Evangelical Missiological Society, "EMS Southwest Regional Meeting", April 4th 2024

David Dunaetz and Will Ingersoll, Azusa Pacific University

Gen Z and Boomers Need Each Other: Missiological Applications of an Empirical Study Examining How Challenges Faced by Church Leaders Differ by Generation

As Western culture evolves, leaders of evangelical churches throughout the world, and especially those in urban multicultural contexts, are facing new challenges. In this study, we seek to understand what the greatest challenges are that church leaders face, how these challenges are related to the age of the church leader, and how this information can be used to strengthen churches. In this study, church leaders (N = 347) indicate how much of a challenge 79 various issues are which are commonly faced by church leaders, as well as their age and information about their church’s size and growth. A factor analysis reduced these 79 challenges to 16 clusters of challenges. Six of these clusters were related to age. Older church leaders found maintaining their mental health, self-management, and church finances to be less challenging than did younger church leaders. The differences in mental health were especially strong. In contrast, younger church leaders found evangelism, creating effective programs, and addressing problems associated with social media use to be less challenging than did older church leaders. Moreover, churches with younger pastors were growing faster than churches with older pastors. In order for both older and younger church leaders to benefit from each other’s strengths, it might be beneficial, under certain conditions, for an older and a younger church leader (or missionary) to work together.