What’s in this Episode?

Wouldn’t you love it if everyone got your vision the way you get it? Now you have these millennials and Gen Z’s coming along. How in the world do you communicate vision to them? Well, in this episode of Church Tips, we’re going to talk about exactly that. Here, we are unpacking how to communicate vision to millennials and Gen Z.

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Read the Transcript

Hey, friends, it’s great to be with you on this Church Tips podcast. And we again, today for the third day in a row, have our good friend, Content Manager for leaders.church Ryan Sparks. Ryan and I are about the same age you can tell if you’re watching this on YouTube. So he’s become a good friend here over the years. You’ve worked with us what two years now? Yes, two years has been an amazing ride. Jonathan has been out for last few days on a well deserved break. And so Ryan agreed to sit in and I guess we threatened him that we wouldn’t pay him next month if he didn’t.

Ryan Sparks 0:47
So I had to!

Dick Hardy 0:47
He had to show up. So anyway, we’re going to talk today about the subject of how to communicate vision to millennials and Gen Z. Pastor, you’ve got vision. The Lord has laid this on your heart and it’s one thing to communicate it to a 40 year old, a 30 year old, a 60 year old. But when you’re dealing with people in their teens or 20s, it’s a different ballgame. So, Ryan jumpstart us into this.

Ryan Sparks 1:11
Yeah, time after time I’ve seen, you know, friends of mine within Gen Z and millennials that have become frustrated with the Ministry because the wrong things are being communicated. And, you know, we’re saying, hey, we’re gonna have bomb pops before service, hey, we’re gonna have ice cream before service. Nothing is wrong with those things. I want to mention that nothing’s wrong with those things. But if it’s the only thing you’re communicating, there’s no genuine connection. And that’s become a frustrating thing with the younger generations. They want genuine connection not just ice cream. You know what I mean?

Dick Hardy 1:41
Yeah, well, that’s, that’s good. You know, these are the kinds of things we’re going to try to walk through with you today. We got three or four things we want to that Ryan’s going to share with us and they’re they’re all very very good and are going to help you pastor communicate better, communicate vision to millennials. So what we got? What’s first thing?

Tip #1: Communicate the Why Before the How

Jonathan Hardy 1:57
Yeah, so the first thing is communicate the why before you communicate the how. Both of these things are very important to communicate, but if you don’t communicate the why, before the how, what happens is, you know, young people are not about the smoke and lights anymore. They’re not about the jumping around. They’re not about, you know, just the attractional things. Again, those things are good. But you have to understand why young people want to come to church. And so when you understand why they want to come to church, you can align that and say, here’s why you should come to church, which is, you know, to be empowered to volunteer to have genuine connection. And when you understand that, you can communicate to them, here’s why you should be here and it will align with why they actually want to be there.

Dick Hardy 2:37
Well and I want to say pastor, you know this to be true for all generations. Don’t forget the why. The why is everything. And with this generation, specifically to the point Ryan is making, they’re not just going to do it just because you said it. But when you can explain the why and from a spiritual standpoint these people love God, and they’re ready to go. You gotta explain the why. Second thing, what do you got?

Tip #2: Explain How the Vision Impacts Each Individual Young Person

Jonathan Hardy 3:06
Yeah, so explain how the vision impacts each individual young person, there you go. And so young people are very individualistic, we’ve even talked about that in the previous episodes. And there’s this, this mentality, it’s like, I got to live my best life, you know. And so that’s the mentality that me as a person, I have my own best life that I’ve, you know, crafted for myself that I can live and it’s individualistic. And as a pastor, you can’t begin to know every single personality and every single thing, but you can have conversations with every individual person, whether that’s you as a pastor personally, in a smaller church, or you’ve got a massive church, you know, have volunteers sending out and, you know, having those conversations so that you understand that or that young people understand I have someone on staff or as a volunteer that I can go talk to and they understand what I’m about.

Dick Hardy 3:55
Well, those kind of conversations are absolutely critical people matter, they matter to God, and they matter to you. And just because someone is 18, 20, 22 years old, does not mean that their opinions don’t count. Yeah, now, we get it. You know, you have leadership at the church, and someone’s got to make the final decision. But these people are full of creative thoughts and ideas. And if you can explain vision and how it impacts them individually, you’re going to move the ball way down the field, relative to communicating vision to millennials. So what else?

Tip #3: Align Vision With What is Meaningful to Young People

Ryan Sparks 4:32
For sure. The next thing, the third thing is align vision with what is meaningful to young people. And so what this means is that, you know, you have your church vision already planned out, but what does it mean for the young people specifically? And so what is meaningful to young people? You know, we’ve talked about how you have to be a student of young people, when you’re a student of young people, you start to figure out, hey, this is meaningful to this issue is meaningful, this thing happened in the news or whatever. This is meaningful to them.

Dick Hardy 4:33
And it might not be meaningful to you as a pastor, but if it’s meaningful to them, you better pay attention to it.

Ryan Sparks 5:06
Be communicating that and keeping up with current events, keeping up with trends, and then taking your vision and saying, here’s how the vision aligns with that specific thing. And with your specific interests as a young person, and here’s how, when you come to this church, we’re going to value that and value you.

Dick Hardy 5:23
Okay, let me push on that just a little bit. You know, so you got 40, 50, 60 year old pastor out there and they’re saying, “how in the world do I keep up with this?” Yeah, you know, what would you say to a pastor like that? You know, they can’t imagine life spinning at the pace it does for you.

Ryan Sparks 5:40
Yeah. Well, the first thing I would say is you do not have to keep up with every social media platform. You do not have to keep up with, you know, watching the news every single morning, just so you can keep up with it.

Dick Hardy 5:49
That will depress you!

Ryan Sparks 5:50
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. What we talked about in the last point having those conversations that’s going to be the biggest thing is just asking people. If you try to do it on your own and you try to like, you know, Google what is popular, you know, you’re not going to be able to do it.

Dick Hardy 6:04
Well, the problem is you’re going to go here, you’re gonna go there, you’re gonna go everywhere and you’re not gonna stay on point.

Ryan Sparks 6:09
It’s an individualistic thing. You have to have those conversations like we already said.

Dick Hardy 6:12
That’s exactly right.

Dick Hardy 6:14
And then the fourth one,

Tip #4: Don’t Try to Be Younger Than You Are

Ryan Sparks 6:15
Yeah, don’t try to be younger than you are.

Dick Hardy 6:18
Let’s be careful here. Are you making some jabs here?

Ryan Sparks 6:21
Don’t try to be younger than you are. Because here’s the thing. It’s a myth that people that are older than the Gen Z and the millennial generation can’t impact the millennial and Gen Z generations. That’s a total myth. And so say you’re 65 and you’re a pastor and you really want to impact those generations. You totally can, but don’t try to be 20. Don’t try to be 30. You know, because what is happening is you know, as a pastor, the temptation is to jump into those like we just said, Google everything jump into what is you know, using slang that is, you know, for a 22 year old, you know. So don’t try to be younger than you actually are. Because what that comes across as is as you’re just being like not who you are.

Dick Hardy 7:07
It’s phony. And they will see that a mile away.

Ryan Sparks 7:12
And young people want a mentor, they want to follow you because you have more wisdom than they do. And you have an opportunity to give them, not because, you know, you’re also 22 and they just need another friend. They want to look up to you.

Dick Hardy 7:24
Well, you know, if you’ve listened or watched these podcasts very long, you know, we really are all about the church aiming young, targeting young families, targeting young, but does not mean that you have to be that person. You know, one of the pastors out there that I have so admired in his ability to communicate to millennials and Gen Z was Tim Keller. I mean, this guy was, I guess, these in his 70s. And yet, the young people would clamor for his teaching and preaching because of the wisdom that the Lord has given him. So be who you are and pay attention to the kinds of things we’re talking about.

Ryan Sparks 8:04
And he didn’t do that through scrolling through Instagram.

Dick Hardy 8:07
And trying to be a 20 year old. Exactly right. Okay, give us a summary here with what we just walked through, Ryan.

Recap:

Ryan Sparks 8:13
Yeah. So the first thing is communicate the why before the how. Second thing is explain how the vision impacts each individual. Align vision with what is meaningful to young people, and then don’t try to be younger than you are.

Dick Hardy 8:26
I’m telling you, Pastor, if you’ll pay attention to these four points, you’re going to see yourself moving the ball way down the field, on communicating vision to millennials, and Gen Z, the vision the Lord’s giving you is that important that you need all parts of the body moving forward with you on it and these four points are really going to help you with this particular generation. You know, I want to encourage you if you’ve not watched episodes, 42 and 43. To watch those we talked about issues critical to millennials, championing change with you. And then we also talked about the issue that you as a pastor deal with is how do we get millennials to be committed? Ryan did a great job providing this context for both of those in episodes 42 and 43.

Dick Hardy 8:26
One of the things we want to mention to you as we wrap up is it’s important for you while you’re thinking about these issues relative to millennials and casting vision is that you need to be growing as a pastor, and we strongly encourage you to to we’ve made available for you the Five Day Leadership Challenge for pastors, and this is a resource for either five videos that would be given to you five days in a row. So if you signed up for it today, this is day one, and you’ll just do five days in a row about… I think they’re 12 to 15 minute videos that will help you as a leader. They’re designed because when you get better, the church gets better. So just put in leaders.church/challenge and you’ll be able to jump right in. Free to you. And we’d love to have you take advantage of it.

Dick Hardy 10:02
Also subscribe to the podcast or whatever platforms you’re listening to or watching on YouTube. Be sure to spread the word to your pastor friends, because the more people who can know about Church Tips, the better we’re going to be in strengthening the local church. In fact, if you’ll rate and review, you might be the lucky one as Orange Beach, Alabama is today he or she reviewed and said, “this is a helpful podcast for ministers that’s fresh and to the point without being afraid to get into some of the more complex waters.” Like dealing with millennials and Gen Z. “Love what leaders.church is doing. So thank you, Orange Beach, Alabama for that review, and we’d love to be able to read your review as we’re moving forward. Also post it on social media.

Ryan Sparks 10:46
Yeah, absolutely. We’ve got Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. So you know, one of the biggest things you can do is repost while we’re posting about the the podcast, that’ll get the word out.

Dick Hardy 10:55
And Ryan Sparks would love to have you there!

Ryan Sparks 10:58
I would love that!

Dick Hardy 10:58
Love it, love it. Hey, thanks very much for watching today. We’lll look forward to seeing you on the next episode be blessed.

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