“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32)
The passage has my mind racing. How likely is it that in today’s society, young people could be looked at with similar judgments? How often have you heard that today’s young people are troubled, wayward, misguided, lazy, opinionated and digitally addicted? That they lack social integration and have questionable values? Aren’t these the same things (with the exception of digital addiction) that could have been said about tax collectors?
This comparison leads to a challenging question: if today’s teens are the tax collectors, what is their experience or expectation of today’s Pharisee equivalents—those who are established, well educated, affluent and religious?
Many teens are not hearing the radical welcome of Jesus—the gospel call to repentance and faith. Instead they hear the church’s message as one of judgment.
There is a concern among Gen Z and Gen Alpha that the church lacks authenticity and is judgmental of people’s lifestyles. Of the young people in our Z-A: Growing Spirituality research who did not feel they would be welcomed at church, many of those assumed they would be unwelcome due to lifestyle preferences; others thought it would be over the fact that they didn’t believe.* That’s a sobering reality. The ranking by young people in the report placed the church a fraction above the government, which is often seen as just another institution to distrust.
It’s true that Christians’ views on certain issues clash with modern secular expectations. The Bible has messages that today’s young people may not want to hear, on everything from sexuality to identity to sin. But there was a clash between the tax collectors’ lifestyle and the biblical commands too—and it didn’t stop Jesus from talking to them.
The question for us is: do we write young people off in the same way the Pharisees wrote off the tax collectors? Perhaps we don’t actively dismiss them, but we do remain apathetic, letting them assume the worst of us. Do we leave them in their broken, abandoned, sin-stained state? Or do we reach out, as Jesus did, and invite them in?
Seeking to be relevant and effective in our witness to young people does not mean we need to deconstruct our faith and throw out the authority of Scripture. Just as Jesus did not hesitate to tell the tax collectors that there is a better way, so we need to stick to our commitment to demonstrate and declare Jesus and his gospel—the whole gospel, with its call to die to self and follow God’s ways.
Yet we need to look at that gospel truth through a different lens. We need to be aware of the noise caused by brokenness—the harmful influences, broken relationships and deep confusion that so many young people are experiencing. We need to care enough to make the effort to consider how we can meet young people where they are, how we will come across to them and how we can help them experience a taste of life as it’s really meant to be.
I am reminded often of Jesus’ words in John 10:10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy”. Truly, the enemy is killing, stealing and destroying in our own day. But Jesus went on, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
The mission is clear; the how becomes our challenge.
This is an excerpt taken from Catching the Wave: How Your Church Can Reach a Spiritually Hungry Generation, which offers inspiring stories and practical next steps for ministry to Gen Z and Gen A.
*Z-A: Growing Spirituality (British Youth for Christ / DJS Research, 2025), p. 36.
Neil O’Boyle has spent more than three decades walking alongside young people and church communities in the UK and around the world. His heart is to see the church live out an invitational and missional culture, where both churched and unchurched young people encounter Jesus in everyday life. As National Director of Youth for Christ Britain, Neil has championed evangelism and discipleship that are rooted in Scripture, Spirit-led and shaped by real cultural understanding.
