Why Gen Z May Be the Future of Revival

A quiet shift is underway. I’ve noticed it in conversations with students, in the questions they ask, and in what they’re willing to walk away from. Unlike the generations before them, many in Gen Z aren’t motivated by traditional markers of success. They aren’t chasing titles or resumes. They’re searching for something more enduring, something that feels true.

Recent research confirms what we’re already seeing on the ground. The Deloitte 2025 Global Gen Z and Millennial Survey notes that Gen Z places a high value on work that aligns with their convictions. They care about sustainability, mental health, and the well-being of others. They’re willing to say no to opportunities that ask them to compromise who they are.

It’s not just a cultural shift. It’s a spiritual invitation, the kind of hunger that Scripture has always spoken to.

“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mark 8:36)

This desire for a meaningful life draws from deep biblical waters. It’s an opening — a hunger. And I believe the Spirit is already moving to meet it.

They Are Slowing Down — And That Looks Like Formation

For a long time, we’ve celebrated movement, the kind that measures progress by speed and output. We’ve built systems that reward urgency and praise those who cover the most ground in the least time. Success became a matter of efficiency.

Gen Z is beginning to question the cost of constant motion. They’re paying attention to what’s happening inside, to the places in their souls that feel worn thin from the pace we’ve handed them. In stepping away from the grind, they’re asking a deeper question: Does it have to be this way?

To some, their slower steps may look like hesitation. But what if what we’re seeing is actually discernment?

When I look at the life of Jesus, I don’t see a man in a hurry. I see someone who made space for conversation, for interruption, for the kind of presence that heals. He walked instead of running. He lingered. He listened. He moved at the pace of love.

And in a world that rushes to produce, maybe Gen Z is doing something profoundly countercultural. Maybe they’re reminding us how the kingdom grows, slowly, relationally, one life at a time.

I believe Gen Z is choosing formation over performance. In that, I see something sacred.

More on Gen Z and well-being

Gen Z Is Questioning Institutions — Including the Church

It’s no secret that Gen Z is showing up less in church pews. Fewer of them are identifying with organized religion than in generations before, and for many watching from the sidelines, that feels like a crisis.

But maybe it’s not a crisis at all. Maybe it’s a reckoning.

Jesus had his own confrontations with religious systems that had drifted from the heart of God. He quoted the prophets when he said, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” And I wonder if Gen Z is simply noticing that same distance and naming it.

They’re asking:

• Do we live what we say we believe?

• Does our faith shape the way we treat one another?

• Are we willing to follow Jesus when it actually costs us something?

What if their questions weren’t so much rebellious as they were necessary? What if these were the questions we should have been asking all along.

See Pew Research on Gen Z and religion

What I See Among Gen Z Believers

When I walk with Gen Z in places like Journey School, what I see is not a generation drifting from God. I see a people quietly returning - not always confidently, and rarely without questions, but returning nonetheless. There is a hunger beneath the surface. It’s not for show. It’s not drawn to performance. It’s the kind of hunger that waits and watches for something real to emerge, a faith that speaks to real pain and offers a path worth following.

I remember sitting in a dark hut in rural Mexico years ago, the rain tapping out a steady rhythm on the roof. A Bible school student named Priscilla had begun to share her story. Her voice was low, but steady. She told us how, at just six years old, her father had thrown her out after she accidentally killed a chicken. She never went back. She grew up without the shelter of a home or the covering of family. As she spoke, the weight of her story filled the room.

Then something unexpected happened. One of my teammates looked at her and said, with tears in his eyes, “Priscilla, I’ll be your father. You’re my daughter now.” He embraced her like it was already true. And in that moment, it felt as though heaven came near. The room went still. The rain kept falling, but everything else quieted under the presence of something holy.

I think about that moment when I look at Gen Z. Their wounds may be different, but the longing is familiar. They are searching for a kind of love that doesn’t stand at a distance, a love that steps close, that names them, that stays. They’re not looking for answers that tie up suffering with a bow. They’re watching to see if our faith holds when nothing else does.

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)

That invitation hasn’t changed. And if we have ears to hear, we’ll notice, more and more of them are beginning to say yes.

This Is Not a Marketing Crisis. It’s a Discipleship Moment.

When young people leave the Church, it’s tempting to react by changing the atmospherics. New music. Better graphics. Cooler preachers. But the real need is not style. It’s substance.

Lauren Daigle recently said,

“Gen Z is the future of revival. They are the ones who are saying, ‘I’m not OK with the status quo. I’m not OK with surface level. I want something that’s real.’”

I see it too. Gen Z isn’t drawn to spectacle. What they’re longing for is faith that endures, not just on stages or in slogans, but in the quiet places where life is messy and unresolved. They want to know if Jesus still meets people in the ordinary, in the slow mornings, the hard conversations, the waiting seasons. They’re watching to see if love can hold up under the weight of disappointment. And more than anything, they want to walk alongside people whose lives reflect what they say they believe.

Read Lauren Daigle’s comments

A Question for the Church

If Gen Z is choosing integrity instead of chasing status, if they’re slowing down long enough to be formed, if they’re willing to follow even when it costs, then perhaps they’re already responding to something the Spirit is stirring.

“See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19)

The invitation isn’t just for them. It’s for us too. Let’s not miss what God is doing, in their hunger, in their honesty, and maybe, through them, in us as well.

Invitation to Respond

Where have you seen signs of this in the young people around you? A small act of courage. A desire for truth. A willingness to walk away from comfort.

Let’s tell those stories.

And if you missed part one of this reflection, you can find it here:

Hope for Gen Z