your teens at your church and the teens across the street from the other church to really see the capital C church working together.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: And we're talking about generations.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: Gen Z has a craving for working together unlike ever before.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: So if we can figure this out, if we can come together in one space, put aside differences and follow Jesus together, I think that's going to be a huge, huge tool that Jesus will use for these teams.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: We understand you've already had a first meeting and it's going very well.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: And certainly wish you the best on uh this combined uh youth group that's meeting at Central Schwankfelder on Monday nights.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: As well as your uh other work with youth ministry, Johnny.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's been very good to speak with you about your work with uh Generation Z, and we wish you all the best.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: Great to have you here.