Pew Research Center began tracking America’s religious landscape in 2007. Since then, they’ve reported Christianity’s steady decline. In 2024, pollster George Barna told the Christian Post that the Western church had “reached a time of Christian invisibility.” Things have looked bleak for Christianity’s influence for decades.

Yet there are rumblings of revival among Gen Z, those born from about 1997 to 2010. That’s the generation Jonathan Haidt writes about in The Anxious Generation, as he reflects on the mental health effects of a digital childhood. Amid the challenges, that generation seems to be turning to God.

In The Anxious Generation Goes to Church: What the Research Says About What Younger Generations Need (and Want) from Your Church, Thom S. Rainer, CEO of Church Answers, argues that the church has a phenomenal opportunity to reach a generation with the gospel. The church has the social and spiritual remedies to the challenges Gen Z is facing.

Power of Technology

Much of Rainer’s analysis relies on findings published by Jim Davis and Michael Graham, Ryan Burge, Jean Twenge, and Jonathan Haidt. For example, Rainer shows that generations are shaped by many factors: cultural events, economic influences, and technological advances. Echoing Twenge, he argues, “Of those factors, technology has emerged as the primary driver of generational differences” (12).

As the first generation to grow up with no memory of life before high-speed internet, smartphones, or social media, Gen Z has been profoundly marked by recent technological innovations. People often don’t fully understand the effects of new technologies until years later. As philosopher Antón Barba-Kay notes, “We have never been prone to notice how deeply we are shaped by and identified with our tools.” This may be most evident with Gen Z.

“In simple terms, the younger you are, the greater the likelihood you will have anxiety,” Rainer states (34). The pervasive toxicity of the internet, smartphones, social media, and political polarization is taking a toll. Young people sleep less, scroll more, and feel lonelier than ever before.

The anxious generation needs what the church has to offer—hope, embodied connection, and stability in a tumultuous time. Thankfully, it also appears to be what they want. It’s in discussing the church’s opportunity with Gen Z that Rainer explores new ground.

Moment of Opportunity

This is no time for the church to retreat. Gen Z is increasingly open to spiritual things—but they don’t always go to churches for their spiritual needs. In the past, churches have relied on the physical presence of the building to draw people. Even those who didn’t attend regularly often had a cultural awareness of what goes on in churches. That no longer seems to be the case.

The anxious generation needs what the church has to offer—hope, embodied connection, and stability in a tumultuous time.

We can’t wait for young people to come to us; we must go out to them. There’s no one-size-fits-all method to accomplish this outreach. Churches will need to develop creative ways to engage this spiritually hungry generation. Yet the most fruitful path forward is likely through making personal connections.

Though Gen Z is online more than previous generations, over half of them still believe in-person relationships are more important than digital relationships. Moreover, surveys show over and over that the unchurched (particularly Gen Z) are open to friendships at church but feel intimidated to go by themselves. Rainer reports that “82 percent of the unchurched were at least somewhat likely to attend church if invited” (70).

As a pastor in a college-town church, I have many young people asking for mentorship. And they don’t care if there’s a big age gap with their mentor. They mainly want someone to show interest in them as a person. I’ve been part of the Salt Network for five years, working through my local church to reach the students on the local university campus. Our primary outreach strategy to reach this generation is to go where they are, get to know them, and invite them to Salt Company—a midweek gathering designed specifically for students. From there, we work to get them into the local church.

Growth Will Be Messy

Churches that actively seek to reach Gen Z will probably see results, whether or not their strategy and location are ideal. There’s an incredible openness to the gospel. Just nine months after Barna told an interviewer the church had become invisible, his research group reported “a groundswell of commitment to Jesus.” That rapid shift has been largely fueled by young people.

We’re seeing the effects of this shift in the local church where I serve. The explosion of spiritual interest among young people is exciting, but it has historical precedent. Both the First and Second Great Awakenings swept over college campuses. Modern missions was fueled by the Student Volunteer Movement at the end of the 19th century.

A similar movement is underway. Several weeks ago, I witnessed 900 college students gathered on a field at Indiana University during the first week of classes to sing worship songs and hear the gospel preached at the Salt Company Kickoff. It was one of many such gatherings across the nation. God often begins great things with a younger generation.

Churches must be prepared for this rapid growth through the conversion of first-generation believers in a post-Christian culture. It may get messy, much like the Jesus People movement in the 1960s and ’70s. Opportunities for discipleship abound. We need to allow room for mistakes.

God often begins great things with a younger generation.

As we face a rapid influx of new believers, we’re going to need to lean into Scripture’s guidance. For example, the church in Corinth was gifted, blessed, and rapidly growing (1 Cor. 1:4–9). Much of Paul’s letters to them, however, was intended to help them deal with significant ethical and theological problems. In our culture, we’ve got sci-fi level ethical dilemmas and the barrage of mental health challenges that technology encourages. As Rainer notes, “Church is already messy. If we do what God is calling us to do, it will get even messier” (161). Thankfully, God’s Word can help us navigate the challenges.

According to the news, the culture is in free fall. But the gospel is on the move, especially among Gen Z. The church needs to embrace the anxious generation’s spiritual interest, anticipate the mess, and do the work to make disciples. The Anxious Generation Goes to Church accessibly presents a mountain of research to remind Christians that cultural conditions never alter the church’s mission, though the methods to accomplish it may change.