The Sunday Express is right – Gen Z are coming to faith. I’ve seen it with my own eyes

I’ve just returned from New Wine festival, and a common theme of many talks was what has been coined “the quiet revival”- a phrase first used by the Bible Society in their reporting of an increase in church attendance among Generation Z. I understand why some have been cynical about this. There have been rumours (and prophecies) of revival in decades past, but the decline continued. This, however, seems to be different.

For the uninitiated, Generation Z, (often referred to as Gen Z) are those born between the mid-1990s and the early 2010s and are now aged between 13-28 years old. This is the generation succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Gen Z are known for being digital natives, having a social conscience and being entrepreneurial.

Now, some are now dubbing them “the spiritual generation”.

This has caused a flurry of headlines in the secular press - the most recent being the front-page story carried by the Sunday Express on 27 July.

That morning, I was preaching at Engine House Church in Redruth, Cornwall. I bought a copy of the newspaper on my way to the church. The title of my sermon was “Igniting Hope” and the headline seemed particularly appropriate. It read: “GLOBAL CRISIS SENDING GEN Z TO CHURCH”. The subtitle underneath added: “Faith leaders hail ‘spiritual U-turn’ among 16-24-year-olds”.

As I read from the newspaper story in my sermon, it served as an apt illustration. The summary of the article was that despair and hopelessness (both globally and individually) were leading to more young adults attending church.

The editorial cited the data and then interviewed Cardinal Vincent Nichols, head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, and Most Rev Stephen Cottrell, the Church of England’s Archbishop of York and most senior current clergy member.

Cardinal Nichols told the paper that many dioceses are seeing an increase in attendance with more people becoming Roman Catholics. When asked why this increase is occurring, he answered: “Why? Society is a bit fragmented, it’s under a lot of pressure and young people live lives that are very pressurised.”

This fits with my own anecdotal experience. Last year, I spoke at a mission in Cardiff in which a young man experienced a “spiritual awakening” (his preferred term). On Easter day this year, he was received into the Catholic Church. 

Archbishop Cottrell gave his own assessment of the changing landscape: “I think many people especially the younger generation are searching for something deeper, something that transcends the noise of everyday life,  this longing for meaning, purpose and connection “

Again my own experience seems to confirm the data. I was recently in Devon on holiday with my family and we took a day trip to the city of Exeter. I ended up talking to a 20-year-old man and shared the gospel with him. He prayed to receive Christ and as he was filled with the Holy Spirit he said: “I feel freedom”.

Later, he message me on WhatsApp: “I’ve been praying. I feel so connected to God  right now”. 

These are just two of many, many stories I could tell.

I work as an evangelist, travelling all over the world, and I have been privileged to see many people come to faith from Gen Z the past few years. I’ve spoken at five youth festivals in the UK during the past year, and the response to the gospel is always in double figures.

Furthermore, my networking with other evangelists would say the same. Nearly all are convinced that the spiritual temperature of the nation is changing.

The younger generation are searching for something that transcends the noise of everyday life

But back to my sermon in Cornwall.

At the end of my sermon, I threw out the net. And it was a privilege to see five people come to Christ. Among them, two were from Gen Z.

One was Zakk (age 22). I share his story here with his permission. Zakk was from a non-Christian home and that Sunday was his seventh ever church service. He’d been coming along because he’d been invited by a Christian friend. He told me that, two weeks before, he was still an atheist. But then he started to believe in the possibility of God.

Later that day, he told me that after praying to receive Jesus he had felt “peace and happiness all day”. He said he had told the friend who invited him to church, and they had cried at the news. His atheist mum didn’t quite understand but was nonetheless pleased for him, he added.

He has since sent me this powerful testimony: “I grew up atheist for 22 years. My parents and almost all of my immediate family are atheists and that’s the world I lived in. About eight weeks ago, I went to church for the first time after my friend invited me. I felt an instant impact but still had my questions. After the service today, I prayed quietly with you but it wasn’t until after the service and me, you and Jonny prayed together that I really felt like I accepted Jesus and yeah I now call myself a Christian. I really appreciate it man - it changed my life”.

The Sunday Express feature concludes with this statement: “Cardinal Vincent Nichols and Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell describe in our pages the spiritual awakening they see today. This can only be a blessing for the nation”. 

In my opinion - the Sunday Express is right on this!