The Next Generation Needs More
Reactions Aren’t Leadership
The age we live in makes it easy to confuse reaction with leadership in Christianity today.
A thumbs-up, a heart, a laughing emoji on a post — all can be done in a second. But the next generation doesn’t need more reactions. They need leaders.
A Real Conversation
I recently bumped into a Justice of the Peace, and our conversation drifted to the students she teaches in her church’s youth class.
She told me her students were asking about early humanity and scientific discoveries. They weren’t trying to be rebellious — they were honestly curious about what they learned in school compared to what they heard at church.
She admitted she didn’t know how to answer, so she went to her pastor for guidance. His reply was, “You just have to trust what the Bible says.”
The result?
The youth are still confused — not because they reject faith, but because they don’t have answers to their questions.
The Challenge We Face
Can Christians today answer the tough questions that skeptics use to confuse the next generation?
- “If there is a God, where is He when bad things happen?”
- “If Adam and Eve were the first humans, why do we share DNA with a hominin that lived over 100,000 years ago?”
- “Why does Genesis 1 seem to contradict Genesis 2?”
- “Why would humanity begin with immorality — Cain marrying his sister — when Christianity proclaims morality at its core?”
These are the kinds of questions that don’t go away with a laughing emoji on a post — they require real answers, and that’s where leadership matters.
Charlie Kirk
This is where Charlie excelled. No question — however off-base it might have been — was ever met with mockery or a laughing emoji. Every question was met with an answer — and most often, a good and thoughtful one.
Charlie encouraged knowing and understanding the Bible and stepping into leadership. He understood the value of answering questions. Shortly before his death, Charlie Kirk often reminded young Christians:
“Read your Bible every single day, do what the Bible tells you to do, and tell other people what the Bible says.”
That’s not about clicking a like button on Facebook. That’s about living as a disciple and guiding others.
But here’s the problem: too often the resistance they face — in school, on social media, in public debate — meets them with questions they can’t answer. If they can’t get those answers from the leaders and mentors they look up to, then even their sincere efforts can feel like the blind leading the blind.
What Christian Leadership Looks Like
True Christian leadership reflects the example of Christ — He always had the answer. The closest biblical example of that kind of wisdom is Solomon.
Both taught in ways that made sense — simple, logical, and often drawn from the world around them. Jesus pointed to lilies, sparrows, seeds, and storms to explain eternal truths anyone could grasp. Solomon’s judgments reflected careful observation and reason. Their words resonated because they connected eternal truths to what people could see and touch.
That is the kind of leadership we need today.
I appreciate Charlie’s call to read and share the Bible. But we have to ask:
Can Christians today explain what the Bible says without contradictions and circular arguments that lead to endless debates?
Why This Matters
I believe many in the younger generation are saying, “I’m searching. I want to believe there’s truth, but I don’t know who to trust.”
Charlie Kirk understood this and went to campuses to meet them where they were — to engage their real questions. Even those who seemed rebellious or deeply skeptical were often still searching for something solid to believe. They live in a world that with noise — likes, emojis, catchy hooks, and slogans — but little wisdom. Influencers stir emotions, but rarely address the deepest questions about origins, purpose, and hope.
When young people come with real questions such as:
- “Can faith and science both be true?”
- “Why does the Bible describe creation in days when science shows the universe is billions of years old?”
- “Where is God when children are starving in much of the world?”
- “Why did God allow Charlie Kirk to die?”
…they need an answer that will stand up to honest scrutiny.
Too many Christians retreat behind old slogans or inherited interpretations. Others give up altogether, convinced the Bible and science can’t be aligned. Both responses fail the next generation. Neither offers them the leadership they need — leadership that faces hard questions with both faith and reason.
When we avoid knowing the answers to hard questions, young people often conclude that Christianity has no real answers and quietly walk away from faith.
History shows that the church has thrived most when it met honest questions with honest, thoughtful responses. Questions have always been the open door to deeper understanding and renewed faith.
Looking to the future, we cannot afford to step back now.
A Clearer Story
In Creation, Life and Purpose: Discovering New Harmony Between Faith and Science, I show that the conflict is not between the Bible and science, but between Scripture and misreadings of it.
The King James Bible was translated from Hebrew over 400 years ago. The scholars were brilliant for their time, but they were not the inspired writers. They worked with the knowledge available to them then.
Today we have the benefit of centuries of discovery, and the irony is that science often clarifies the meaning of Scripture rather than contradicting it. These discoveries help us address some of the toughest questions facing Christianity today.
The key is to let the insights revealed in nature through discovery blend with what Scripture has told us all along. Together they tell a story more remarkable than we ever imagined. This perspective allows us to look questioning youth in the eye and say:
“Your faith does not require you to deny evidence. It calls you to see God’s hand in creation — to understand how you can thrive within it and grasp the purpose behind it all.”
A Path Forward
I invite you to read the book and join this work. The next generation doesn’t need more reactions on social media — they need leaders who can help them connect their faith to the reality they see.