Feeling a bit disconnected in your walk with Christ?
Well, Pastor Greg Laurie has a great new book called What Every Growing Christian Needs to Know that'll help. Let's say you're feeling lethargic and tired. You know, if you have a diet of social media and you don't take time for the Word of God, this is going to have a damaging effect.
So this is just one of the things we talk about in this new book called What Every Growing Christian Needs to Know. Available at harvest.org. But Ruslan has become a significant voice. In our culture today, especially among younger people.
So let's talk a little bit about that. Let's kind of focus a little bit on Gen Z. You know, they've been described. by some as the hopeless generation Uh 72% of them now are using AI companions instead of human interaction. They're literally going to chat.
Or clawed or whatever, and they're asking questions they should be asking of God and asking at church with biblical response.
So there's people who are older who maybe are perplexed by this generation, Gen Z. Like, let's put myself in the position: okay, as an older person, a boomer, what do I need to know about Gen Z, about what I can do to help them? Yeah, I think for starters, Gen Z is the most Jesus curious generation as well. Why do you say that?
Well, the data shows that they almost half of Gen Z is Jesus curious and Jesus open. That doesn't mean they're Christian. Would you contrast that to Gen X, which was more secular? Yeah, Gen X was way more secular. Do you feel like they kind of feel like they got left out, the boomers, and then it went to Gen Z and like, hey, what about us?
Well, you know, the interesting thing, I went down, I went deep on this, and I found out that Gen Z, oddly enough, is the least sexually active generation. Isn't that interesting? Yeah, least sexually. You know, the most sexually active generation was Gen Xers and Boomers. Yeah.
All the free love stuff and the hippie stuff and you know that.
So they're the least sexually active. They're the most open to Jesus. They're the most isolated and alone, but they're most interconnected.
So they're like a walking, talking paradox in real time. They're very confused. They're very anxious. They're very stressed out. And I think.
Wait. It's difficult in terms of dealing with them as they start thinking that their struggles are unique to them. And they forget that every generation has had a unique struggle. And so you think of the millennials. I got married in 2008 right as the housing market and the economy fell apart.
And it was very difficult just finding a part-time job.
So every generation has unique challenges. They're going to deal with a bit more inflation, unfortunately, and all the supply chain issues with COVID. you know, senior, junior years of high school, freshman years of college, they were locked down.
So they feel like they were robbed of some stuff and they were, considering that, you know, I think we locked down too hard and overdid it. And so there's a lot of frustration and disorientation. And I think they're also not the most equipped with processing information well.
So they're very onto the next thing.
So right now, oh, you know, Israel bad.
So now they're on that train. Then, you know, before that, it was BLM and police are bad. And before that, you know, so it's like they kind of move on from thing to thing and they and they love. Love, they want to change the world, but they don't want to change their world.
So they're not thinking about what's in front of me right now that I can influence. They want to think about what's happening 3,000 miles away. They want to think about this action over here. And so they end up kind of missing what's right in front of them. And so, what I'm trying to do is say, hey, hey, guys, like, There's a lot of stuff you can't control.
We can't the family we were born into, the year we were born, where we live, we can't control some, but you can control what's in front of you. Let's work on what we control and doing those inputs. And I think they need like every Gen Z person needs a good boomer in their life. They need someone in their life to remind them that you're not that unique. You're not that special.
And let me tell you something. You think it's hard to buy a house? How about when interest rates were 15% or whatever they were in the 70s and the 80s? Right. You think it's difficult now?
How about when we had the gas shortage in the 70s and all these things? We don't remember these things as millennials because we didn't live through these things, but you guys have gone through some serious things, wars and crazy events. And so I think they need someone that's older, that's a boomer that can sit there and be like, you're not that unique. There's always uncertainty. There's always chaos.
That's actually the natural. State of the world is chaos. Like you're in a westernized American bubble where everything is orderly and there's laws. No, no, no. The natural state of the world is chaos.
Yes. And so I'm always encouraging a lot of the Gen Z, like, get you a good boomer in your life. Get someone that you could just sit with and talk to. I love that. You know, when I first came to Christ, I never had a father figure or for that matter a mother figure.
So when I became a believer. I wanted to meet godly older people. And it's funny, I didn't hang around people my age, but I'd like to hang around older people more because I thought I have to figure these things out. I don't even know how to function really in a practical way. Pastor Chuck Smith was a father figure for me.
Later, I had the privilege of getting to know Billy Graham, you know, a father-type figure, others in my life that were very important, other godly women too, that I could talk to and ask questions. Chuck had a wife. They're both in heaven now, but her name is Kaya. I talked to her about things. And I had my aunt, my mother's sister, who helped me a lot.
But it's so important and it's so great for the older folks to have a place to share the things they've learned. And I've also compared it to older believers and new believers. Older believers need new believers in their life to energize them. And new believers need older believers in their life to stabilize them. Yeah, that's good.
So it's kind of the same principle, but over in the spiritual world a little bit more. How old were you in your early 20s? 20s, as you're coming to faith teens, early 20s. And how old was Chuck at that time? Oh, my, good question.
I was, well, I was, I came to Christ at 17. I started to get to know him at 18. He would have been in his early 40s at that point.
Okay. Which now sounds young to me. But he seems so much older. And he was already married with kids. And so he was, you know.
I learned kind of a work ethic from Chuck, too. Yeah. Because I had to learn how to provide for myself, to take care of myself, because sometimes my mom wouldn't come home at night.
So I had to scrounge money up, I had to feed myself, get myself ready for school, etc. Yeah. So, you know. But God used those things later in my life. I think he's used your upbringing as well.
And he can bring beauty out of ashes, as the Bible says, and even cause all things to work together for good. For his glory.
So, yeah. But looking for advice from older people, and I would always ask them lots of questions. But older folks can learn from younger people too, don't you think? Absolutely. And I think for starters, older folks need to know that you don't need to be intimidated by these guys.
They come off standoffish, too cool for school. But the moment you spend a little bit of time and those facades come down, they want to be known. They want to be known. They want to have time. A lot of these folks, they just want time.
They don't need you to have the house perfect. They don't need you to make a fancy dinner. Just open up your home. And we have an influx right now of Gen Z coming to faith, especially young Gen Z, men that are Gen Z that are coming to faith. Yes.
Swarming back to churches. Is that still happening? I think so. I mean, at our church, there's a ton of men. I mean, women too, but I see a lot of men.
So still is it more Gen Z men, young men than young women? That's what the data is showing. That's what the data is showing. I read that, but I wonder if it shifted a little or not. Yeah, I would say on a I'm seeing 55, 45, 55% men, 45% women.
Because in the past, it was more, it seemed like women would always lead the way in all these things. Yeah. Yeah. That's an unusual shift. It's a very unusual shift.
And so I think these folks just want relationships. They want to be around. More is caught than taught. And you don't gotta get the house perfect. You don't gotta make a perfect meal for them.
Just invite them over when you're doing the hard work. Invite them over when you're running errands. Invite them over to take them on a walk. Like they appreciate those simple things. And I think it's the proximity that matters.
And I would bet that in the same way, you know. Pastor Chuck wasn't intimidated by a bunch of young hippies and all these folks around. I would say that we need some of that fearlessness from the boomers to say, I'm not afraid of you guys, like, whatever. Like, okay, so you got TikTok brain. You know, you got a short attention span.
Okay, come over it, come over. And so now we got these young folks. And you got boomers who have homes and spaces for them to gather. That's another thing, is like the death of the third space, where what is the third space in between home and school? And a lot of them are coming from dysfunctional homes, so they don't want to be at home.
And so opening up the home to just say, come on over, come hang out. I love that. So that's something anybody could do, any like Christian listening. To this, they could open their home, and when they have dinner, they could invite some younger people over. And just say, hey, let's hang out.
Someone did that for me after I became a Christian, a guy named Mark. said, Hey, come over to my house for dinner. And I'd never been with a Christian family before. I'd never said grace before a meal. And so we had the meal, and then afterwards, we had a little Bible study.
We'd talk about the Bible. And it was just like revelatory to me. This is what I've been looking for, this is what I've been wanting. And so I came to Christ during his spiritual awakening. We've talked about it a lot: the Jesus Revolution, they made a movie out of it.
Do you think? Are you seen? Signs of what could be another revival among Gen Z. Right now, I am on the ground in terms of our church has doubled. You've met my pastor, Pastor Jeff Moore.
So within the last 18 months, our church has doubled in size. I just spoke at College Ave Church. They've doubled. And so I'm hearing a lot of churches doubling, tripling really quickly.
So I do think there seems to be a shift happening. And I think that that is a beautiful thing. Can you identify, because you travel around and you speak in different churches, like I've noticed this type of church is doubling and tripling, and this other type of church isn't. Oh, that's a great question.
Okay, so I would say the church, this is what makes Gen Z unique, is they want substance. They want to go deep.
So to find that. They want to know what the Greek says. They want to know about the manuscripts. They want to know about church history. They want to know and be informed.
And so they want to go deep.
So the churches that are exploding right now, again, Pastor Chris Hilkin, College Aft Church, right in SDSU, he's preaching an hour hard. There's not always an opening illustration. There's not a story. There's not a funny story. He's just, all right, guys, we're in Colossians chapter four, turning your Bibles.
Boom. I just went to see Pastor Joby Martin out at 1122, one of the, I want to say top 20 churches in America right now, over 30,000, 35,000 people next Sunday. Taking him through the Gospel of Matthew verse by verse. Hey, guys. Matthew, boom.
And then he's taking them through Matthew at Rhythm Church. We just finished Joshua. Before that, we spent a year in Acts.
So I would say they're preaching the scriptures, they're preaching the text. These churches are going along. They're 45 minutes minimal. They're going sometimes an hour. They're going deep.
And there is some sort of applicable step. What can you do? Step in, serve, contribute. Don't just be a consumer. Don't just sit, sit, and take, take, take, take, take.
No, step in and do something with the faith.
So, those are some of the identity markers that I'm noticing. Hey, everybody, thanks for listening to my podcast. Before you go, I wanted to let you know about the important work we're doing here at Harvest. You know, we've had the same goal these last 50 years, which is simply this. We want to know God and we want to make Him known.
And we do that in a lot of ways. Documentary films, animation, radio, television, large-scale evangelistic events, and more. If you want to be a part of what we're doing to fulfill the great commission, you can support us with whatever you can give. At harvest.org slash donate. Again, that's harvest.org slash donate, and thanks so much.
