Most Gen Z Christians Shouldn’t Be Pastors, But Have Serious Potential

All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995 Ed. (NASB95)

The Gospel Coalition website recently published an article entitled, “Meet the Gen Z Pastor,” highlighting an uptick in young men from ages 19 to 28 who are either currently pastors, or on track to become such soon (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/meet-gen-z-pastor/). While it’s commendable that there are so many young men that are eager to be of great use to the Lord in teaching, preaching, and discipleship, this article also highlights a few major errors that most western evangelicals hold to about church leaders, or “pastors”. The article implicitly applauds and encourages the appointment of twenty-year olds to pastoral offices, but the Scriptures overwhelmingly caution against such responsibilities being put on the shoulders of such inexperienced Christians. So, in the article’s glowing praises of the preparation for, and filling of, the oversight by an extremely immature and warped generation, we find some of the greatest and hidden weaknesses in the body of Christ today. Let’s examine these in the light of what the article details.

Pastoring isn’t a “Profession”

The first major problem that is assumed by most evangelicals is that pastoral ministry is a line of “work,” in much the same category as a full-time means of living. This is the clerical or professional view of pastoring that is foreign to New Testament Christianity. But such a view seems to be the only one that would so easily approve of a host of twenty year old men working as full-time “pastors”.

In contrast to this typical view of the pastorate, the New Testament presents us with one more organic and robust. The leaders of the early body of Christ couldn’t be trained mostly by formal education, and then through relatively short stints engaging in “formal ministry”. Rather, they were recognized by their tested maturity forged by the trials and responsibilities of everyday masculine lifestyles. The reason the New Testament usually calls them “elders” is because they had become the elders of their families, neighborhoods, and communities. This is a status that is almost impossible to hold as a man under thirty.

With this foundation being laid by years building a household, loving a wife, and starting to raise children, the men that were led to use spiritual gifts of shepherding and teaching were then identified by leaders apprenticed by apostolic representatives. In the 1st century, there were no formal seminaries or Bibles colleges, and no degrees conferred upon disciples. There were just men who had reached masculine maturity, and had been recognized for their skill in leading and teaching the brethren. They only became elders once they were submitted to by their congregations out of this spiritually-discerned recognition.

But in contrast to the professionalism and clericalism of today, the early church elders often supported themselves financially, and were never thought of as a separate class of Christians. Rather, they were simply the recognized leading men among the brethren who were exercising the roles of shepherding and teaching their respective congregations. They didn’t live separate lives, have separate titles, or have a separate status among the fellowship, except that of working together as elders to oversee their congregation.

Seminaries Don’t Make “Pastors”

The second main evangelical problem that the whole idea of Gen Z pastors brings up is the dependence on formal seminary education for elders. This is one of the factors that enables immature men to so easily fill church leadership roles. The clerical view of elders has so pervaded the process of filling leadership offices that most Christians see professional seminary education as the primary means by which they’re filled. And this allows for droves of men with none to little real-life experience to devote themselves to years in academia, and then immediately go into the full-time “job” of “pastoring” congregations that often contain at least several brothers much more mature than they. And even worse, a few of these men that this twenty-something scholar is going to be “shepherding” usually possess the spiritual gifts of shepherding and teaching, but lack the formal education, credentials, and pressure necessary to “fit” them to serve as elders.

But what exactly is lacking in young men who spend years in Bible college and seminary, but have barely any experience working a 9-5 job, and managing a household of a wife and two kids? Well, most of the relational skills and wisdom necessary to serve as a father-figure to their congregation, and be a relatable witness for their non-Christian neighbors. Rather than being seen as “just like us,” most seminary-trained “pastors” are viewed as the ministry “professionals” who have learned most of the knowledge and facts necessary to teach and defend Scripture, but which is impractical and unnecessary for most other believers to know. Young men are too often molded into academic “scholars” who know a ton about how to understand and teach the Bible, but little to nothing about how most Christians need to apply that Bible to their everyday interactions and job tasks.

And yet most western believers insist that church leaders usually need to have years of seminary education to be competent for pastoring a congregation. However, we ignore the model and teaching that the New Testament itself gives us for the training of elders. The multiplication of elders is nothing less than the application of normal Christian discipleship to the designated leaders of local fellowships. That is, the recognized elders of congregations are instructed to simply identify men who have been qualified by the Spirit’s work to fill the pastoral office, and encourage and train them to eventually serve in a recognized shepherding-oversight capacity. The New Testament everywhere points to the appropriateness and prioritization of recognizing and training new leaders from within their own congregations. There is virtually nothing in the Scriptures to say for separating terribly inexperienced young men from their normal fellowships, and putting them through years of rigorous and obsessive academic exercises to qualify them for a degree they can then showcase to a list of potential hiring congregations for a job.

Gen Z Men Need Men-torship, Masculine Lifestyles, and Years of Christian Experience

In spite of the unscripturalness of most leadership training and appointment, we still need to encourage Gen Z brothers toward leadership roles in society and in the body. But the way this happens needs to be much more consistent with the model of the New Testament Christians. Toward that end, we start with the view that the work of pastoring is a spiritual office worked out organically, and that the best training for young men happens among the brothers of their congregations, not the professors of a seminary.

The three greatest needs for all Christian men under thirty are mentoring, masculinity, and long-term hard experience. First, all men in the body of Christ need to take notice of, and invest, the young men of their congregation, especially the elders. In our cultural moment, we now have a special opportunity to counsel, teach, and disciple a group of men who are more interested in, and eager, for godly masculinity than several generations before them. They are ripe for education, development, and abundant service in Christlike love. But our efforts shouldn’t be limited to those young men who seem to possess the giftings of elders. Rather, as a whole, they need to be encouraged and mentored in preparation for their current or future roles as husbands, fathers, business owners, craftsmen, teachers, politicians, and missionaries, evangelists, and elders.

The second need for our young brothers for them to begin or continue to practice the disciplines of biblical masculinity now and henceforth. If they’re going to be fit to fill the office of elder, or the role of husband and leader of anything, they need to learn, and resolve, to discipline themselves mentally, physically, socially, vocationally, financially, and any other appropriate way. This means as they learn from, submit to, and serve with, the most mature brothers of their fellowships, they need to imitate their godly habits and practices. They should devote themselves to daily prayer, Bible meditation, time management, hard work, godly ambitions, bodily exercise, and loving service of others, spurred on by the encouragement, counsel, and example of their local congregations.

Finally, if we want Gen Z brothers to serve in the office of elder someday, then we must give them time, and you young brothers need to take the time, to develop into established, disciplined, and tested men of God. In fact, if you read the qualifications for overseers, or elders, in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9, these are the traits that are described, especially if you read them in the light of the pro-masculinity culture of the day. Just take a look at some of these qualities:

“An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to win or pugnacious, but gentle, hospitable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity . . . and not a new convert . . .” – 1 Tim. 3:2-4, 6

“. . . if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion.” – Tit. 1:6

One of the signs that most elders ought to be relatively older men is that Paul’s requirements for the 1st-century elders was that they already have children, and that at least some of these children are old enough to believe the gospel intellectually. Needless to say, most of the elders and overseers of the early church weren’t young men fresh out of seminary, and newly married. They had established themselves as heads of developed households, and had proven themselves worthy father-figures to their local fellowships. And if any young men aspires to be an elder of any congregation, then he should aim at first living like an elder among his community. If you can’t appropriately be seen as one of the spiritual older men in relationship to most of your congregation, then you need to make doubly sure that you fit the necessary qualifications for overseeing and shepherding your brethren. Nevertheless, these requirements don’t rule out elders being young men who have been discipled, tested, and proven as wise, respectable, loving, and fervent leaders of the body. Remember this verse as well:

“It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires . . .” – 1 Tim. 3:1

Church Leadership Needs Reformation

In closing, there are two encouraging developments we can focus on. First, there are increasing numbers of young brothers who have recently, or are now, devoting themselves to wholeheartedly following the Lord. They are eager for the attention, love, and instruction, of older brothers, since they have usually been bereft of any substantial masculine influence in their lives. And second, an increasing number of established Christian leaders are responding to this, and seeking to reach out to these young brothers to provide them with the mentorship they need. But this can’t be done effectively unless we all realize that the body of Christ itself is the family God has designed to raise up its own leaders. Let’s pray and search the Scriptures for the ways in which we should align our discipleship and leadership structures with the teachings and examples of the apostles. For,

“. . . He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain tot eh unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man . . . Christ.” – Eph. 4:11-13