Gen Jesus

Gen Z. Gen Alpha. Gen Beta.

We have names for them, profiles of them and seminars explaining them. We study their habits, analyse their preferences and discuss how different they are from everyone who came before.

Some of that is useful. Understanding the world children are growing up in can help us love them well. But an excessive fascination with culture and generations can become a form of navel-gazing. We spend so long examining humanity that we forget to lift our eyes to the God who made us and his design for us.

The Gospel has not expired because another generation has arrived.

Jesus still saves. His death and resurrection are still good news. Every generation, in every culture, needs reconciliation with God. Our commission remains to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey Jesus (Matthew 28:19–20).

Full disclosure: I’m not cool. I have never been cool. I have never particularly aspired to be. Fashions pass me by. Pop culture references go right over my head (to the amusement of my friends and family). Yet the Lord can use me to share the Gospel with someone who is. I have something to share that they need: a living relationship with our Creator, who is making me more whole day by day.

That relationship answers a longing far deeper than the desire to fit in. We were made to know God. We may not recognise that longing or know how to express it, but no cultural trend can supply the life that comes from Him.

I saw this as I worked in an inner city setting with young people who were involved in gangs – a world far from my own upbringing in middle class England. I did not understand their world, I could not relate to their start in life, their family situations or their culture. But I could love them. In fact as I loved them the Lord used me to impact their lives.

This should encourage every parent, grandparent and children’s leader who worries that they are too old, too ordinary or too unfamiliar with the latest trends.

You can listen, learn and take a genuine interest without pretending to be someone else. Your usefulness to God does not depend on your ability to keep up with teenage slang. We are not trying to infiltrate their culture – we are inviting them to join the kingdom culture. Not Gen Alpha, but Gen Jesus!

Helpful tools need their proper place

Sociology can help us recognise social pressures as we study trends in society in a specific generation. Psychology can deepen our understanding of emotions and relationships. Child development can help us communicate appropriately. Educational research can improve our teaching, and anthropology can expose assumptions we have mistaken for universal truths.

We should welcome sound insights and allow them to correct unhelpful methods.

But these disciplines cannot determine which parts of the Gospel we retain.

Research may help us explain repentance to a child. It cannot make repentance unnecessary. Understanding someone’s experiences may help us speak sensitively about God’s fatherhood. It cannot require us to stop revealing Him as Father.

The danger comes when cultural acceptability becomes our test of truth. We gradually remove whatever unsettles people until our message simply reassures them that their existing way of life needs no transformation.

Yet Romans 12:2 calls us to resist conformity to this world and be transformed through renewed minds. That challenge applies to our own comfortable church culture as much as anyone else’s.

Paul understood culture—and preached Christ

Paul was culturally aware. In Athens, he noticed religious practices and quoted local poets. He used familiar ideas as a starting point, then challenged idolatry and proclaimed repentance, judgement and resurrection (Acts 17:22–31). Understanding his listeners helped him address them directly.

Writing to Titus, Paul also cited a Cretan saying about dishonesty, brutality and laziness. The surrounding passage addresses destructive teaching and conduct, and his purpose was that those being corrected should become sound in the faith (Titus 1:10–14). Cultural patterns were something the Gospel could confront; they were not an excuse to leave people unchanged.

Yet Paul told the Corinthians that he had resolved to know “nothing … except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). His confidence rested in God’s power, rather than his own impressive presentation.

What, then, about becoming all things to all people?

In 1 Corinthians 9:19–23, Paul describes willingly adapting and surrendering his rights to reach others. But he explicitly remains under Christ’s authority. His flexibility served his faithfulness to Jesus. It did not replace it.

We can change our vocabulary, illustrations, activities and approach. We cannot change the Lord we are inviting people to follow.

The child in front of you is a person

No child fits neatly into a generational profile.

Two children born in the same year can have very different personalities, family circumstances, questions and experiences. A description of “what this generation wants” can never tell us everything about the child sitting beside us.

We need to listen to that child. We also need to listen to the Lord.

In Acts 8:26–35, Philip was directed to an Ethiopian official. He approached, listened, asked a question and began with the Scripture the man was reading. From there, he explained the good news about Jesus. The Spirit’s leading brought him into a particular conversation with a particular person.

We can pray before a session, during a conversation or while walking to school: “Lord, help me see this child. What should I ask? What do they need to understand about You?”

Preparation matters. So does remaining attentive to God when the conversation takes an unexpected turn.

Love demonstrates the Gospel. Words explain it.

Children should experience the love we proclaim through our patience, kindness, consistency and willingness to make time for them. 1 John 3:18 calls us to love through action and truth. That love must be genuine, whether or not someone responds as we hope. But kindness alone does not explain the cross.

People need to hear that Jesus died for our sins and rose again, and that forgiveness and new life are available through Him (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). Romans 10:14 asks how people can believe in someone of whom they have not heard.

We must both demonstrate God’s love and explain His good news.

Live fully for the Lord

Our aim is to live boldly for Jesus, love people deeply and follow the Holy Spirit. That will bring moments of connection with culture and moments when obedience requires us to stand against it.

Christian allegiance also places a limit on any authority that demands our complete loyalty. Whether the pressure comes from a repressive state, an institution or our peers, Acts 5:29 establishes the priority: obedience to God comes first.

Such conviction must remain joined to gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15–16). Refusing compromise does not give us permission to become harsh.

So, by all means learn about the generations. Listen carefully. Improve your communication. But keep your confidence firmly in Jesus. Here is my thought that inspired this blog – if we spent more time studying Jesus than researching culture, would we more effective at revealing Jesus to every culture and every generation. Genuine love and care is recognised by everyone. We must take heed to give priority to the content over the packaging.

After all Jesus said in John 13:35, all men will know we are his disciples, not when we relate to their culture but when we are part of a loving community centred around Christ. It is the genuineness of our love that will reveal the reality of our faith.

The children we serve need more than an accurate description of their generation. They need to discover who they can become in Him.

Gen Jesus: people of every age, in every culture, finding their life and identity in Christ.