This month sermons will equip us to share the Jesus story in the context our Gen Z children and grandchildren live in.

Gen Z — born between 1997 and 2012 — is the first generation raised in a culturally post‑Christian United States. They’ve always had technology in their lives. They’ve seen terrible things through constant global news access, and some of the worst things have been done by church leaders.

Even before COVID‑19, Gen Z faced a growing mental‑health crisis linked to heavy cell‑phone and social‑media use (Psychiatric Research). They ask, “Is it safe?” — physically, emotionally, spiritually.

As young people wrestle to make sense of their world, our goal is to understand how they see it and how we can respectfully bring the gospel into their context. In What Gen Z Really Wants to Know About God: Seven Questions About Life and Faith, author Tanita Tualla Maddox suggests we explore how Gen Z reflects the image of God — differently from other generations.

Gen Z is right where God made them to be, but they often don’t feel accepted or valued. They hear criticism for not being like older generations. God’s good news is that they do fit into His story. Many of their values come from God’s story, and He wants relationship with them just as much as with anyone else, no matter how “old‑fashioned” in thinking.