It’s October 31st in Denver. The snow is falling. A cutting wind makes the air feel much colder than it actually is. But nothing will stop Jake Boston, a Gen Z Episcopalian, from celebrating the holiday.
No, not Halloween, Reformation Day, where Protestants remember Martin Luther’s courageous choice to publish his 95 theses criticizing the Catholic Church and launching the Reformation. Jake recreates this old story by traveling through the snow of Colorado, from main church to main church – 60 in total – to post his own theses on their doors.
The lists, adapted has THE Seven American main line denominationscriticize their drift from orthodoxy toward theological liberalism, challenging them to reaffirm the Resurrection, the divinity of Jesus, the authority of the Bible, and much more.
And Jake wasn’t alone. A group of 1,000 Gen Zers committed to their historic faiths, part of a core group called Operation Reconquista…were working across the country doing the exact same thing. By the end of Reformation Day, they claim, they had mailed, emailed or physically posted their 95 theses to each major church in the United States, all without funding or a full-time organizer.
When I first heard about this operation, I admit I was both intrigued and worried. On the one hand, last year saw a surprising number of Spiritual renewal led by Generation Zthe most famous The Asbury Renaissance. Perhaps this was an equally hopeful development?
On the other hand, their stigmatizing use of sordid military history was reminiscent of the “manosphere.” a strongly online movement capturing the imagination of many conservative young men. (“Reconquista” is a nod to the Christian religion reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula of the Muslim kingdoms, which Christian Europeans commonly called the Moors, and the group’s website uses martial language and imagery.) Like many influencers in the manosphere, Reconquista first gained traction online, in largely thanks to a YouTube channel run by a young man who goes digital. pseudonym Zoom exchangedas well as a Discord server.
Redeemed Zoomer creates lo-fi explainer videos – with Comic Sans font and what it describes as “stupid” graphics – about theology and Christian denominations, some of which having accumulated millions of views. When he’s not explaining history or ideas, he’s talking about the main institutional revival in creating cathedral-centered cities in the world-building video game Minecraft.
Despite these superficial similarities between Reconquista and the manosphere, the substance is radically different. Redeemed Zoomer and his fellow activists are not interested in “follow your own path“, accelerationist policyor “trad LARPers” – as Zoomer said in a interview on my podcast– who spend more time burning down institutions than rebuilding them.
Their interest is institutional renewal in the mainline Church and their method, as detailed in a video explaining their Reformation Day activism – calls on young, theologically conservative Christians to reform and revive the denominations for which their Christian forefathers sweated and bled. Beyond the Reformation Day event, it looks above all like theologically conservative cartography mainline congregations and encourage Gen Z peers to join and serve in these communities.
To this end, Zoomer continually reminds its audience that their enemies are not people; they are the principalities and powers of darkness (Eph. 6:12). Even when he criticizes progressive Christians, he is never crude or vitriolic. In fact, he explicitly asks those who watch his channel not to harass or attack people he criticizes.
When I asked Zoomer whether allusions to violent conquests might mislead the group, he noted that the Bible also uses military metaphors for the life of faith (e.g., Eph. 6, Phil. 2:25 , 2 Tim. 2:3). ). He hopes that Reconquista will channel youthful energy, which might otherwise be spent on meaningless or downright harmful pugilism, toward noble ends.
As a safeguard, the group has invited older senior pastors to join Reconquista, and members are encouraged to rise above the fray, season their speech with love, and challenge each other when They fail to achieve these goals. Reconquista wants to be characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, Redeemed Zoomer told me, not neo-pagan dunk belligerent Twitter Andrew Tate midshipmen.
Reconquista also rejects the racialized ugliness common in the manosphere and in very online corners of the political right. While their 95 theses to the Presbyterian Church (USA) state that “theology should not be studied through a critical theoretical perspective” – a sentiment I share, with some nuance – they also clearly anathema racism and underline the importance of listening to the countries of the South. “The mainline church generally claims to want to make the voices of non-whites heard” a thesis says“but ignores the cries of repentance for theological liberalism coming from the ecclesial bodies of Africa and Asia, as is the case in the Anglican and Methodist communions.”
By contrasting Reconquista with the manosphere, I do not mean that it is entirely masculine. The episcopal wing, which Redeemed Zoomer says has been the most successful, is led by a young woman. But the group’s members are mostly young men, and Zoomer believes that’s an asset in an era when, as is the case today, increasingly recognized even outside the church— young men are adrift in a predominantly progressive culture without positive view of masculinity and desperate to be connected to a mission that gives purpose to their lives.
Mainstream progressives like to claim that progressive theology is the only way to make Christianity that mission for a young, progressive generation, says Redeemed Zoomer. But, speaking from experience, he disagrees, arguing that churches that liberalize to the point of abandoning orthodoxy have nothing distinctive to offer Generation Z.
Unchurched Gen Zers don’t need to go to a bulky sanctuary to learn how to fly the rainbow flag. They can get it anywhere, without giving up Sunday morning. To attract young people, and especially young men, the Church must point Generation Z toward an ancient, divinely inspired goal that the secular world cannot offer: living for Jesus.
This is exactly what Zoomer experienced when he was 14 years old. Until his conversion, he said, he was a “secular leftist,” but at a small music camp run by a PCUSA teacher, he encountered the beauty of Jesus through friendship, service to the poor. , hymnody and beautiful church architecture. THE aesthetics of traditional churches were not just an ambiance for him: they became a window to the truth, goodness and glory of the Gospel.
Returning home to New York, he found life grounding himself in the Presbyterian tradition, singing hymns, studying the confessions, and taking the sacraments. This is the best way to integrate Generation Z men, like him, into the life of the Church, he affirms: to involve them in institutional construction.
He is right. Generation X was cynical about institutions. Millennials, my own generation, deconstructed them. Generation Z may be the first generation to buck the trend, to renew, reform and reclaim what past generations built.
Churches that build their congregations on criticism – by perpetually deconstructing and disavowing the past or continually accusing institutional leaders of not being “grounded” enough – will not survive or thrive in the long term. Reformers like Luther did not just criticize; they also built.
If we want to see Generation Z, most secular and unchurched generation in American history – participate in the life of the Church, we must actively involve them in institution building. We must invite them and integrate them into a community of belonging rooted in history, orthodoxy and tradition. This is especially the case if we want conservative young men to do more than emulate Tate, as Matthew Loftus recently did. argued at the CT.
Of course, movements like Reconquista will attract legitimate criticism. Is its militaristic image a strength or an obstacle? Is this motivated by theology and liturgy, or simply by an aesthetic ambiance? Why not break with the heretical institutions that have Already Did he prove immune to reform, like Luther himself? Is it simply nostalgia for a golden age that never existed?
Although these are important questions – and the members of Reconquista have spoke to many of them– they risk missing the mark: the Spirit of God is at work in Generation Z in surprising, beautiful and encouraging ways.
They in turn deserve our encouragement. The deconstructors left and right will do their best to distract these young builders from the work at hand. I hope they will respond to Nehemiah’s cry: “I have a great plan and I cannot fail” (Nehemiah 6:3).
Don’t go down, Gen Z. Build something that will last.
Patrick Miller is a pastor at The passage in Columbia, Missouri. He is also co-author of The Truth About the Tribe: Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb, Not the Donkey or the Elephantand co-host of the cultural commentary podcast The truth about the tribe.
