The Doctrine Gen Z Needs To Hear About

I vividly remember walking into my first Cru gathering as a secular and skeptical 23-year-old. In the years leading up to that moment, I had spent countless nights wondering if life was even worth waking up for. It often felt like the world didn’t want me. So as I stepped through those doors, I asked and hoped that God would be different.

The longing I felt that night isn’t unique to me. In the years since, both as an intern with Cru and as a volunteer on my church’s youth staff, I’ve ministered to students who are where I once was. In Gen Z, I commonly see fear of rejection. As Gen Zers continue to live online and find relationships there, one of the most prominent forms of rejection they face emerges in the digital realm: ghosting. And I’ve learned to meet that fear with the doctrine of God’s unshakeable love.

Experience of Rejection

“Ghosting” is a popular term with Gen Z that means suddenly cutting off all contact without explanation. While its most common usage occurs in online dating spaces, it can also happen in friendships. One study revealed that 50 percent of Gen Z and younger millennials report being ghosted by a close friend. In an era when Gen Z mostly lives online, this kind of rejection is almost inescapable. The same study showed that 84 percent of respondents report being scarred by ghosting.

Ghosting, through its many apparitions, has left Gen Z socially isolated and lonely. Online communities become like exclusive country clubs where users can remove others, leaving them confused, hurt, and with a lingering pang of rejection from their peers.

Online communities become like exclusive country clubs where users can remove others.

However, for a generation highly motivated to continue learning about Jesus (52 percent) and eager for in-person relationships, what some Gen Zers find as they step into the church is sadly no different from what they experience among their peers. Another study found that the second-largest reason young adults stopped attending church was that they perceived church members as judgmental or hypocritical.

‘What Makes God Different?’

Ultimately, Gen Z isn’t searching for something new or unique to their generation but for what all generations desire: to be fully known and fully loved. As they explore Christianity, they’re asking, “What makes God any different from those who have rejected me?”

This question leads us to examine God’s character, where we see how he truly stands apart. He knows everything about us, the good and the bad. Yet, strangely, this guarantees a comfort no one else can offer.

No matter our story, God doesn’t reject us; he draws near and restores us. While others might reject us if they truly knew us, it isn’t so with God. Instead of turning away when he sees our ugly, broken, and sinful side, he draws near. It’s an act of agape love, a selfless, sacrificial act of goodwill, and an unconditional commitment to the one who is loved.

This kind of love is distinctly Christian. It isn’t merely kindness, or excusing sin, or doing whatever the person wants; it’s cross-shaped. He loves us because he loves his Son, who conquered sin and death in our place. There’s no “he loves me, he loves me not” dynamic with God; those in Christ never have to worry about God changing his mind or ghosting them. He chose rebels before the creation of the universe, knowing fully who he’d get involved with (Eph. 1:4), and he doesn’t make mistakes (Matt. 5:48; Ps. 18:30).

Revealing an Invisible God

Since God is invisible, it may feel like he’s ghosting us. This ushers in an opportunity for the body of Christ to reach Gen Z with God’s unshakable and eternal love.

The apostle John tells us that no one has ever seen God in his fullness, and yet his love is manifested in and through us when we abide in him (1 John 4:12). For Gen Zers questioning how God can be different, we can manifest God’s love through sacrificially meeting others’ needs.

We see a beautiful example of this in the gospel community in Acts. The early church created spaces for the living God to be made manifest, and Jerusalem became a place where they could display the reality of a loving God through their love for one another (Acts 2:42–47).

No matter our story, God doesn’t reject us; he draws near and restores us.

Are our Christian communities also devoted to the apostles’ teaching? To fellowship, communion, and prayer? Are we the aroma of Christ to members of Gen Z (2 Cor. 2:14–16)?

There’s no secret formula for getting Gen Z through our doors, but they need to see a gathering of people who recognize their brokenness and realize that Christ Jesus is the only source of restoration. Jesus said it isn’t the healthy who need a physician but the sick (Matt. 9:12). Scripture reveals we’re all sick (Rom. 3:23); everyone needs the Great Physician, including Gen Z. The sick don’t need a courthouse or a country club but a hospital where people come in need of healing and walk out experiencing that healing.