Four weeks ago, I opened this series with Jessi Green and the summer of 2020, when she saw hundreds of people baptized off Huntington Beach. I told you about her vision. But I left out the part of it that I think matters most.

During a 21-day fast, Jessi saw people in the ocean being baptized. Then they turned around and baptized the people behind them.

That's the whole picture. The people who had just come up out of the water didn't wade back to shore and find a seat. They turned around. And the word the Lord gave her was that the next revival would be for the equipping of the saints.

There's another detail I didn't mention. For a full year before the crowds came, Jessi and her husband Parker met in their home with 37 pastors from the area. When the beach filled up, those pastors were standing behind them, helping to gather in the fruit.

That's what this series has been building toward.

Where We've Been

Over three weeks we've followed one thread. Gen Z is the generation most likely to believe revival is coming, and many of them expect it to come through their own pain. They're showing up at church more than any generation, and they need someone to stay long enough to form them. And they're coming to pray, so we have to teach them to listen.

There is one more step. Something happens after a person hears God: they turn around and tell someone.

Remember Ernest, the college student who heard God tell him he was loved? Within minutes, he was urging his classmates to try listening prayer for themselves. He kept asking them what they had to lose. Nobody had told him to recruit anyone. He had just been set free, and he couldn't keep it to himself.

They're Already Turning Around

Pastor Russ Ewell of the Bay Area Christian Church tells a story about a young man who visited his church. The man's sister had seen one of the church's Gen Z students studying the Bible with a friend. She came home so stirred that she told her brother about it. He wanted to meet the student who had moved his sister, so he showed up on a Sunday. Ewell says this kind of thing isn't unusual anymore. More and more, he sees young people leading their friends to faith.

The research says the same thing. Lifeway found that Gen Z churchgoers are actively looking to build relationships at church and in their communities, and then using those relationships for evangelism and discipleship. More of them have been on a mission trip overseas than any other generation.

Barna noticed something else that's worth paying attention to. When young adults talk about the personal reasons they come to church, most of those reasons point inward: reconnecting with their faith, figuring out who they are. Leaders should take that seriously, helping young adults turn outward toward community and contribution.

I think that's exactly where we come in. The hunger is real. But faith that only ever points inward eventually closes in on itself. Jesus never meant for anyone to stay in the water.

The Hardest Part Is Ours

Here's what I've learned from decades of sending young people out. They're almost always readier than we think. We're the ones who hesitate.

We worry they'll get the theology wrong, embarrass the church, or burn out. Sometimes they will. Jesus sent out the seventy-two before they had finished training, with no money and very few instructions. They came back amazed by what God had done through them. Releasing people before we think they're ready isn't a reckless way to disciple them. In the Gospels, it's simply how discipleship works.

So to every parent, grandparent, pastor, and mentor who has stayed with me through this series: the young person you've been sitting with at your table doesn't need a better seat. They need a job to do. Ask them to lead the prayer next time, and then actually wait while they do. Give them a real responsibility, the kind where it would matter if they didn't show up. Let them teach you something. When they come back from the field with stories that don't fit how you do things, listen before you correct.

And if you're a World Race alum reading this, Jessi had a word for you back in 2020. She called you a sleeping giant and said you needed to wake up and help spread what God was doing across the country. You've already been sent once. The generation coming up behind you is looking for someone who knows the way.

Turn Around

I've given my life to one conviction: Jesus is the answer to what's broken in this world, and young people set free to follow Him will change it. For a long time I prayed for this kind of moment and almost stopped believing it would come. Now I see a generation wading into the water hungry for God, praying, and reaching for their friends.

The only question left is whether the rest of us will do what those 37 pastors did. They didn't stand on the beach and critique. They stood behind and helped gather in the harvest.

Think of the young person who came up out of the water near you this year. This week, hand them something real, then step back and watch who they turn around for.