Truth Unites - Why Gen Z Loves Church History (And What to do About It)

Episode Date: March 18, 2026

Gavin Ortlund explores why Gen Z’s growing fascination with church history reveals a deeper hunger for rootedness, authenticity, and belonging, and how the church can respond with the unchanging truth of the gospel.Truth Unites (https://truthunites.org) exists to promote gospel assurance through theological depth. Gavin Ortlund (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is President of Truth Unites, Visiting Professor of Historical Theology at Phoenix Seminary, and Theologian-in-Residence at Immanuel Nashville.SUPPORT:Tax Deductible Support: https://truthunites.org/donate/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/truthunitesFOLLOW:Website: https://truthunites.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truth.unites/X: https://x.com/gavinortlundFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TruthUnitesPage/

It's often noted that right now, especially among Gen Z, there's a tremendous hunger for church history. This is very exciting. This is an incredible opportunity for the gospel. In this video, let's explore three reasons why this is, doing some cultural diagnosis, and then three opportunities we have to respond as the church. We don't want to fail to meet the moment, you know. And so a short video, pastoral video, right to the point. But I want to start by painting a scenario that is fictional, but very common, very realistic.

Some of you who watch my videos can relate to this. imagine a young man sitting at his in his dorm room, college student, he's alone and he's filled with anxiety because he's bombarded with constant information on the internet and on social media about different identities, political identities, religious, personal. He's trying to figure out who am I? Where do I belong? He's not really sure, and it's absolutely exhausting. At some point in his life, he's stumbled, maybe by accident, he stumbles into a church service. And there's nothing flashy going on. You know, there's no fog machine. There's no big personalities.

But at a certain point, the people stand together and recite these ancient words from the Nicene Creed. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And something unexpected happens in his heart. As he's reflecting on the fact that none of these people curated or constructed this creed. This is an ancient, rugged reality.

And as he's hearing them recited, he feels as though he's moving from quicksand onto solid rock. This is going to sound a little mystical, but he almost feels as though there's a physical object in front of him as real as a house that you could walk into, this objective reality that we did not create. And the emotional experience of that is relief. And over the course, this is the start, this is the genesis of a process that eventually leads to him becoming a Christian. and what's in his heart as he finally comes to Christ is something like, finally I belong. Finally, I've found a home. This is who I really am.

Now, that is such a beautiful experience. Many of us can relate to that, even as followers of Christ today throughout our lives, you know, just coming back to the gospel and re-encountering what it means for us. And it's thrilling to realize how many people are aching for something like that right now. And you know, you hear this talk about a vibe shift or a quiet revival and I've done videos on these things and whatever those terms mean to you, it's definitely impossible to deny. There's something happening right now. There's some kind of spiritual hunger. And it's interesting. It's not just a general spiritual openness. It seems to be a hunger for tradition, specifically, for depth, for liturgy, for roots. People right now are not looking for something new and sparkling. They're looking for something ancient, something with wings. Think of the difference between a light-hearted sitcom versus the grandeur of Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings. A sitcom can entertain you, nothing wrong with a sitcom, but Tolkien makes you feel like you've come home to a world that is larger than yourself. And that is what hearts are aching for right now.

Of course, the exciting thing is that that's what the gospel does. To come to know Jesus fills that need in the heart infinitely with wonder and joy forevermore. and in a generation that is exhausted by self-creation, historic Christianity offers the relief of a received identity and a joyful belonging. But we want to think about that and how to articulate that today and how to live that out today because people are, this spiritual hunger is not just leading people to Christianity. It's leading them to bad directions as well. So in the spirit of equipping ourselves to respond to the moment, let's just think real quickly,

What's happening and how do we respond? Three points for each question. First, what's happening? I think for those of us who are older, it's weird to be the old guy now. Already I'm the old guy. I'm 42. I'm not that old. But I feel old relative to the culture of YouTube.

And for those of us, my age and older, millennials, boomers, people, other generations, it can be hard for us to appreciate just how much Gen Z and then those even younger than Gen Z have been shaped by the Internet and social media. And it's shaped our whole culture. And a lot of our, I have such compassion for young people. I love Gen Z. This is my favorite generation to relate to. And I think a lot of young people feel the sense of exhaustion from the pressure to create your own identity. Deep anxiety from having to navigate life without inherited structures like most humanity has always had. A loneliness that endures beneath the hyper-connection of the internet and social media and constant texting and so forth.

Maybe Gen Z's interest in church history is a way of quietly rebelling against the burden of self-invention. Let's note three specific ways that perhaps we can see this dynamic playing out. First, we're living in a time of instability and chaos, and in response to that, hearts are aching for rootedness and grounding. Many people simply feel lost today. By the way, when we're doing cultural diagnosis, we're not looking down our nose. at the big, bad culture over there from which we are completely separate. The first place to under, to start when you want to understand culture is your own heart. I have to do that. I have to admit, I'm enmeshed in all of these problems. And so I'm trying to follow Jesus.

And, you know, sanctification is a part of my own cultural diagnosis because it's in me. But a lot of us feel this. We feel the sense of the world is somewhat going crazy. You know, it's like the earth has fallen out of orbit and it's just shooting off into outer space, past Mars and all the other planets. Everything's flying out of orbit. That's an emotional feeling we can experience as you look at politics, culture, the rise of AI, the bombardment of, you know, global events and what war is going to be next. And there's just so much churning all around us.

It creates anxiety. It creates instability and uncertainty. And we all experience this. I have to be honest and admit that in my heart it can create fear because I have five young kids and I'm thinking what's the world going to be like for them. I have to just be honest and admit, yeah, I can be afraid. I can, I can, if my mind is too much focused on the news. And so the point here is, I think in that kind of context, people are simply aching for roots.

People want to find their feet again. It's like, you know, imagine you're in an earthquake or a moment of turbulence. You want to hang onto the wall and kind of stabilize yourself. That's happening to the entire world. Okay. our entire culture is in a shockwave, and so we're looking for something that can stabilize us. And I think that's part of the interest in church history, and what a tremendous comfort to know that there's an answer to this. You know, it's just thrilling to go back to the unchanging truths

of historic creedal Christianity, the things you get in something like the Nicene Creed. And you remember Jesus has risen from the dead, whatever else happens in the world, whatever I see in the news, he's never going to be unres resurrected. Nothing's ever going to change that. God will triumph over evil in the end. We don't need to worry whether Satan might somehow get the upper hand. Heaven is eternal. It's not going to run out of joy after a few billion years. And we go back to these ancient truths and they're like an anchor and hearts are craving that today.

The second thing I think we see is we live in a time of flashiness and trendiness. And in response, hearts are aching for substance and authenticity. That word authenticity is used a lot. but it really is getting at something accurate. You know, the world, the world feels like a constant spectacle. Everything's optimized for clicks. Everyone wants to go viral. Everyone's chasing the latest trend.

So many people go on vacation. Instead of trying to have a good time, they're worrying about portraying themselves as having a good time to other people. And people do this, and it's part of the world right now. But there's a quiet rebellion against that as well. It's exhausting. A lot of us want to get off the carousel

and just catch our breath. Right? And I think young people feel this. I have so much respect for Gen Z. They know when they're being marketed to. They can smell inauthenticity so skillfully. And I think we see a quiet backlash against the shallow and the trendy right now. Hearts are aching for depth, for what endures, for quality. I see this in my videos. I'll put out videos on the most obscure topics, really academic videos. I don't think people are interested in, church history topics. And people want this. They desire this. Those videos do better than the videos that seem like they'd be trendy, you know? I'm like, wow, okay, hearts want the substance. They want the meat. Think of a novel

that doesn't hook you from page one. It's not appealing to your adrenaline, but it's just a really good novel. And if you give yourself to it and commit yourself to it, it's satisfying and rich and you learn and it forms you. That kind of experience. Quality, substance. People are aching for that. And I think this is another reason why people are looking to church history. People want the ancient creeds. You know, these ancient creeds, like the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian creed, just to start with those three. I've done videos on each of those three. They were not written to go viral. They were hammered out because people are getting their heads chopped off. And because people are trying to figure out what do you need to know to get baptized? Pastoral

necessity drove these creeds, and that has substance and depth and meaning, and it's thrilling to give your heart to that. So that's what hearts are craving for right now. So far we've said in a time of instability, hearts ache for roots, and then second, in a time of trendiness, hearts ache for substance. Now we can say third, we live in a time of consumerism and pleasure, and in response, hearts are aching for rigor and demandingness. So we don't need to be to make the point that we're in a consumeristic culture. I mean, we all feel that. You know, and social media, of course, exacerbates this. If you don't like something, you swipe away. If something is challenging you, you mute it. If AI is not giving you the answer you want,

you change AI's personality, and now it's talking to you nicer, you know, it's kind of pathetic if you think about it, but this is there. And we sense deep within, the human soul is not created for that. We're not not meant to float from one preference to another. That doesn't satisfy you. We are designed for covenant, for vows, for sacrifice, to deploy our lives for a great transcendent cause. If you don't have that, you're going to quietly be drowning. You know, your heart and mind ache to give ourselves to something great. And this is why demanding forms of Christianity are quietly attracting people. Deep down, people want to be challenged. Liturgy asks something of you.

Creads bind you to something you did not write. Orthodoxy limits you. And paradoxically, that is freedom and joy. And we know that deep down. People deep down right now are drawn to a faith that says to you, this is true whether you like it or not. And here's what you've got to do. So get in line and start shaping up.

You know, like someone, we need a Christianity that's going to come to us and give us some straight talk, you know. Now, all of these trends are good in many ways and healthy. However, we need to respond to this because people are not just taking these aches in the human heart to Christianity. The increased openness is leading people elsewhere as well. And so we don't want to miss our opportunity. We want people to understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer to these longings in the human heart. So how should we respond? Three quick thoughts. real quick, and I'm sure you can help me out in the comments with some more as well. First, in our own personal lives, we need to start by rooting our own hearts in the historic

Christian faith. I have to do this every day. This topic that, you know, whenever I'm talking about this, this is not remote for me personally, and I know it isn't for you either. Routedness means less scrolling, more embodied experiences, more time outside, more unhurried friendship lingering in that conversation with a friend. I think loneliness is a huge blind spot. You know, we talk a lot about politics and culture. For some of us, loneliness is the even deeper wound. But in all of this, it's worth considering our own personal relationship to church history. That's really worth thinking about. For me, I remember, I mean, this got me into my academic work. I started reading Anselm, senior in high school, read pro solgion, just was captivated

I felt like I walked through the wardrobe into Narnia. I can't describe it. It was just enchanting. And so that led me then to Anselm and then led me to other things. And before you know it, I'm just hooked. And I remember at some point reading the church fathers and then reading the Puritans and others as well, the feeling in my heart was like that person at the beginning of this video I mentioned going into the church service. I didn't just feel I enjoy this or this is teaching me.

I think I can put it as strongly as to say, this is telling us. me who I really am. This is my story. These are my people. This is my family. This is my identity. And we all need this experience right now to root ourselves in our historic faith. You know, personal use of the creeds is a great way. That's why I put out videos on the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed. We can all experience the sense of relief from submission to historic Christianity. When we say, I believe in one God, What we're also saying is, I am not my own God. When we say maker of heaven and earth, what we're also by implication saying is,

I am not a self-creator. I am a creature. When we say, for us and for our salvation, He came down, what we're also saying is, I don't have to be my own Savior. Jesus is my Savior. I love the words of this old Rich Mullins song developed from the Apostles' Creed, originally drawn from G.K. Chesterton's great book, Orthodoxy, and this little amplification he gives in the chorus. Most of the song, he's just reciting the creed. But then, in the chorus, it's, I believe what I

believe, it's what makes me what I am. I did not make it. No, it is making me. It is the very truth of God, and not the invention of any man. What a wonderful thing to say. Is there any joy like is there any relief like that to say, I believe this. I'm giving myself to something greater than myself. I did not create it. It is actually creating me. And what a joy to invite others into that. But we got to start with our own hearts with that reality, grounded in our own historic identity. Second of all, in our corporate worship, we should lean into historic Christian practices. Historic Christian liturgy is not a liability. It is an asset. I'm not going to be brief on this, because I have a whole video. I'll put the thumbnail up on screen here, how evangelicalism needs

church history in our worship. And I developed this more there, but just to say briefly, this is so important. It's always important, but it's especially important right now. Too often worship can drift toward either performance or mere information or something flimsy that does have more of a feeling of we're creating this rather than it's creating us. And I am not so much trying to make a point here about high church versus low church or this tradition versus that tradition, but actually a more basic historical posture that all of our traditions can inhabit. Because actually, even the low church traditions, like being a Baptist, has a lot of richness, and it's liturgy historically. I've done videos on things like Baptist views of the Lord's

Supper, and people literally don't believe me, even though I'm quoting like all these Baptists and Baptist confessions and showing you, like, actually contemporary Baptists have also kind of lost our roots. And we need to go back. So all our traditions, you know, think of the sacraments since I mentioned the Lord's supper. What a gift these are to experience the gospel visually and physically. In baptism and in the Lord's supper, the gospel is not merely heard. It's tasted and it's seen. We need to lean into that today. Hearts are aching for that today. In my own tradition, the reformed tradition, one aspect of liturgy that I've really come to deeply value is confession of sin and assurance of pardon. A practice like this is really worth inhabiting because it can help ground our hearts

as we rehearse the gospel each week. I mean, how many people out there are going to have that same experience I mentioned at the beginning of this video, sort of finding yourself in this weekly pattern of confession and then experiencing the gospel through the words of the minister. When I was a youth pastor, I used to do a 6 a.m. prayer meeting for my high school students. I love the sense of challenging people. Hearts desire that.

You know what? People would come. High school students would come at 6 a.m. and pray. people want to be challenged. They want to be called out of themselves into something. And historic Christian liturgy can do that. And it's so wonderful to be connected to Christians in the past. You know, it's just thrilling to be connected to,

this is one great thing about liturgy in its different forms. It connects you to Christians in other places and times. You think of Christians in the early church. You think of Christians today in Uganda or China or Brazil around the world. How thrilling to join together with our brothers and sisters in the faith. A third suggestion is we need to think about our evangelism in light of this. I've always felt attention on my YouTube channel between do I want to be a Christian apologist or a church historian?

And then somewhere in the middle of those two things is like Protestant apologetics, and I've just come to embrace it all because I think it all bleeds into each other. I think our historical posture is a part of our evangelism, and I've come to just accept that. I say, okay, because our non-Christian friends are aching for a tradition to join. Restless hearts are looking for stability. And so we want to help our non-Christian friends experience the good news of Jesus Christ, like coming home, like that experience of going from a sitcom to Tolkien, from going from something more glib into this, like, picture yourself walking into this ancient rich mansion that has this like old wooden architecture and it's

beautiful and it smells different. That's what it should feel like to come to Christianity. And we want our friends who don't know Jesus to experience the gospel like that. And as they're coming, you know, Jesus, what will come into their hearts is what's come into our hearts. I finally belong. Now I know who I really am. Here's a final image that can help us picture this. Thomas Odin was a great Methodist theologian. And in the early 1970s, he had his own personal renewal by immersing himself in the classical texts of Christianity, diving into his historical posture as a Christian. He describes himself going to the library carol each morning and reading,

and he says, every question I previously thought of as new and unprecedented, I found had already been much investigated. As I worked my way through the beautiful, long-hidden texts of classical Christianity, I re-emerged out of a maze to once again delight in the holy mysteries of the faith and the perennial dilemmas of fallen human experience, it was no longer me interpreting the texts, but the texts interpreting me. I think a lot of people have this experience.

You see how he says, coming out of a maze to delight in the holy mysteries of the faith. A lot of people are in the maze. Historic Christianity helps them find their way out and that experience of, it's no longer me interpreting these texts, they're interpreting me. This is kind of like Rich Mullins saying, I did not make it. no, it is making me. And it's kind of like that young person stumbling into a church service, hearing the Nicene Creed, and experiencing relief from anxiety and saying, I finally belong. Elsewhere, Odin describes historic creedal Christianity as a kind of food and as a kind of home.

Listen to these words. I did not become an orthodox believer or theologian until after I tried out most of the errors long rejected by Christianity. If my first 40 years were spent hungering for meaning in life, the last 40 have been spent in being fed. If the first 40 were prodigal, the last 40 have been a homecoming. What an awesome thing, that you and I can have that same experience of homecoming. And that is Jesus, because he is the lover of our souls. But part of that is also joining this great tradition. And this is what happens to anyone when we stop trying to invent Christianity,

and we stop trying to create ourselves, and we begin to simply receive it. And what a joy to come to know that personally and to re-experience that, but also to share that message with others around us as well.