I turned 60 this year.

I graduated from high school in 1984, which means I grew up in a world that seems almost impossible to explain to someone under 30.

I remember penny candy, 8-track tapes, 45 records, rotary phones, rabbit-ear antennas, card catalogues at the library and trying to record a song from the radio while desperately hoping the DJ would not talk over the beginning.

I remember PONG and the Apple II. I remember VHS arriving and thinking it was almost unbelievable that you could actually record a television program and watch it later.

I remember concrete and metal playgrounds, Aquanet hairstyles, the first Nike shoes and being expected to come home when the streetlights came on.

And, yes, I remember the smoking pit at high school.

Looking back, it was a very different world.

I am obviously biased, but there is something distinctive about growing up in that era. We were given a remarkable amount of freedom. There was no smartphone tracking our location, no social media documenting our lives and no parent receiving an alert every time we moved from one place to another.

We figured things out.

We learned how to entertain ourselves. We learned how to navigate relationships without a screen. We experienced the transition from an analogue world to a digital one.

We are Generation X.

And I think the church needs to start paying more attention to us.

The Generation That Got Lost in the Conversation

For years, churches have talked about reaching different generations.

First came the concern about Baby Boomers and the aging church. Then Millennials became the focus. They were going to reshape the workplace, culture and the church.

Now much of the conversation has moved toward Generation Z and the challenge of engaging a generation shaped by smartphones, social media and an entirely different cultural environment.

Those conversations are important.

The church should always be asking how we can faithfully communicate the gospel to the next generation.

But there is a danger in constantly looking toward the next generation.

We can forget the generation that is already standing in front of us.

For many churches, Generation X has become something of a forgotten generation.

We are old enough to have been part of the church’s previous conversations about evangelism and church growth, but young enough to have been largely overlooked as the conversation moved on to someone else.

That matters.

Because Gen X is not a small or insignificant group of people. We are parents and grandparents. We are business owners, employees, pastors, volunteers and community leaders. We are neighbours, friends and co-workers.

And many of us are asking significant questions about life, faith, family, purpose and what comes next.

The church needs to be part of those conversations.

Who Is Generation X?

In Canada, Generation X is generally understood to include those born between 1966 and 1980.

That puts the oldest members of the generation around 60 and the youngest around 46 in 2026.

But a generation is more than a birth-date range.

Generation X was shaped by a particular moment in history.

We grew up during enormous social, economic and technological change.

We experienced the transition from:

• landlines to smartphones
• records and cassettes to streaming
• encyclopedias and card catalogues to Google
• three television channels to hundreds of channels and streaming services
• playing outside until dark to living in a digitally connected world

We also experienced significant social change.

Divorce became increasingly common. More families had two working parents. Many children became what were called “latchkey kids,” learning independence because they often came home to an empty house.

As adults, many Gen X-ers entered a changing economy marked by recessions, corporate restructuring and declining expectations of lifelong employment.

We learned to adapt.

Perhaps that is one of the defining characteristics of this generation.

We learned not to assume that institutions would always keep their promises.

Gen X and the Church

That last point is particularly important for churches.

Many Gen X-ers grew up around institutions.

We trusted schools, governments, corporations, churches and other organizations to provide stability and direction.

Then we watched many of those institutions struggle.

We saw marriages break down.

We saw people lose jobs despite years of loyalty.

We saw leaders fail.

We watched organizations make promises they could not keep.

And some of us watched the church do the same thing.

That does not necessarily mean Gen X rejected Christianity. For many, the issue is more complicated than that. There may still be a deep spiritual curiosity. There may still be a longing for meaning, purpose, forgiveness, community and hope. But institutional loyalty cannot be assumed.

The question is no longer simply, “What does the church believe?”

There is another question:

“Does what the church believes make a difference in my life?”

That is an important question for every generation, but it may be particularly significant for Gen X.

We want to know whether faith connects with real life.

What does following Jesus have to say about my marriage?

How does Scripture help me influence my grandchildren?

What does Christian faith have to say about caring for aging parents?

How do I navigate a career transition?

How do I deal with disappointment?

What does it mean to discover purpose when I am halfway through my life?

How do I deal with the reality that the future may not look anything like I expected?

These are not abstract theological questions.

They are life questions.

And the church has an opportunity to speak into them.

Gen X Is Entering a Different Season of Life

There is another reason the church needs to pay attention.

Gen X is now entering a significant transition.

We are no longer the young adults we were when many churches first began talking about reaching our generation.

Many of us are now dealing with aging parents.

Some are helping adult children navigate an incredibly expensive housing market.

Others are experiencing career changes, caring responsibilities, relationship challenges or questions about what the second half of life should look like.

For some, retirement is approaching.

For others, it is nowhere in sight.

Some are becoming grandparents.

Others are grieving the loss of parents.

Some are asking what they want the next twenty years to look like.

These are significant spiritual moments.

They create questions that the church should be prepared to address.

But that requires more than creating another program.

It requires listening.

So How Do We Reach Generation X?

There is no single strategy for reaching an entire generation.

Gen X is not a homogeneous group, and churches should resist the temptation to develop a “Gen X ministry” based on stereotypes.

Instead, there are some principles worth considering.

1. Take real life seriously

Gen X does not need the church to make life sound simpler than it is.

People are dealing with complicated families, financial pressures, aging parents, changing careers, loneliness, grief and questions about purpose.

Preaching and teaching should not avoid those realities.

The Bible has something to say about them.

We need to show people how the gospel intersects with ordinary life.

Not simply:

“Here is what the Bible says.”

But also:

“Here is what this means for the life you are actually living.”

2. Build relationships before programs

Many people are not looking for another program to add to an already crowded calendar.

They are looking for people they can trust.

They want authentic relationships.

They want to know that someone will listen when life gets difficult.

They want community that goes deeper than sitting beside someone for an hour on Sunday morning.

This creates an important opportunity for the church.

Small groups, dinner gatherings, neighbourhood relationships, mentoring, shared meals and communities built around real-life questions can become places where faith conversations naturally develop.

3. Give people something meaningful to do

Gen X has spent decades working, raising families, solving problems and getting things done.

The church should not assume that people in their forties, fifties and sixties simply want to sit in a pew and consume religious content.

Many want to contribute.

They want their lives to matter.

They want to make a difference.

That is why missional engagement can be so important.

Serve a neighbour.

Help a newcomer.

Volunteer in a community ministry.

Mentor a younger person.

Care for someone who is isolated.

Become involved in addressing a local need.

When the church moves beyond talking about mission and actually participates in God’s mission in the community, people have opportunities to discover that their faith can make a tangible difference.

4. Equip Gen X Christians to reach their own networks

Perhaps the greatest evangelistic opportunity is not getting Gen X-ers to attend a church service.

It is equipping Christian Gen X-ers to live missionally among the people they already know.

They have friends.

They have neighbours.

They have co-workers.

They have family members.

They have professional networks.

They have relationships that the institutional church may never be able to establish.

The question, then, changes.

Instead of asking:

“How do we get Gen X to come to church?”

we should ask:

“How do we equip Gen X Christians to bring the presence, love and hope of Christ into the relationships they already have?”

That is a very different approach to evangelism.

And it is much closer to the way Jesus often engaged people.

We Don’t Have to Choose One Generation

One of the mistakes churches can make is turning generations into competing mission fields.

Should we reach seniors?

Young adults?

Millennials?

Gen Z?

Families?

Gen X?

The answer is yes.

The church does not have to choose.

In fact, a healthy church should become increasingly capable of reaching across generations.

That means creating spaces where older adults can mentor younger adults.

Where younger Christians can teach older Christians.

Where grandparents can worship alongside grandchildren.

Where Gen X-ers can serve alongside Millennials.

Where teenagers can see people in their seventies faithfully following Jesus.

A multi-generational church can become a powerful picture of the gospel because it demonstrates that the kingdom of God is bigger than any one generation.

The Question We Need to Ask

Church revitalization is ultimately about mission.

It is about looking honestly at our communities and asking:

Who is here?

What are their needs?

What questions are they asking?

Where is God already at work?

And then we ask how the church can join God in what he is doing.

Perhaps Generation X has been overlooked because we have become accustomed to being overlooked.

We are used to watching the cultural spotlight move from one generation to the next.

But the church cannot afford to keep doing that.

The future of evangelism in Canada cannot be built around one generation.

It must be multi-generational.

We need to reach children and teenagers.

We need to reach young adults.

We need to reach families.

We need to reach seniors.

And we need to reach the people in the middle who are sometimes easy to overlook.

Generation X is still here.

We are raising families.

We are caring for parents.

We are building careers.

We are becoming grandparents.

We are navigating the second half of life.

And many of us are still asking important questions about God, faith, meaning and purpose.

So perhaps the question for the church is not simply:

“Who is next?”

Perhaps we should also ask:

“Who is already here?”

Because every generation matters to God.

And every generation belongs in the mission of the church.

*Gen X image is a sticker that can be purchased at: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1733606268/gen-x-sticker-still-feral-after-all?