Gen Z, Esther, Christ, and the Church

Gen Z, Esther, Christ, and their Passion

Connect: It is good to be with you all today, my favorite time of the month is staff chapel because I love being able to be with you all to worship together and to be encouraged in our faith. I’m Abdiel Valerio, the central director of student ministry and I am also the youth director of the Munster and Highland campuses.

As a youth director, I work with Gen Z. Gen Z ranges from 1997 to 2012. I myself was born in 1996, but articles say that the top end of Gen Z could also be 1996, So I’d like to consider myself to be a Gen Zillennial.

So what I’m going to do is break my talk into 3 sections so you can follow along with me. First I will tell you about the passion of Gen Z, then I’m going to tell you about the passion of Esther, and lastly, we will talk about the passion of our savior Jesus and tie these things into our work in the church.

So first off let's talk about Gen Z!

Gen Z.

There is a lot to say about Gen Z, and many people in older generations have mainly negative things to say. They are the most liberal in their thinking, the most skeptical and illogical, but that’s not all true. When we only have negative things to say about a group of people, we will create a barrier in our minds where we believe that group of people isn’t worthy of our love or worse the love of God.

So we are going to look at some really awesome statistics about Gen Z.

Digital Natives: Gen Z grew up knowing nothing but the digital world. They know how to access the internet and their digital devices better than anyone. How many of you have ever asked a teenager or young person for help when it came to your phone or computer? How fast did it take them to fix it?

Diversity: Gen Z is the most diverse generation. This generation will be the last generation that is mostly white. The Hispanic population has increased 4 times in the years 2000 to 2010. The idea of a black president is not exceptional to them, it is normal. Gen Z has grown up only knowing diversity.

Ethical Consumers: Gen Z gets behind brands that are implementing social justice and inclusivity. When Nike ran the campaign for Colin Kaepernick, people were burning their Nike brands, and cutting their swoosh logo off their socks, However, their stock value increased by 9.2%. Why did Nike risk this controversy? Because they were appealing to Gen Z. They were playing to the future consumers, not their past ones. Nike did their research and found out that Gen Z is all about inclusivity and diversity. Gen Z is the generation that leads the charge when it comes to spending power and marketing.

Financially Responsible: They are driven by a desire to avoid the financial challenges that their Gen X and Millennial parents faced. Witnessing job loss during the great recession and seeing their parents live through the realities of crippling student loan debt is causing Gen Z to write a different financial future for themselves. Studies have even shown that Gen Z would rather choose a college that saves them money than go to a big-name college. Some have even found college to be a hindrance and dropped out to start their own businesses.

Lonely & Overwhelmed:

Interviews with Gen Zers have shown that being a teenager today is a draining full-time job that includes doing schoolwork, managing a social media identity, and fretting about career, climate change, sexism, racism—you name it.

All of us think that they’re just trippin’ and need to get over it because they aren’t where we are and we say these things as they lead the charge of suicide rates than any other generation before them.

3 million people aged 12-17 have had a major depressive episode due to their feeling of loneliness. Interestingly, the most connected generation is the most lonely generation.

What can we then conclude about Gen Z? This generation is the most passionate about inclusivity, diversity, and community than any other generation before them. If we as a church want to reach this generation, we have to connect with them where they are at, provide access points for them, and provide places where they can experience community. Gen Z is a passionate generation. Passionate for change and passion for the community.

ESTHER

We also see a great passion in a woman named Esther in the book of, you guessed it, Esther. To give some context to this book, it takes place during the time when Israel is in exile, but now they are under the rule of Persia. The king of Persia got a little drunk with his buddies and he wanted to show off his wife to them. His wife said no, and the king got upset and Exiled her out of the palace because of her rebellion. Then, the King held a beauty pageant all over the land to replace the queen, and Esther who was a Jew, and very beautiful, won. Now, a man named Haman was promoted by the king. Everyone had to bow down when they saw him. However, Esther’s uncle, Mordecai, who was a very Godly man, did not bow and this ticked off Haman. Haman then talked the king into destroying all of the Jews in Persia for this reason. When Mordecai finds out about this, he tells Esther who now has good favor with the King, however, there was a rule established.

Esther 4:11-14 All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law - to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days. And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

So the problem is if Esther tries to go unannounced to see the king she could die. But Mordecai lets Esther know how important it is to save God’s people and even realizes how important it is for her to be in this position “for such a time as this.”

So she gets herself ready to enter the palace and stand before the king knowing that she could be sentenced to death. But she sacrifices herself in order to save God’s people from their coming destruction. Imagine how she felt before she entered the court. Her palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms were heavy, there was vomit on her sweater already, Mom’s spaghetti.

But here is what happened.

Esther 5:2 And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.

Esther then plans a feast for the King and Haman so that she could tell him about Haman’s plan. And the king’s wrath burned against Haman and he was hung on the gallows that were actually prepared for Mordecai. So Esther acts as a mediator to save the Jews because of her passion for God’s people and the enemy Haman is defeated.

JESUS

Fast forward just a little over 500 years. Where a better mediator has come again to save God’s people. But not just from physical death, but a spiritual one. The first Adam was exiled from the presence of the King because of his rebellion and replaced by the second Adam who was spiritually pure and beautiful, containing a great passion for God’s people. Sacrificing His life, He approached the King’s courts on calvary, on the cross where He poured out His life so that all who would look upon it would not perish, but have eternal life. Then three days later, he rose again from the dead, and 40 days later, ascended to the right hand of God to mediate for His people until His return. Jesus Christ’s passion for His people brought us life just as Esther’s Passion for God’s people brought them life. And in doing so, Christ was victorious over the enemy, Satan, who has been defeated.

Gen Z

Now, Gen Z, they have a passion too, and it is our job, Faith Church, to reach them and to show them the direction of their passion to be centered on Jesus.

Mordecai knew that Esther possessed something that could be utilized for a purpose and that was her beauty. What we know about Gen Z is that they are a passionate generation and we ought to show them how their passion can be utilized for God’s purpose. We ought to have that desire to see young people mentored and used for God’s purpose to bring glory to the name that is Jesus Christ. We ought to show them a direction and a purpose for their passion.

We might think that “oh I’m not a faithstudents director, oh I’m not a faith kids director or volunteer so I’ll leave those guys to be the mentors.” But we are all meant to show our young people the purpose behind their passion.

And that passion can help us Faith Church to be more successful.

We want to make goals for church growth and success, but please hear me on this, don’t confirm any goal until you brought in the voices of Gen Z. Because they are the present generation that can truly make a difference for the future generations. They have a hunger for community, and the fact that they are lonely doesn’t mean that they don’t know how to be in community, it shows that community to them is so much more intimate than what we consider community to be. I hope we can take these examples and be just as passionate as Gen Z is, to help disciple them to use what they have for God’s purpose just as Mordecai did for Esther and all of us need to continue to look upon the cross of Jesus to see His passion for the church.

Pray: