Discipling Kenyan Gen Z’s on Sexuality: Reflections from the Global Study on Youth Culture

Authors

  • Kevin Muriithi

Abstract

The African continent is among the youngest continents in terms of its demographic make-up. This means that strategic ministry within the continent must engage African youth. While there is some research surrounding millennials, there is a gap in research surrounding Gen Z, that is, those born after the 2000s. Fortunately, there has been recent research on Global Youth Culture (GYC) by OneHope that explored different aspects of Gen Z (ages 13-19) youth culture in twenty countries in five continents, Kenya being one of them. This article is a theological reflection of the findings of that research, exploring the implications for discipling Gen Z in the specific area of sexuality. While similarities are drawn between African (Kenyan) youth culture and other countries, this article also considers how the African (Kenyan) society in general still views sexuality as a taboo topic and how Church leaders can help parents and congregations to approach the topic of sexuality from a biblical worldview perspective and to engage in compassionate ministry.

Keywords

Gen Z; Practical Theology; Youth Culture; Youth Ministry; Youth Sexuality.

Author Biography

Kevin Muriithi

Dr. Kevin Muriithi Ndereba (PhD, University of South Africa) is Lecturer and Head of Department, Practical Theology, St. Paul’s University, Kenya. He is also a Research Fellow, Department of Practical Theology and Missiology, Stellenbosch University.. He has several publications in the areas of youth ministry, youth development, practical and public theology and apologetics. He leads Apologetics Kenya, an apologetics ministry to the next generations, previously served as a youth pastor in the Presbyterian Church of East Africa and is an executive committee member of the Africa Society of Evangelical Theology and the International Association for the Study of Youth Ministry.

Downloads

Published

2023-05-31

Issue

No. 8 (2023): Journal of Contemporary Ministry No. 8

Section

Pastoral Reflections

License

Authors who publish with the Journal of Contemporary Ministry agree to the following terms:

  • Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).