IS GEN Z TRULY EXPERIENCING A RELIGIOUS REVIVAL?

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This post is based on an article by Kevin Brown, the 18th President of Asbury University, in Christian Post on 23/03/2025.

Christianity’s long-documented decline has levelled off. I’ve seen this first-hand with the young adults at Asbury University, where I serve as president. In February 2023, a routine chapel service on the campus led to a 16-day, nonstop worship gathering that brought over 50,000 people to the two-stoplight town of Wilmore, Kentucky. Everything I witnessed during that time ran counter to the prevailing scripts of modern life.

The space was peaceful, unified, apolitical, radically humble, hopeful, and age/class/ethnically diverse. It was nameless and faceless. “No celebrities but Jesus,” we said. I have never seen such deep and penetrating spiritual hunger in my life — a demonstrative ache for a right relationship with God and others. Importantly, though, I saw the “loosened chains” of a younger generation unevenly burdened by the pathologies of modern life (isolationism, digitization, social discord, mental health challenges, and waning institutions). Students from nearly 300 colleges and universities made the trip to Asbury for a transformative spiritual encounter. Their testimonies were raw; unedited.  They embraced strangers like family. They occupied the altar, sometimes for hours. They led, fearlessly. They prayed, zealously. Describing Gen Z, a friend remarked, “They are ready to follow the Jesus whose following is changing the world.”

My Christian higher education colleagues and I are witnessing a trend reversal emerging among Gen Z teens and young adults. In the last few years, we have seen unplanned, over 50,000 college students sing Agnus Dei a Capella at the 2024 Passion Gathering. We have seen a host of revival movements among young adults in 2024, including campuses “pregnant for revival.” Campus ministries are experiencing a spike in spiritual interest.

I (Ron Edwards) have recently written two posts on revival on university campuses: GOD AT WORK ON UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES on 02/03/2025 and 8000 STUDENTS SEEK JESUS IN HUGE KENTUCKY AWAKENING on 04/03/2025, so this article by Kevin Brown was further confirmation that God is doing something new and exciting.

There is encouraging data on Gen Z teens navigating “Digital Babylon,” and younger generations are showing renewed interest in Jesus. Student baptisms — led by students. An international focus on Gen Z and their promise for future ministry. A greater likelihood of church attendance among Gen Z compared to the Boomer generation throughout pockets of Europe, and in the United Kingdom, Gen Z teens are now the least likely generation to call themselves atheists. Describing some of the radical expressions of faith witnessed in our own community by younger generations, my wife made the provocative comment: “Perhaps Gen Z is willing to die because they are already dead.”

Culture is deadening. The scripts handed to younger generations are deadening. The nihilism and malaise of a world optimized around dopamine surges — a “dopamine nation,” as psychiatrist and bestselling author Dr. Anna Lembke puts it — has left Gen Z teens and young adults disoriented and unsettled, no longer “at ease in Zion.” Consistent with data from the Pew’s Religious Landscape Study released in February, younger generations demonstrate religiously oriented sensibilities that attract them to the Christian faith and challenge the status quo.  Christianity’s long-documented decline has levelled off, and we are seeing a resurgence of spiritual commitment among forthcoming generations. 

A SUPERNATURAL MOVE OF GOD AMONG THE YOUNG

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A new sign of the ongoing revival among America’s young people is being reported again out of Alabama. In the latest example of this supernatural move of God, hundreds of students at the University of Alabama gave their lives to Christ and were immediately baptized in a fountain. “It happened again!” Christian author and speaker Jennie Allen announced on Instagram after the amazing event unfolded. “Last night at the University of Alabama thousands of students gathered. Hundreds responded to the gospel and hundreds were baptized,” Allen shared

The spiritual awakening that first captured headlines at Asbury College more than a year ago is still spreading nationwide. This Alabama awakening is just the latest move of God that Jennie Allen has witnessed as she has travelled to minister on college campuses. In a post several weeks ago after a similar outpouring of revival at Florida State University, Allen said on Instagram, “Hundreds of students came forward to trust Jesus. We can’t explain what’s happening apart from the Spirit.”

It is great to report on these good news stories when so much evil is happening, and surveys reveal Gen Z is the lost generation largely due to our schools and universities teaching evolution and billions of years of Earth’s history. Fortunately, God has told us in advance that before Jesus returns to restore righteousness He told us apostasy, a great falling away from faith would occur. We need to know God is in control and He is purifying His church in preparation for the rapture. In Revelation, the church of Philadelphia is the church that is raptured, read what Jesus has to say to that church, and also to the church that is left behind, the church of Laodicea (Rev. 3:14-22), to face the wrath of God, poured out with the Trumpet and Bowl judgments.

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.
“‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name... Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast to what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ Revelation 3:7-13

Source: CBNNews

TIMING OF RELEASE OF JESUS REVOLUTION MOVIE

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Considering the revival that started at Asbury and is moving across the country is it a coincidence that the Jesus Revolution movie is now being released across the U.S.A. and soon the world (Australia in April)?

Jon Erwin is one half of the filmmaking duo The Erwin Brothers. Jon and Andrew are the team that delivered the hits I Can Only Imagine, Woodlawn, October Baby, and Mom’s Night Out.” But it’s taken Jon seven years to bring a more than 50-year-old story to screen in his latest film Jesus Revolution and he believes it is God’s timing for the movie to be released now.

“This project has taken many twists and turns. It’s the longest I’ve ever worked on a movie,” Jon told CBN News’ Studio 5.

“My hope is people enjoy the movie. And we want to make you laugh and cry. But there really is a movement behind this movie.” 
The historic Jesus Movement began on the West Coast and spread. The Christian revival saw young people, often called hippies, turning to Christ.

The revival that unfolded in Southern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s is what Time Magazine called “The Jesus Revolution.” But just four years earlier, the front page of the very same magazine was asking, “Is God Dead?” 

Those magazine covers inspired Jon to begin work on his film, even before his hit film I Can Only Imagine.

Holding both magazines in his hand, Jon Erwin told CBN News, “I bought this seven years ago, and read this article. And then I bought this one as well. It was the first cover of Time without a picture. And that was my very question. What happened in between these two magazines? This bleak statement and then this psychedelic Jesus. And something was happening so undeniable in American society that Time Magazine had to give it credit with a cover story, as did Life Magazine and Look Magazine.” 

“Then I began to study it. And I wanted to meet people that lived “it”. That was the beginning of my relationship with Greg Laurie.”

Pastor Greg Laurie leads one of the largest church congregations in the country. But his faith story and love story begin inside the Jesus Movement of the 1970s. And both are featured in Erwin’s film. 

Studio 5 talked to Laurie and his wife Cathe as they walked the red carpet at the Los Angeles premiere of Jesus Revolution.

“People know me as an older guy, and it is interesting for them to be introduced to us when we were young,” Greg shared. “It’s our story, but it’s like I am watching another story. But it is a story of redemption. And we are sort of representing a generation of young people that were searching.” 

Cathe Laurie added, “I was aware of how powerful it was for me. It was life-changing. It was overnight. It was darkness to light. And I’ve seen it played out in others’ lives, as they’ve had encounters with Christ. But I never thought our story, especially my story, would be told in such a beautiful way.” 

Joel Courtney plays the role of Greg Laurie in the film. Anna Grace Barlow portrays Cathe Laurie and The Chosen‘s Jonathan Roumie rounds out the cast in the role of the young charismatic preacher, Lonnie Frisbee.  

These cast members shared their thoughts on what gave birth to the revival story they’re now helping to tell on the silver screen.

“The culture was in a moment of fraught need. I think that is what primes a revival. This kind of like lost sheep,” Courtney said. “The need, the desire to reground yourself. And there is no grounding that’s better than the cornerstone of Christ.”

Roumie said, “I think as humans we are hardwired for a couple of things. One of those is the community, only second to God. Relationship with God and community with each other. And when those two things seem to be compromised in society, the spirit starts to rebel against that and try to figure out how to put that back in its right order. And so you have these revivals.”

“And I think you see it now with what’s going on in Kentucky,” he said.

Barlow chimed in, “I want to piggyback on that because I can’t stop thinking about Damar Hamlin going down on the field a few weeks ago. And the gut reaction was to take a knee and pray. And to pray on national television. I haven’t seen anything like this in years.”

“When they say we are primed for it, that’s a buzz phrase I have been hearing around this movie, I think that’s true.”

Filmmakers often say that getting a movie made is a miracle. Producer Kevin Downes would agree. But he also saw miracles while working on this project.

Downes said, “There are moments of miracles whenever you make a film. Obviously, the entire process. But this one had miracle after miracle, where we really felt and sensed God’s presence throughout the entire process.”

The miracles include how veteran actor Kelsey Grammer signed on for the lead role of Calvary Chapel Pastor Chuck Smith.

REPENTANCE AND HOLINESS ARE HOW REVIVALS START

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“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6

ASBURY REVIVAL:

How It Started: The Asbury Collegian reported that it began during a call to confession on Wednesday, February 8, when at least 100 people fell to their knees and bowed at the altar.

Since then it has turned into a Holy Spirit outpouring that has only grown larger and larger each day with visitors pouring in from around the U.S. and the world.

Asbury President Kevin J. Brown, Ph.D. posted a four-minute video update posted to Twitter calling these last few weeks at the Christian school, “unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life.” “Whether you call this a revival, a renewal, an awakening, or an outpouring, what we have experienced on our campus these last few weeks is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life,” Brown said.

Brown said he believes Asbury is not the keeper or source of this movement, saying it has already gone to other campuses across the U.S. “People are hungry for something more,” he said, quoting Jesus in the New Testament’s Matthew 5:6. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.” “We look to other schools, other churches, or ministry communities as co-commissioners in this movement that’s taking shape for us,” Brown said.

“Whatever happens from here, our deep desire is to see a life-transforming renewal of our younger generation to faithfully serve their communities, their schools, their churches, and their professions. To see them go into the difficult and dark places in the world and to be light.”

In closing, Brown thanked people for praying and asked them to continue to pray that what is happening at Asbury would continue to move across states, countries, and continents so that all may see Christ” he said.