How to share your faith with every generation
Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha are each asking a different question about God. Learn to hear it, and start conversations that point to Jesus.
- 7 sessions
- 74 minutes
- Self-paced
- Free to enroll
- Bonus content
Ever tried to share your faith with someone from another generation?
You try to talk about your faith with someone you love: a parent, a coworker, your own kid. You give a good answer, and the conversation goes nowhere. Your answer was true. It answered a question they weren’t asking.
Maybe your Boomer dad wants to know whether any of it is true. Maybe your Gen Z coworker hears the evidence and says, “Okay. But why should I care?” Every generation grows up inside its own moment in history, and that moment shapes the questions people bring to God.
The gospel doesn’t change. The questions do. This course helps you hear the question under the question, and follow it to Jesus.
What you’ll learn
Hear the question.
Recognize the spiritual question each generation tends to ask, from Baby Boomers to Gen Alpha.
Understand the story.
See the moments that shaped each generation, from the first TV generation to kids growing up with AI.
Start the conversation.
Use ten conversation starters, two for each generation, and adapt them until they sound like you.
Point to Jesus.
Find where the gospel meets each question: truth, authenticity, goodness, beauty, justice and what’s real.
The syllabus
Five generations. Five questions.
Seven sessions: an introduction, one session for each generation, and a conclusion that brings them together.
Baby Boomers
1946–1964
What is true?
Gen X
1965–1979
What is authentic?
Millennials
1980–1994
What is good?
Gen Z
1995–2012
What is beautiful? What is just?
Gen Alpha
Born since 2013
What is real?
How it works
- 1
Enroll for free. Sign up on Thinkific, where Sightline U courses live. There’s no cost and no deadline.
- 2
Watch at your own pace. Seven video sessions, 4 to 15 minutes each, about 74 minutes in all.
- 3
Take it into a conversation. After each session you’ll find notes, two conversation starters, a reflection question and a short quiz. Finish every session to earn your certificate.
Meet your instructors
Shelley Komoszewski is a speaker and podcaster at Sightline, where she works in donor engagement and ministry communication. In Generations, she and Brock walk through the question each generation is asking about God.
Brock Anderson is Vice President of Content for Sightline and has led content and communication work across several ministries. He cares about equipping Christians to share their faith and the reasons behind it, and Generations helps them do that with the people closest to them.
Brock and Shelley first wrote about these questions in “Influencing Generations for Jesus” for Christian Leadership Alliance’s Outcomes magazine.
Bonus Download
Generations at a Glance
Every enrollment includes a 7-page guide to all five generations: the question each one is asking, what shaped them, where the gospel meets them, and two conversation starters for each. Print it, or keep it on your phone for the next conversation.
Questions about sharing your faith
How do you talk about your faith without it feeling forced?
Start with curiosity. Ask a good question, then listen a little longer than feels natural. The conversation starters in this course are categories, not scripts, so you can adapt them until they sound like you.
How do you start a spiritual conversation?
With a question the other person is already asking. “Who is the best person you know, and what makes them good?” opens a very different door than “Do you believe in God?” Each session gives you two starters for one generation and shows where each can lead.
How do you talk to Gen Z about God?
Gen Z has grown up with access to more of the world than any generation before, including more of what’s broken. Many care deeply about fairness and want a life worth believing in, not only an argument. A good place to begin: “When you look at the world, what is something you wish God would make right?” Session 5 goes deeper.
What are the generations by birth year?
This course uses Baby Boomers, 1946 to 1964; Gen X, 1965 to 1979; Millennials, 1980 to 1994; Gen Z, 1995 to 2012; and Gen Alpha, born since 2013. Researchers draw the lines a year or two apart, and these ranges follow Jean Twenge’s Generations.
Do I need to know apologetics to share my faith?
No. Apologetics means giving reasons for what you believe, and those help, but this course starts with people. The goal is to understand someone well enough to love them well and help them see Jesus clearly.
Will this put people in boxes?
No. These are patterns, not boxes. The course helps you ask better questions, not assume you know someone’s answers because of the year they were born.
Is the course really free?
Yes. All seven sessions, Generations at a Glance and the certificate are free. Watch at your own pace on Thinkific.
Know what you believe. And why it holds.
Then share it with the people who see the world differently than you do.
A Sightline U Course