What’s in this Episode?

Commitment. Wouldn’t you love it if everyone in the church who said they would do something would actually do it? And then you talk about Millennials and Gen Z… I mean, for goodness sakes, how do you get them to stay committed? We’re going to talk about how to get Millennials and Gen Z to stay committed.

---

Read the Transcript

Dick Hardy 0:21
Hey, friend, welcome to Church Tips today! We are excited to have our content manager here of Leaders.Church, Ryan Sparks. Ryan’s been working with us for the last couple of years. And the guy who’s normally sitting here, Jonathan, is out on a well deserved break for a few days. So we’re gonna take the opportunity to talk for the next three episodes about issues specific to millennials and Gen Z. So, Ryan, hey, it’s great to have you with us. Tell us a little bit about you.

Ryan Sparks 0:46
It’s great to be here. I’m a student at North Central University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And you know, I’ve poured my heart and soul into ministry and I’m just excited to be here and talk about this!

Dick Hardy 0:55
Well we love it! We love it. Give us a jumpstart on some things you’re seeing with millennials and Gen Z.

Ryan Sparks 0:59
Yeah, well, first I want to start with a story. I led a college age life group a few years back and man, the inconsistency of this college age life group was crazy.

Dick Hardy 1:09
No!

Ryan Sparks 1:09
Yeah for real, seriously, it’s crazy because the people in this life group, the small group, were committed to being there at first. And the problem was, you know, there’s distractions. There’s, you know, there’s social plans, there’s college, there’s all kinds of things that get in the way.

Dick Hardy 1:26
You’ve got a boyfriend or girlfriend this week and not next week!

Ryan Sparks 1:29
Exactly. And it’s not necessarily the leaders fault. It’s not necessarily where you’re having it. It’s not necessarily what’s happening in the group. It’s just the reality of young people. So there’s major inconsistency.

Dick Hardy 1:39
Well, there really is and then you know this as a pastor, that when you’re dealing with the younger adults, you’re figuring out how do we get these millennials and Gen Z to stay committed, and that’s exactly what we want to talk about here with Ryan today. So Ryan, give us a jumpstart. There’s some things that you and I have banged around that you think would be helpful for pastors to factor as they’re moving forward with this issue of commitment.

Tip #1: Leverage the Ambition of Young People

Ryan Sparks 2:03
Yeah, for sure. I think the first thing is, you need to leverage the ambition of young people. And the reality is, there’s this notion that young people don’t want to be involved in the church. And oh, you know, the young people, you know, it’s really hard to get them in the church. And so a lot of times they don’t even try. Pastors won’t even try and they’ll kind of push it aside. And, and we can’t do that. Young people, the reality is, they want to be involved. They want to be involved a lot, too. And so we need to embrace the ambition that young people possess already, because it’s already there. We just need to latch on to it and say, hey, here’s some opportunities for you to serve. Hey, what are you interested in? What career field do you want to go into? Hey, we’ve got this serving opportunity for you that actually fits what you’re already interested in. And so what a young person does there, is they say, you’re looking at me and saying, I’ve got an opportunity for you. I’ve got an opportunity for you to use your voice. I’ll take it. That’s what young people do.

Dick Hardy 2:57
And they really do want to be heard, don’t they?

Ryan Sparks 2:58
Yeah, for sure.

Dick Hardy 2:59
That’s for sure. And I’d say one of the things that I observe from my age to yours is that it can look differently. When I think of the ambition of my peers versus the ambition of your peers, a pastor needs to be looking at it differently, because they’re trying to mobilize both people.

Ryan Sparks 3:19
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I definitely agree. I think that like, another thing, the Church needs to be encouraging the young people to find their calling. And so if the young people are like, you know, in this phase where they’re in college, and they’re trying to figure out, you know, they switch their major all the time, they’re trying to figure out what do I want to do with life? A perfect example of that is, hey, we’ve got this serving opportunity for you. And that actually pushes them towards their interests, it pushes them towards what they’re going to be called to do, and what they might be, you know, doing in the future.

Dick Hardy 3:48
And then strengthens the ability for them to commit.

Ryan Sparks 3:50
Absolutely.

Dick Hardy 3:51
Well, you and I talked to earlier about the whole sense of pastors not giving up on this to be relentless. Talk to us a little bit about that, you know, sticking to it.

Tip #2: Be Relentless

Ryan Sparks 4:00
Yeah, yeah, that would be the second point is be relentless. Because ultimately, like I said earlier, it might not be your fault that people are leaving the church, it might not be your fault or anything the church is doing that young people, you know, are there one week and then not the next three and then there again. It might not be anything to do with what’s happening in the church, it could just be that you know, a relationship, you know, happened or something like that, or college work or finals week or whatever it is. So young people have a life that is constantly changing, constantly going everywhere at once. And so you have to realize that there’s a lot of factors that play into the attendance, play into the involvement of young people. So be relentless. Keep asking them to come back, keep inviting them to social events, keep inviting them to church events, keep giving them opportunity, because they will respond to that.

Dick Hardy 4:48
Wouldn’t you say that a pastor needs to be a student of this generation. You can’t just think that they’re just like previous generations. They’re just Like Gen Z, they’re just like boomers. You’ve got to study them.

Ryan Sparks 5:04
Yeah, for sure. It’s so important because in our society right now, I would say that millennials and especially Generation Z, are changing more rapidly than any other generation before. And they’re changing every single day. You know, with social media, there’s things there’s fads, there’s trends that come out, you know, almost daily, where what was cool yesterday is not cool anymore. What was good yesterday is not good anymore, you know? And so, yeah, you need to be a student and not only what is cool, what is happening in you know, that generation, but what their tendencies are and what they’re driven towards.

Dick Hardy 5:43
Well and I’ve also just heard studies on the fact that particularly older pastors who are in the last half of their ministry career, that’s a diplomatic way to say the gray hair and so on, they can’t even think, to your point, they can’t even think of a 22 year old, like an 18 year old.

Ryan Sparks 6:04
Yeah.

Dick Hardy 6:05
They’re different. Whereas if you’re my age, you look at 18, 22, 25, they’re not.

Ryan Sparks 6:12
No not at all.

Dick Hardy 6:12
They think differently, therefore, you have to be a student of that. And you’ve got to be relentless in going after them. To talk to us about the next thought you had. I found it fascinating.

Tip #3: Value the Opinion of Young People

Ryan Sparks 6:23
Yeah, the third point, I would say, is value the opinion of young people. Like we said…

Dick Hardy 6:28
Operative word: value.

Ryan Sparks 6:29
Yes, yes, you need to value that opinion, because, you know, like, let’s take youth groups, for example. I know, that’s not the generation we’re really talking about. But say, you know, if we’re trying to figure out what a youth group wants to do, what the youth are interested in, ask the youth! You know, if you’re sitting around a table, and you know, you’re all 30, like, it’s going to be hard to figure out what the people that are involved are actually interested in. And so I would say when you’re dealing with young people go to them to see if what they’re interested in and what they genuinely want out of a church experience.

Dick Hardy 7:04
And then pay attention to it.

Ryan Sparks 7:05
And then pay attention to it!

Dick Hardy 7:06
One of the worst things to do is ask their opinion and blow it off…

Ryan Sparks 7:09
And then not do it.

Dick Hardy 7:10
Yeah that is a loser, absolute loser. Then you’ve talked about, we’re going to provide an opportunity. So talk to us a little bit about that.

Tip #4: Provide Opportunities for Genuine Connection

Ryan Sparks 7:18
Yeah. And so we talked a little bit about, you know, leveraging what people are interested, but I want to dive a little bit deeper into that, you know, the emphasis on like, the attractional basis of church right now is not a bad thing. Alright so if you have attractional things like, hey, we’re gonna have popsicles today for service, that’s not a bad thing. But it can’t be the only thing. And so if you are, you know, pushing toward bringing people in and providing you know, genuine connection, opportunities for genuine connection, that thing is not going to be, you know, hey, we have popsicles before service and everything, it’s going to be, hey, you know, we’re having a service where we’re going to pray together, we’re going to have opportunities for a lifegroup we’re going to have, you know, this genuine connection because ultimately, young people want the real relationships. They want the real relationship with people and the real relationship with God. They’ve got a lot of questions and they want the answers.

Dick Hardy 8:11
Yes, absolutely. That’s outstanding Ryan. I really appreciate that. Give us a snapshot or give us a recap of the things you just talked, about these four things.

Recap:

Ryan Sparks 8:20
Yeah, so the first one’s going to be leverage the ambition of young people, then we’re gonna be relentless, value the opinion of young people and then finally provide opportunities for genuine connection.

Dick Hardy 8:31
You know, honestly, if pastors will pay attention to these four things, they’re going to see themselves move way down the line of really getting the kind of commitment out of millennials and Gen Z that they want. So, Ryan, I really appreciate you taking time to talk with us on this today. You know, we do want you to tap into the next two episodes, episodes number 43 and 44. Ryan’s going to be back as our guest and both of those and you’re going to have some great content that is going to be very, very valuable to you. Also want to mention, as a leader, while you’re thinking of leading millennials and Gen Z, you need to be developing as a leader yourself and we strongly encourage you to take advantage of the Five Day Leadership Challenge that we’ve made available to you. Just put in leaders.church/challenge and you’ll be able to jump in and get a 12 to 15 minute video every day. And that’s designed to help you. Not do everything else, but help you be better as a leader, because when you get better, then that sets the stage for the church to get better.

Dick Hardy 9:33
Also, we certainly would encourage you to subscribe to the podcast whatever platform you’re watching to it and the YouTube channel and rate and review everything you can we certainly appreciate that. In fact, we’ve got a review here from Mzee John and he says, if it’s a he, I’m guessing that maybe it’s a he, “practical, proven strategies to strengthen the impact of the church. Adopting right procedures to produce right results. Well done, leaders.church.” Man, I like this guy. So you rate and review and maybe we’re going to read your review on one of the future podcasts. So anything to add Ryan?

Ryan Sparks 10:10
I think we’re good!

Dick Hardy 10:11
We’re good to go. Thanks very much for watching. We’ll look forward to seeing you next time. Be blessed.

Subscribe & Follow:

• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
• Follow on Spotify
• Subscribe to YouTube Channel
• Subscribe on Google Podcasts
• Like us on Facebook
• Follow us on Instagram
• Follow us on Twitter

Other Resources:

• Leaders.Church
• Leaders.Church Blog
• Church University
• Take the Free 5 Day Leadership Challenge for Pastors
• Get Free Access to the 4 Secrets Masterclass

Share This Article

---