Being the “first generation fully free from the Boomer cultural grip,” Generation Z evangelicals are fashioning a distinct approach to ministry and church leadership based on wider opportunities, writes Aaron Renn in his Substack newsletter (September 23). Gen Z evangelicals are far enough removed from their older boomer counterparts that they may not even know of prominent and recently deceased evangelicals, such as James Dobson and John MacArthur. Renn cites the podcaster and influencer known as Redeemed Zoomer (RZ), who runs Operation Reconquista, as an “example of how many Gen Z people see the landscape of America very differently than previous generations.” Rather than calling for people to leave the mainline churches for more conservative evangelical denominations or congregations, RZ advocates joining a mainline church and working for renewal within. He thinks that if enough people do this, the faithful will inherit these denominations. Renn adds that while the loss of evangelical influence over mainline institutions had shaped the boomer approach, “Gen Z is arriving on the scene after mainline decline has reached a much more advanced point, and [at a time when] some of the older veterans of previous denominational wars are no longer around. They view these denominations as an opportunity zone.”
Renn cites the example of a pastor who is following RZ’s advice and pursuing a ministry in the mainline Presbyterian Church in the USA (PCUSA) rather than the evangelical Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). In order to avoid seminary student debt and long waits to open pulpits in the PCA, he took the mainline option because the PCUSA pays for his education and provides greater ministry opportunities in a denomination where there is a pastor shortage. Renn writes that in a similar way, Gen Z does not aspire to plant new churches like their older Millennial counterparts, mainly due to the “greater opportunity landscape.” A big factor in church planting among Millennials was their feeling squeezed out of existing congregational opportunities by baby boomers who were holding onto the reins of many institutions. Now boomers are finally departing the scene, some via retirement, some through death, and the younger generations are smaller, with the number of people getting ministry-track degrees in seminaries also declining. “This means Gen Z has the realistic chance to go straight into a pastor position, at least in a smaller church,” Renn adds. He sees RZ as representing a new kind of cultural and institutional strategist, much as Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church was for the boomers. “As Keller talked about the strategic nature of global cities, RZ talks about the strategic value of mainline institutions. His YouTube channel has over 600,000 subscribers. His Operation Reconquista Discord has lots of people in it. Movements and institutions like Presbyterians for the Kingdom are spinning out of it.”
