Why Gen Z is Questioning (almost) Every Authority

In This Episode:

Why is a whole generation learning to question almost every authority? Leaders fail. Institutions protect themselves. The people who were supposed to look out for us sometimes don't. And thanks to the endless scroll, Gen Z doesn't just see the failures in one corner anymore. They see everyone's everywhere, all at once. Holding authority at arm's length starts to look less like rebellion and more like a reasonable response.

But notice the word almost. This isn't distrust of everything. It's a shift in what earns trust in the first place, from the title someone holds to the way they actually treat people.

In this episode, we sit with the honest question underneath the headlines: if authority itself feels untrustworthy, what happens when someone is asked to trust the authority of God? We explore why positional trust ("respect the title") has given way to relational trust ("show me you're worth it"), where the line runs between healthy discernment and corrosive cynicism, and why questioning authority isn't the same as rejecting it. Grounded in Philippians 2 and Mark 10, this conversation reframes the whole thing: the opposite of bad authority was never no authority. It's good authority, the kind that serves.

What we dive into:

• Positional authority is out, relational authority is in. A title no longer earns automatic trust. Research points to five things people look for before they will follow anyone: honest listening, transparency, integrity, care, and real expertise.
• Discernment vs. cynicism. Discernment asks, "Is this authority trustworthy?" Cynicism assumes no authority ever is. One keeps you searching. The other quietly closes the door on everyone.
• We didn't eliminate authority, we relocated it. We may distrust the pastor but trust the podcaster, question the expert but believe the voice in our feed. The question isn't whether we're under authority. It's who or what we've handed it to.
• The person vs. the position. When someone in authority fails us, it is tempting to condemn the position itself. But a leader's failure to represent God is not God's failure to be trustworthy.
• Why God is worth trusting. His authority is grounded in a character that cannot be unfaithful and aimed at our good, not his gain. He doesn't just claim to be trustworthy. He proves it in Jesus at the cross.

A few questions to sit with this week:

• "Why does this person have authority in my life?" asked out of curiosity, not condemnation.
• If you lead anyone: "Am I becoming the kind of person who is actually worthy of their trust?"
• "Who, or what, gets the final word in my life right now?"

Scripture in this episode: Philippians 2:5-11 (the authority that humbles itself), Mark 10:42-45 ("Not so with you"), Genesis 3, and Hebrews 1.

Research referenced:

"Now Is the Time for Gen Z" from The Gospel Coalition (TGC25): https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/now-time-gen-z-reflection-tgc25/

Springtide Research Institute, on why young people are seeking supportive relationships over programs: https://springtideresearch.org/post/podcast-appearance/young-people-seeking-supportive-relationships-not-programs

If this conversation gave you something steady to stand on, follow the show and share it with someone who is wrestling with who to trust.

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We used to distrust the person. Now we distrust the position. And to be fair, we've been given plenty of reasons. Leaders fail, pastors fail. Institutions protect themselves. Parents disappoint. Politicians lie. People who are supposed to protect us sometimes don't. And because of the endless scroll, we don't just know about the failure in our own community. We know about everyone's failure everywhere. But here's where it gets complicated. If I learn that authority itself can't be trusted, what happens when I'm asked to trust the authority of God? And that's what we're talking about. On today's podcast. Welcome to the In & For Podcast podcast. Shilly and I have a very interesting topic that we're talking about today. Very interesting. Very interesting. Because we're talking about how Gen Z and even Gen Alpha have lost trust in almost every kind of authority. And we'll talk about what almost means as as we move forward. But here's what's going on. We have a situation where Gen Z has a front row seat to authorities crumbling in a way that they've never seen before. Now I want to be careful here because we're not saying that authority structures are failing at a faster rate than ever before. What we're saying is the view of crumbling of authority is happening at a more accessible rate than has ever been seen before. And because of nonstop media, because of 24/7 social media. because of always streaming entertainment, there's a view of any kind of failure of a structure authority, anytime, anywhere. So now it's not just the major leader of an institution or a major or big pastor of a megachurch that if he fails, that everybody sees it. It's now if a pastor fails in the a small corner of the country in a no-name city. It may get recorded and put on social media and get hundreds of thousands of views and shares and it's there for everybody to see. And then the the description of that is, well, I can't trust pastors. I can't trust the authority in church. And that is now multiplied over and over and over again, as more and more institutions, as more and more, as Shelley has already said, as political leaders begin to fail, as people get front row seats to truths that are walked back, of corruption that unfolds, as institutions that were once trusted, even social media institutions. We just saw, we just saw meta. Give a 17.8 billion dollars dollar settlement saying that we didn't really do anything wrong when we're creating our platforms. We weren't intentionally making them addictive at all. We're not trying to say that we did that, but we are gonna offer a seventeen point eight billion dollar check to admit guilt at the same time. That's an institution that's seen as as failing. And then even to the institution of family. the the stress that comes from the rise of depression, anxiety, isolationism puts a strain on families that haven't been seen before. And so the family institution is seen by Gen Z and Gen Alpha as crumbling. And we see this in the data as well. I want to zoom into what we see going on specifically in the area of churches. And so the Gospel Coalition puts together this research in 2025. And and what they do is they they look at at Gen Z and they're they're asking a very specific question. They're asking, what rating would you give the church between one to ten of how trustworthy the institution of the of the church is? Yeah, and here's the rating they gave. Okay. 4.9. And interesting. That is shocking to those who belong to an older generation that would say, hey, the position of the church is the position that of one of trust of other things around can crumble. Other authority structures can crumble. But the church is the place where I go where I know I'm going to receive care and receive the truth. The Gen Z sees the church as a place that says, Yeah, I can trust the church less than 50% of the time. And that is incredibly insightful because we see other data that looks like it's saying there's a mass resurgence of Gen Z into the church. Yeah, that's true. There's a big resurgence of Gen Z into the church, but then we also have these competing truths that less than one percent of Gen Z has a Christian worldview. And then we see research like this where Gen Z goes to the church and says, Yeah, I can trust them less than 50% of the time. And it lets us know what you've already talked about. Of the position of church, the position of pastor doesn't carry authority like it once did just because it has the title of church or the title of pastor.

But here's what's interesting: 5:05

positional authority is out, but personal authority, relational authority, is now in. So Springtide Research Institute puts out different data where they look at several different young individuals, 10,000 of them. They survey them and they're looking at the relationship between religion, relationship, and trust. And and they're they're finding that, hey, these younger individuals, they trust older individuals, older adults, but not because of positional authority, because of relational authority. And they find out that there's these five keys that they're looking for. They're they're saying, Hey, does this person actually listen to me? Is this somebody that's transparent? with me, is this somebody that has integrity? Is this somebody that shows care to me? Is this somebody that actually has expertise in what they're talking about? Because if these five things are in place, if this person's actually authentically having a concern for me. Then I now begin to trust them as as an authority in my life. And so we see this movement away from positional authority of trust according to a structure or trust according to position that older generations are used to seeing. And they are a little bit baffled by some of these younger generations that are just like, Hey, I'm not so interested in the position that you say. I actually need to see the way you relate to me before I start trusting you. And I think that's pretty interesting. I actually think there's something really healthy in that. A title shouldn't make someone trustworthy. Character should, right? Teacher, doctor, pastor, president, parent. There was a time when the position itself carried a certain amount of assumed credibility. But today the response is so much more. Don't tell me that I should trust you because of the position you hold. Instead, show me you're trustworthy. But the problem comes when discernment turns into cynicism. And we're seeing that. There's a difference. Discernment asks, is this authority trustworthy? Cynicism assumes no authority is trustworthy. Because then, think this through, if this pastor failed me, becomes pastors can't be trusted. This institution failed me becomes institutions can't be trusted. And eventually people in authority can't be trusted because I don't need anyone to have authority over me. Notice the shift. We haven't actually eliminated authority. We've just relocated it. This culture of peace, I think, is really important because we say we don't trust authority anymore, but is that really true? We may not trust the pastor, but we trust the podcaster. We don't trust the institution, but we trust the influencer. We question the expert, but believe the person in our feed who feels authentic. And increasingly, an algorithm is deciding which voices we hear enough times that they begin shaping what we believe. So, what's the big idea? The big idea, I think, for this conversation is we haven't eliminated authority. We've just simply relocated it. And there's an incredible irony in that. We may be more suspicious of authority than generations before us, while simultaneously being influenced by more voices than any generations before So I don't think the question is do I have an authority? Maybe it's who or what have I allowed to have authority over me. And I think Christians need to be really careful here. We shouldn't hear all of this and respond, well, young people just need to respect authority. Although we'd love to say that. Because sometimes author authority should be questioned. Sometimes leaders have abused powers. Some churches have protected their institution instead of their people. And some people entrusted with authority have proven themselves untrustworthy. So questioning authority isn't automatically rebellion. I think we need to remember that, mom and dad, grandpas and grandmas. There's a difference between discernment and cynicism, as we talked about. I think discernment asks, is this authority trustworthy? Or cynicism assumes no authority is trustworthy. And so I think that's the danger because once distrust becomes our default it doesn't stay neatly contained to one parent or person or pastor or politician or institution. It really does spread. Yeah. And and that just it reminds me of a story that I hesitated on bringing into this podcast, but I think is ultimately helpful. And it has to do with my own family's journey of of distrust and in in this case in relation to the church, but in more specificity with with youth group in And as we are raising our boys, we have three boys. And as we were raising them, there came that time when it was time to put them in in youth group. And when we talked to the pastors of a few different churches, and we talked to some youth group leaders and we talked to some other leaders in the church and looked at the website, we'd see the same kind of things of hey, our youth group is designed to grow you closer to God, to grow you more into God's word, and and then in relation to one another to help you be a more effective disciple of Christ. And that sounds really good and really great. But the experience was very different. the the experience was we we'd go and we found a youth group leader that was dedicated to creating a an atmosphere of games and fun and food with occasional snippets of a Bible story or occasional times where you get together as a small group and and share about a a Bible about Bible story or a a biblical lesson. But the atmosphere that that created, it brought in individuals that weren't really interested in growing closer to God or growing closer to one another to be a dis a better, more effective disciple of Christ or to know God's word more effectively. It was people that wanted to pursue a relationship with a girlfriend or a It was somebody who wanted to to share things that were largely inappropriate on their social media feed with kids that didn't really have phones. And and they thought that that was really funny. It brought in bullies. That were interested in bullying kids that were different than them. And what started as my children going to a place where they were going to be protected by an authority who had this mission involved with helping them closer to God, became them going in as authorities as protectors. They were going in to protect people from relationships that should not move the way that they were going to protect people from seeing content that they that they would be inappropriate for them to see, to protect them from bullies, to protect other kids from bullies that were trying to bully them. And it just became tiring. And and when they were talking to some of the leaders, what they saw was a position of a youth group leader that was says, This is what I am as a youth group pastor. But the experience of that was a person. That was not fulfilling the role of that position. And we had to have some pretty long conversations on not confusing the position of authority, which we've already talked about, and a person in authority. So the position of authority versus a person in authority. And and that's really the a point that I want to bring The first point that that I think want to talk about is how we prevent those things from getting confused. this. a position of authority versus a a person in authority. Because if we don't, if we don't set that right, what we end up doing is having a bad experience with a person in authority. And then we condemn the position. Right. And say nobody, nobody can fill that position. It doesn't matter who they are, because that position, the position of youth pastor is a is a position that hurts people. The position failed instead of the person in the position failed. That's exact that's exactly right. And and so the way that That I I've worked worked this out with them and I've worked out with others as well through our own experience is we tend to think of author when we think of authority, we're asking a question. So especially younger generation. So if you're Gen Z or Gen Alpha, and I don't think a lot of Gen Beta would be watching our podcast or listening to our podcast. But if but if you're Gen Z or Gen Alpha or if you have if you have influence over Gen Z or Gen Alpha, this is an important thing to think about. There's a question that's being asked. And the question is, why should this person have authority over me? and and if I can ask those questions from two different perspectives. I can ask that question out of the perspective of curiosity. And if I ask that of curiosity, then I'm actually pursuing the answers of why this person should have authority over me. And we already saw from the research the answers they're looking for. There's that listening, there's that transparency, there's that. integrity, that care, that expertise. Like I'm looking for those, but I'm actively looking for those. But then there's a a a version of that question that comes from a place of cynicism that you talked about, a place of condemnation to where the way I'm asking that question is really, why does this person have authority over me? Because they're in a position that I'm not going to accept any person that that fills that position to give them permission to have authority over me. And so I'm condemning that person Via that position. And if we don't, if we don't check that and we don't take time to ask, like, why do I feel that way? If I'm asking that from a condemning point of and so we're asking if your Gen Z or Gen Alpha or have influence over them, know which version of that question you're asking. If it's from condemnation or cynicism, you gotta ask, why do I feel that way? And begin looking for that place of Hurt, that place of harm, that that experience that's causing you to think Because here's what's happened when when we move something from a person to a position, that hurt or that view of diminishing authority or not trusting authority, that never stays stagnant. It never stops where it starts. It continues to expand outward into other areas of authority in our life. So it may start with a youth pastor position. It may start with a pastor position, but it'll eventually migrate out to the institution of the family, the institution of somebody else that has authority over you. And it'll continue to move outward all the way into the point of where it gets to God. And now I don't trust the position of God to have authority over me because it never stays stagnant. And so that's why we had this the this in-depth conversation with our own children of not mistaking the position with the person. Asking that question of why does this person have authority over me? And and asking that from a place of curiosity so that they can learn to distinguish between good authorities and bad authorities and not condemning the position of authority wholesale without looking into reasons why they should trust this person in authority. And I think that's a really important thing that we should look at before it moves all the way out to God. And I know you have some things to say about that, why God's a trustworthy authority. But if we don't, if we don't Nip that in the bud to use an older generation's exp expression. If we don't nip that in the bud, that that doubt of authority, that distrust of authority position wise, is going to continue to migrate outward until it reaches the person of God. Yeah. Thanks, Brock. I like when you share stories of how you've handled hard things with your kids. I think it's just so helpful and deeply practical. But I think sometimes you're right. We jump too quickly to God has authority. Therefore, you should obey him. And while that is very true, God is God and deserves all authority. But in a conversation about broken trust and about broken authority, I think we want to ask a different question. Why is God worthy of my trust?

And for me, it starts with this character: 16:50

God cannot not be faithful. Do you love my double negative, which equals a positive there? As an English person, I'm not a big fan, but okay, I do like it. I do like it. Which begs a question, is there anything God can't do? Yes, there's all kinds of things God can't do. God can do nothing that takes away from his persons character and nature. Therefore, God cannot lie. God cannot cease being good. God cannot be unfaithful. Faithfulness isn't something simply God does when things are going well. Faithful is who he is and his person's character and nature. He is the covenant-keeping God. People break promises, leaders break promises, institutions break promises, I break promises. But God doesn't. He cannot break a promise. So God's authority isn't trustworthy only because of his character. It's also trustworthy because of what his authority is for. I think that's something else that's really helpful in these kinds of We've seen human authority used to control. To protect the leader, to gain power, to serve someone's ego. But God doesn't need anything from us. He isn't exercising authority for his flourishing at our expense. His authority is for good. His boundaries are for our good. His commands are for our good. His leadership is for our good. So when we ponder that, good authority isn't power used over someone. It's responsibility used for someone's good. And I think that's something we've lost in this conversation culturally. Because Brock, I think that the opposite of bad authority isn't no authority. The opposite of bad authority is good authority, right? That's right. And God isn't simply a better version of the human authorities who have disappointed us, He is the standard by which every other authority should be measured. I like that. And ultimately, God doesn't simply tell us he's trustworthy. He proves it in Jesus at the cross. Yes. So this doesn't just solve the generation's problem. It ultimately solves our problem because he keeps the promise of salvation through his son. He's trustworthy. Yeah. And and that's really great because because we take time to transition to scripture, like where we find this in in scripture, where we where we're deriving these principles from for for each podcast. Where are you going? going it's always fun to guess where you're going in scripture. well well, I'm in Philippians, chapter two, verses five through to about ten. And so this is very familiar territory, because this is the you know, Christ being in the very form of God did not consider a quality with God and something to be grasped, meaning something to be lorded over people or to say to to puff out his chest and say, You're all my minions, and now you all do whatever I whatever I say. But instead he pursued authority in this way, that he humbled himself and accommodated as a servant to serve those that he had authority over. Not just humbling himself, but humbling himself to the point of death on a cross. And not dying on the on the cross as a servant with no authority, dying on the cross as the one who had all authority in the form of a servant to now give us access to the ultimate authority of God. And so not only do we see perfect authority on display, and let me let me stop here and say, this is perfect authority on display. Everybody has the same definition of what a perfect authority looks like. And if somebody disagrees with this, then you're you are lying to yourself. okay. You know, I love to make I love to make extreme claims. And so that's my that's my extreme claim. Okay. Everybody has the same definition of perfect authority. And the perfect authority is the one that has full control over all things, but doesn't use that control to command people, like an like a heartless general commanding minions to go do it do what he wants them to do, but has their best interest in mind and humbles himself. And accommodates to those people for their good, sacrificing himself and his desires so that they can flourish and thrive under his authority and have access to all the things that he has authority over, because he has authority over all things. That is the perfect definition of authority that everybody wants to And friend, it is only found in Christ. He is the only one who has that perfect authority, gave the perfect example of authority. perfectly not only lived it out, but then modeled it saying, This is how you should have authority. So those of you who have authority over others, this is how you have authority. The things you have authority over, you now model that before the people, or live that out before the people you have authority over by humbling yourself and accommodating to them in a posture of service so that they can thrive and flourish underneath your authority. That's the model that we're given. That's what you were saying. He said God sets the perfect model of it. Well, Christ is the perfect representation of God in Hebrews 1. And so when God said, What does authority under me look like? What does it look like if I was to live this out? It's in he displayed it in Christ. so good. All right, I'm going to Mark 10. Okay. Okay. So there's this moment in Mark 10 where Jesus actually addresses the kind of authority we're talking about. He points to the rulers around them and says, Essentially, you've seen how they do this. They lord it over the people, just like you said. And then Jesus says four incredibly important words. He says, Not so with you. Jesus isn't saying authority is bad. He says, bad authority isn't what authority was designed to be. And then he tells us what the kingdom authority looks like. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve. Jesus doesn't just have perfect authority. Jesus shows us what authority was always supposed to look like. It serves, it protects, it provides, it sacrifices, it uses strength for someone else's good. And then he simply doesn't teach it. He goes to the cross and he proves it, he showcases it. Yeah. And so the the big question here is is not are we under authority? The question is what authority authority are we under? Are we under the authority of culture? Are we under the the the authority of like what you mentioned, under some influencer? Are we under self-authority or or self-rule? And as you mentioned so well, the opposite of good authority is bad authority and vice versa. The opposite of bad authority isn't no authority. Right. you actually can't escape authority. You just end up making yourself or someone else the authority. The opposite of bad authority is is good authority. Well, as we wrap up this conversation, I think I have two takeaways. Okay. First, if you've been hurt by someone in authority, I'm sorry. But don't confuse someone's failure to represent God with God's failure to be trustworthy. Those are very different. A parent can fail you, a leader can fail you. Someone who claims to speak for God can fail you. And that's hard and hurtful. But God has not failed you. Go back, go back to scripture and look at God's character. His persons, his character, his very nature. Look at his faithfulness. Look to Jesus. Look to the cross. He is trustworthy. And second takeaway, some of us need to hear this conversation from the other side because we are the authorities in people's lives. We're parents, we're bosses, teachers, coaches, we're ministry leaders. And one of the most important things in the research on young people that Brock mentioned. Is they haven't stopped wanting trustworthy adults in their lives. So maybe for us in authority, our takeaway isn't how do we get them to respect our authority? Instead, maybe we ask, how do I become the kind of person who's worthy of their trust? And so we go back with what research showed us at the beginning. We listen, we tell the truth, we're transparent, we deeply care, we're consistent. And we use whatever authority God has given us for the good of the person that entrusted to our care. Because especially in a generation that's suspicious of authority, the way we carry out authority can either distort or reflect what God's actually like. Yeah, and I you know, I have a takeaway here as well. And and I definitely want to wanna hone in on the position versus the person that we talked about. Not confusing the position of authority with a person in authority. Right. People can let you down, but that doesn't mean the position of authority is to be untrusted. And I think that's what I mentioned before that moving all the way out to God, if we become the kind of of people that end up Mistrusting positions, places that are that are built to have authority. If we end up just taking that to at the extreme level of being the kind of person that says, you know what, I distrust all authority. What we end up making the mistake of thinking is that the opposite of of authority in that sense is freedom. I have I have freedom to do what I want to do. I have the freedom to rule the way I want to rule, to self-rule. I am now outside of all authority structure. And have the full freedom to run in in what we call autonomous ways. I get to be fully autonomous in the way I want to be. You don't have to go too far into scripture about three chapters. Before you run in to what happens when you have wholesale rejection of positional authority and say, I don't want any authority, I want to self-rule. So I need to be the my own authority. Yeah. And it ends up being a contradiction. What you say is I don't want there to be any authority. But what you're really saying is I want to be the authority. You just absolutely just relocated it like you've talked about. You just recloth relocated the the authority to yourself. And so the question becomes are you the right authority for your life? And when we go back and look at what happened to Adam and Eve, that's the question that they were looking at. And they decided I'm the right authority. For my life, given all the evidence to the contrary. And so when we look at the relational authority that Gen Z's clamoring for, and we see that the desire for the the lived out truth and and the transparency and the listening and the integrity and the care and the expertise, those are on perfect display in God in the garden. He when we read Genesis, we see him listening intently to those he created. We see him caring for them very intimately. We see this transparent walking with them in the garden. We see the expertise on on full full display and integrity. we see that full honesty of integrity of showing them. Let me show you what the boundaries are of what you can and cannot do, because I've designed this place for you, for your flourishing and for your thriving, for your good. I am the creator of all things, and I am your creator, and I am the sustainer of all things, and I am your sustainer. And so Adam and Eve looked at that and said, Is God the right authority for my life? And they said, No, I'm the right authority for my life. And that had disastrous consequences. And for those listening or watching, we're in the same boat today. You are not, another dramatic claim. You are not the right authority for your life. You did not create yourself, you do not sustain yourself. You have a creator and you have a sustainer who has created a way for you to flourish and thrive in this world through dependence on the right authority, which is him, the perfect display of authority in Christ. And when we follow him, we're following the right authority. And so I can ask, Who is this Lord in which I am following? And It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the perfect example of perfect authority, trustworthy to follow and obey, because he is my creator and my sustainer. He is the right authority for me to follow in my life. And we got to find the nearest reflective object that you can find. And and and say to that reflective object, I am not the right authority for my life, but I know who is. Well, as we wind down today, I think this was such a good conversation. if you've enjoyed it, would you like it and share it so more people can hear the message? So as we close today, maybe the question to leave with today is not, do I trust authority, but who gets the final word in my life? Because all of us are trusting someone or something, culture, our feed, our feelings. ourselves, we're the God who created us, who knows us intimately, who gave himself for us, and has never, not once, not ever been unfaithful. So in a world where trust is hard to give, Jesus is still worthy of it all.