Podcast

043 – How to Help Millennials and Gen Z Champion Change

Posted on August 18, 2020December 4, 2023 by Ryan Sparks

What’s in this Episode?

Have you ever looked at the energy that Millennials and Gen Z have at your church? Do you wish you could channel that energy into the change that you know needs to happen? Well, today we’re going to talk about exactly that, how to help millennials and gen z champion change.

Read the Transcript

Hey friend! Great to have you on this Church Tips podcast. We are excited today to again have our content manager Ryan Sparks. They put me on here with Ryan just because generationally, we’re so close together. Joke folks, joke. Jonathan is out on a well deserved break, as we mentioned, but we did do yesterday’s podcast on helping with millennials and Gen Z and commitment in the church. So if you didn’t watch episode 42, I strongly encourage you to go back and take a look. Ryan had some great content in that one. And today we’re going to talk about how to help millennials champion change. So Ryan, jumpstart us into that.

Ryan Sparks 0:59
Yeah, well change… I think everyone right now understands change to the full extent.

Dick Hardy 1:05
Are things changing?

Ryan Sparks 1:05
Things are changing. Things are changing. So I got to North Central University in Minneapolis, I mentioned that last episode. And when COVID-19 hit, we left for break, you know, and nobody came back to campus. So talk about a change that you have to, you know, adapt to quickly. And so, ultimately, with young people, change is gonna happen, whether there’s COVID-19 or not, you know, there’s there’s college things that get thrown at you, there’s relationships that get thrown at you, whatever change happens very frequently. And so you have to know how to handle it.

Dick Hardy 1:36
Well, as a pastor, it’s our role to understand that for young people, and then to be able to mobilize them to champion change at the church, because you know, there are things that have to happen and you’ve got things happening with COVID right now that you need some young people to come alongside you and help you with that, and Ryan’s going to help talk us through some thoughts for you to help make that happen. So let’s jump into this. So what’s the first thing that a pastor needs to be thinking about?

Tip #1: Frame Change Around Progress

Ryan Sparks 2:06
Yeah, so the first thing is you need to frame change around progress. And so what I mean by that is if you know, like, you already know, the change that you’re about to change is necessary for the church to move forward and necessary for the church to grow. Yeah, but not everyone may know that. And so if you’re saying, you know, hey, we’re going to make this change, this is necessary, communicate that this is necessary to push forward. Don’t make it to where this thing is, we have to change this because this happened or we have to change this because you know, we just feel this is the right way to go. Make it, hey, we’re changing this to better you and to better the church. And so speaking specifically to Millennials and Gen Z. They need to understand the reasons for the change.

Dick Hardy 2:51
You can’t be just, you know, I’m bringing it down from on high. That’s where the communication is so critical, framing this around the progress, what’s the next thing?

Tip #2: Ensure That Your Change is Actually Necessary

Ryan Sparks 3:01
Yeah the next thing is to ensure that your change is actually necessary. And so with the younger generations right now, there’s so many trends and so many fads. And the temptation is, oh we got to change the church because of that, or this social media platform just came out. So we got to change everything we do to surround that social media platform. Don’t do that, because things are changing every single day. And if you change the vision of the church, if you change the mechanisms of the church every single day, it’s not going to provide…

Dick Hardy 3:30
You lose it all!

Ryan Sparks 3:32
You can’t be consistent. Exactly, exactly.

Dick Hardy 3:34
So the young people understand this issue of necessity. And again, that’s going to come back to, does that make sense to them? That’s absolutely critical. What’s next?

Tip #3: Make Change an Expected Reality

Ryan Sparks 3:46
The next thing is make change an expected reality. And so ultimately, young people like we said, they kind of already do expect this because change is happening all the time in their own lives. But as the church you can actually further that by saying, hey, listen, the only permanent thing that we’re ever going to have is change. Like things are always going to be changing. But make sure they understand that is because we care about you. We want you to have a great experience in the church. And it’s because we’re not just every time something bad happens, we’re changing. It’s because we want to help you have a great genuine experience at church as a young person.

Dick Hardy 4:24
Would you ever come across or would a pastor ever come… Well, I’m probably asking this wrong. Certainly there are going to be occasions because all Millennials, all Gen Z are not exactly the same. Everybody’s an individual. What about the person, the young person who just struggles with change? How does a pastor help them?

Ryan Sparks 4:42
Yeah, for sure. Well, I think the first thing definitely is to make sure that they know that they have the betterment of that person in mind, but also, as you’re making change an expected reality, like we were talking about, make sure that they understand that it’s going to happen. So if they can prepare for that change ahead of time, and then you slowly push it on them, you’re not like, you know, making the change every day. And you’re not just like pulling the blanket over their head, like, hey, here’s this big change, you know, you’re kind of slowly, you know, easing them into it and bringing them along.

Dick Hardy 5:16
Frankly, Pastor, it’s the same kind of principle you’d use with virtually any generation. With this generation, you want to be very targeted and specific with them to help them come along. Now, and what’s the last one you want to mention to us?

Tip #4: When Change is Optional, Ask Young People for Their Opinion

Ryan Sparks 5:29
Yeah, so when when change is optional, when it’s not absolutely necessary. So when change is optional, ask young people for their opinions.

Dick Hardy 5:37
Now there’s a novel concept!

Ryan Sparks 5:38
And we count now there’s a novel concept. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Because if you’ve got a team of people that are older than, you know, the younger generations, and you’re trying to figure out…

Dick Hardy 5:46
And when he’s talking older, he’s talking over 30.

Ryan Sparks 5:50
Yes, exactly. Older than millennials and Gen Z, anything older than that, and you’re trying to figure out what do millennials like, what do Gen Z like? Well, it’s gonna be pretty hard because you don’t have representation from that generation. And so the easiest way to make sure that the younger generation is going to champion the change that you’re about to make is to ask them first and make sure that they’re they want to.

Dick Hardy 6:27
Well and involve them in the process. That doesn’t mean you’re handing over, you know, the final decision on it, but I just hear this over and over when I’m talking to you, Ryan, when I’m talking to other college age students is, you know, they want to be involved. And it’s critical that we ask young people for their opinions. I mean, these these are great points that are really going to help you pastor get this generation to champion change. So let’s give a summary here of what we got here, Ryan. What do you got?

Recap:

Ryan Sparks 6:41
Yeah, so the first thing is frame change around progress, then we’ve got ensure that your change is necessary, you got make change and expected reality. And then when change is optional, asking people for their opinion.

Dick Hardy 6:53
I’m telling you, these four points will move you down the line in making change happen. Getting these young millennials and Gen Z to champion, a change for you. And that’s exactly what you want to have happen. So Ryan, thank you very much it has been very helpful. You know, I want to mention that we’ve got a well, I’m gonna mention three podcasts that we’ve done that are derived specifically to change in general, not change relative to millennials and Gen Z. But the very first episode we did was five reasons change is so hard. Now when you watch, watch or listen to that, you’ll be able to connect in and be able to then tie that to the discussion of the millennials and Gen Z. We also have in episodes five and six, the nine steps to help people buy into change, because we want these younger adults buying into the change so that they can champion it for us, because they’re really helping lock arms with us to move forward.

You know, we want to mention to you that the four secrets masterclass is available to you. And so we’d encourage you to click the link here and in the show notes and jump into the master class, it is leaders.church/secrets. And you’re going to find this as just shy of an hour. I think it’s 57 minutes long. That’s really going to help you advance the leadership that you have at your church and to be able to make you better and to be able to make the church better. And thanks so much for subscribing if you have already to the podcast. If you have not, it’s very helpful if you would subscribe so we can keep the notifications coming your way of new episodes. This is a daily podcast, and certainly on YouTube or any of the other platforms. Be sure to spread the word and send it out to your other pastor buddies, your friends, and we’d love to have you rate and review the podcast. We’ve got a review here from J-W-J, “these guys do a great job of producing valuable content to help pastors and leaders serve well in their local church and community.” And I like to WJ already. So if you’ll write a review, who knows, we’re gonna read your review on one of the future episodes. And so, Ryan, anything to add to this today?

Ryan Sparks 9:10
I don’t think so!

Dick Hardy 9:11
We’re all good to go. Thanks so much for hanging with us on how to help millennials and Gen Z champion change. It’s going to be a great ride going forward. I look forward to seeing you in the next episode, be blessed.

Subscribe & Follow:

Other Resources:

Share This Article

Join us daily as we share practical tips and strategies you can use to get better, break barriers, and grow the church.

Podcast

043 – How to Help Millennials and Gen Z Champion Change

What’s in this Episode?