Seven years ago we were reading reports about Gen Z dropping out of church. We were reading about Gen Z being twice as likely to be atheists as their parents.
Well, things have shifted dramatically. The question is what is going on with the younger generation? Hey friends, Michael Brown, delighted to be with you. I was recently in Greece at an international leaders conference, about 400 leaders from 60 different nations from around the world gathering in Athens for a Jerusalem II council. That's what it was called.
It would have been held in Jerusalem, but because of the war and the aftermath of things, it was moved to Greece. And I was asked to do a keynote message on what God is doing among young people today. The organizer calls them Gen Now. I focused in particular on Gen Z. I went through a PowerPoint presentation.
I think you'll find it really helpful, eye-opening, so I want to go through that with you now. The call of God and Gen Now. 1 Chronicles 1232. Speaks of the sons of Issachar. These were among those that joined together with David and Camroon to establish the kingdom in his hands.
And the list begins in the 23rd verse of the chapter. And in 1 Chronicles 12, it speaks of mighty men from the different tribes, warriors ready for battle. And then the sons of Issachar, they were the smallest in terms of number. It doesn't mention that they were great in battle, etc. But here's what it says: NIV, from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.
Or in the NJV of the Issacharites, men who knew how to interpret the signs of the times to determine how Israel should act. In Hebrew, Yodevina, the Etim, the Itim, which is literally knowers of understanding for the times, La Dat, Maya, Se Yisrael, to know what Israel should do. In other words, if we understand the times, if we have discernment of the times, it doesn't just mean we can fill in events on a prophetic calendar. It means that we understand what is happening spiritually and we understand what we should do. What's God doing?
What's Satan doing? What's happening in our society? How should we respond?
So, I want to share some lessons with you from the counterculture revolution of the 1960s, something that I myself lived with, got caught up with, became a heavy drug user playing drums and a rock band, and then I got saved in the Jesus People movement, the Jesus Revolution.
So, I'm a first-hand witness to those things. What was visible outwardly. was rebellion in the flesh. specifically sex, drugs, rock and roll, a massive generation gap, and the influx of Eastern religion. What was happening internally?
was young people were searching for the meaning of life. for something more than the American dream. But most of the church missed what was happening under the surface with the counterculture revolution, then failed to take hold of the Jesus Revolution. In fact, I remember getting saved in 1971 and then hearing teaching that this was the last apostasy, this was the final falling away, and Jesus was coming any minute. I mean, the society had shifted so dramatically, you could understand why people felt that way.
So Here are some quotes from my book, Revolution in the Church, which came out in 2002. The church missed one of the greatest potential spiritual harvests in modern history since the 1960s. Above all, it was a time of seeking, a time of questioning, a time when the very meaning of life was up for grabs, when the gods of materialism and greed were being renounced and the power of dead traditionalism was being cast off. What a golden opportunity for the people of God to rise up and say, we have the answer. We have the real saying.
But we missed the moment. This hour the very thought of it causes me pain. How many lives were needlessly destroyed? It seems that even Mad Magazine Had more spiritual insight into those critical years than did many Christian leaders, satirized in the late 1960s as a time of great spiritual hunger. especially among young people.
The April 1968 edition of Mad featured Alfred E. Newman on the cover, as always pictured as a hippie, surrounded by the words: turn on, turn on. Tune in. Drop dead. Of course, the words from Timothy Leary were turned on, tune in, drop out.
True to form. This particular issue contained a mock new periodical called Hippie. the magazine that turns you on. And Hippie was actually aware of the signs of the times. Among the headline articles, again, this is made out of satirical magazine, a sarcastic magazine kind of mocking and exaggerating what's happening in the culture, among the headline articles was, what to do about God after you finally find him?
Well hippie's classified ads included Young Male Hippie. Leaving for India to find God, desires young female traveling companion in case I don't connect, and looking for God? I will tell you where to find him. No kidding, I know where he's at and who he is. One dollar gets this information, your money back in seven days if you're not completely satisfied with him.
Other ads pointed to Eastern spirituality including mountains for both meditation and sexual adventures along with cures for hernias by sitting in the lotus position. How accurately this parodied the spiritual journey so many young people were on. Man even had the insight to recognize how many Jewish seekers there were in that 1968 generation. Creating hippie names such as Muhammad Tishman, so Muslim and Jewish, right? Zen Rappaport.
and Shah Birnbaum, and featuring a counseling column by Abba Ben Adam, this is Mad Magazine, which is Hebrew for father, son of man, a mystic, a seer, a prophet, a poet, a freethinker, and an aluminum storm door salesman, the latter, of course, to provide an income. One of the questions posed to him came from Rattled living in Chicago. Dear Abba, I'm approaching thirty, and I still haven't found God. Man, I'm getting uptight over it How and where can I find him? I replied, Dear Rattle, don't lose your cool.
I'll tell him you're looking for him the next time I see him. Do you grasp the significance of all this? Again, quoting from my book, Revolution in the Church, the spiritual search of these young people was so obvious that Med Magazine could satire in the silliest terms. Yet God's people hardly recognized just how ripe these radical seekers were, failing to present to them a radical Jesus, in other words, the Jesus of the New Testament rather than the Jesus of the traditional church. In just a few short pages, Med Magazine made reference to hippies trying to find God four separate times that those who knew him did precious little.
to make him known. Evangelist Tom Skinner, 1970. I'm convinced America is at her crisis hour. Revolution is inevitable. It's just a matter of which faction is going to prove strongest and will win out in the end.
I believe most Americans are so apathetic that they will just sit back and go to whoever wins. The struggle.
So What about Gen Z? What is a right and wrong reading of Gen Z? The church did not see the spiritual search in the midst of the countercultural revolution. People like Chuck Smith that recognized what was happening with Calvary Chapel and embraced the young people coming in, the hippies that you've seen in the Jesus Revolution movie that Greg Laurie put out. That that shows how this church Whoa, the hippies all coming in.
What do we do with it? They recognize, okay, God's doing something.
Something's going on here. Many churches did not recognize what was happening in the countercultural revolution or in the Jesus Revolution.
So what about Gen Z?
So here's the negative. Here's the negative. Atheism doubles among Gen Z. Yeah, this is a headline from George Barna. january twenty fourth, twenty eighteen.
Atheism doubles among Gen Z. More than any other generation before them, Gen Z does not assert a religious identity. They might be drawn to things spiritual. With a vastly different starting point from previous generations, many of whom received a basic education on the Bible and Christianity. And it shows.
The percentage of Gen Z that identifies as atheist is double that. of the US population. Wow. And look at social justice issues. Where does Gen Z or the young generation land?
They're all in on Antifa. All in on BLM. And as always, we distinguish BLM from the truth that every black life matters, BLM being a radical Marxist movement. Gen Z on the wrong side of transgender activism. Gen Z on the wrong side of same-sex so-called marriage.
And then December 17th, 2023, so barely two months. After the October 7th massacre in Israel, Paul Most young Americans think Israel should be, quote, ended. and given to Hamas. Majority of all respondents support Israel, but results from 18 to 24 age groups show majority think IDF campaign genocidal. while saying calls for genocide of Jews are legitimate.
Extraordinary You think, wow. This is messed up. Gen Z's in terrible trouble. And the needs obviously are great, but let's keep going. Let's look at this through a different lens.
Let's try to be sons of Issachar. and understand the times and understand how we should respond. Gen Z, the young generation. has a heart for justice. has a has a heart for the outsiders and the marginalized.
has a real desire for authenticity.
So if you take the empathy of Gen Z that causes them, say, to side with the trans kid at school, the kid who identifies as trans. You take empathy plus truth.
Now you have compassion. If you take their passion for justice. and join it with the biblical worldview. You have kingdom zeal. If you take their skepticism Towards established religion.
Plus gospel revelation It'll bring a massive harvest of souls. Did you grasp this? You can start with them and say, it's great that you have a heart for this, but let me show you the bigger picture. And here's another matter. That they have suffered and died, literally died, suicides.
as a result of cancel culture. They will thrive and live as a result of the gospel of reconciliation. A younger colleague put it to me like this. A generation that lives on gossip and scandals will be brought to repentance and walk in awe. and reverence of the Lord.
So This generation also Gen Z Their generation that realized they lived through it. Woke doesn't work. Woke doesn't work. They're the generation by first hand experience their entire lives to discover that screens And online communities do not take the place of face-to-face friends. And then There are reports now of what is being called the quiet revival.
And it points to how ripe the harvest is. Check this out. January 28th, 2025. The Independence This is UK. Gen Z.
far less likely to be atheists than parents, and grandparents new study reveals. With many of the younger generation found to identify as spiritual, research counters assumption spirituality is on decline and, in fact, implies God is, quote, making a comeback.
Now look at this headline. Gen Z. Far less likely to be atheists than parents and grandparents, new study reveals. one excuse me seven years earlier. Atheism doubles among Generation Z.
Isn't that extraordinary?
So let me go go back one slide. Gen Z far less likely to be atheists than parents and grandparents. New study reveals. This is January 2025. January 2018, atheism doubles.
among generations at your time at a radical shift. The quiet revival. Gen Z leads rise in church attendance. Church decline in England and Wales has not only stopped, but the church is growing as Gen Z leads an exciting turnaround in church attendance. Co-author of The Quiet Revival, Dr.
Rhiannon McCallier, says the report shows that what people believe about church decline is no longer true. Quote, these are striking findings that completely reverse the widely held assumption that the church in England and Wales is in terminal decline, she said. While some traditional denominations continue to face challenges, we've seen significant broad-based growth among most expressions of church, particularly Roman Catholicism and Pentecostalism. There are now over 2 million more people attending church than there were six years ago. And you look at these charts, so the average attendance went from 8%.
up to 12%. But but look at look at Gen Z.
So 18 to 24, that went from 4% of them attending church in 2018 to 16% in 2024. It's still a relatively low number overall, but that's an increase of over 400%. And then slightly older generation, 25 to 34 year olds, so into the millennials now, they went from 4% up to 13%. When you look at 55 to 64, or 45 to 54, 55 to 64, they actually have a slight decline. and then 65 and older went from 14% up to 19%.
So the one with the most significant growth, the most dramatic growth, is 18 to 24 year olds, followed by 25 to 34 year olds. Anglican Inc. reports this. Church attendance surges in England and Wales driven by Gen Z revival. And then here's another article, February 2023.
Asbury Revival sparks movements at other Christian colleges. Holy Spirit is at work.
Now we focus on America. And then here's an article, March 2025. Written by the President of Asbury. Perspective, Gen Z is starved for spirituality. That's reason for hope.
So Kevin Brown, president of Asbury, said this, according to a new report from Pew Research sent to Christianity's long-documented decline has leveled off. Interestingly, the data seems to point to an unlikely contributor to the stabilization, young adults. Specifically, young adults born from 2000 to 2006 have turned out to be as religious as adults born in the 1990s, Kelsey Dallas wrote in a Deseret article about the study. Researchers have been expecting a notable religious decline from one birth cohort to the next. Similar trends among young adults have been documented outside the United States and Western Europe.
Gen Z is more likely to attend church than their parents or grandparents. In the United Kingdom, they are half as likely as their parents to identify as atheists. At the 2024 Lausanne Global Congress, arguably the largest global gathering of evangelicals ever to congregate, leaders focused on Gen Z as the next generation to advance the gospel and faithfully address the challenges confronting the global church. A similar focus on Gen Z was evident at Gather 25, a day-long broadcast service that attracted approximately 7 million participants across the globe. And then I've got here major 2023 to 2025 revival movements post-Asbury.
College after college. University after university. Both Christian and secular. I've just got one after another after another after another in this presentation. It's remarkable.
And some I know firsthand, colleagues of mine just seeing extraordinary outpourings of the Spirit on college campuses with hundreds coming to faith and being immersed, spontaneous baptisms, and getting in discipleship groups. Again, more examples. 11 more colleges experienced revival in 2024. And yet more. examples, both Christian schools and secular schools.
One Missionary. and street evangelist. said this to me, He's in his early 40s. He was actively involved in a campus in Fort Worth, Texas over the last year. is constantly sharing the gospel with young people.
His words to me, they are So Ready. The harvest is ripe. Let's look past the outward things that can be off-putting. and see what's happening on the inside and see what God is doing. This could be a major turning point if we will reap this harvest and make real disciples.
It could bring a shift. in the church culture. Mm-hmm.
