As Premier Christianity turns 60, past editor Dave Roberts takes a trip down memory lane to discover how and where the seeds of renewal were first planted
It was a whisper that slowly became a shout following the publication of the Bible Society’s Quiet Revival report earlier this year. Anecdotal stories of young adults turning up at churches uninvited, having had visions of Jesus and begging for Bibles, were fleshed out by detailed research.
The number of 18-to-24-year-olds attending church has risen by twelve per cent since 2018. Over a similar timeframe, Christian publisher SPCK noted an 87 per cent increase in Bible sales. And according to Evangelical Alliance research, twice as many people are making first-time commitments to follow Jesus today, compared to 2021.
Mainstream publications such as Vogue, the Daily Express, The Independent and The Sunday Times have all run stories on the phenomenon of Gen Z encountering Jesus in new ways. But here’s a provocative thought: Maybe the roots of this revival stretch back at least 60 years…
The fightback
This magazine was first birthed as Buzz, during the new age counterculture of the 1960s. It was a time when a scientific critique of religious faith was in the ascendancy, along with the cultural legitimisation of promiscuity. Confidence in the gospel was being weakened. What could be done?
The question that animated the magazine’s first editorial team was: “How can we think with clarity about the culture around us and then cultivate a ‘Jesus culture’ that touches lives with wisdom and creativity?” Buzz, first published in October 1965, was a champion of contemporary Christian music, but it quickly became something more as well. Again, that question loomed large: What would it mean to repopulate the popular imagination with the story of Jesus? The Jesus Revolution of the mid-60s had sparked pockets of radical thinking about discipleship and justice, but much of mainstream Christianity was still dominated by old apocalyptic, hellfire and guilt theology dressed, literally, in new clothes.
The 1974 Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization was a key change moment. Peter Meadows, the founding editor of this magazine and Clive Calver, then director of Youth for Christ, attended. They were deeply affected by the papers presented at Lausanne on culture and mission. This shaped the programming of Spring Harvest – an event that Calver and Meadows originated – which, in turn, influenced thousands of churches.
The Holy Spirit is in the long journeys to faith as well as the final sprint
The impact of this richer inquiry into how Christians can live faithfully in the modern world trickled out slowly. But it would be the late 90s before the generation that had imbibed these new ways of thinking moved into national leadership roles and released a flood of missional innovation. In 1998, I was part of the team who launched the Children’s Ministry conference in Eastbourne. It was the largest event of its kind for at least 50 years in the UK. At its heart was a call for a further 1,000 full-time children’s workers in the UK Church – it was probably in the low hundreds at that time.
This would be reinforced by a similar appeal from Rev John Coles to churches in the deeply influential charismatic Anglican New Wine network, to make children and family workers their next budget priority. Bible colleges such as Moorlands and Cliff College launched certified degree-level training for children’s workers. The job pages of this magazine soon filled up with adverts for such positions.
Then there was Open the Book, which took Bible stories into schools. What originated in one church in 1999 now works in more than 3,000 schools, reaching 360,000 children each year. The advent of Messy Church in 2004, an interactive format that included parents and often met in the afternoon, pulled in many families on the fringes of Anglicanism. It also created a huge body of support literature around hospitality, mission and discipleship. Profound missional thinking was pervading the imagination of many as they learned while doing.
Dare we wonder if all this hard work might now be paying off as Gen Z come back to God?
We can certainly take encouragement that seeds planted decades ago may be coming to fruition.
See, for example, the current popularity of ‘Primary School Bangers’ – the songs sung as part of the statutory requirement for collective worship in many school assemblies. This summer, James B Partridge took his popular show to Glastonbury, where a capacity crowd sang along at the tops of their voices to ‘This little light of mine’, ‘Shine Jesus shine’ and ‘He’s got the whole world in his hands’. The BBC has even announced an upcoming special edition of Songs of Praise to be entitled: The Big School Assembly Singalong, in which it aims to discover “the all-time favourite school assembly hymn”. Another seed planted, another memory stored and returned to at another time.
A shift in the demographics of school-age children is also underway. In Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? (Profile Books), Eric Kaufmann notes that active Jews, Christians and Muslims in Europe continue to have an average of three children, in contrast to the rest of the population where the average is two or less. The option for educationalists to ignore or marginalise the three Abrahamaic religions is fading away.
Early pioneers
Youth and schools work has found a fresh impetus in the last 30 years. Steve Chalke, the Baptist pastor and writer, wrote extensively about youth work in the 90s and helped start a national training event – Brainstormers. At the same time, the publishers of Christianity launched a sister publication called Youthwork (now premiernexgen.com). Chalke noted that with 7,000 youth workers employed by the Church, Christian youth workers far outnumbered those employed by the government.
It goes on – just look at the work of Christian charity Youthscape, for example, who are exploring cultural trends, wellbeing and mental health. The pioneering work of the World Wide Message Tribe (now The Message Trust) in Manchester schools is anchored in a persistent faithful presence in the city. Sports-based ministries such as Kick London are sowing seeds of faith in literally thousands of lives, week in, week out.
The next generation are not walking away from faith. They are hungry for spiritual truth
Across the UK, 27,000 churches offer friendship and support to their local communities through parent and toddler groups. According to research from Hope Together and the Evangelical Alliance, 62 per cent of all parents with children under four are in contact with a church, many via this route. The stories that are told and the songs that are sung release the narrative of Jesus’ life to a new generation.
This anxious generation feels battered from every angle. Peer pressure from social media, hate on the streets, polemical politics, pandemics and loneliness. Yet as I write, anecdotal evidence is accumulating around young people visiting church, often in complete desperation, and finding lasting hope. Those considering suicide cite their past experiences of feeling peace and hope in school assemblies and local church youth clubs as a reason for coming back to church and faith in adulthood. In fact some research suggests that most adult converts point to contact with church as a child or teenager as a factor in seeking out a local church later in life. The seeds you plant will bear fruit. The Holy Spirit is in the long journeys to faith as well as the final sprint.
A clear voice
In Pathways to Jesus (IVP) authors Don Everts and Doug Shaup describe how, in a postmodern culture, people come to Jesus in a variety of ways. Oftentimes, people will become curious about faith and open to change, but they meander, not quite sure what to do with their questions. Whose voices might they hear during this time? Sociologist David Herbert notes that looking at the “texts and artefacts of popular culture” will often offer seekers insight. Let’s consider what artefacts such people are likely to see in this present cultural moment.
We could look at sport. The 2024 Olympics saw several UK athletes – including swimmer Adam Peaty, diver Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Paralympian Karé Adenegan – speaking openly about their faith. Following the triumph of England’s female footballers at Euro 2025, the first words of Michelle Agyemang – who was named young player of the tournament – were about the grace of God. The squads of many prominent football teams contain believers – just look at the Ballers in God group profiled in the August edition of this magazine.
We could look to music. British rapper Stormzy quoted Psalm 138 when collecting his recent BRIT award. Another BRIT winner, Raye, told the BBC that she hosts church-style gatherings in her home after her Christian faith helped her find freedom from substance abuse. Mercury prize-winning Ezra Collective have reflected on their background in church-based youth work. The critically acclaimed Australian singer-songwriter Nick Cave took to the stage at the O2 and sang songs about the Holy Spirit.
We could look at literature. Charlie Mackesy, creator of the Alpha graphics, topped the bookseller charts with The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (Ebury Press), a book about kindness. Even Sally Rooney is making gospel references in her latest novels.
What kind of revival?
The Christian imagination has often been populated by the ‘flash flood’ revivals of history. These sudden outpourings include the 1859 Ulster Revival in Northern Ireland, the 1904 Welsh Revival and the 1947 Hebridean Revival in Scotland. Like the day of Pentecost, they happened among populations that had slidden into a God-aware nominalism but contained a devout and sizeable remnant of committed believers.
Clearly, this is one type of revival. But what if there’s another kind? Rich Wilson, leader of student ministry Fusion Movement has advocated for a “slow awakening” understanding of revival. Mission researchers have historically noted that many conversions were the result of several ‘moments’ along the way. We also know that many people come to faith over a period of time. In the 1990s, Robert Warren, then the Church of England’s national officer for evangelism, wrote a paper that wondered aloud whether a “slow revival” – modest but consistent – might be what we should be praying for. Perhaps this is what we are now seeing?
On earth as it is in heaven
Mark Twain famously wrote that reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated – and perhaps the same can be said of our faith. At the turn of the millennium, we were told the Church in the UK was one generation from extinction. In The Death of Christian Britain (Routledge) sociologist Callum G Brow painted a dark picture of how, quite apart from what was happening in parliament and the other institutions of society, everyday small discourses, songs and stories about God, faith and Jesus were disappearing from our lives.
Yet the Quiet Revival report has put down in black and white what many of us have been observing for years. The next generation are not walking away from faith. They are hungry for spiritual truth. They want “full fat” faith, as the recent article in The Sunday Times put it.
What would it mean to repopulate the popular imagination with the story of Jesus?
The last 60 years have also seen a much richer understanding of the life and work of Jesus emerge through evangelical New Testament scholarship. Our creeds often neglect to mention Christ’s teaching. Thankfully, the legacy of John Stott lives on in the work of the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity whose resourcing of ‘whole life worship and discipleship’ also reinforces the work of Tom Wright, who roots our understanding of following Jesus in a vocation here on the earth. In the US, Dallas Willard and latterly John Mark Comer have emphasised the importance of practising the spiritual disciplines and seeing ourselves as apprentices to Jesus.
The 24/7 Prayer movement, started by Pete Greig and now spread across the globe, echoes this whole-life theology with their commitment to the triad themes of prayer, mission and justice. Rev Pete Hughes, leader of KXC church in London, offers a rich understanding of our vocation to partner with God in seeing heaven come to earth in his seminal book All Things New (David C Cook). The diverse and multi-ethnic Saint collective of Anglican churches in East London, headed by Rev Al Gordon, are resourcing Christianity in the creative arts via their Renaissance conference. Christian charities such as A Rocha and Tearfund continue to offer in-depth biblical and practical resources around issues of justice and climate care.
Christian witness in the UK is diverse and not all will share the “full fat gospel” ideals noted in this overview of a slow awakening. But the seeds of past awakenings are all around us in schools, sports venues, hospitals, job centres, the probation service, publishing houses and diverse organisations including the National Trust and the RSPCA. Now is the time to embrace a humble confidence and a holy optimism at this crucial moment for our nation.
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