The Future of Family Ministry

By Shane Sanchez

Change. 

Chances are, when you read that word, you had some feelings. 

Maybe when you think about change, you get excited about new possibilities or innovating. Maybe you even get bored when things aren’t changing. 

Then again, maybe your hands got sweaty as you think about how difficult change can be. 

Maybe you felt dread or fear of future regret. 

Here’s the thing. Some people love change, and some people hate change, but regardless of how you feel about change, it is inevitable. 

Change is going to happen, and if we want to serve kids and teenagers into the future, we have to figure out how to navigate change. 

As we zoom out and think about change beyond just our churches, there is almost always a narrative around change, especially as new generations come onto the scene. 

Baby boomers have opinions about Gen X and Millennials. 

Millennials have feelings about Gen Z and Gen Alpha. 

Gen Z definitely has opinions about millennials and baby boomers-especially as it relates to the clothes we wear and how tight our jeans are from time to time. 

Gen Z will also have opinions about Gen Alpha. 

As change is happening, we all have opinions about the next generation. 

Often, the narrative is, “The next generation is not good.” 

But. what if, when it came to change, we actually all stacked hands on this idea? 

“The future is good.” 

Sometimes, we can get so caught up in fear and all of the negative that we actually forget the promise that God will build the Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. 

The future is good. In fact, if you sit with kids and teenagers long enough you can find the good. 

The other reality is that while change is happening, there are a few things that stay the same. 

At Orange, we call these the five timeless values. They are . . . 

Align Leaders

Refine the Message

Engage Every Parent

Elevate Community 

Influence Service

There are some things that aren’t going to change when it comes to family ministry, but how we strategize and innovate around these values will have to look different in the future because the generations we are leading are different than the generations we have led before. 

Because of these differences, while we believe the future is good, we also like to say, 

“The future is unknown.” 

We do not know the future, but we do have research and trends. So, we can make projections on what the future of next-gen ministry might look like. As a senior leader, these are trends you need to keep in mind as you lead your kids pastors and student pastors. However, we also believe these trends may affect how you lead your whole church as Gen Z grows out of student ministry. At the same time, these trends reflect broader culture, so as you read how they will affect next-gen ministry, consider how they may affect how you lead your entire congregation. 

1. The future is decentralized. 

The trust of young people in institutions is declining. According to Gallup, average confidence across institutions is at a new low of 27%. That means kids and teenagers will not automatically trust institutions, and that includes the church. Instead, kids and teenagers will be more likely to build trust with people. Therefore, relational ministry is more important than ever. 

2. The future is experiential. 

According to the 2020 Springtide State of Religion and Young People, 60% of unaffiliated young people say they are at least slightly spiritual. According to another report by Springtide in 2021, only 19% of young people reported attending religious services one to three times a month, but those same young people reported engaging in activities such as art, nature, writing, acts of service, prayer, and physical activities as spiritual practices at much higher rates.

The next generation is highly experiential, especially when it comes to spirituality. So, it’s essential that leaders model what matters. Modeling doesn’t happen best from the platform but instead in our personal lives. So, while ministry leaders may not need to engage in art as a spiritual practice if that is not something that appeals to them, they do need to be engaging in personal experiential spiritual practices because that will affect how they do ministry. 

This will also affect how we plan our programming and strategy. Next-gen ministry leaders need to ask the question, 

“How do we create programming that invites kids, teenagers, and families to experience something together that engages their faith?” 

3. The future is authentic. 

The next generation is craving authenticity and is not impressed by platforms. If we are honest, this changes how we define success for ministry leaders. For many years, platforms were a measure of success for leaders, with successful leaders being invited to speak on platforms and build a following. While we could talk about the other implications of that goal or why it existed, what is important moving forward is acknowledging that in order to reach the next generation, that vision may need to look drastically different. 

Specifically, leaders need to be spending as much, if not more, time with people as they are preparing for the platform. 

It also means that leaders need to practice a posture of humility. For so many years, there has been pressure to have all of the answers, but now the next generation is looking for leaders who are honest about what they don’t know. 

Instead, they are looking for leaders who say, “I don’t know. Let’s discover together.” 

Finally, one of the most important things leaders can do to rebuild trust with a generation that is craving authenticity is to create systems of accountability throughout the entire church. It is so important for next-gen leaders to do this, but senior leaders are even more responsible for this. Our churches need systems accountability in place before an issue comes up so we can remain authentic and build trust. 

4. The future is diverse. 

When we think about diversity, we often first think of race. However, there are many different types of diversity that matter to the kids and teenagers we are leading, including gender, cultural, generational, and socio-economic diversity. We can no longer avoid conversations on all of the types of diversity. 

However, when it comes to diversity, there is one statistic that we should keep in mind regarding racial diversity. According to the latest Census projections, White people are on track to be the minority in 2045. America is changing in a way we have never seen before, and we need to think about how what we say will impact the reality they will actually live in as they grow up. 

In order to embrace a diverse reality it is extremely important for leaders to practice a few things. 

First, leaders need to practice authentic proximity. It is imperative that leaders surround themselves with people who think different, look different, live different, and come from different backgrounds. The next generation is already modeling this for us, so if we want to lead them authentically, we have to model this in our own lives. It is a responsibility for us not just as leaders, but as believers since a diverse community is actually what the Kingdom looks like. 

We also need to practice curiosity. This doesn’t mean just asking people who are different than us, all of our random questions without regard to the person we are asking. However, it does mean entering relationships with people and being willing to learn from their experiences and do our own research to learn more about what we may not know. 

Finally, we need to think cast instead of individual personality. Both our platforms and our teams that make decisions need to include diversity so we can make decisions that serve all of our kids and teenagers well and they can see themselves and someone who looks different than them on our stages. 

5. The future is curated. 

The next generation has more information and content at their fingertips than any generation ever before. That’s why our role as leaders is to help curate good content for them and guide them to understand how to engage and think about this information well. 

Next-gen leaders have a responsibility to help them form their own understanding and opinions through critical thinking. They need to know not what to think but how to think. 

At the same time, as students have more options than ever before, we are going to have to be clearer about stating our intentions about why we are gathering. We need to help them understand what we are curating and why. 

As we move from spending all of our time creating content to spending more time curating content, we need to understand our own tastes, preferences, and biases. These will impact what we curate and share, so it’s important to acknowledge that and maybe invite other people into the process that can help us curate better. When we curate content well, we will also have more time to invest in embodying the other values instead of creating everything from scratch. 

These trends will look different in every community, so innovating around these trends will need to look different in every community, but it’s important to keep our pulse on the values of the next generation and cultural trends so we can be more effective leaders. This is true whether you lead kids and students directly or lead the people who lead kids and students. The future is better when church leadership is aligned on how to innovate for the sake of the next generation.