A few of us from our team at Gateway Austin had a chance to participate at The Art of Leadership Live with Carey Nieuwhof and 250 other pastors.
In 2023 and 2024 there were anecdotal evidence of revival.
For example, Asbury Outpouring, Unite Us movement in college campuses, people showing up to church without being invited, etc..
See Carey’s “Revival Series”!
Signs of Spirtual Awakening?
Now there is actual evidence of growth.
Steady, Multi-Year Increase in Commitment to Jesus
From 54% to 66% from 2020 to 2025
Gen Z is attending church at a higher level per month than any other generation
1.6 – All ages
1.9 – Gen Z
1.8 – Millennials
1.6 – Gen X
1.4 – Boomers
Who’s in Church?
2018 2025
Over 65s 14% 19%
Middle Aged 7% 5%
Under 35s 4% 16%
Overall 8% 12%
The Quiet Revival interviewed 13,000 people
“I feel close to people in my local area.” – 63% of Gen Z church goers agree 25% of non-church goers agree
How We Approach Church With Gen Z Is Changing
Seeker sensitive churches morphed into attractional churches which
were all copying each other
Trend One
Preaching is becoming less informational and more facilitational.
Information used to be scarce but community was everywhere, now the opposite is true.
Gen Z is ready for experiences that lead to transformation.
They are drowning in information. They are not looking for an echo of the culture but an alternative to the culture.
The preacher’s job is facilitation. We are not the star of the show.
God is the star.
It is not manipulation but evocation.
Trend Two
The Church’s future direction is human connection.
Authenticity is an increasingly rare and increasingly valued attribute. We appreciate people’s strengths, but we resonate with their weaknesses.
IRL > Online
Example: Church of the Valley offers burgers and pizza at cost just to try to get people to the church. These food kiosks also facilitate community. There are frisbees and kids playing. They have 55,000 people over the weekends.
What do you need to do to connect people on Sunday and off-Sunday?
Trend Three
Evangelism is getting bolder.
Who are you talking to Jesus about personally?
Reaching Gen Z is more about surrender than strategy, a posture not a program.
Gen Z
Luke LeFevre, founder of Holy Work and Author joined Carey and they shared some of the following:
How are we creating an environment for our people to encounter God?
If we are convicted over something it is more likely for those with us to be convicted as well.
They want to be invited into something worth living for and worth dying for.
66-72% of Gen Alpha said they would attend a church if they were invited.
Get Gen Z and Gen Alpha to invite their friends on a Sunday and include a proclamation of the Gospel with an opportunity to respond with an altar call.
Gen Z wants raw and hard truths.
A bunch of people coming to Christ would not be revival.
Revival is the return of the manifest presence of God, and even a crushing reality of the fear of God.
When God is in a room, people cannot help but repent because His holiness.
The saturated presence of God in a community
There is a despair in Gen Z that is turning into a desperation that is causing them to turn to God. This will get worse and worse. Within the next decade we could go from 10% of people responding to 40% responding.
“Barring a move of God the church in the United States is irrevocably in decline” was what people have long believed. Stats now say otherwise.
In the next 60 years we will see 100,000,000 people come to Christ in North America.
This is the moment to go all in on the Gospel.
Gen Z loves the challenge of being asked to repent, and it is in that repentance they experience forgiveness and the presence of God!
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” – Matthew
24:9-14
The challenge of the hour will be to keep your love for God hot! The best way to serve Gen Z is to keep your heart burning for Jesus. Do whatever it takes to stay there.
Losing our first love is a lamp-removing offense. That means the removal of God’s manifest presence.
