J.D. Greear Sees Signs of Revival in America, ‘Gen Z Is Going Back to Church’
Something unexpected is happening on college campuses: a stir that looks a lot like revival. J.D. Greear, former SBC president and pastor of Summit Church in the Raleigh–Durham area, says Gen Z is coming back to church with a hunger for truth. This is not just nostalgia — it feels like a movement finding its feet again.
Greear pastors one of North Carolina’s largest congregations and has written several books, including Everyday Revolutionary: How to Transcend the Culture War and Transform the World, due this October. He sees young people wrestling with big questions and choosing Jesus over easy answers. That choice is showing up in attendance, commitment, and the tone of campus conversations.
“Gen Z is going back to church. …We’re seeing it on our college campuses,” Greear told Crosswalk Headlines.
National polling echoes his observation: recent research shows Gen Z attendance rising consistently since 2022, and Millennials are trending up too. Personal commitments to Jesus are reportedly increasing among younger generations, reversing a long slide. That shift matters because this is where culture and conviction collide.
Greear’s church is testing the scale of that interest in a bold way by hosting two worship services at a university arena that usually holds 21,000 basketball fans. It’s not a casual campus outreach — it’s a staged response to a real hunger. Students are showing up in numbers and with expectation.
This week, students from Summit gathered on campus to pray together and prepare for the event. Those gatherings were marked by earnest pleading and a sense that something fragile was being reborn. The mood has been raw and hopeful.
“Repentance, fasting, crying out to God with earnestness and weeping… It’s the stirrings of revival,” he wrote.
“They were just crying out to God on their campus for revival and awakening,” he told Crosswalk Headlines.
Greear warns churches must be intentional about what they call these young people into, because momentum alone does not guarantee gospel maturity. The question is whether their zeal becomes a political identity or a kingdom witness. Churches have to shape discipleship, not merely fill seats.
“They’re returning to church, [but] what are we calling them into? Is this whole thing going to be like, we’re going to let political operatives commandeer them primarily into a voting block, or are we going to see them become gospel witnesses — people that are about gospel transformation?”
That does not mean silence on cultural matters; Greear says young Christians should engage the public square. But engagement must flow from conversion and conviction, not from a partisan checklist. The risk is turning revival energy into something shallow and short-lived.
He points to literary examples of conversion and to the cultural collapse many young people sense around them. The idea is that when the foundation beneath you starts to crumble, the Gospel looks more like a lifeline than an option. That spiritual hunger has driven many students to consider faith seriously.
“When you go to Christ, it’s like you’re taking the leap of faith. He said what nobody ever talks about is the cliff you’re standing on is actually crumbling underneath you. And Gen Z has recognized that this cliff they’re standing on is crumbling,” Greear said. “And so it’s created this hunger for something, and it’s made that leap of faith to Jesus — it’s made it that much more appealing. So I think what we’re seeing is this reaction to the intellectual, moral, and spiritual bankruptcy of secular progressivism.”
Greear adds that the heavy hand of woke ideology pushed some students to push back and look for something steadier. That pushback, when met with biblical teaching and authentic community, becomes fertile soil. Christians who have prayed for revival for decades are seeing the possibility of an answer.
“God is sending it,” he said. “So that’s where I spend most of my energy and effort — thinking God’s doing something, and I want to be a part of it.”
Photo Credit: ©Summit Church