By Carl Tinnion, NZCMS Mission Catalyst 

There has been a lot of con­ver­sa­tion over the past year about Gen Z and the so-called “quiet revival” hap­pen­ing around the world. Let me begin with a small con­fes­sion: I still struggle to say “Gen Zee” when, in proper British/​Kiwi par­lance, it is clearly “Zed.” But I suppose that’s how lan­guage evolves. 

My generation—Gen X, born roughly between 1960 and 1980—marked the begin­ning of a post­mod­ern revolu­tion in the West that has con­tin­ued to unfold ever since. Gen­er­a­tions X, Y, and Z rep­res­ent three suc­cess­ive cul­tural shifts. Gen X waged war on mod­ern­ity and many tra­di­tional insti­tu­tions, and in doing so, left the church in large numbers. Gen Y came of age in the new mil­len­nium and were the first to be fully shaped by the inter­net as a norm­at­ive part of life. 

Gen Z, largely the chil­dren of Gen X, have been formed entirely within post­mod­ern­ity, immersed in the digital and social media age. Yet in many ways, they differ sig­ni­fic­antly from their parents. One notable dis­tinc­tion is that, while they share a longing for mean­ing­ful community—as Gen X and Y still do—they appear to be moving in a more con­ser­vat­ive dir­ec­tion. Many are seeking greater social sta­bil­ity, clearer bound­ar­ies, and a stronger sense of safety. 

We are living in uncer­tain times—an obser­va­tion that feels almost under­stated when listen­ing to global news. The COVID period seems to have marked a sig­ni­fic­ant turning point, though perhaps it was simply the tipping point of a broader global shift that had been devel­op­ing for at least a decade, if not longer. 

I am cur­rently com­plet­ing my doc­tor­ate at Asbury Theo­lo­gical Sem­in­ary in Ken­tucky, USA. Last summer, I spent time in the Asbury meeting hall, where this “quiet revival” first gained attention—just across the road from the sem­in­ary. You may recall that in early 2023, a routine worship and prayer gath­er­ing began and, quite unex­pec­tedly, did not end. 

It started with a small group of stu­dents who began to weep and repent in God’s pres­ence. No one wanted to leave—and for three weeks, no one did. Prayer, worship, and repent­ance con­tin­ued around the clock, with people arriv­ing daily from across the United States and even­tu­ally from around the world. In the end, thou­sands par­ti­cip­ated in what was, at its heart, a simple and unas­sum­ing prayer meeting. 

There were no celebrity speak­ers or well-known worship leaders. There was no hype. Even­tu­ally, the gath­er­ing was gently con­cluded, with encour­age­ment for par­ti­cipants to return home and carry God’s pres­ence with them. And that is exactly what happened. Similar prayer gath­er­ings began to emerge on cam­puses across the United States, the UK, and beyond. In many ways, this moment reflects the char­ac­ter of Gen Z itself. 

Even now, it is dif­fi­cult to measure what has come from all of this, or to identify any clear epi­centre. There is an ongoing debate about whether this con­sti­tutes genuine revival, whether it is growing, or whether it will last. Yet Chris­tian leaders, soci­olo­gists, and media outlets alike seem to agree on one point: some­thing is hap­pen­ing. It is just…quiet. 

Stat­ist­ics from the Bible Society, which coined the phrase “quiet revival,” suggest that phys­ical Bible sales in the UK have increased significantly—by as much as 85%. Early YouGov data indic­ated that church attend­ance had risen by 16%, though this figure was later retrac­ted due to errors in the initial ana­lysis. Many stat­ist­i­cians were quick to high­light the cor­rec­tion as evid­ence that no revival was taking place. 

And yet… 

Other indic­at­ors tell a dif­fer­ent story. Online search data sug­gests that up to a million people per month are asking ques­tions about the Bible. Research from Barna in the United States shows that young people are increas­ingly turning up to church with a wide range of ques­tions. In fact, their ongoing State of the Church research indic­ates that Gen­er­a­tions X, Y, and Z are attend­ing church more fre­quently, on average, than older gen­er­a­tions. 

We could spend con­sid­er­able time ana­lys­ing and debat­ing these data points. While the Bible Society may have misread some early stat­ist­ics, it seems clear that some­thing mean­ing­ful is still taking place—something worth paying atten­tion to. There is a growing open­ness to the gospel, par­tic­u­larly among Gen Z. Many are explor­ing spir­itual ques­tions about life, faith, and the nature of exist­ence. 

As the chil­dren of Gen X, many have had little to no expos­ure to Chris­tian teach­ing. They often lack even the most basic under­stand­ing of who Jesus is or what the Bible says. This is not entirely new. I observed similar pat­terns among my peers in the UK in my early twen­ties. Back then, Jonah might have been mis­taken for a local DJ, and Jesus for a Por­tuguese foot­baller! More recently, I heard of a young adult in New Zealand who knew that Jesus had died—perhaps in World War II—but had no idea why!! 

Today, young people—particularly men—are showing up to Sunday ser­vices out of curi­os­ity, seeking con­ver­sa­tion and con­nec­tion. At the same time, there has been a notice­able increase in high-profile celebrit­ies and aca­dem­ics coming to faith in unex­pec­ted ways, includ­ing some who pre­vi­ously iden­ti­fied as athe­ists. Again, some­thing appears to be stir­ring. 

Earlier this year, while in the UK, I asked several pastor and clergy friends the same ques­tion: “Is this real? What are you seeing?” While they acknow­ledged the pres­ence of mis­in­form­a­tion, all of them repor­ted notice­able growth in their young adult com­munit­ies over the past year. People, quite simply, were turning up. 

Perhaps it is wise to remain cau­tious about the hype while also paying atten­tion to the times, as Jesus encour­ages us to do (Luke 12:54–56). Several con­sist­ent char­ac­ter­ist­ics are emer­ging: 

• A growing open­ness to spir­itu­al­ity. Gen Z appears less cynical about faith than pre­vi­ous gen­er­a­tions and, having lived through a tur­bu­lent period of global history, many are search­ing for some­thing beyond them­selves.  

• A longing for authen­tic com­munity. They desire belong­ing before belief—a place where they can be known, accep­ted, and not judged for their imper­fec­tions.  

• A desire for purpose. Mem­ber­ship is defined less by formal pro­cesses and more by rela­tion­ships and shared mission, par­tic­u­larly around social justice and care for the mar­gin­al­ised.  

• A shift toward more con­ser­vat­ive values. Some are seeking clearer moral frame­works, defined roles, and sta­bil­ity. While this may offer pos­it­ive struc­ture, it can also, in some con­texts, become entangled with forms of Chris­tian nationalism—a dir­ec­tion that risks dis­tort­ing the gospel.  

• An attrac­tion to his­toric and litur­gical tra­di­tions. Many young adults are explor­ing Cath­olic, Anglican, and other sac­ra­mental expres­sions of faith, drawn to their sense of rhythm, depth, and con­nec­tion to history. In a noisy, fast-paced world, con­tem­plat­ive worship may offer some­thing deeply appeal­ing.  

However, let me now ask a dif­fer­ent ques­tion with my mission’s hat on. If there is a quiet revival taking place in the West, what oppor­tun­it­ies might this create for mission organ­isa­tions like NZCMS to engage with young people? 

When we look at the New Test­a­ment nar­rat­ives, those who encounter Jesus are invari­ably moved to tell others about him. The woman at the well became a witness to her village. The demon­ised man in the region of the Gerasenes was sent back to his own people to testify to what God had done for him. His­tor­ic­ally, we see similar pat­terns. Mis­sion­ary move­ments are often con­nec­ted to seasons of prayer and spir­itual renewal, where people encounter the Spirit of God afresh. When people encounter the Missio Dei—God’s heart for the world—that vision begins to shape them, and they find them­selves wanting to join in with what God is doing among the nations. 

The Church, along­side mis­sion­ary equip­ping and sending agen­cies like NZCMS, need to make space for young people and help them discern what God may be saying about their future. I do not mean rushing in with bro­chures and sign-up sheets for next week’s mission trip. Rather, it requires a lighter touch—one that recog­nises God is already at work in people’s lives and may already be calling some of them toward the nations. We need to walk along­side them care­fully and pray­er­fully, with humil­ity and a fear of the Lord in how we guide and suggest next steps. A mis­sion­ary calling is often slow and unfold­ing. It requires time, dis­cern­ment, and space to process what God may be saying. This might involve small groups with a focus on mission, oppor­tun­it­ies to explore bib­lical found­a­tions, ment­or­ing rela­tion­ships, or short-term mission exper­i­ences that allow people to tent­at­ively test a sense of calling. 

The oppor­tun­it­ies before us are sig­ni­fic­ant, and God is still calling workers into his harvest. Our respons­ib­il­ity is not to build our own organ­isa­tional empire, but to come along­side people rela­tion­ally, offer­ing wisdom, guid­ance, and space to listen well to God. If this gen­er­a­tion begins knock­ing on the Church’s door, we need to be ready—and willing to adapt our pro­cesses in a chan­ging world, dif­fi­cult though that may some­times be. We need to create envir­on­ments that are unhur­ried, safe, and spir­itu­ally attent­ive, where people can hon­estly explore what God may be saying to them. There should be freedom to “test a calling,” ask dif­fi­cult ques­tions, and take time dis­cern­ing the who, what, and when of mission. 

For my part, I choose to remain open to what God may be doing in this epoch. It seems a wise posture. Scrip­ture calls us to be watch­ful (Mark 13:33–37), to discern the times (Matthew 24:32–33), and to remain attent­ive to the move­ment of the Spirit. 

Lord, help us to be ready and trust­worthy as we come along­side what you are doing in this gen­er­a­tion.  

Further reading: 

https://​www​.bib​leso​ci​ety​.org​.uk/​t​h​e​-​q​u​i​e​t​-​r​e​v​i​val 

https://​rel​ev​ant​magazine​.com/​l​i​f​e​5​/​w​h​a​t​-​t​h​e​-​m​o​s​t​-​g​o​o​g​l​e​d​-​f​a​i​t​h​-​q​u​e​s​t​i​o​n​s​-​i​n​-​2​0​2​5​-​s​a​y​-​a​b​o​u​t​-​o​u​r​-​s​p​i​r​i​t​u​a​l​-​s​t​a​te/  

https://​www​.barna​.com/​r​e​s​e​a​r​c​h​/​y​o​u​n​g​-​a​d​u​l​t​s​-​l​e​a​d​-​r​e​s​u​r​g​e​n​c​e​-​i​n​-​c​h​u​r​c​h​-​a​t​t​e​n​d​a​n​ce/  

https://​baptist​.nz/​t​h​e​-​q​u​i​e​t​-​r​e​v​i​v​a​l​-​r​e​p​o​r​t​-​r​e​t​r​a​c​t​e​d​-​s​t​i​l​l​-​s​i​g​n​s​-​o​f​-​h​o​p​e​-​a​n​d​-​g​r​o​w​th/  

https://​cath​newsnz​.com/​2​0​2​6​/​0​4​/​1​0​/​b​o​o​s​t​-​i​n​-​n​e​w​-​c​a​t​h​o​l​i​c​s​-​p​o​i​n​t​s​-​t​o​-​q​u​i​e​t​-​r​e​v​i​v​a​l​-​i​n​-​t​h​e​-​c​h​u​r​ch/