“Man, you have to stop calling your students Gen Z. You have no idea, it’s Gen Alpha who’s taking over.”
I paused, confused, as my fellow pastor interrupted my thoughts during a conversation about next-generation ministry. I had just referenced Gen Z in my sermon planning, but now I was
second-guessing everything.
Who exactly is Gen Alpha? And more importantly, how should the older generations approach them?
Generation Alpha is the name given to people born between 2010 and approximately 2025. The oldest of them is entering high school now. And there are more people in this generation than we’ve known in many years—a new boom.
They are the children of Millennials and the previous Gen Z. The name Gen Alpha is replacing earlier attempts to name them “Centennials” or “Prime.” More than the usual characteristics attributed to age, this generation is different in significant ways because of the world in which they are growing up.
Gen Alpha has no knowledge of a world without smartphones, social media, and pervasive global communication. Gen Alpha is coming of age with significant world events, climate activism around global warming, the Covid pandemic, social justice protests, and increased political polarization—all of which shape their emerging worldview.
This generation will be the most diverse generation in history, with the majority living in multicultural families and neighborhoods and schools. They will also be the most educated generation in history, with information and learning resources available to them that other generations could only imagine.
Let’s consider their chief characteristics and adjustments required in our ministry with Gen Alpha.
The four girls pictured here attended IBSA Camp together this summer. Don’t be fooled by their laid-back appearance. These tween dynamos are global citizens. They are the up-and-coming Alpha Generation who are leading us into the future
Gen Alpha’s cosmology extends far beyond their immediate geographic community. Through social hubs like TikTok, YouTube, and gaming platforms, they continuously interact with peers across continents, cultures, and religious systems. This creates a world orientation in which local and global concerns are of equal relevance.
Their identity transcends traditional boundaries. They see climate change as their problem, global inequality as their problem, and global conflicts as their problem. This borderless thinking has benefits and drawbacks for faith communities traditionally rooted in local congregational forms.
Collaborative learning
Perhaps nowhere is the uniqueness of Gen Alpha more evident than in their learning and problemsolving. They work naturally together, even on traditionally individual pursuits like mathematics. This is evidence of their comfort with collective intelligence and cooperative systems of knowledge.
They also struggle at school with strictly individualistic means of evaluation, preferring group work where they can leverage diverse strengths and perspectives. This group-oriented bias extends to their approach to complex issues: They’re more likely to crowdsource solutions and elicit many opinions before making conclusions.
Communication styles and tech integration
Gen Alpha communicates across many channels at once. They may be texting, watching video, and gaming while conversing. This isn’t always attention deficit—it’s their native communication environment.
Their communication pattern is highly visual and symbolic, and they employ emoji, memes, and brief video content to decide how to communicate. They can process information quickly, but might find it hard to maintain focus on one-source, text-only content for an extended period. They anticipate interactivity and rapid feedback in their learning environments.
This constant connectivity is not without issues. Many lack face-to-face conversation skills. They are uneasy in open social spaces. They may be unable to locate content which does not offer instant gratification or visual stimulation.
Spirituality in a pluralistic age
Gen Alpha is open on matters of spirituality. They have had exposure to various religious traditions via the internet and cross-ethnic peer networks, and they are pluralistic but wary of assertions of exclusive truth.
As they begin coming of age, these young people are drawn to authentic spiritual experience and extremely sensitive to pretentiousness. They prefer spiritual practice consistent with their global concerns—justice, stewardship of the earth, and human dignity. Rational and traditional methodsbased apologetics could give way to experience and relationship-based faith formation.
Their theological issues generally center on meaning-making in a world that is insecure, the integration of faith and science, and the ways in which religious faith could resolve the kinds of global dilemmas that they feel called to solve.
Reaching out on faith issues
When we approach Gen Alpha about faith, one of the first questions they ask is “Why does it have to be that way?”
This generation values thinking outside the box. While media largely defines their world, they do not wish to be spoon-fed a single solution or viewpoint. Instead of being preached to, they need to be challenged. They want to seek out, question, and arrive at truth independent of authoritative positions.
Rather than beginning with exclusivity, start with invitation. In my student ministry, I aim to have them feel first the unmatched peace, purpose, and belonging in Christ before addressing theological boundaries. We frame exclusionary truth claims in relational terms rather than rejection—not “other ways are wrong” but “this way has something uniquely transformative.”
Gen Alpha needs to exercise their communal sense by working through these questions in community. Teachers should leave space for them to wrestle with difficult theological concepts together, rather than expecting individual assent to creedal propositions.
Try these educational approaches
Successful Gen Alpha religious education is experiential, collaborative, and networked globally. Substitute lecture instruction with participative workshops, service projects, and multimedia presentations. Harness their innate inclination toward group problem-solving by framing real-world issues through a faith lens.
Connect local congregations with global Christian movements that are seeking to solve Gen Alpha’s problems—creation care, social justice, and human dignity. Help them see their faith as part of an international fellowship dedicated to making a positive impact. The language of missions should resonate with this generation.
Use technology as a tool and not as a rival. Create digital faith formation experiences, connect them with Christian content creators who speak their language, and empower them to provide healthy digital discipleship habits.
In my own teaching, I have intentionally shifted my sermon form and illustration. My sermons were biblically accurate, theologically rich, and gospel-saturated. But when I began engaging the Gen Alpha culture, I started carving my messages differently. I was more aware of the art of the sermon. I use more descriptive illustrations, compelling stories, and artistic flair here and there, wanting to reach their hearts as well as their minds.
Ministry to Gen Alpha requires patience, honesty, and openness, conversing with their questions rather than shooting them down. They learn best in community due to their communal nature and due to their requirement for processing together. Their global perspective requires that they see how their local faith community relates to God’s work internationally.
Most importantly, they want genuine relationships with believers who live out faith and life integration. They are drawn less to perfect doctrine than to real transformation, less persuaded by the reasons of doctrine than by lives that demonstrate God’s love in action.
—Daniel Kim is associate pastor for student ministry at GospeLife Church in Wheaton.