Hey, everybody, welcome back to The Covenant Eyes Podcast. We are so glad to have you joining us today. We are going to be talking about a topic I know everyone's interested in the youth and Gen Z, Gen Alpha, all of them. And we are just really excited because we have an expert in that space. We have Peter Kirchhoff. Did I get that right? You got it. Yep. Awesome. Yes, he is the national ministry specialist of Campus Life Middle School, Youth for Christ, USA and is a dedicated individual for providing hope in Jesus Christ to the generations to come. Youth for Christ has been a leader in missional youth outreach since 1944. Wow. That's unbelievable. And it is dedicated to uncovering God's story of hope for the next generation. For 80 years, Youth for Christ is engaged young people in authentic Christ, sharing relationships while walking alongside them through pivotal moments in their lives. Pete, it is so good to have you joining us today. We are really excited to have this conversation. We're going to be talking a little bit about the rise of faith in Generation Alpha and Gen Z, which kind of bucks the trend. We've heard a lot of things about those generation, about how they're leaving the church. But this will be a fascinating conversation. But welcome to the podcast. Thank you. It's good to be here. Yeah. I am so passionate about teenagers and about faith. And that's how things got started for me, that when I was in junior high, I had two friends that thought I was getting in trouble all the time. You know, they even began with that of pornography that I was looking at. And then that led to I was getting in trouble with the law and was stealing things. But my friend's sixth grader, an eighth grader, they saw that and they basically came and said, Pete, this isn't going to go well for you. And through their youth group, they had been trained of just how to, in a relational way, talk to me about Jesus and my natrium. So that's when my relationship began, and God was really planning those seeds that most of my life since then has been focused on how to help teenagers find that Jesus can be so helpful, not just when they become adults, but as a teenager for all they go through. I love that you're equipping them to evangelize and to be there for other people and lead them to Christ, I love that. This is great. Well, I know you guys are really into the research, and I know there's been, you know, new story after new story about the younger generation and where they're headed with their faith. We hear a lot about the, the nuns, the people that don't identify with any, you know, religious category and things like that. But talk to us a little bit about what you see. According to data and research, with the younger generation, specifically Gen Z and the newer one, the Alpha’s. Yeah, you bet it is really hopeful to see what's happening because, you know, we can all watch the news and get discouraged about what's happening and even things there that we'll hear about teenagers. But as you start listening, it seems that God is moving a lot in younger people, even starting with those who are in their 20s. And that are college students. Now. There are now this is not an exaggeration. There are thousands of students that are giving their lives to Christ as some events that are happening around the country. Just at Purdue last week, they had a gathering of 4500 students that gathered, and about half of was about 2000 students surrendered to Christ. And then a bunch of them got baptized right on the spot. Wow. That's happening in college campuses. And as we move into a high school age, that really comes down to the lower limits of what Gen Z is. That would come down. Gen Z, the youngest of Gen Zs, or those who are sophomores in high school. So it's those who were born in 1995 to 2010, and they have been showing much more openness to the gospel. I remember back when the pandemic was we just coming off of the pandemic, and I'm in California, so we were doing distance learning for a longer time for, about a year. And this is when students returned to school. I was going to a junior high, and those eighth graders, they were so eager to talk and very accepting of adults and of talking about spiritual things. I've been doing youth ministry for a couple decades, and more so than ever before. I saw that the teenagers are really open to that interaction and talking about deeper things. But then you move into Gen Alpha and with research that's been done, it's showing that they are very open to talking about spiritual things. Now, Gen Alpha does not have as much exposure to religion and to Christianity, but they are very open to talking about it. Springtime Research did a study about a year and a half ago with 13 year olds who at the time were the oldest of Gen Alpha. So Gen Alpha is those who are born from 2010 to 2024. So it's basically our babies up through freshman in high school. And when Spring Tide Research did this, study with 1013 year olds at the time who are now our freshmen, they were asking them of how open they are to learning about Christianity and if they consider themselves, religious, and 66% of them identified with a Christian view, but it increases, 74% consider themselves at least slightly open to religion, but 82% to some selves, at least slightly spiritual, slightly on the low end to those who consider themselves very spiritual. So there's not a lot of backing of a foundation of Christianity, but there's a real openness and a real searching, which really brings a lot of hope to all of us and to our organization, Youth for Christ and others who are working with teenagers. That's amazing. And so these, these, these younger generations are not necessarily tapped into a church body. So the traditional model of, you know, bringing them into the church and getting them tapped into the youth group might not be the effective way to reach these younger generations. So organizations like yours and and others that are kind of finding a way to reach them in the culture where they're at and bringing them into the church body, as you walk with them in their faith journey. Sounds like kind of a more effective way to reach that generation. Is that kind of what you're seeing? Yeah, exactly. A motto that we used, which is not anything new, is that we go to where students are, and that's something that other parents authorization have been doing for a long time. And I love it. It really does go back to Jesus. I mean, Jesus did spend time in the synagogues for sure, ministering to people there and trying to show what the truth was, but then so quickly was going to where other people were of hanging out along the water's edge, where the fishermen were going to the well, and then just spending face to face time with. And we can just go down the list of Zacchaeus, the woman at the. Well, Nicodemus coming to him at night, all of these one on one interactions that begin with Jesus going to right to where they're at. So I think that's really what's needed. I mean, I'm a Gen Xer, so that's a couple of generations. But, you know, even back to that, you know, as Gen Xers, we started to have some skepticism as we were seeing people, often in the limelight, falling to overcome that. And now that there's so much social media and we're just hearing so many voices, trust is really what's needed. And in order to establish that, it involves going to where they're at and building that relationship with them. So that's my use for Christ is really built on, we do that a couple different places of going to where they're at. We go to schools and that is called campus life, similar to what Young Life does with their clubs and with Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Spending time on campuses, volunteering, going to sports, events and to local hangouts with students and building the relationships, relationships that begin with maybe talking about, the NCAA tournament or, you know, what they're wearing on their sweatshirt or their favorite fast food place, but then starting to talk about deeper things and eventually get into you're talking about things spiritually. So with Youth for Christ, with other schools, we also do that with with institutions. I think there's about a thousand different juvenile halls that we have staff and volunteers that each week are going and visiting boys and girls who are incarcerated, who are have a lot of interest of talking about God. And where does how can faith help them through that? So we do that. And that's kind of juvenile justice ministry. Also in in neighborhoods, we have our city life ministry, that is more geographically based, in a city area around a couple different blocks and then just a couple other areas. There's so many students also that are in military families and that are grouped around, bases. So we have our campus life military that either works on the bases or at schools near vital spaces. And then we also, work with a lot of deaf students with our deaf team quest, where there's a similar need. And actually, we don't think about it very often, but a really unreached, group of students, to give them hope of how Jesus can help them out. Wow. You guys are, like, everywhere, and you're doing amazing work. So talk to us a little bit about obviously, you must have a very strong volunteer base and people that work with your organization. But how do you get Christians involved in this work? Because there's such a need and you're in so many different places. It it takes the whole church body really to engage in this effort. It really does. And not just for our organization, but these other great organizations like Young Life and FCA and others. And, you know, we are not a church, we are driven by the church and we're, you know, parish church. So if that's always the big challenge is terms of finding people that have that availability and that passion to want to go spend time building relationships with students. So it's a lot of networking and a lot of just inviting others and asking others to come to a club or come to school with us and see that can be pretty natural. I know we all get nervous about different situations, but it's really just building a relationship and talking with students. And I'd say more than anything, that's what I want to encourage, is that those of us who are not Gen Z or Gen Alpha, we have a great opportunity to be building relationships with these students because there is a increasing amount of interest that they have to want to talk about these things. But unfortunately, right now there's a decreased amount of volunteerism, adults being involved. And, you know, I don't know if it's different than when we were younger, but students are really drawn to adults. It's been said that a student is drawn to the oldest person in the room who will respect them. So they're not always looking for the coolest person, or the person is closest an aide to them, although they do enjoy that and they can relate to that. People of all ages can be awesome volunteers, up into retirement and then older age as well. Yeah. So really there is a place for all of us in that bigger picture. I mean, if you have a heart and a calling to serve in this way, there is a place for you in organizations like this. I love that we'll talk to us a little bit. You have, an initiative, I believe that's called the Kingdom Innovation Lab. Is that correct? Yes it is. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Talk to us a little bit about what that's all about. And just kind of walk us through what that looks like. Yeah. Being in our position, it's been around since Billy Graham back in the 1940s, as he was one of the first staff in place. There are people of all different ages who work with Youth for Christ, similar to other organizations, and it can get to be that those who are more senior are the ones who are looked at to develop the best ways to minister, and who are leading that. But what we would really like to see and are striving for is to equip and release and encourage younger people to be involved in building these relationships, but also in building the best ways to reach that next generation. So the Innovation Lab is just a creative way to try to release young people, to dream and to dream about how to do ministry. The best we have people that are on our staff from, you know, outside high school, 18, 19, 20 years old, all the way up. And so those younger ones in the 20s, we did a project this last year where I'm not sure exact number. About two dozen of those students have spent this school year dreaming of new, different ways that we could reach out to teenagers. And they worked in groups. They did a lot of calls and interviews and asking their peers about what's the best way to reach out to our younger brothers and sisters who are Gen Alpha. And then they did a week long retreat together in Florida with some facilitation, where they dreamed on different projects. And what's the best way to continue doing ministry? That's something we want to bring back, to our chapters. We have chapters in, about 30 different states, so about 100 different cities. For them to keep dreaming and for them to have the ownership to create new ways to do ministry. So that's the innovation. And a place to do that is an innovation lab. Our headquarters for Youth for Christ are in Denver. And so in a new building complex there will be creating a good conference space to do that. But that really can happen any place. Yeah. I love that you're empowering the people closest to the situation, the kids on the ground with other kids to come up with these ideas of how to better reach and serve. I love that that is so wonderful. And you're empowering those, young people also to potentially, you know, find a path in ministry or some other, you know, career path that might be out there for them in evangelism. So I love that. Let's talk a little bit about, you know, as you guys are working with, the youth and you are partnering with local, community churches and things like that. What are some of the the biggest frustrations that you're seeing from Ministry leaders who are so passionate about working with the youth but are having trouble, like recruiting and getting youth to come into the church and to join the youth groups like talk to us a little bit about some of your interactions and ways that you've helped them. Yeah, you bet. This last couple months, I've been helping a new high school outreach to get started just north of me in Stockton, California. And at that school, it's a it's pretty neat to hear what's happening. There was a Bible club that's been going on for a long time that has had 10 or 12 students come in, and they were hearing about campus life and about Youth for Christ, and they asked if we could do campus life there. Well, Morgan, who's on staff and up in that area, he spent time talking with those students and that teacher advisor about how this is really different than a Bible club. This is really for all those students who don't yet believe in Jesus and are maybe not even thinking about God or talking about it with others yet. And he spent time talking with them, and it turned out those students were up for trying something new and being willing to do that. So in January, they launched their Campus Life Club after couple of weeks about lunch times, inviting students and doing some games, letting know this new club is going to start called Campus Life. And they had it was about 40 to 45 students that came their very first time. And it's so fun to watch these students and the Bible Club hosting it. When I was there two weeks ago, I saw Erica, who's this petite, junior, who's the president of the Bible Club and now the president of Campus Life. She had the guts to do the little wrap up teaching about who Jesus is and how God can be so helpful for us during high school. She did at the end, and she taught for 15 minutes. And another one of us adults. We wouldn't teach for that long and only like 5 to 10 minutes, but they were listening so closer to her. And man, she must be sweating. But she did a wonderful job and she has an advisor there. The science teacher. And so talking to the science teacher afterwards, Jeremy, and just, you know, build a relationship with him and was ask him how we can pray for him. And he was telling us that in March, I think he was doing 4 or 5 different youth retreats, some of them like two in the same weekend. I was like, wow, that's that's a whole lot like that kind of choir, like lighting. So many. And he said, students are just so interested right now in, in different schools and in some different church youth groups. But there's not that many people to help out. So he had a good attitude about it. But he said, you know, I'm single, I have the time, I have the love for these students. And so right now is my time to kind of maybe make up for some others. Those are my words. Not is, to go and help out with some of these different retreats. So that's really the main thing it comes back to is if people can find a way to help out just a little bit, you know? So maybe if they can help out during lunch or if they can get off early from work, or if they can help with an evening ministry that's happening in a church or with a local nonprofit to get back involved and part of being more multi-generational. Maybe that was something that we lost or took some steps back in back with during the pandemic of being more separate. But teenagers as well, whatever age, whatever generation they're a part of need, you know, probably five key adults that they know that they can connect with. So those of us who aren't teenagers anymore close to it, we can really be involved back in that. And that's what Jesus was, was praying for. You know, I'm sure there's a problem all the way back in the first century. You know, when he's saying the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So he lets us know what to do. Okay. Start praying. Pray to the Lord of the harvest that he'll provide his workers. So that's something we're trying to just keep being faithful, to keep praying about and then inviting others. And you know, we just ask that others would be praying for that too. And considering, hey, is there a way that I could do that? It might be scary at first, but I'm sure it'd be so rewarding for people who have not, been in a relationship with a teenager recently to realize, like, this is this is great. Like to be able to look face to face to help this young person grow even in their social skills, you know, with eye contact and feeling confident talking. And that adult is really just put in the spotlight right on them. Makes me think of a David Brooks book that I've been rereading a couple of times over the last couple of years. That talks about illuminating that. That's what an adult can do. Is it basically putting a big, bright light on the other person to listen to them and to draw them out and in that, build that trust, and then to be able to talk about faith. That is awesome. You know, it's amazing. And I think that's a great call to action for our listeners out there to pray and to be thinking about how you can get involved, whether it's with Youth for Christ or another organization, a pair of church organization, or even your local church body, there is a need for more people to get involved and to disciple and engage with those, younger generation. So I love that. Well, we're coming to the end of today's episode, and I want to make sure that people can get in touch with you and your organization. And if they do feel the call and they've prayed about it, and want to get activated, how do they do that? How do they get in touch with your organization? Yeah, probably the best first start is just to go to our main website, which is why I've seen that. And that represents what's happening in all the different states. And you can go on there and search for chapter. And from that, you know, look under your state and find the nearest city, hopefully your own city or another city nearby where that is going on. If there's not use for Christ in your area, I really encourage you to find out what are some of the other organizations that are doing outreach in the schools, or in the juvenile halls in your area or with your youth group, but why? I've seen that is the main landing page to get started learning more about these ministries and possibly what's already going on near you that you can plug in, that's awesome. We'll put all the links in the show notes for our listeners that might be driving or working out at the gym. That way you can check it out when you get home safely. With that, we're going to bring today's episode to a close. But he it can you leave our listeners with just some words of encouragement and hope about the next generation and what you know, what you're seeing at the ground level? Yeah. You know, it reminds me that even though we're doing this in 2025, this is what's been happening all the way since Jesus and Paul talks about this

8, he says, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well. And that's what our opportunity is, is to we often use this term of to give life to your story. You just already has a story of what God has done and keeps doing, but we bring a life to that when we can share it with someone else we work with or with a younger person. I love that. That's a great way to close today's episode. Well, it has been an honor to have you on, and thank you for the work that you guys are doing at Youth for Christ. It is important work and it is being very fruitful out there. So thanks again for joining us and to all of our listeners out there. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of The Covenant Eyes Podcast. We'll see you next time. Take care. God bless.