By Lawrence Okenyi

Who is still awake like I am?. In my analytical way I have given this Gen Z matter some thought.

I have a teenage daughter and boys that are becoming very conscious of themselves, so the matter is worth giving a thought to.

History has shown that major changes occur in the church when technology advances. The Lutheran objection to the Roman Catholic church occured at the time of the breakthrough in the printing press technology, with the capacity to mass produce books and we know the Bible was a scarce document at the time.

With the breakthrough on social media today and what is referred to as citizen journalism, every Joe now has a voice and there is a ‘democratization’ of information, knowledge does cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. The millennials and Gen Zs have access to information at the click of a button that was hitherto locked away in libraries.

People in church today have access to other voices around the globe. This has the tendency to challenge the status quo.

This development has it’s positive and negative sides.
It is my opinion that young people are more open minded than the Gen X and baby boomers whose minds have been harrowed by the winter of life, making them more cautious and rather closed minded.

The problem is that God is passing information all the time and it’s the open minded that are more prone to accommodate new ideas.

The best way to approach millennials and Gen Zs is to listen to them. Don’t stifle them because their approach seems different, don’t stereotype them either just because they tend to be louder than usual. Eliab called David stubborn and loving danger and tried to shut David down. Saul asked David to wear his armour, thinking it was the only way to defeat Goliath, if armours save why didn’t Saul use it instead? We must learn to listen to the younger generation, God has communicated certain solutions to them, their approach may not be conventional but listen to them all the same.

The down side is that the younger generation are not as focused as we were growing up, the distraction of social media is real, the discipline to stay focused is priceless.

Another downside is that they are prone to pride, the Bible says knowledge puffs up. David did not listen to Eliab neither did he take on Saul’s armour but David’s knowledge had been tested in the backside of the desert, he had overcome a hungry lion and a ferocious bear. Don’t be puffed up with knowledge you have not tested.

Don’t be puffed up with knowledge you have not tested.

– Lawrence Okenyi

After the young ladies sang that David had killed his 10 thousands, David still went back to the sheepfold even after the national awards and recognition. David still honoured Saul when Saul went after his life and called him God’s anointed. The tendency to criticize everyone and call them names on social media was not something David would have done.

This leads to my third consideration of the downsides. On the social media highway, the younger generation is exposed to all kinds of information, they must be witty enough to sift the wheat from the chaff like David did. There is a massive onslaught of an anti Christ movement going on; and social media has aided it a great deal. To gain audience they started by attacking tithing and they have since grown in sophistication peddling all kinds of heresies. It got so bad that Daddy Freeze started mentoring some. David could reject Saul’s armour but never said anything evil about Saul even though Saul was not a good guy.

This democratization of information like I call it gives this generation a sense of freedom, freedom is good if the boundaries are clearly marked. Someone referred to it as “taking a dog on a walk without a leash”. The young generation must learn to be more discerning and be accountable to an authority figure, they must learn that “freedom is a myth and only exists within predestined structure”.

Let’s allow the younger generation to thrive, they may make their mistakes as long as it is not fatal, let’s give them opportunities for expression. They do bring a lot to the table.
The leash may be long but let there be a leash regardless.

Good night.

Lawrence Okenyi is the pastor of The Baptizing Church, Kubwa, Abuja, Nigeria.