Faithful Futures
Sacred Tools for Engaging Younger Generations
About
In a world where young people are increasingly disconnected from traditional religious institutions and influenced by social media, Faithful Futures offers church leaders a lifeline: practical, research-based tools to engage Gen Z and Gen Alpha in meaningful conversations about faith. This book provides actionable strategies that build trust and foster belonging in today's rapidly changing cultural landscape.
Traditional approaches to youth ministry are often outdated and ineffective for younger generations, says Josh Packard. Instead, he advocates an approach that emphasizes relational authority, cultivates belonging, and understands faith as an ongoing conversation. Drawing on fresh data, innovative practices, and more than twenty years of experience as a sociologist, Packard offers a comprehensive guide for religious leaders to understand and engage younger generations authentically.
Informed yet accessible, this book translates complex concepts into practical strategies, addressing the unique cultural and digital landscapes of today's youth and offering new ways to resonate with their realities. It features exercises, tools, charts, tables, and end-of-chapter discussion questions.
Introduction
1. Gen Z and Gen Alpha
2. Faith Is a Conversation
3. A Disaffiliated World
4. Belonging Precedes Believing
5. The COVID Effect
6. Growing Up Online
7. Micronarratives
Index
Endorsements
"Josh Packard is one of the voices I trust most when it comes to the faith and life journeys of today's teenagers. His research is both profound and practical and gives us new lenses to see and appreciate the young people we care about most. If you care about the next generation, Faithful Futures is a must-read."
Kara Powell, chief of leadership formation, Fuller Seminary; executive director, Fuller Youth Institute
"Maybe since the dawn of modernity listening for the sacred has been a struggle. But even so, in this late modern moment, it's particularly difficult. It is hard work. Trying to hold onto anything sacred inside technological advances, capitalist drives, and political struggles has been a hallmark of modernity itself. But most often modernity has given us an empty cacophony because the sacred has been drowned in subjectivity. The only way back to something sacred--into any form of the sacred--is to listen. Josh Packard has given us an important way to listen to young people. And more, he's given us a way to help lead them into listening itself. This book is filled with insights on the challenges and importance of listening and how this listening can reconnect us with the sacred. This is a timely and important book. It will go right onto my syllabi."
Andrew Root, Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry, Luther Seminary; author of Evangelism in an Age of Despair
The Author
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Josh Packard
Josh Packard (PhD, Vanderbilt University) is a sociologist and cofounder of Future of Faith, which helps faith leaders expand and sustain relational ministries in today's rapidly evolving cultural landscape. He is the author of several books, including...
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