EMQ » October–December 2022 » Volume 58 Issue 4

Recruitment

The calling of Simon Peter, as found in Luke 5:1–11, demonstrates Jesus Christ’s recruitment strategy. By studying Jesus’s approach, we can learn principles that can help us increase Gen Z’s engagement in missions.

By Kyle Benner

Technological advancements and globalization are the cornerstones of twenty-first century society. Instant communication is now accessible with pocket-sized supercomputers. Global transportation systems allow travel from one continent to the next with a simple flight.

These advancements give Gen Z (those born between 1995–2015)[1] a completely different outlook on the world and its available opportunities. Concurrently, in North America, Gen Z is less engaged in the Church and even less inclined toward career missionary involvement.

According to the 2019 Field Attrition Study Report from Missio Nexus: “More missionaries are leaving the field than are arriving, putting the sustainability of sending agencies at risk.”^[2] Based on Barna’s research, the faith segment breakdown for Gen Z in the US is as follows: 9% engaged Christian, 33% unengaged Christian, 16% unchurched Christian, 7% other faith, and 34% no religious affiliation (nones).^[3]

Unchurched Christians identify as Christians but have not attended church within the last six months. Churched Christians have attended church within the last six months but do not qualify as engaged Christians according to the next definition. Engaged Christians participated in services, and strongly agree with the following: (1) the inspired Word of God, (2) have a personal commitment with Christ, (3) engage in the church more than just attending services, and (4) believe in Jesus Christ as the crucified and risen savior who has conquered sin and death.^[4]

Another definition to consider is mobilization. According to Jay Matenga and Malcomb Gold, “mobilization is the process of assembling and making both personal and supplies ready for deployment, usually for a war.” More specifically, they define mission mobilization as “the process of preparing Christians for deployment into some form of active mission involvement.”^[5]

The last definition to explain is the audience themselves; Gen Z.  According to James White in his book Meet Generation Z, “the most defining characteristic of Gen Z is that it is arguably the first generation in the West (certainly in the US) that will have been raised in a post-Christian context. As a result, it is the first post-Christian generation.”^[6] Engaging Gen Z in the Church is a formidable challenge; sending them beyond the church into world missions is even harder.

At Global Infusion (globalinfusion.org), we’ve designed a path for long-term missions engagement called the Infusion Academy (globalinfusion.org/academy). However, we find it challenging to recruit students into the program. People in higher education also struggle to recruit missionaries for training and education. A friend and colleague who works in universities teaching intercultural studies shared, “the numbers are down, way down.”^[7]

What is the future of missionary recruitment? By doing a biblical theology of Luke 5:1–11, the calling of Simon Peter, we can see Jesus Christ’s recruitment strategy of Simon Peter and how it can be applied to Gen Z to increase their engagement in missions. At the heart of this biblical theology is the principle to “disciple your mission.”^[8]

The Uniqueness of Luke 5:1–11

Luke 5:1–11 provides the testimony of Jesus recruiting the disciples Peter, James, and John. In this passage, Peter’s acceptance of following Christ provides three unique core outcomes to explore: placement, Greek utterances, and experience.

The Unique Placement

Luke puts the story of Peter’s call to follow Jesus in a different place than the other gospels (Matthew 4:18–22, Mark 1:16–20, John 1:40–42). The other gospels provide a shorter glimpse of this story and place it earlier in their chronological order. Luke, however, puts the calling on Peter after the healing of his mother-in-law, Luke 4:38–39. What does the order of Luke’s account have to do with the importance of this episode?

With people crowded around, Jesus needed a better platform to share the Word of God. Of the two boats near the water’s edge (Luke 5:2), Jesus chose to board Simon’s boat. Why did Simon so recklessly just let Jesus, a stranger, onboard? Simon is “not welcoming a stranger on board but is acknowledging the holy man who already healed a family member.”^[9] Based on the chronological order of Luke, we see that Peter already had at least one interaction with Jesus – the healing of his mother-in-law. This prior interaction is why Peter was so willing to welcome Jesus onboard and do whatever he said.

The unique placement of the healing first and then the calling second reveals that Peter had already witnessed Jesus’ power both in word and deed. Nolland notes that “‘ἐπὶ τῷ ῥήματί σου’ ‘at your word’ points to the intrinsic authority of Jesus’ word.”^[10] Jesus’ words exuded power and influence. In witnessing both Jesus’ miracles and words, Peter listened to his Master to “put out into the deep water and let down the nets for a catch” (Luke 5:4). To Peter, this seems like nonsense because Jesus asks to go fishing in “the heat of the day,” and the crew is tired from fishing the whole night before. However, out of being influenced by Jesus’ word, Peter obeys the Master.^[11] This obedience leads to the infamous miraculous catch of fish.

The Unique Greek Utterances

Along with the unique placement of the text, Luke also uses unique cultural and linguistic Greek utterances. First, Peter utters a unique title for Jesus – ἐπιστάτα, “master” – instead of addressing him as Rabbi or Lord. This title is unique because Peter is the owner of the boat, and by recognizing Jesus as Master, Peter gives up his status and expresses the authoritative position of Christ.^[12] Peter’s career was centered around being the captain and owner of the boat and to give up this status was to give up his occupation.

A second unique nuance is when Jesus says, “now you will catch men” (Luke 5:10). Peter is commissioned to catch people. The verb used for to catch here is more literally “to capture alive or to spare life.”^[13] This imagery presented by Luke of fishing, along with shepherding found later in the text, are still commonly recognized today. The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary authors articulate that “… ‘to catch men’ is a clever play on words. The fishermen are themselves caught by Jesus and given a new calling. This calling entails gathering men and women for the Kingdom of Heaven.”^[14]

This missional recruitment strategy of Jesus inviting Peter was not just limited to him. It is also expressed to his companions and even to Luke’s audience, “who are also challenged to take up this mission in the process of hearing the story.”^[15] After seeing all that took place, those in the crowd got inspired to catch people as their mission vision. At that moment, Christ provided them with a model of evangelism.

The Unique Experience

After the miracle of Peter’s mother-in-law and then the indescribable catch, Peter experiences a theophany.^[16] This experience is accompanied by another unique shift in Peter’s word choice. In verse 5, Peter references Jesus as ἐπιστάτα, “Master,” whereas, in verse eight, Peter references Jesus as κύριε, “Lord,” because he recognized that he experienced a theophany of the divine. This leads to Peter doing something radical – leaving everything behind to follow Jesus. It changed the trajectory of the rest of Peter’s life.

Implications for Gen Z

Bergler asserts that “Generation Z needs to hear the Gospel call to conversion and discipleship in ways that challenge their cultural presuppositions.”^[17] The aspects of this two-fold process – (1) a call to conversion and (2) discipleship – depend on one another. Jesus did not send Peter to do missionary work without investing in him through discipleship. The challenge for the Church is to find ways for Gen Z to get (1) engaged in a relationship with Jesus and (2) discipled in the biblical truth found in the Word of God and not the world.

Gen Z: Finding Their Unique Placement

Today’s challenge is for ministers and missionaries to create an atmosphere where Gen Z can feel comfortable welcoming them on their boats. Gen Z seeks a place to fit in and have a sense of purpose in a safe environment. “Generation Z values safety” because the world is a physical and social interaction, and every interaction carries the risk of being hurt, whether emotionally or socially.^[18]

This demands that the Church invest in the foundational ages of Gen Z to establish a safe environment from an early age. One of James White’s proposals to engage Gen Z is prioritizing children’s ministry. He states, “Too many people treat children’s ministry as a necessary evil. It is often severely underfunded, understaffed, and underappreciated. Wake up. Children are the heart of your growth engine.”^[19] Create a place where a kid wakes up every Sunday morning and wants to go to church; this fuels their future. Then expand to student ministry and establish a unique place for them to (1) experience God and (2) disciple them into commissioning.

Gen Z: Finding the Unique Lingo

Engaging with the unchurched, unengaged, engaged Christians, nones, or other faiths requires ministers to communicate in unique lingo that is contextual to Gen Z and on the platforms that will reach them Barna called Gen Z screenagers instead of teenagers.^[20]

According to Niedermeier, Gen Z’s time online, along with their extensive reliance on social media, means “they are also highly influenced by others’ opinions and word of mouth.”^[21] Research done before COVID-19 estimates that teenagers 13 to 18 spend on average 7.22 hours a day on screen media (excluding time on screens for school). These statistics reveal worldview obstacles that ministers must overcome to reach Gen Z and have a voice in their lives.

Jesus strategically contextualized his words for Peter so that he could comprehend the call. By using fisherman lingo, Christ inspired a fisherman to follow him. Harris says, “young people will not be able to hear God’s missionary call unless the mission message is contextualized in such a way as to be understood.”^[22] The task of missionary mobilizers moving forward is both using technological platforms and contextualized lingo that inspire Gen Z into action.

Gen Z: Cultivating the Unique Experience

The final implication is the most challenging in mobilization because it requires a significant amount of time. Gen Z does not want manufactured experiences or manufactured energy. They desire organic experiences. This demands that believers go outside the four church walls like Jesus, who led Peter to conversion by the lake.

My own unique experience happened in Juarez, Mexico, on my first short-term mission trip with my youth group. On Thursday night, during a time of praise and worship, God revealed himself to me and called me to follow him. I had a unique theophany experience with the Lord, similar to Peter. Following Jesus was the beginning of my discipleship journey. More young people need opportunities for experiences like this. They desperately need biblical evangelism and discipleship. If the mission is about fulfilling the Great Commission, we must remember to “disciple your mission.”^[23] 

To “disciple your mission” means developing discipleship, first and foremost, around who it is you are trying to reach. Engaging Gen Z means reaching the unchurched and the nones. To meet this challenge, our discipleship must be twofold: serving the needs of our existing believers for missional engagement and discipling the newly converted on the most foundational aspects of Christian life and thought.^[24]

Suppose one of the goals of missionary mobilization is to increase the number of missionaries going long-term amid each generation. In that case, the Church will have to establish a mission of both evangelism and discipleship for Gen Z to become long-term missionaries.

Conclusion

What are the next steps for reaching Gen Z? The Church must go out to the unengaged, like Peter, and do it contextually as Jesus did. Gen Z needs exposure to power and truth encounters like what Peter experienced in the healing of his mother-in-law, the powerful teaching of the Word of God, and the miraculous catch of the fish. Ministers need to be strategic in the placement and contextualization of the gospel so that Gen Z can comprehend it. Jesus leaves terrific examples of how he communicated throughout scripture in parables and ministers must do the same today.

Gen Z is a generation that desires an experience. My experience with Jesus changed the trajectory of my life, and the same was true for Peter. Gen Z has considerable influence because of their social media platforms and ability to share information instantly. Suppose an abundance of Gen Z could experience Christ like Simon Peter did and effectively use social media to share their experience. This could trigger another Great Awakening among Gen Z. Therefore, discipling the next generation towards mission is critical for increasing missionary recruitment. Jesus recruited Simon Peter through a unique experience and in a contextual manner; missionary mobilizers today must do the same for Gen Z.

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[1] Barna Group and Impact 360 Institute, Gen Z: The Culture, Beliefs, and Motivations Shaping the Next Generation (Ventura: Barna Group, 2018), 10.

[2] Jenn Williamson, “Re-Thinking Mobilization,” Evangelical Missions Quarterly 57, no. 3 (July 2021): 39.

[3] Barna Group, Gen Z, 26.

[4] Barna Group, Gen Z, 112.

[5] Jay Matenga and Malcolm Gold, Mission in Motion: Speaking Frankly of Mobilization (Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2016), 74.

[6] James Emery White, Meet Generation Z: Understanding and Reaching the New Post-Christian World (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2017), 49.

[7] Conversation with Dr. Edley Moodley Ph.D., former director of Intercultural Studies Program at Lee University, Cleveland, TN, on 22 April 2021.

[8] White, Meet Generation Z, 107.

[9] Mikeal C. Parsons, Luke. Paideia: Commentaries on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015), 88.

[10] John Nolland, Word Biblical Commentary, V. 35a, Luke 1–9:20 (Dallas: Word Books Publisher, 1989), 222.

[11] François Bovon, Luke 1 A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke 1:1–9:50 (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2002), 170.

[12]  Bovon, Luke, 170.

[13] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke. The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans, 1997), 234.

[14] Alan R. Culpepper and Gail R. O’ Day, The New Interpreter’s Bible, V 9: Luke, John (Nashville: Abingdon Pr., 1995), 117.

[15] Parsons, Luke, 89.

[16] A theophany describes “a category of narrative in which God appears to human beings. Theos for God and phaneros for appearance or manifestation. Katherine Doob Sakenfeld, The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible: S–Z Volume 5 (Nashville: Abingdon Pr., 2009), 565.

[17]  Thomas E. Bergler, “Generation Z and Spiritual Maturity,” Christian Education Journal 17, no. 1 (2020): 86.

[18] Bergler, “Generation Z,” 84.

[19] White, Meet Generation Z, 105.

[20] Barna, Gen Z, 15.

[21] White, Meet Generation Z, 33.

[22] Paula Harris, “Calling Young People to Missionary Vocations in a ‘Yahoo’ World,” Missiology 30, no. 1 (2002): 45.

[23] White, Meet Generation Z, 106.

[24]  White, Meet Generation Z, 106.

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EMQ, Volume 58, Issue 2. Copyright © 2022 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.