Baptist News Global
Steve Rabey
Members of Gen Z are committed to missions but insist on changes to old models before they sign on, says a survey from InterVarsity as the campus ministry prepares for this year’s Urbana Student Missions Conference Dec. 28-31 in Phoenix.
The Urbana conferences started in 1946 amid a post-World War II boom period of sending missionaries and founding parachurch ministries. This year’s Urbana conference arrives after decades of decline in the sending of American missionaries and as more Baby Boomer and Gen X missionaries are retiring.
Mission-minded members of Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, demand that projects foster independence rather than dependence, prefer a holistic approach that meets both physical and spiritual needs, and insist on “radical transparency” about goals and results, according to the survey.
“It is clear that this generation will not blindly step into just any mission opportunity that comes their way,” says the report, which is said to represent a “fundamental shift” from earlier models.