Book Review: Meet Gen Z and the Challenge of Evangelism

Introduction

This review focuses on James Emery White's Meet Gen Z, a book about the challenges of evangelizing Generation Z. The review first provides a summary of what the book accomplishes, then critiques the work in terms of consistency, text quality, and usefulness. A conclusion summarizes the situation facing Gen Z and what the evangelist — and reader — can take away from White's work.

Summary of Meet Gen Z

White's (2017) Meet Gen Z consists of two parts. The first focuses on the reality facing the Christian Church today in a truly post-Christian world and examines the first generation of that world to come of age — Generation Z. The second focuses on how the Church must respond to the needs of Gen Z. The first part is descriptive, laying out who Gen Z is, what Gen Z believes, what defines them, and how they differ from every previous generation. The second part offers a solution by arguing for the Church to adopt a countercultural stance toward the present post-Christian culture — a culture that has given Gen Z no religious foundation and that undermines whatever faith they might be given. It examines how the Church must speak to a culture and people that regard faith as unimportant, and it is primarily apologetic in its approach.

The book concludes with three appendices that address different topics. The first appendix considers how a pastor can address a controversial topic such as gay marriage. The second examines how to address the matter of the occult, which holds a particular fascination for Gen Z, giving special focus to mapping out the spiritual world. The third and final appendix explores how an apologetic bridge can be built between the Church and Gen Z using tools that Gen Z already engages with — particularly science.

The book is essentially a tool that can be used to help catechize and convert what is, in White's framing, a largely godless and unchurched generation that does not believe in the utility of Christian faith or belief. White introduces the topic by referencing the famed Catholic historian Christopher Dawson, who questioned a century ago the character of the modern state and the subordination of the Christian soul to it. A century later, Dawson's seemingly prophetic words have been justified, as White points out: the modern soul of the twenty-first century is completely devoid of Christian sensibility, even if nominally Christian. White calls the present moment the "seventh age," in which the very question of what it means to be human is no longer clear. Religious disaffiliation — the population of so-called "nones," those without any religious affiliation — stood at five percent in 1930. Today it stands at 30 percent, and those numbers continue to rise.

Who Is Generation Z?

White goes on to assert that today's evangelists must adapt to address this new generation because the old ways no longer align with its needs. It is not simply a matter of re-engaging this generation with a latent faith — that faith is not latent. One must reckon with the fact that one is preaching the Gospel to a generation that has never heard it. To illustrate the point, White draws on the film Gravity, in which the character played by Sandra Bullock cries that she is about to die and wishes she could pray, but that no one ever taught her how. That is where Gen Z stands now: it is a generation that has not been taught the first thing about religion.

Part of what defines Gen Z is the environment in which it was raised. White notes that Gen X — the parents of Gen Z — has been too hands-off in raising their children, granting them far too much independence and failing to protect their innocence. That has made Gen Z particularly vulnerable to the temptations and influences that pervade the digital world. As White observes, this is also a generation too wrapped up in technology to engage meaningfully with transcendent questions.

Conclusion

White does an excellent job of showing that the evangelist of today has his work cut out for him. He demonstrates convincingly that Gen Z is unlike any other generation that has ever lived. At the same time, he does acknowledge that previous eras faced their own crises of faith — people in the twelfth century, for example, feared that God and his angels had fallen asleep as the world around them grew chaotic.

The book makes its essential point, but more points could be made. Perhaps it is ultimately up to the reader to pursue what comes next on his or her own. White does show at least one clear way forward — prayer. If following White's call to prayer leads to answers, then perhaps Meet Gen Z is sufficient in laying the track that must be taken. As a starting point for those seeking to understand and engage the first fully post-Christian generation, the book remains a worthwhile and readable resource.

References

White, J. E. (2017). Meet Gen Z. Baker Books.