Attendees encouraged to consider collaboration, transparency, casting vision in Gen Z and Millennial-focused workshop

During the third workshop session on Monday, Nov. 17, at the 2025 Texas Baptists Annual Meeting, David Foster, director of Millennial/Gen Z Network at Texas Baptists, Cameron Strange, lead pastor of Impact City Church in Schertz, Israel Mendez, pastor of Alamo Community Church in San Antonio and Kyle Jackson, lead pastor of 3rd Coast Church in Texas City, collectively led a workshop titled “Gen Z and Millennials: How They Lead and Follow.” 

Foster kicked off the workshop by showing attendees results from a survey of 120 Gen Z and Millennial Texas Baptists pastors that evaluated “three different pathways when it comes to leadership.” 

Over half of the pastors who participated in the survey “strongly agree” that leadership collaboration, transparency, actively mentoring young leaders and having vision are “extremely important” in the context of leadership. 

“Hopefully [this workshop will] add some tools to your tool belt because you're probably in here because you care about the next generation,” said Foster. 

Based on the survey results, attendees then learned about three different pathways to lead Gen Z and Millennials: collaboration, leadership development and vision. 

Mendez spoke to the pathway of collaboration. He shared that younger generations are drawn to “movements not to personalities,” “to teams not to titans,” and “to collaboration and not celebrity.” 

“Millennials and Gen Z are going away from a solo pastor to maybe more collaborative, meaning people in shared leadership is a good thing, because it's not just a cultural trend. I believe that it's a biblical pattern and it's healthy. And for our generation, I think it's a value that is really needed,” said Mendez. “Be encouraged that it's not a threat to your calling, it’s multiplication.”

Jackson spoke to leadership development. He shared a leadership pipeline model that could help pastors consider “what does it look like for you to develop people within your church for ministry purposes?” 

“I believe that every church has three generations of leaders sitting in different chairs, on their leadership journey, and our job is to find out who they are and then begin to connect them with one another,” said Jackson. 

He encouraged attendees to look for people who are the new leaders, people who don't see themselves as a leader yet; next leaders, emerging leaders who are teachable, hungry and humble; and the now leaders, the people that are currently leading. 

“It's a matter of finding the new leaders to replace the next leaders who become the now leaders that creates a pipeline,” said Jackson. 

Jackson told attendees, “Gen Z and Millennials, they don’t want a title, they want a trail to follow.”

“A true leadership pipeline isn't about filling positions, it's about moving people from these different chairs, where the now leaders are mentoring the next leaders, and the next leaders are having conversations with the new leaders, where they're looking at someone who is maybe even not a believer yet in some cases, and they're like, ‘I see this in you. I think God is going to do something in your life,’” said Jackson. 

Strange spoke to the pathway of vision. 

“The biggest mistake we can make in ministering to the next generation is not having a clear vision,” said Strange. 

Strange pointed out that 116 out of 120 Gen Z and Millennial pastors who took the survey said having a clear vision was “important or extremely important.” He encouraged attendees that when they give Gen Z and Millennials “a clear direction of ‘This is where we go,’” they are bought in. 

“If your vision is the Great Commission, good, but it's not enough. How are we as a collective church going to motivate and mobilize our people in our community? How are we going to reach our community?” said Strange. 

To learn more about Texas Baptists Millennial/Gen Z Network and The Pastor’s Common, visit thepastorscommon.com.