In 2010, Pastor Zac Zhang and his wife had not one but two babies.

That was the year their first son was born, but also when they did something “really crazy” – birthing a new ministry among youths that is now known as Hearts Alive Church (HAC).

Today, the Zhangs are a family of four (their sons are aged 12 and 15), while HAC has grown from a first meeting of four non-believing youths in a living room to 270 people gathering across three different spaces in Jurong and Sembawang.

The church comprises mainly first-generation Christians, most of whom are Millennials, Gen Zs and Gen Alphas. And these members are also now reaching out to their siblings, parents, grandparents and the community.

Admitting that he never wanted to be a pastor, Ps Zac shared at the recent LoveSingapore Summit 2025 how the Lord called him out from the music industry into teaching and later pastoring.

“I’ll do anything in church, but just don’t call me to be a pastor,” he confessed, recalling his earlier prayers to God.

A talented lyricist, Ps Zac once worked closely with JJ Lin, writing several hits for the Singaporean artiste including 豆浆油条, 冻结, 当你 and 翅膀.

But God had other plans – one open door led to another and he became an educator who realised that many young people needed to know the transforming love of God.

Making music for the Lord: Ps Zac revealed at Summit 2025 that he had started writing songs again. He also sang one of them that was titled Alpha and Omega. Photo by Thirst Collective.

“In the last 15 years, I felt like the Lord has moulded me, shaped me and refined me in different ways, and taught me many, many things,” he shared with the more than 1,000-strong audience of pastors and ministry leaders.

Here is an excerpt of Ps Zac’s three reflections, drawn from his difficult yet meaningful journey of winning youths for Jesus.

1. Youths are often more ready to hear the Good News than we think they are

Youths today are not highly religious people, and many of them grow up with a lot of brokenness.

Many of them grow up in fragmented families – even some from well-to-do families grow up with a lot of fragmentation in their lives. Many of them struggle with mental health issues too.

Young people today also live in an age of superficialities – social media, AI, fake news, you name it. They know what is real and what is not.

Having journeyed with young people for 15 years, I realise they long for a love that is real and whole. They long for something that they can really experience as a human.

Today I want to tell you: We – the Church – have exactly what they’re looking for.

One of Ps Zac’s initial meetings with the youths he was reaching out to. All photos courtesy of Zac Zhang unless otherwise stated.

Sometimes when I talk to different friends, people in church and even leaders, they say: “Youths today are so hard to reach. Youths today have this issue, that problem.”

But I want to submit to all of us that youths today are still humans.

They are people made in the image of God. They have the same needs that we all have. They need sincere love and genuine kindness.

If you and I are willing to say, “I want to be someone who wins youths to Jesus,” I want you to know it’s really not that difficult.

I know some of us have a lot of youths in our church who are second-gen Christians. Second-gen Christians have second-gen problems.

I myself am a third-gen Christian and grew up with many third-gen issues. These are things we need to look into for sure.

But dear pastors and leaders, I want to encourage and challenge you: Don’t just focus on the existing second-gen youths in your church because the harvest out there is indeed plentiful.

Whenever I read Matthew 9:37 where Jesus said, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few,” I can’t help but feel that He’s talking about young people. 

Not every youth that you share the Gospel to is going to come to Christ. But youths today are often far more ready to hear the Good News than we think they are.

An outing to East Coast Park in the early days of ministry.

In the early days, we would gather, have Bible study, and I would just teach them the Word of God.

The youths had no church background, but they were so eager to learn every time. They were so hungry.

We would meet on Friday evenings from 5-6.30pm and have dinner after that. But one day, it rained cats and dogs.

So I received a lot of phone calls, saying, “I’m not able to come. My parents don’t allow me. I’m stuck in school,” and all kinds of things.

When your church is 10 people, one person is 10% right? That day, 80% of my church did not turn up. The first one came 45 minutes late and the second one came one-and-a-half hours late.

I sat there in McDonald’s in Choa Chu Kang Lot One feeling so devastated, so discouraged, so disappointed.

I said: “Lord, do You want me to do this? If You don’t want me to do this, I can don’t do this, you know.” I was just sinking in my own self-misery, self-pity.

Then suddenly I heard a still, small voice, and I felt the Lord said to me: “If you will be faithful even to wait for these two little kids, then you pass the test. I promise you, you will never be at this low again.”

Indeed, by the grace of God, we have never hit 20% congregation size again!

The truth is this: Youths are eager to learn. They’re willing to learn if you’re willing to spend time, build their lives and teach them the ways of God.

2. When youths give their hearts to Jesus, they give their all to Jesus

From then onwards, the group began to grow. We felt we needed to move out of the living room, so we rented a small room in a nearby country club. 

I will never forget the place. It was the cheapest place we could afford because we were really poor at that time. I suspect it’s so cheap because the air-con is faulty.

In fact, after every service, we would feel like we were so passionate for God because we would be perspiring during worship and our T-shirts would all be wet.

Ps Zac and his family with the youths in the small room they rented in the country club.

I will never forget those days. It was very difficult, but the youths did not give up. 

I realised that if you challenge them, youths are willing to pull together and pitch in. They are willing to say: “Hey, I’ll run this with you. I’ll do this together with you.”

And they’ll do everything – set up the chairs, come early, pray and so on.

In those days, it was really exciting. We were worshiping long hours, and I think we created too much noise. We created such a din that the management didn’t quite like us. 

We hung on there for at least a year. But after that they said: “Next week please don’t come again.” One week’s notice. They terminated the contract, so what could we say? 

I began to struggle with the Lord again. I asked: “Lord, do You want me to do this? If You want me to do this, You’ve got to provide.”

I wrestled with Him. I said: “Lord, this cannot be. The youths are coming together and now we have to shut this down?”

It was very difficult, but the Lord said: “Be still.” For one week, we had nowhere to meet.

But one thing led to another, and by the end of the week, the Lord led us to the really wonderful and amazing folks in Jurong Christian Church (at one time, the church building housed six Protestant churches of different denominations).

I’ll never forget their kindness. 

Rev Anthony Loh, Senior Pastor of Jurong Christian Church, observed that HAC had a culture of “deep humility, deep worship, deep life sharing and deep hospitality”. Photo by Thirst Collective.

The second reflection that I want to share with all of us is this: When youths give their hearts to Jesus, they literally give their all to Jesus.

Youths may have different struggles, but they’re not always that complicated. 

In fact, youths are idealistic. If you give them a vision, believe in them and get them to dream with you, guess what? 

Your dream will become their dream, your vision will become their vision, and they will run with you no matter how difficult it is.

Youths are also passionate. When they believe in something, they will go all out and they will go all in. Sometimes when you feel discouraged, they will even encourage you.

Youths are looking for something to believe in. They are looking for a cause to fight for. They are looking for a vision worth giving their lives to.

And my question is: What greater vision is there than the kingdom of God? What greater thing is there to build than the kingdom of God?

Youths also have more free time than the average adult. They have a lot of energy and a lot of friends, and we can help to direct them to build the kingdom of God.

When I teach them Mark 12:30 – you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength – they literally take it as it is  They give their lives to Jesus and they go all out for Him.

My dear friends, if you feel that youths are difficult, I want you to know that if you can bring them to Christ, they will become the strongest task force of your church.

They will really build your church. 

3. Youths don’t remain youths forever; they grow up to become pillars of the church

Eight years flew by quickly and we went into the COVID season. I remember our 10th anniversary was the last week before the lockdown.

We had to meet online, and it was a very difficult season for the young people because they love to come together physically. As a pastor, that season was a very difficult time as well.

Added to that I got COVID in the very early days when the Delta variant just arrived. I was not vaccinated because it was not available to my age group yet.

My wife and I were warded in the hospital, and I literally felt at that point of time that I might not make it. I was coughing very badly while reading reports about the Delta variant and how people had died from it.

Ps Zac tested positive for COVID in 2021, just as Singapore was entering Phase 2 (Heightened Alert). His entire household was placed on home quarantine order, complete with movement monitoring devices. Illustration by Thir.st.

But in that season, the youths began to come together. The youths whom I thought were kids, whom I thought were the people that I had to constantly remind and correct, began to take ownership.

They met frequently in Zoom sessions to discuss and plan how to advance the church.

They began to tell each other: “We’re not going to let this movement of God slow down just because our pastor is sick and hospitalised.”

They even reached out to more young people. In fact, by the grace of God, we saw some growth in our COVID season! 

I was surprised. It was as if the church didn’t need me anymore. That’s when I realised that youths grow up – youths don’t remain youths forever.

They will grow up, and they will eventually rise up to the level where they will contribute to your church.

They will become the ones who spearhead your church. They will grow up to become pillars of the church and leaders in society.

When you win a youth to Christ today, you don’t just win a youth. You win a pillar of your church for tomorrow.

You win fresh ideas, innovative strategies and cutting-edge methods to reach more people for Jesus. You win influential evangelists who will potentially reach out to many others in their world.

And the kids you win today will become the business leaders that will finance your church tomorrow.

I know it’s the Lord who provides, and I totally agree with that. Throughout our journey, the Lord supernaturally provided for us. But He provides through people, right? 

The youths that you win to Christ today will be the ones that will be giving tomorrow because this is the church that built their lives. This is the church that they call family.

Many of the youths who pioneered the church together with Ps Zac are still around today.

Winning the youths to Christ can be messy, but winning the youths to Christ matters.

Winning the youths to Christ matters because this generation needs Jesus. This generation has been brought up with a lot of misinformation everywhere, and they’re craving for something real, something genuine.

The Church is exactly where they can experience God, thrive, break through and become the people they’re destined to be. 

Winning the youths to Christ matters because your church matters. If you don’t win youths to Christ today, your church will begin ageing tomorrow.

In fact, many of the youths that we reached out to in the earlier days are already young adults. After COVID, we also began to ramp up efforts to continue reaching out to the Gen Zs and even now, the Gen Alphas.

I’m learning their lingo, learning their culture, learning all over again. In fact, I always feel winning the youths is almost like a missionary’s work.

You don’t enter a foreign land, but you enter a foreign culture. And youth culture keeps changing all the time!

But if you’re willing to enter their worlds sincerely, intentionally get to know them and genuinely love and care for them, they’re really not that hard to win.

Winning the youths can be messy. But you will also see lives changed by the power of God. And when their lives begin to transform, they will go on to impact other youths.

My dear friends, pastors and leaders, we have much resources in our churches and a lot of agendas in our diaries, but I want to submit to all of us that winning the youths matter.

They matter to God. They matter to this generation. They matter to your church.

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