Gen Z

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Looking at our world from a theological
perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast

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making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Wednesday, June the twenty

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sixth, twenty twenty four. It
is currently eight fifty four am Central Time,

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and I am coming to you live
from the Theology Central studio located right

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here in Abilene, Texas. We
have to do it this morning, ladies

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and gentlemen. We have to do
it all right. The situation demands that

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we take some time this morning to
talk about Generation Z orjen Z. Do

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you have anyone who's a gen Zer
in your home? Do you have any

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gen Zers around you right now?
Well, if you do, they won't

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care what I'm talking about because they
will not be very interested because well,

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okay, we're gonna but we're gonna
be talking about gen Z now. Before

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we can talk about gen Z,
we just got to talk about something.

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And I'm gonna at least try to
articulate my perspective and my philosophy on this,

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because there's certain things that happen when
people talk about different generations that I

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just loathe and I just hate.
I really hate this mindset where well,

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back in my day, what has
happened to this generation. The world is

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falling apart and hard day things were
better than music was better, the television

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shows were better, the books were
better, We were better everything, the

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air was better. Everything was better. And then this generation comes along and

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they've destroyed everything. I hate that
mindset, absolutely despise it, you know

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how I am. Even when it
comes to music, I hate people like

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the music today is just no good. Oh. I cannot stand that mindset.

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It's just so like. Oh,
people get like trapped and their generation

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and everything. Then for the rest
of their life they just continually to live

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in that generation. And I seem
to forget that the rest of the world

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has moved on. Nobody cares about
what you were doing back in your generation.

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Now all of us do that.
Right, there's things about my generation

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that I will speak fondly of,
right that I remember that. I can

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get very sad to see them slowly
deteriorate and fall apart, Right, I

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could. I could talk about different
things. So there's one aspect that all

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of us look back. But I
don't like that. I don't like I

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like to move forward, not to
look back. That's why, like,

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even again, I have a very
kind of strict rule when it comes to

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music, about eighty eighty to ninety
percent of my music is always going to

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be new, and then I will
pull up older albums. But I don't

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want to just live in the past. I want to move forward. So

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I just don't like that mindset.
And I think a lot of times,

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what happened what really bothers me.
This is more within the Christian world,

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is like, well, this current
generation they're so ungodly. They they're rebellious,

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they reject scripture and on it and
that we'll talk about all the sins

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of the current generation. It's like, hey, buddy, I don't know

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if you want to look back to
your generation, but there was a lot

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of things going on in your generation, maybe different sins, but there was

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clear sins right as a lot of
times people say, oh, the morality

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today is just so bad, and
it's like, well, when do you

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want to go back in time?
We can look at Do you want to

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go back to the time where we, you know, bought and sold human

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beings as property? Oh? What
a great time. Do you want to

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go back time when we restricted the
rights of people simply on the basis of

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their skin color, color, I
mean, we can every generation because from

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a theological perspective, this is what
Christians should be very aware of. Right,

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every generation. Are you ready?
This is like, I know,

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this is going to be the most
shocking news you've ever heard. Every generation

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is made up of people, and
people, no matter what generation they live

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in, they are sinners. They
have a sinful nature. So every generation,

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that sinful nature manifests itself. And
maybe some sins are more prevalent in

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one generation than another, but it's
always there in some way, shape or

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form. Sin will always manifest itself
in every generation. You've got your whatever

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generation you're from, your generation is
probably known for specific sins. You may

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look to this generation like, well, I don't understand those sins. I

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don't like those sins. Those sins
are disgusting to me. Yeah, because

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they're not your sins. But every
generation has them. So I don't like

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the mentality of looking back and saying
my generation was better and I don't understand

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this generation. I don't get that
now. At the same time, I'm

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very aware of acknowledging that there are
differences, but I don't like that whole

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I don't like the generation A.
I don't like that. I don't like

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that in any wayship performance. So
sometimes when old people talk, and not

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to be disrespectful, but when old
people talk, I'm just like, oh,

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just stop, just stop. It's
embarrassing. It's embarrassing to me.

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I'm embarrassed for you. Just don't
do that, all right. So that's

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one thing that bothers me. And
I don't like the mindset that we I

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can't understand this generation and they're so
ungodly and completely seem to ignore how ungodly

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your generation was or the generation before
yours, because every generation, trusts me,

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there was sin. That's it's been
true since Adam and Eve fell.

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From that moment on, it's been
every generation their sin, their sin.

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There's rebellion, and there's failure,
and every generation there is plenty to look

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at and and and and people will
be like, what in the world were

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they thinking at that time? So
I don't like the idea of looking back,

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but you know, more so than
looking forward. And I don't like

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the idea of basically saying our sins
were better than your sins. I don't

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like any of that. So I'm
not one to necessarily like I don't like

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to pick on the current generation.
I don't like to say, well,

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your generation is this, You're but
just snowflakes. So I don't like to

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be all derogatory. I'm just I
don't like to do that. But you

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at the same time, I've got
to stress this. I can acknowledge that

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there's things maybe about certain generations that
I'm just kind of like, what in

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the world are they thinking, Like
where is that coming from? But most

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importantly, it's not so much so
that I could criticize or mock. I

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tend to want to know what the
current generation is doing because it kind of

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tells me where the world is headed
right, where the world is going.

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And from a philological perspective, I
like to see where the current generation is

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because I'm thinking, how is that
going to impact theology moving forward? How

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is that going to impact the church
moving forward? Because I'm telling you you

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take a generation, you look at
that generation that is going to influence the

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Church of the future. Every generation
influences the church. Like you cannot deny

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that. You can go back to
history, look at the Church of the

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fifties. Well, the Church of
the sixties and the seventies is very different

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than the Church of the fifties.
The Church of the eighties and nineties is

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very now. There may be those
exceptions, but inevitably, the culture,

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the generation influences the church. I
know we want the church to be the

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one influencing the generations. We want
the church to be the driving force of

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influence, but it never truly works
that way. We know we can go

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all the way back to First Corinthians. When I talked through First Corinthians,

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I said it every single week for
what three years we were in the book

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of First Corinthians. First Corinthians is
a letter written to a church that was

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located in a city, and the
city was influencing the church more than the

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church was influencing the city. That
is true over and over and over and

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over again. This current generation,
whatever generation we're talking about today, we're

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gonna be talking about gen Z.
They're the future of the church. You

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can like it, you can despise
it, you can try to you can

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hope for the best, but it's
it's going to happen. They will influence

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the church. And the question is
what is the church going to look like

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when it's a gen Z dominated church
and a gen Z led church. What

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is that going to look like because
they will develop new trends, new ideas,

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new philosophies that will enter in and
ultimately it begins to change theology.

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Biblical interpretation changes so much now there
will always be those who try to fight

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it and resist it. And many
times the ones fighting and resisting are on

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the right side. Sometimes you could
argue they could be on the wrong side.

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But it appears from what I have
in front of me this morning,

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hut off the presses, put off
the press that there's some things about gen

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Z according to the study that I
have in front of me, that well,

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quite frankly, is alarming. Now, that's the headline that they've done

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a study on gen Z and what
they found is alarming. This is not

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from a Christian website. This is
actually found at MSN dot com from the

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Business Insider, and they are alarmed
at what they found when they studied gen

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Z. That is fascinating to me. This is not some like Christian article,

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you know, something on the Christian
Post or someone and like whoa,

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oh, we've got problems right here
in River City because gen Z. I

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say, that's using an old reference. I I not, okay, I'm

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using a dated reference. Okay,
but but this is not like some kind

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of a philological thing right where the
current generation or the older generation is now

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condemning the current generation. This is
well, this is a secular source.

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Now what I wonder what they think
is so alarming? Well, here's the

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full headline. Google studied gen Z. What they found is alarming? Whoa

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Google study gen Z? And what
they found is alarming? I want to

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know what is so alarming? What? Come on, give me your predictions

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right now. If you're around people, just shout out your prediction to the

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people walking around you. They won't
know what's going on. Just say my

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prediction is. What is alarming about
gen Z is? Come on, shout

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it out? What is alarming about
gen Z? Is? Okay? All

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right? Well I don't know if
people are probably looking at you right now,

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okay, so what is alarming about
gen Z? What do you think?

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What do you think? Now?
I I was trying to think now

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that this is I'm just trying to
count how I engaged this article is.

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When I saw the headline, I
immediately stopped and kind of just stated that

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out loud, what is alarming about
gen Z? And I was trying to

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think of something like new or or
creative or or something like, Okay,

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it's got to be something that I'm
not even aware of and come to find

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out it really is. I mean
to me, it's maybe it's alarming,

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but it's kind of just what I
would think, right. It's like,

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it's so it's kind of so predictable. It was so predictable that I couldn't

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predict it right because it was just
it felt like, what's so obvious?

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But I think that what is true
of gen Z has been a problem within

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culture, and it's been developing generation
after generation. So I don't think that

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this is really a unique gen Z
issue. But here's what we're gonna do.

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We're gonna try to figure out what
they found out about gen Z.

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But what I want you to see
now, I want you to I'm gonna

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try this. I don't know if
I can pull this off, because I

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could just turn this on and bash
gen Z, but I want and you

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know what I always try to do. Whenever I'm looking at something in the

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news, I want to use it
as a mirror, not not as a

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window so I can look out there
and point at everyone else. I like

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to use it as a mirror.
How can we see ourself in this study?

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Because I think there's some things about
gen Z that's already evident and true

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within Christianity, it's already influencing it. You may think that I'm wrong,

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But here we go. Are you
ready? All right? Hot off the

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press now, I just keep the
piece of paper here for for sound effects,

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because well it's actually on my iPad. Okay, but I can't do

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anything awesome with us iPad. I
can just I mean, like you know

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that that's not that doesn't sound as
cool? All right, yeah, I

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mess up my host screen there,
Okay, here we go. All right,

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Google studied gen Z. What they
found is alarming. Did you make

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your predictions? Did you write your
predictions down? Right? Come on,

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right, write your predictions down on
paper. Take take a screenshot of it

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or take a photo of it.
Make sure there's a timestamp. Make sure

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that it states nine oh seven am
correct time or central time, right,

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because I want you can I can
see if you got your prediction right,

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because I mean, if you send
me a photo and there's no timestamp stamp,

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I think you'll just wait until after
I give you the information. But

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what did they find that was so
alarming. Here we go. Are you

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ready? Paragraph number one again?
This is from MSN dot com. Uh,

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this is a story by Adam Rogers
from Business Insider dot com. Here

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we go, first paragraph. Gen
Z has come of age swimming in a

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gloppy stew of digital content. Every
day they navigate memes, photos, social

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media, chats with their friends,
flashes a video, influencers, influencing news

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articles from a zillion places across the
net. How do American teens and youngest

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adults sort through all that digitized gunk
to determine what's important or useful or true?

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All right, so let's sup right
here, gen Z finds themselves in

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an ocean of digital content? How
do they navigate it? How do they

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determine this is important? This is
useful? But it was that third thing?

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Is this true? Now? That's
an important question because anytime I see

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a question about truth, well,
that's right in line with a podcast called

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Theology Central, because when make Theology
Central, we are trying to find the

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truth from a philological perspective? Right, what is true? Theologically? Because

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if we believe God is truth?
Okay, well we can get a whole

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discussion about truth. But we ask
Christians, we've been yelling and screaming forever

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that we believe an absolute truth.
That truth is not relative? Right?

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Is that not what we always claim? Now? I've been I've challenged that

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a lot because I think Christians have
kind of abandoned absolute truth in a hundred

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different ways. But we can talk
about that at a later time. So

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this already caught my attention. So, gen Z, they're swimming in digital

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content now, I think, to
be fair, they're not the only ones,

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right, I think all generations who
are alive right now, they're swimming

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in a gloppy stew of digital content. To use their language, we all

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are every day. You've got this, you've got this, you've got this.

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Maybe you're not as engaged on TikTok, or maybe you're not as focused

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on instant, but you are in
your own digital stew and you're navigating it,

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and you're trying to figure out what
is important, what is useful,

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and hopefully you're trying to figure out
what is true. And what I have

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seen personally that I think many many
of the I feel the older generation are

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incapable of navigating it in any meaningful
way, and in many cases they can't

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figure out what's true. I would
think the younger generation would be much more

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sophisticated because they've grown up around it, where the older generation doesn't seem they

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lot that sophistication. That would be
kind of my thought. But let's see

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what they say about gen Z and
they're navigating using their words as they swim

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through a gloppy stew of digital content. I do like that that phrase,

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right, But let's go to the
second paragraph. A lot of folks would

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love to know. They said,
there's a lot of people would like to

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know how gen Z is navigating or
swimming through this gloppy stew digital content.

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Social networks want young users, media
outlets want subscribers, politicians want votes,

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Professors want to know why their students
won't read books. Everyone, it seems,

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has a stake and understanding kids these
days. So they're like, there's

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a lot of people who want to
know. There's all there's a people who

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have some invested interest in knowing how
kids are navigating this How are they navigating

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this digital stew of digital content or
this ocean of digital content? Everybody seems

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to want to know. I think
I think in some ways that's always been

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true, right, I think in
some in some ways, it's always been

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true that the older generation is trying
to understand kids these days, right because

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especially once kind of the teen age, that the concept of the teenager emerged,

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well, they kind of became a
demographic someone you can market to,

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someone who disposable income, So trying
to understand them, well, how can

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we get them engaged in this,
How can we sell them this, How

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can we get them to watch our
content? So I think there's always been

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a little bit of that throughout since
the concept of the teenager really emerged into

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popular culture, But it's still true
today everyone wants to understand well. Over

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the past couple of years, researchers
at Jigsaw, a Google subsidiary that focuses

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on online politics and polarization, have
been studying gen zers and how they digest

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and metabolize what they see online.
So Jigsaw, which is connected to Google,

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it's a subsidiary subsidiary of Google,
they have been studying gen zers for

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the last couple of years and they're
really trying to figure out how gen zers

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digest and metabolize what they see online. The researchers were hoping that their work

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provide one of the first in depth
studies of gen Z's information literacy. Right,

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so it'd be the first in depth
ethographic studies of gen Z's information literacy.

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So they're studying a specific part of
gen Z, basically their information literacy

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to make it all, you know, to make it as simple as I

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can make it. But the minute
they started, their most fundamental assumptions about

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the nature of digital information came crashing
down. So they got ready to study

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gen Z trying to understand. They're
like kind of there, as they put

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it, their information literacy. But
as soon as they started to study,

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their assumptions just came come crashing down. So something they found something right out

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of the gate that was like,
wait, what is going on? And

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obviously the headline is indicating that what
they start discovering is alarming, So what

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is it? What is it?
What is it? Well, come back

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next week and I'm joking, I'm
joking. I'm joking, I'm joking,

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but I'm trying to tease it,
you know, trying to keep you engaged.

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Right here we go, Are you
ready? Next paragraph? Within a

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week? That's that blows my mind. Within one week, within one week,

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they're kind of like, wait a
minute, we got a problem here,

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right, Red alert? Red alert. Okay, so within a week

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of actual research, we just threw
out the term information literacy. So immediately

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within one week, they're like,
forget this term information literacy. Let's just

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throw it out. It turns out
gen zers, it turns out, are

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not on a linear journey to evaluate
the veracity of anything. When it comes

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to gen zers, they are not
on a linear journey to evaluate the veracity

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of anything. This is crazy.
Instead, they're engaged in what the researchers

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call information sensibility information sensibility. So
forget information literacy. Gen zers are kind

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of they're engaged in what they call
as information sensibility. Information sensibility, not

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information literacy, but information sensibility.
What in the world does that mean?

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I have no idea. In fact, I was like, I don't know

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what information sensibility is. What does
that mean? Are you saying that they

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instead of trying to be literate,
they just want to know what sensible?

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Oka, Well, that could be
a good thing. Are they trying to

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determine if this information is sensible?
Well? What are they basing it off

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of? Okay, I'm intrigued,
right, But the basic assumptions of the

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researchers came crashing down. So what
is information sensibility? Well, let's see

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if we can find out. This
is how they kind of define this.

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Information sensibility a socially informed are practice
that relies on folk heuristics of credibility heuristics.

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What is heuristics? Heuristics? Is
that even? How? So?

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Then at this point I stopped reading
the article. I'm gona wait a minute.

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So, okay, information sensibility a
socially informed practice that relies on folk

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heuristics of credibility. I'm like,
h E U R I S T C

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S heuristics? What's heuristics? So
I'm like, what is heuristic? So

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I had to go look up the
word, right, first thing I wanted

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to do is make sure I even
know what it is or if I'm saying

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it correctly. Heuristics heuristics. Okay, all right, I've got that right.

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So I'm like, okay, good, But I'm like, what is

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heuristics? And simple terms? Heuristics
are mental shortcuts for solving problems in a

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quick way that delivers a result that
is sufficient enough to be useful given time

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constraints. Wait a minute, so
heuristics. These are mental shortcuts for solving

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problems. So this tells me that
gen z when it comes to information,

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they want a shortcut so that will
just be sufficient for I guess the time

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they feel they have. They feel
like they have limited time because they have

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a stew of digital content, so
they need kind of a mental shortcut that

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will just get that will be sufficient
enough for them so they can move on

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to the next piece of content.
That seems to where I'm going. That's

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starting to be a little concerning,
right. That means they're like, okay,

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wait a minute, I need Okay, They've got a short cut in

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their mind, right, some kind
of shortcut that just says, okay,

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this is efficient, I'm good,
move on. Because they don't seem to

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want to slow down to really I
really do any actual analysis of it.

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They don't really care about being literate. They just want to be well sensible.

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That seems to be the direction this
is going. So I went back

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and I'm like, I got to
read this all again. All right,

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So within a week of actual research, the research is throughout the term information

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literacy and finds out that they started
because gen Zers are not on a linear

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journey to evaluate the veracity of anything. They don't care about the veracity of

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anything. Instead, they're engaged in
what the researchers called information sensibility, a

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socially informed practice that relies on folk
heuristics of credibility and other words. Gen

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Zers know the difference between rock solid
news and AI generated memes, they just

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don't care. Now that worried me. That worried me. Great, I'm

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like, okay, no, no, we got an issue, right,

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So when it comes to gen Z, I want you to hear this again.

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They know the difference between rock solid
News, they know the difference between

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rock solid news and an AI generated
meme. They just don't care. They

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just don't care. They don't care
the difference. They know the difference,

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but they don't care that there is
a difference. They don't really care about

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figuring out the veracity of anything.
And I'm like, well, whoa,

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whoa that is concerned. Now.
In some ways I felt somewhat justified because

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I've stated to young people in my
church in the past that the thing with

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gen Z is they just don't care. It's like in the past, you're

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like, is God true? Is
God not true? Is God real?

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Is God not real? Is the
Bible Trew's the Bible not true? Does

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God exist? Does God not exist? Like these big questions. But gen

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Z just doesn't really care one way
or the other. They just don't care.

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And I'm like, well that is
concerned. Let's see if that plays

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out, because that's kind of been
my view on them all right, So

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here we go. So just hear
that again. Gen z ers know the

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difference between rock solid news and an
AI generated meme. They just don't care.

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Jigsaw's findings offers a revealing glimpse into
the digital mindset of gen Z,

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where older generations are out there struggling
to fight fact fact check information and site

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sources. Right now, I don't
know if older generations actually do that.

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I think this is a problem in
all generations, right this is I believe

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this is a societal issue in twenty
twenty four, not a gen Z issue.

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Gen Z it may be more prominent. Okay, but let me read

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00:26:57.599 --> 00:27:02.359
this again. According to this article, we older generations are out there struggling

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00:27:02.440 --> 00:27:10.759
to fact check information in site sources. Gen Zers don't even bother for a

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00:27:10.759 --> 00:27:14.200
gen Z. They don't care.
They're not going to spend the time to

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struggle to fact check information because they
don't bother. I don't think they even

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care. They're going to say,
they just read the headlines. So this

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is what a gen Zer does.
They read the headlines and then speed scroll

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00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:37.039
to the comments to see what everyone
else says. Now, I will argue

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that's not a gen Z issue.
In fact, I think that that started

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with the generation before the gen Zers. I think the previous generation brought forth

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the gen Zers and almost train them
to think this way. Because I have

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watched adults do this over and over
and over and over again. You'll they'll

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start, you know, they'll start
arguing about something like, did you even

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read the article? Well know,
well, then what are you talking about?

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You just read a headline. So
I think that this started before gen

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Z. But gen Z will read
the headline, then go straight to the

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comments to see what everyone wants to
says, and I quote from the article.

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They're outsourcing the determination of truth and
importance to like minded, trusted influencers.

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So for gen Z, they're outsourcing
the determination of truth to someone who's

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like minded and a trusted influencer.
They're listening to influencers. Influencers can be

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people who you can be a YouTube
channel could be on you know, someone

355
00:28:48.720 --> 00:28:52.440
streaming on Twitch. It could be
it could be an Instagram, it could

356
00:28:52.440 --> 00:28:59.079
be on TikTok. They outsource it
for today. But please note like minded

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influence, like minded influencers. Now, ladies and gentlemen, we can condemn

358
00:29:04.680 --> 00:29:11.759
gen Z for this. Christianity has
made this sounds like Christianity to me.

359
00:29:11.720 --> 00:29:18.279
We outsource the determined determination of truth
to our favorite influencers. They're called pastors.

360
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We go to their commentaries, we
read their books, we listen to

361
00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:26.160
their sermons. They tell me what
truth is, and then I simply parrot

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back what they told me and then
claim that I've done Bible study. This

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00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:37.400
is I've been condemning this in Christianity
forever. Everybody has their team. I

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only listen to the people who support
my team. I've outsourced the determination of

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00:29:41.240 --> 00:29:48.440
truth really to my own magisterium that
are like minded. Well, MacArthur said,

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MacArthur study Bible said well, Piper
said, well. Rci Sproull said.

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And then when you get into an
argument with someone, what do the

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Christians do? They hop on google
those like minded articles, cut and pace,

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and then try to argue with you
by parroting what they've read from someone

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else. It's very difficult to get
them to go no, no, no

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00:30:08.920 --> 00:30:11.920
no no, no, no no
no, stop with Google. Let's go

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00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:17.200
to the text and let's actually study
the text. Let's actually dig in.

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Now. It may take us six
months. We may have to look up

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every verse that uses this word.
We may have to do this, we

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may have to do that. That's
why I in many cases my Bible study

376
00:30:26.359 --> 00:30:30.599
exercises trying to get people to engage
in like, in depth actual study,

377
00:30:30.640 --> 00:30:38.680
they're the most They are rarely that
popular because people don't want to actually engage

378
00:30:38.720 --> 00:30:45.119
in meaningful, in depth, long
study. They want to listen to someone

379
00:30:45.480 --> 00:30:48.799
tell them what to believe. They
don't want to have someone say, hey,

380
00:30:48.799 --> 00:30:51.880
I'm not going to tell you what
to believe. Let's dig in and

381
00:30:51.960 --> 00:30:56.319
let's figure it out together. In
fact, I've received emails criticizing me because

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I just won't give an answer.
Stop with all your questions. Just teach

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00:31:02.519 --> 00:31:04.400
the truth. Oh you want me
to teach what you think is truth.

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00:31:04.799 --> 00:31:08.400
You want me to simply tell you
what to believe as long as you agree

385
00:31:08.559 --> 00:31:15.839
with what I say. I think
Christians perfected the idea of outsourcing truth to

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00:31:15.920 --> 00:31:21.440
their favorite influencer. I don't think
that's a gen Z thing. I think

387
00:31:21.480 --> 00:31:26.240
the church perfected it. Okay,
you may disagree, but okay, so

388
00:31:26.319 --> 00:31:30.359
it says that, I quote again
from the article they speaking of gen Zers.

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00:31:30.559 --> 00:31:36.400
They have outsourced the determination of truth
and importance to like minded, trusted

390
00:31:36.519 --> 00:31:44.279
influencers. And if an article's too
long, they just skip it. If

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00:31:44.319 --> 00:31:48.480
an article is too long, they
just skip it. Ladies and gentlemen,

392
00:31:48.559 --> 00:31:53.039
I have received I don't know how
many messages since I have been broadcasting.

393
00:31:53.640 --> 00:31:57.359
Well, someone will say something,
and then will I will reply back to

394
00:31:57.400 --> 00:32:01.119
them, going, did you listen
to the rest? Well, now,

395
00:32:01.119 --> 00:32:06.000
I didn't listen to all of it. It's too long, so you didn't

396
00:32:06.039 --> 00:32:09.480
listen to all of it. But
you're immediately criticizing me. Give me a

397
00:32:09.519 --> 00:32:13.680
break. Christians have been doing this. Well, I'm not gonna listen to

398
00:32:13.720 --> 00:32:16.960
the entire sermon now. I just
I saw a clip of a sermon on

399
00:32:19.480 --> 00:32:22.960
x or on TikTok, and man, this sermon is bad. This pastor

400
00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:27.240
is an idiot. Did you listen
to the whole sermon? Of course not,

401
00:32:27.519 --> 00:32:30.039
of course not. Some people don't
like my sermon reviews because they may

402
00:32:30.079 --> 00:32:34.920
be. They may one sermon may
take me four or five six hours to

403
00:32:34.960 --> 00:32:38.240
review it. People don't like that. They want it quick and fast and

404
00:32:38.279 --> 00:32:45.400
to the point. Gen Zers.
If the article's too long, they just

405
00:32:45.440 --> 00:32:49.640
skip it. They don't want to
see stuff now are you ready for this,

406
00:32:49.960 --> 00:32:53.079
gen Zers. They don't want to
see stuff that might force them to

407
00:32:53.359 --> 00:33:04.319
think too hard, or that upsets
them emotionally. To me, that's Christianity

408
00:33:05.680 --> 00:33:07.759
they want. They don't want a
podcast that will make them think, or

409
00:33:07.799 --> 00:33:13.640
that may upset them emotionally or may
challenge them. They want to hear what

410
00:33:13.720 --> 00:33:16.359
they already think, and they want
it done quickly. That's why they choose

411
00:33:16.480 --> 00:33:22.079
churches that never will rock the boat
or challenge them. Or no. As

412
00:33:22.119 --> 00:33:25.200
soon as they are uncomfortable, boom, they leave and go find a place

413
00:33:25.240 --> 00:33:29.519
where they can be comfortable, where
someone will hold their hand and tell them

414
00:33:29.559 --> 00:33:36.119
what they want to hear. This
is not a gen Z thing. This

415
00:33:36.200 --> 00:33:38.880
is our culture in twenty twenty four. Nobody wants to be forced to think,

416
00:33:39.240 --> 00:33:44.400
nobody wants to be upset. So
we find our own little kind of

417
00:33:44.839 --> 00:33:49.640
digital corner, our little digital cave, and then we're like, we're only

418
00:33:49.640 --> 00:33:53.240
gonna I'm gonna only bring in the
content that I like, that tells me

419
00:33:53.279 --> 00:33:59.599
what I want, that I agree
with, and I will outsource the determination

420
00:33:59.640 --> 00:34:02.000
of truth to them because I don't
want to actually do any serious work.

421
00:34:02.119 --> 00:34:05.839
I don't want to be forced to
study. I don't want to be forced

422
00:34:05.839 --> 00:34:09.280
to do any work. Just feed
me what I already know is true and

423
00:34:09.400 --> 00:34:15.000
just continue to reaffirm that that to
me sounds like Christianity, It doesn't sound

424
00:34:15.039 --> 00:34:20.800
like gen Z. If they have
a goal. This is back to the

425
00:34:20.880 --> 00:34:24.840
article speaking of gen Z. This
is what the goal of gen Zers are.

426
00:34:25.119 --> 00:34:30.320
It is to learn what they need
to know to remain cool and to

427
00:34:30.320 --> 00:34:35.039
be able to have a conversation and
their chosen social groups. So what gen

428
00:34:35.119 --> 00:34:38.599
Zers care about is just knowing what
to think so that they can be cool

429
00:34:38.840 --> 00:34:44.239
and engage in conversation with their social
group ladies and gentlemen. That has been

430
00:34:44.280 --> 00:34:49.639
going on in every generation. There's
always in every generation. They just want

431
00:34:49.639 --> 00:34:52.760
to be cool. They just want
to fit in. They just want to

432
00:34:52.800 --> 00:34:54.719
be cool and just fa I just
want to know enough so that I can

433
00:34:54.840 --> 00:34:59.239
I can be able to have a
conversation. I think some people sitting in

434
00:34:59.320 --> 00:35:02.800
church they just want want to know
enough so they can tak Christianese. They're

435
00:35:02.800 --> 00:35:07.079
not really interested in in depth study. They're not going to go read the

436
00:35:07.159 --> 00:35:09.280
Church Fathers. They're not going to
read books on hermoneuticts. They're not going

437
00:35:09.360 --> 00:35:14.400
to actually engage in serious study.
They just want a little bit of spiritual

438
00:35:14.440 --> 00:35:17.079
content so they can be they can
have a conversation with their peer group,

439
00:35:17.920 --> 00:35:23.639
and then they can feel comfortable in
the social settings. I don't think this

440
00:35:23.679 --> 00:35:28.480
is a gen Z issue. They
go on to say, the old guard

441
00:35:29.679 --> 00:35:32.320
is like, yeah, but you
have to care ultimately about the truth.

442
00:35:34.239 --> 00:35:37.480
So they say the older generation is
like, okay, but you have to

443
00:35:37.480 --> 00:35:42.199
care ultimately about the truth. Gen
Z's take is, you can tell me

444
00:35:42.280 --> 00:35:46.239
your truth and what you think is
important. What establishes the relevance of a

445
00:35:46.360 --> 00:35:52.320
claim isn't some established notion of authority. It's the social signals they get from

446
00:35:52.440 --> 00:35:57.679
their peers. Again, now that
gen Z thing comes from the previous generation,

447
00:35:58.119 --> 00:36:05.960
which became a wash and relativism.
The previous generation was I remember in

448
00:36:06.000 --> 00:36:14.440
the nineteen nineties teaching my singles class
and Bellevue, Nebraska. Hey, relativism.

449
00:36:14.800 --> 00:36:20.920
This is this philosophical thing that is
sweeping the culture relativism, so that

450
00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:23.320
relativism started way back, and now
gen zers are like, well, you

451
00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:29.159
can tell me your truth, but
what really matters to me, as they

452
00:36:29.239 --> 00:36:34.159
said, what really matters to me
is the social signals I'm getting from my

453
00:36:34.199 --> 00:36:42.119
peers, because they don't really care
about some established notion of authority. Jigsaw

454
00:36:42.159 --> 00:36:45.639
research doesn't purport to be statistically significant. They didn't poll a large group,

455
00:36:46.159 --> 00:36:52.119
so then it goes on to talk
about but they did intense interviews with people

456
00:36:52.119 --> 00:36:55.000
who are from thirteen to twenty four
years of old, from a representative range

457
00:36:55.000 --> 00:37:00.679
of demographics, classes, and genders. They were doing what anthropology or apologists

458
00:37:00.719 --> 00:37:06.440
do in the field, looking for
a qualitative depth rather than quantitative data.

459
00:37:06.719 --> 00:37:12.280
What they heard surprise them. Young
folks basically say there's no difference between going

460
00:37:12.320 --> 00:37:17.760
online for news versus social interaction.
Say that don't even see a difference going

461
00:37:17.760 --> 00:37:22.079
to a news site or just talking
in a social interaction. It's the same

462
00:37:22.119 --> 00:37:28.000
for them. It's just the same. It's just information. There's not a

463
00:37:28.079 --> 00:37:35.519
hierarchy. It appears of information.
Well, that could be concerning gen Zers

464
00:37:35.559 --> 00:37:39.360
approach. Most of their digital experience
and what the researchers call time pass mode

465
00:37:40.039 --> 00:37:49.360
just looking to not be bored.
So they the way they look for things

466
00:37:49.360 --> 00:37:51.480
is they just look not to be
bored. They don't want to be bored.

467
00:37:51.480 --> 00:37:52.440
They don't want to be bored.
Oh I hate the word board,

468
00:37:52.440 --> 00:37:57.159
you know. I loathe the word
board. That the word board was not

469
00:37:57.239 --> 00:38:00.920
even allowed to be utilized in my
home. I hate that. How can

470
00:38:00.960 --> 00:38:04.599
you be bored in a world where
there's a bazillion things to do every single

471
00:38:04.679 --> 00:38:07.599
day? I don't know. If
you're bored, you're broken. You need

472
00:38:07.679 --> 00:38:10.599
help, you need serious help because
something is wrong with you inside. How

473
00:38:10.599 --> 00:38:16.360
can you be bored? My problem
is I don't have enough hours. If

474
00:38:16.400 --> 00:38:21.280
I had seventeen lifetimes to be able
to do what I want to do.

475
00:38:22.400 --> 00:38:25.599
Oh man, there's okay. Yeah, So I don't understand. And their

476
00:38:25.679 --> 00:38:28.519
mother, I just don't want to
be bored. They just don't want to

477
00:38:28.519 --> 00:38:34.280
be bored. If they want to
answer a question or learn something new,

478
00:38:34.719 --> 00:38:38.519
they might turn to a search engine. But they're acquiring new information mainly via

479
00:38:38.599 --> 00:38:45.199
their social feeds, which algorithm based
on the algorithm prone to reflect what they

480
00:38:45.280 --> 00:38:50.800
care about and who they trust,
and short they've created their own filters to

481
00:38:50.960 --> 00:38:55.320
process an onslaught of digitized information,
So they're not really gonna do a lot

482
00:38:55.320 --> 00:39:00.239
of research. They're just gonna go
to their social feeds where the algorith them

483
00:39:00.280 --> 00:39:04.320
is gonna already send them what they
basically what they already agree with, what

484
00:39:04.320 --> 00:39:07.000
they already like, so they have
a filter to filter out anything that would

485
00:39:07.119 --> 00:39:12.519
upset them or cause them to think
or produce or present to them a counter

486
00:39:12.639 --> 00:39:16.400
perspective. And ladies and gentlemen,
Christians have been doing that forever. I'm

487
00:39:16.400 --> 00:39:19.280
not going to read that. I'm
not going to listen to him. I

488
00:39:19.320 --> 00:39:22.639
don't like that. Just tell me
what I already think and then will be

489
00:39:22.679 --> 00:39:24.320
good. But the minute you make
me think or you rock the boat,

490
00:39:24.440 --> 00:39:28.280
I'm not going to listen to you
anymore. And I get those emails all

491
00:39:28.280 --> 00:39:31.320
the time. You just lost another
listener. You just lost another listener,

492
00:39:31.400 --> 00:39:35.760
okay, because you're gonna go only
listen to the people you already agree with.

493
00:39:35.840 --> 00:39:40.320
Well, congratulations, how how that
you should You should be proud of

494
00:39:40.360 --> 00:39:49.280
yourself that you're gonna remove anything that
could possibly challenge you. Well, that's

495
00:39:49.280 --> 00:39:52.079
what gen zers do. But I
think the church has been doing that forever.

496
00:39:52.119 --> 00:39:54.960
I mean, I I've told the
story before, I had had a

497
00:39:55.000 --> 00:40:00.679
commentary by James Montgomery Boyce. I'm
First John. And in First John,

498
00:40:00.679 --> 00:40:05.199
we have that famous passage that some
people say supports the Trinity and other manuscripts

499
00:40:05.199 --> 00:40:08.440
it's not really there, and so
there's a big manuscript evidence our argument over

500
00:40:08.480 --> 00:40:13.039
it. Well, the church I
was in was a KJV only church.

501
00:40:13.639 --> 00:40:17.679
Well the manuscript that many of the
manuscripts differ wildly with what the KJV translates,

502
00:40:17.679 --> 00:40:22.800
and First John on this famous passage. So I handed my pastor the

503
00:40:22.840 --> 00:40:25.000
book, you know, from the
commentary, and I'm like, hey,

504
00:40:25.039 --> 00:40:29.039
could you read this and tell me
what you think, because he's making some

505
00:40:29.079 --> 00:40:31.880
claims about the the you know,
the manuscript evidence. And he's like,

506
00:40:31.920 --> 00:40:35.880
so what's his argument? I give
an argument and he tossed the book back.

507
00:40:35.920 --> 00:40:39.239
Man, it's like, I don't
read garbage. He wouldn't actually read

508
00:40:39.239 --> 00:40:42.840
the book, he wouldn't actually engage. He just said, I don't read

509
00:40:42.880 --> 00:40:45.440
garbage. That's the same church that
you know. You weren't supposed to read

510
00:40:45.440 --> 00:40:50.360
this. When promise keepers was so
popular, if you were in the Bible

511
00:40:50.360 --> 00:40:52.760
institutor doing serving in the church,
you were not allowed to go to a

512
00:40:52.800 --> 00:40:57.719
promise keeper's meeting. Because well,
because they were ecumenical, and they were

513
00:40:58.480 --> 00:41:00.119
In other words, you can only
go to the the things he said you

514
00:41:00.159 --> 00:41:02.360
could go to. You can only
listen to the preaching that they said you

515
00:41:02.400 --> 00:41:07.000
could listen to. They were basically
creating their own filter. This kind of

516
00:41:07.039 --> 00:41:10.039
nonsense has been going on in Christianity
forever. Don't read those books, don't

517
00:41:10.039 --> 00:41:14.599
listen to that pastor, don't use
that commentary, only use this commentary.

518
00:41:14.679 --> 00:41:19.760
Only listen to these pastors. Only
read these books. A lot of times

519
00:41:19.800 --> 00:41:22.400
people in my church would ask me, so should I read this book?

520
00:41:22.719 --> 00:41:27.920
Why wouldn't you? Well, it
may it may it may be disagree with

521
00:41:27.960 --> 00:41:31.639
everything we think, So is that
going to hurt you at all? What

522
00:41:31.719 --> 00:41:37.360
could confuse me? Confusion is the
first step to truth. If you're not

523
00:41:37.519 --> 00:41:39.559
confused, you're never gonna find truth. You just want it. You don't

524
00:41:39.559 --> 00:41:43.719
want to go through the valley of
confusion. You just want someone to hand

525
00:41:43.760 --> 00:41:46.719
you answer in a nice little package
way so you don't have to do any

526
00:41:46.760 --> 00:41:51.599
work and struggle or have any difficulty. That's not the pursuit of truth.

527
00:41:51.760 --> 00:41:59.000
That's the pursuit of comfort. Truth
is never comfortable, and the pursuit of

528
00:41:59.079 --> 00:42:06.199
truth as always is difficult, says, only the important stuff shows up,

529
00:42:06.239 --> 00:42:08.599
and if something shows up, it
must be important. So that's kind of

530
00:42:08.599 --> 00:42:12.400
the way they look at it is, Hey, what shows up in their

531
00:42:12.440 --> 00:42:19.800
feed. It's called time time pass
mode, all right, So basically the

532
00:42:19.840 --> 00:42:25.239
way they do so they engage and
light obligation free content and light obligation free

533
00:42:25.280 --> 00:42:29.199
content. I don't want any obligation
to it. It's it's fast, it's

534
00:42:29.280 --> 00:42:31.480
quick, it's free. They don't
wanna, they don't wanna. They don't

535
00:42:31.480 --> 00:42:37.840
want to have to be really to
do much of anything. The article continues

536
00:42:38.400 --> 00:42:42.239
gen Z. They don't read long
articles, and they don't trust anything with

537
00:42:42.400 --> 00:42:46.360
ads or paywalls or pop ups asking
for donations or subscriptions. If you're making

538
00:42:46.519 --> 00:42:51.639
clickbait, you have zero faith in
your content. One subject told the researchers

539
00:42:51.880 --> 00:42:54.559
and news sources, even CNN and
the New York Times do clickbait. I

540
00:42:54.639 --> 00:43:00.639
throw those articles away immediately. So
if they feel like it's clickbait, now

541
00:43:00.679 --> 00:43:02.840
they, I guess, are the
ones to determine if it's clickbait. They

542
00:43:02.840 --> 00:43:07.599
immediately throw it away. Just throw
it out, just throw it out.

543
00:43:07.719 --> 00:43:10.639
Say they're not so much worried about
the content they're worried about how the content

544
00:43:10.719 --> 00:43:15.239
is presented. I guess it's behind
a paywall or it's quote unquote clickbait,

545
00:43:15.519 --> 00:43:22.159
So well, okay. For gen
Z, the online world resembles the stratified,

546
00:43:22.440 --> 00:43:27.159
clickish launch room of a nineteen eighties
teen movie. Instead of listening to

547
00:43:27.320 --> 00:43:31.719
old, stuffy, old teachers like
CNN and The Times, they take their

548
00:43:31.760 --> 00:43:37.519
cues from online influencers, the queen
bees and quarterback bros. At the top

549
00:43:37.599 --> 00:43:44.480
of the social hierarchy. The influencer's
personal experience makes them authentic, and they

550
00:43:44.559 --> 00:43:50.400
speak jen Z language, so they're
going to go to the influencers. Again,

551
00:43:50.760 --> 00:43:54.000
I see a parallel within a lot
of Christianity. You have your favorite

552
00:43:54.039 --> 00:44:02.000
pastors, they become your influencer.
They have their influencers on TikTok or whatever

553
00:44:02.039 --> 00:44:07.840
social media platform there. That's who
they go to. It's really the same

554
00:44:07.920 --> 00:44:15.239
thing. And that's one of the
reasons I've tried on this podcast not to

555
00:44:15.280 --> 00:44:19.519
quote unquote be an influencer. I
try to be the place like, Okay,

556
00:44:19.719 --> 00:44:22.519
you're here, now, let's get
to work. We're gonna be working

557
00:44:22.559 --> 00:44:23.800
on it. I've given you this
week. What are you working on?

558
00:44:23.880 --> 00:44:27.320
Joshua One eight. That's what you're
supposed to be working on all week.

559
00:44:27.400 --> 00:44:30.039
I've given you specific things to look
for, specific things to try to define.

560
00:44:30.360 --> 00:44:34.760
We're looking at an article on revival
that we're gonna be like. I've

561
00:44:34.760 --> 00:44:37.719
always got some things we're working on, but it's always we're working on it,

562
00:44:37.519 --> 00:44:42.079
we're pursuing it, we're working together. I'm giving you assignments. We're

563
00:44:42.119 --> 00:44:45.559
looking this up, and I'm literally
pointing you to other sources other than me.

564
00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:51.960
I'm literally telling you go read this, go listen to this, go

565
00:44:52.119 --> 00:44:55.199
check this out. I may one
thousand percent disagree with it, because then

566
00:44:55.239 --> 00:45:00.880
you get to hear multiple perspectives.
That's why when you do sermon reviews,

567
00:45:00.480 --> 00:45:06.599
we review the entire sermon. Why
so you get to hear two different perspectives.

568
00:45:07.519 --> 00:45:10.719
Now I may criticize one, but
you still get to hear both perspectives.

569
00:45:10.719 --> 00:45:14.760
And you don't get to hear a
little clip. You get to hear

570
00:45:14.760 --> 00:45:19.079
the whole thing. You get to
hear those pastors present their entire hypotheses from

571
00:45:19.119 --> 00:45:22.480
beginning to end. You get to
hear them flesh it out, and then

572
00:45:22.519 --> 00:45:25.239
I tell you how to go find
it so you can go listen to the

573
00:45:25.280 --> 00:45:28.800
rest for yourself if for some reason
we don't finish it, but usually we

574
00:45:28.840 --> 00:45:35.760
finish finish them completely, or at
least about ninety percent. Gen z ers

575
00:45:35.800 --> 00:45:38.519
will have a favorite influencer, a
set of influencers who they essentially outsource their

576
00:45:38.559 --> 00:45:43.920
trust to, and then and then
they're incredibly loyal to everything that influencer is

577
00:45:43.960 --> 00:45:49.920
saying instead of they do this instead
of research. It becomes extremely costly to

578
00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:53.079
fall out of that influencers group because
they're getting all their information from them,

579
00:45:53.639 --> 00:46:00.000
so so that that's you know,
they're they're basically listening to the influencer verse,

580
00:46:00.159 --> 00:46:02.400
is doing any actual research. Now, none of this means that gen

581
00:46:02.519 --> 00:46:07.920
Z is any less intelligent or diligent
than other generations. They know how to

582
00:46:07.039 --> 00:46:13.880
research something more deeply. It's just
that this usually they don't wanna. They

583
00:46:13.920 --> 00:46:19.280
know how to, they just don't
wanna. They don't care. That don't

584
00:46:19.280 --> 00:46:25.920
care, they don't want to.
They tap into those critical literacy skills and

585
00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:30.280
a really small proportion of the time
they spend online if they're prepping for an

586
00:46:30.400 --> 00:46:34.480
argument they know they're going to have, or when they have to make big

587
00:46:34.519 --> 00:46:38.079
life decisions about schools or investments,
they're willing to deal with the drudgery of

588
00:46:38.239 --> 00:46:43.880
fact finding. But the vast majority
of the time they're spending uh, spending

589
00:46:44.280 --> 00:46:49.199
their their time mindless, mindlessly in
time pass mode. So most of the

590
00:46:49.239 --> 00:46:52.159
time that they're they're they're online or
doing anything, it's in it's in a

591
00:46:52.159 --> 00:46:57.239
as they refer to it, it's
mindless, it's in time pass mode.

592
00:46:57.480 --> 00:47:01.159
Veracity was not only not top of
mind, it actually wasn't important to them

593
00:47:01.199 --> 00:47:05.559
at all. They didn't really care
about the veracity of anything. They don't

594
00:47:05.599 --> 00:47:09.280
really, they just don't care.
They've reached a point it's not a matter

595
00:47:09.360 --> 00:47:13.800
of your truth, my truth.
They don't even care about the concept.

596
00:47:13.840 --> 00:47:19.639
They just don't care. Who cares? I need to know it if it

597
00:47:19.679 --> 00:47:23.440
makes it cool. Well, one
of my favorite influence says, the concept

598
00:47:23.480 --> 00:47:30.039
of truth is gone. Now.
This could be very detrimental, and I

599
00:47:30.039 --> 00:47:32.920
don't think the church will understand this. If you get a church leader,

600
00:47:34.320 --> 00:47:38.800
like someone in Christianity that comes an
influencer to a large generation of gen Zers,

601
00:47:39.599 --> 00:47:44.599
they're just going to outsource the concept
of truth to that Christian influencer.

602
00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.920
Doesn't mean that they have really any
true connection to that faith. They just

603
00:47:49.960 --> 00:47:52.920
like buy into it and go along
with it. At some point someone's got

604
00:47:52.920 --> 00:47:54.760
to say no, no, no, no, you need to figure it

605
00:47:54.760 --> 00:48:00.400
out. Let's study together, let's
dig in, meaning that what whatever they're

606
00:48:00.440 --> 00:48:05.679
committed to is really based off what
they're being influenced by, not some real

607
00:48:05.800 --> 00:48:08.960
personal connection to it. Well,
when it comes to Christianity and faith should

608
00:48:09.000 --> 00:48:17.119
be a personal thing to it.
When one subject shared a fake image of

609
00:48:17.119 --> 00:48:22.119
Donald Trump running from the New York
Police Department, the research has challenged them

610
00:48:22.119 --> 00:48:27.559
on it, they kind of shrugged. From the subject's perspective, they weren't

611
00:48:27.679 --> 00:48:30.920
using their critical thinking and media literary
skills at all. After all, Trump

612
00:48:31.000 --> 00:48:34.679
was at that time headed for a
criminal trial in New York. It could

613
00:48:34.719 --> 00:48:37.360
have been true. So they don't
really care. H well, whatever,

614
00:48:37.559 --> 00:48:38.800
you challenge them on it, and
they're like, whatever, I don't care.

615
00:48:40.119 --> 00:48:44.119
And when it comes to things like
diet or wellness, gen zers will

616
00:48:44.159 --> 00:48:47.519
just try it on their own bodies
and see if it works. They perceive

617
00:48:47.920 --> 00:48:52.199
that is a safe way to do
their own research, mostly because it's not

618
00:48:52.280 --> 00:48:55.599
hurting anyone else. If that new
diet or exercise regime works on their body,

619
00:48:55.639 --> 00:49:01.119
that's more believable than data showing the
effect on a whole population. If

620
00:49:01.199 --> 00:49:07.960
facty sounding stuff does not manage to
sneak into the gen z's feeds claims about

621
00:49:07.960 --> 00:49:10.559
what constitutes a healthy diet, or
what Trump would do as president, or

622
00:49:10.599 --> 00:49:15.280
whether Ukraine Russia is to blame for
russia invasion of Ukraine, they're likely they

623
00:49:15.280 --> 00:49:20.559
head straight for the comments. That's
partly because they know how they know the

624
00:49:20.639 --> 00:49:28.440
digital They basically they think that the
people will quickly unmask any fake news,

625
00:49:28.639 --> 00:49:34.519
but it's also because they're concerned about
But it's also because they're concerned about whether

626
00:49:34.559 --> 00:49:38.480
the news or a particular reaction to
it might prove to be a canceable take.

627
00:49:38.880 --> 00:49:43.440
So, in other words, they
don't really want to work through the

628
00:49:43.559 --> 00:49:45.159
article, right, They don't really
work with the facts. They go to

629
00:49:45.199 --> 00:49:49.920
the comments because they are trusting that
in the comments they will determine if this

630
00:49:49.960 --> 00:49:54.480
is fake or true and whether if
whatever has happened is canceable. Oh,

631
00:49:54.639 --> 00:49:58.760
this person should be canceled and this
person should be silent. How should I

632
00:49:58.800 --> 00:50:01.119
feel about it? They go to
the comments to figure out how they should

633
00:50:01.119 --> 00:50:05.199
feel about it. They go to
the comments to determine what they should do.

634
00:50:05.320 --> 00:50:07.719
They go to the comments to determine
whether something is fake or that is

635
00:50:07.880 --> 00:50:14.719
the most ridiculous thing ever. But
at the same time, I think that's

636
00:50:14.719 --> 00:50:17.119
been evident in generations for a long
time. I don't think this is something

637
00:50:17.159 --> 00:50:22.440
necessarily new. I think gen zers
are following what many generations have done,

638
00:50:30.079 --> 00:50:37.639
all right. Rather than engaging in
more traditional information seeking journey that seeks to

639
00:50:37.639 --> 00:50:43.400
answer a specific question, gen zers
figure stuff out by bouncing around online.

640
00:50:43.960 --> 00:50:46.280
So they're not going to do a
traditional way of research or study. It's

641
00:50:46.320 --> 00:50:50.360
kind of bounce around online and I
think they just try to get kind of

642
00:50:50.360 --> 00:50:53.639
a feel for what people are thinking. But guess what, but that's all

643
00:50:53.679 --> 00:50:58.760
based off the algorithm already giving them
what they already think, so they're never

644
00:50:58.840 --> 00:51:02.760
going to be challenged. But again, Christianity does the same thing. People

645
00:51:02.760 --> 00:51:06.920
can be on the sermon's two point
o app and they look at their feed.

646
00:51:07.280 --> 00:51:09.800
Most of it's going to be pastors
they agree with are from a denomination

647
00:51:09.920 --> 00:51:14.960
that they're a part of. They're
not going to have people that's presenting ideas

648
00:51:14.960 --> 00:51:22.800
contrary to what they think. Cancel
culture came to be a thing as they

649
00:51:22.840 --> 00:51:27.000
were growing up. They were trained
and attend to how to perform and not

650
00:51:27.039 --> 00:51:31.800
to perform to avoid that they're getting
trusted information from closed group chats or followers

651
00:51:31.840 --> 00:51:36.599
with private feeds, so they're able
to perform that they're part of an in

652
00:51:36.840 --> 00:51:40.199
group and can perform specific social signals. For gen Z, checking what other

653
00:51:40.239 --> 00:51:45.039
people are saying in the comments isn't
shallow. It's a matter of social life

654
00:51:45.320 --> 00:51:49.880
or death. In other words,
Hey, for them, there's a there's

655
00:51:49.920 --> 00:51:54.119
a real this is their this is
their social life is online. So they're

656
00:51:54.159 --> 00:51:57.880
going to go to the comments to
kind of get a feel for whateveryone is

657
00:51:57.880 --> 00:52:00.840
thinking, because they don't want to
be canceled. If they put out a

658
00:52:00.920 --> 00:52:05.079
take that's against what everyone is saying, they're gonna be silence. They're gonna

659
00:52:05.079 --> 00:52:07.679
be shut down, They're gonna be
canceled. So this is a matter of

660
00:52:07.719 --> 00:52:10.239
life or death for them as far
as their social life is online. Now.

661
00:52:10.480 --> 00:52:15.719
To be fair, I can't say
I understand that completely right because I've

662
00:52:15.760 --> 00:52:19.679
never lived in that environment right the
way they do now. For me,

663
00:52:20.199 --> 00:52:23.559
I always went against what everyone said. So it was death for my social

664
00:52:23.599 --> 00:52:28.239
life in high school because I went
against everything I went against. I just

665
00:52:28.519 --> 00:52:31.519
like you tell me a I'm saying
B even if I know it's a just

666
00:52:31.599 --> 00:52:35.639
because I'm not gonna go along with
you. So if I was a lie,

667
00:52:35.719 --> 00:52:38.079
if I was a teenager today where
my life was dependent upon, you

668
00:52:38.119 --> 00:52:42.760
know, being on social media and
these online social groups, I would be

669
00:52:42.840 --> 00:52:46.320
I would be finished. I'd have
been canceled within five seconds. But you

670
00:52:46.320 --> 00:52:52.840
know what, that's still not much
different than Christianity. You say, you

671
00:52:52.880 --> 00:52:54.960
say things not the way everyone wants
you to say them, you will be

672
00:52:55.199 --> 00:53:02.239
canceled. I've said Christianity is the
is the original creators. They are the

673
00:53:02.280 --> 00:53:09.840
ogs of cancel culture. But it's
the same kind. So that's why they

674
00:53:09.840 --> 00:53:13.519
go to the comments. They're they're
trying to figure what eeveryone is saying because

675
00:53:13.519 --> 00:53:15.519
they don't want to get themselves in
trouble. If this sounds like a generation

676
00:53:15.639 --> 00:53:21.320
that will believe any flim flam they
encountered and never subscribed to a newspaper,

677
00:53:21.320 --> 00:53:24.000
well the researchers that Jigsaw worry about
that too. But the good news is

678
00:53:24.519 --> 00:53:30.960
gen zers aren't seeing as much intentional
falsehood as you might think. Researchers show

679
00:53:31.039 --> 00:53:37.360
that most miss and disinformation is being
made and consumed by a dwindling minority of

680
00:53:37.480 --> 00:53:45.039
users who seek it out that's interesting, right, not sprayed out, you

681
00:53:45.039 --> 00:53:47.800
know, through the algorithm, into
the eyeballs of you know, the credulous

682
00:53:47.840 --> 00:53:53.920
internet surfing teens. Casual consumption,
consumption of silly tiktoks is very unlikely to

683
00:53:54.000 --> 00:53:58.840
lead someone into a dark corner of
hate or misinformation. So there's like,

684
00:53:58.880 --> 00:54:01.480
typically the people who want misinformation or
seeking it out, Okay, maybe,

685
00:54:01.480 --> 00:54:04.960
but the point is they don't seem
to care to research it one way or

686
00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:12.320
the other. All right, now, the article goes on, I'm just

687
00:54:12.360 --> 00:54:15.119
gonna skip down here to the bottom. There's a lot here you can go

688
00:54:15.159 --> 00:54:17.880
find this, it says. Still, I wondered what gen zers themselves might

689
00:54:17.960 --> 00:54:22.639
make of Jigsaw's research. Conveniently,
two of them live in my house and

690
00:54:22.719 --> 00:54:27.199
call me Dad, so I texted
them the findings, along with a question

691
00:54:27.280 --> 00:54:30.239
mark emoji. Yeah seems right,
the younger one replied, But you know,

692
00:54:30.760 --> 00:54:36.000
not all of us do that.
I counted myself lucky. That was

693
00:54:36.039 --> 00:54:39.239
more of a response than any of
the researchers got. We always share the

694
00:54:39.239 --> 00:54:44.039
final results with respondents, he says. But when Goldberg asked her subjects what

695
00:54:44.119 --> 00:54:46.840
they thought of her research, true
to her findings, all she heard back

696
00:54:47.000 --> 00:54:51.639
was the gravid silence of teenagers looking
at their phones. I'm not sure how

697
00:54:51.679 --> 00:54:55.559
many of our eiers read our papers, she concluded, ruefully, no comment

698
00:54:55.679 --> 00:55:00.159
section, no comment. So,
in other words, most of the peopeople

699
00:55:00.159 --> 00:55:01.960
who were involved in the research,
when they sent them the research, they

700
00:55:02.000 --> 00:55:07.000
were like, yeah, who cares, We don't really care. That's gen

701
00:55:07.079 --> 00:55:13.719
Zers. We just don't care.
We don't care. That maybe gen Zers.

702
00:55:14.599 --> 00:55:16.599
And this has been talked about all
the way in the eighties, right,

703
00:55:17.159 --> 00:55:22.400
you remember the famous story that the
kids walk into the classroom and on

704
00:55:22.440 --> 00:55:28.480
the chalkboard there's the word apathy written
right, and one of the students walk

705
00:55:28.519 --> 00:55:32.679
up to the chalkboard like app but
the apathy app but the appa ah,

706
00:55:32.679 --> 00:55:39.400
who cares? Who cares? Well, well, gen Z just doesn't care.

707
00:55:39.559 --> 00:55:47.079
Now if there's a comment section,
they care. Now what do you

708
00:55:47.119 --> 00:55:50.079
take from all of that? Now, here's what I'm going to do.

709
00:55:50.440 --> 00:55:52.880
If you have the church one APP, I'll be sending out the link to

710
00:55:53.000 --> 00:55:59.000
this article in just a few minutes, and then you can look at it

711
00:55:59.039 --> 00:56:04.039
for yourself and determine what you think. There's there's a lot more here.

712
00:56:04.119 --> 00:56:08.039
I skipped a number of paragraphs,
so I want you to read it again.

713
00:56:08.119 --> 00:56:14.559
The headline is Google studied gen Z. What they found is alarming.

714
00:56:15.920 --> 00:56:19.719
I tried to take it and draw
correlations between what I see in Christianity and

715
00:56:19.800 --> 00:56:25.199
the Church. I think we have
reached a point moving forward that I think

716
00:56:25.679 --> 00:56:30.639
there's a there's a there's a lot
of similarities. And if the current if

717
00:56:30.639 --> 00:56:35.320
the gen Zers just don't really care
about truth and don't really care about research,

718
00:56:35.400 --> 00:56:37.440
and don't really care to pursue it
and to search it out, I

719
00:56:37.440 --> 00:56:42.280
don't think a lot of Christians care
either. I think it's very difficult to

720
00:56:42.280 --> 00:56:46.000
get Christians to actually engage in meaningful
study other than just going to their favorite

721
00:56:46.039 --> 00:56:50.159
influencers. I think this, I
think the problem has been going. I

722
00:56:50.159 --> 00:56:55.239
think the problem has been developing before
gen Zers. I think has been developing

723
00:56:55.239 --> 00:57:04.239
for a very long time. I
mean, I remember in the late eighties,

724
00:57:04.280 --> 00:57:08.480
early nineties hearing seminary professors saying,
we have got a crisis of biblical

725
00:57:08.599 --> 00:57:15.159
illiteracy. There's theological illiteracy, Biblical
illiteracy. I remember talking about it in

726
00:57:15.199 --> 00:57:17.599
the nineties, talking about it in
the two thousands. It's been talked about

727
00:57:17.599 --> 00:57:22.719
over and over. We've got a
problem that we cannot get Christians to actually

728
00:57:22.760 --> 00:57:25.639
study. We cannot get Christians to
actually study, so that we got to

729
00:57:25.760 --> 00:57:29.599
shorten our sermons, or we have
to add other content, or we got

730
00:57:29.639 --> 00:57:31.559
to do this, or we got
to do that, because they don't want

731
00:57:31.639 --> 00:57:37.400
long, lengthy sermons, they don't
want philological study. Well, I've heard

732
00:57:37.400 --> 00:57:42.280
this over and over to me that
we've been laying the groundwork for gen Z,

733
00:57:45.440 --> 00:57:51.440
but that means it's only getting worse. So what is the church going

734
00:57:51.519 --> 00:58:00.360
to look like? What is the
church going to look like? There's a

735
00:58:00.400 --> 00:58:06.960
lot of questions there I don't have
good answers to, but there you have

736
00:58:07.039 --> 00:58:10.960
it. Google study gen Z.
They say the results are alarming. I

737
00:58:10.960 --> 00:58:15.559
think the results are like I thought
when they were alarming. When I tried

738
00:58:15.559 --> 00:58:16.840
to predict what they would be,
I was trying to think of something just

739
00:58:16.960 --> 00:58:20.119
like completely out of the box.
I didn't know what it could be.

740
00:58:20.480 --> 00:58:22.159
Well, this is not that alarming, because this is kind of what's been

741
00:58:22.199 --> 00:58:28.880
going on. Society's been moving in
this direction generation after generation, year after

742
00:58:28.960 --> 00:58:37.360
year after year after year after year
after year after year after year. You

743
00:58:37.400 --> 00:58:38.599
said, well, how do we
fix the gen Zers? I don't know.

744
00:58:38.880 --> 00:58:43.239
I'm more worried about how we fix
the church. But yeah, I

745
00:58:43.280 --> 00:58:45.519
mean, you know, I'm more. I mean, I'm this a theology

746
00:58:45.559 --> 00:58:47.599
podcast. I'm trying to how this
impacts the church. I don't know what

747
00:58:47.639 --> 00:58:52.239
you do with gen zers. Can
you make someone want to research? Can

748
00:58:52.280 --> 00:58:55.559
you make someone want to care about
the truth? Can you want someone to

749
00:58:55.599 --> 00:59:02.559
actually care about digging in and thinking
and research and reading and considering? Already

750
00:59:02.639 --> 00:59:07.039
just want them in time pass mode
where they're just more worried about being bored,

751
00:59:07.079 --> 00:59:08.719
and they just go from things.
The thing and they're more worried about

752
00:59:08.920 --> 00:59:12.639
their life is I don't want to
be canceled. So I got to go

753
00:59:12.639 --> 00:59:16.119
see what the comment's saying, and
that's that's sad that we want to cancel

754
00:59:16.239 --> 00:59:22.079
anyone who has a contrary perspective,
anyone we want to just cancel them.

755
00:59:22.079 --> 00:59:29.199
But again, I've been seeing that
in Christianity forever. So I think the

756
00:59:29.239 --> 00:59:34.760
previous generations kind of molded the gen
Zers into what they are. They've taken

757
00:59:34.800 --> 00:59:37.320
all the bad parts of the previous
generations and they're like, this is the

758
00:59:37.320 --> 00:59:40.559
way we're going to be now.
I don't know what the next generation is

759
00:59:40.559 --> 00:59:45.679
going to look like. I think
there's more. I mean, digital content's

760
00:59:45.760 --> 00:59:50.159
not going to decrease, It's only
going to increase. The accessibility of digital

761
00:59:50.159 --> 00:59:53.199
content is only going to increase.
I think. I do believe there's gonna

762
00:59:53.199 --> 00:59:58.000
be there's gonna slowly but surely be
more and more of a pushback against cancel

763
00:59:58.039 --> 01:00:01.840
culture. I think we're already seeing
that. So I think the next generation

764
01:00:01.960 --> 01:00:07.039
will be much more opposed to cancel
culture, at least I'm predicting that.

765
01:00:07.400 --> 01:00:14.800
I think they're going to fight back
against it. All right, I'll start

766
01:00:14.880 --> 01:00:17.400
right there. You can email me
news I F at yahoo dot com.

767
01:00:17.519 --> 01:00:22.840
That's news. I F at Yahoo
dot com. News I F at Yahoo

768
01:00:22.840 --> 01:00:24.519
dot com. If you're using the
Church one app, if you if you

769
01:00:24.599 --> 01:00:29.039
listen to this, if you'll download
the Church one app Church O n E.

770
01:00:29.360 --> 01:00:30.719
Once you download the app, do
a search for Theology Central. It

771
01:00:30.719 --> 01:00:35.119
becomes the Theology Central App. I
am going to send out the link to

772
01:00:35.159 --> 01:00:39.559
this article hopefully here, as soon
as possible. And I hate to say

773
01:00:39.599 --> 01:00:45.440
this again because we've been having this
problem. Once again. During this broadcast,

774
01:00:45.440 --> 01:00:51.360
we had a disconnect from Sermon's two
point oh and the Church one app.

775
01:00:51.360 --> 01:00:53.679
I don't know why there was a
disconnection. But there was a disconnection.

776
01:00:54.199 --> 01:01:00.239
I apologize for that what I but
the recording should be fine. I'll

777
01:01:00.239 --> 01:01:02.760
be uploading the recording hopefully. If
there was a disconnect and you missed something,

778
01:01:04.039 --> 01:01:07.079
it was brief, but the recording
will be uploaded within probably five to

779
01:01:07.159 --> 01:01:10.400
ten minutes, and then you can
go listen to you can try to fast

780
01:01:10.400 --> 01:01:14.519
forward to the part where it disconnected
it and you can hear everything I said.

781
01:01:14.840 --> 01:01:17.239
Hopefully this was beneficial. I had
no idea that I was going to

782
01:01:17.280 --> 01:01:21.840
go over an hour on this,
meaning all the gen Zers already tuned out.

783
01:01:21.880 --> 01:01:24.639
So I apologize. So if you'll
post comments, then the gen Zers

784
01:01:24.679 --> 01:01:28.440
will just look at the title of
this and then go to the comment section.

785
01:01:28.679 --> 01:01:32.159
So for the gen Zers, maybe
someone will post a comment on YouTube.

786
01:01:32.320 --> 01:01:36.599
Right somewhere, someone will post a
comment. You won't listen to me,

787
01:01:37.079 --> 01:01:40.440
so so that but seeh I was
very careful how I did the head

788
01:01:40.519 --> 01:01:45.320
that the title of this, I
just put gen Zers. That's all I

789
01:01:45.360 --> 01:01:50.599
put. I was gonna put gen
Zer's Alarming Study. But then gen Zers

790
01:01:50.599 --> 01:01:53.440
would say that that's being clickbaity,
So that's clickbait, and so you just

791
01:01:53.519 --> 01:01:55.840
you wanted me just to click on
it. So I'm not going to listen

792
01:01:55.880 --> 01:01:59.800
to you. So I just put
gen Z and didn't say anything. So

793
01:02:00.000 --> 01:02:02.440
he had accused me of being clickbait. Right, so but now I went

794
01:02:02.480 --> 01:02:06.960
sixty one minutes, So now sixty
two minutes. So then gen Z is

795
01:02:06.960 --> 01:02:08.199
are going to be like too long. But you know what's funny, it's

796
01:02:08.199 --> 01:02:14.320
not gen Z ors will do that. It's the adults. It's the people

797
01:02:14.440 --> 01:02:22.599
and the generation before them that that
will guess what, complain that I went

798
01:02:22.679 --> 01:02:27.440
sixty two minutes and you didn't give
good answers and and well, so I

799
01:02:27.440 --> 01:02:30.119
can't. I'm telling you, this
is a this is a call, this

800
01:02:30.199 --> 01:02:35.280
is a societal shift. I don't
think this is a gen I think they

801
01:02:35.360 --> 01:02:37.119
saw it in their study of gen
Z. I think this is a societal

802
01:02:37.239 --> 01:02:42.239
shift. Society is going the way
of gen Z. Gen Z is only

803
01:02:42.280 --> 01:02:45.079
reflecting. I don't think this is
a gen Z thing. I think this

804
01:02:45.239 --> 01:02:51.320
gen Z is reflecting the reality of
society. I think gen Z is just

805
01:02:51.440 --> 01:02:54.679
reflecting it. I don't think they're
causing it or driving it. They're simply

806
01:02:54.719 --> 01:02:59.239
reflecting it. That's my theory.
You can tell me what you think.

807
01:02:59.320 --> 01:03:04.079
News I fitt Yahoo dot com news
if at Yahoo dot com, the link

808
01:03:04.159 --> 01:03:07.400
will be coming soon. Read the
entire article. I know it's long,

809
01:03:08.079 --> 01:03:10.960
so I know. So if you
find a gen zer, read it to

810
01:03:12.000 --> 01:03:15.119
them, well, they'll probably be
looking at their phone. Okay, wait

811
01:03:15.159 --> 01:03:17.119
a minute, forget that. The
adults won't even read the article. They'll

812
01:03:17.159 --> 01:03:20.679
be looking at their phone. See, this is not a gen z.

813
01:03:21.039 --> 01:03:23.079
This is a societal issue. I
think it's a societal issue. You can

814
01:03:23.079 --> 01:03:24.800
give me your thoughts, all right, Thank you very much. Everyone,

815
01:03:24.840 --> 01:03:29.440
have a great day. God bless