Is This Revival?

I’m slow in using the term “revival.” I didn’t jump on the Asbury bandwagon a couple of years ago, and my response to those who asked was, “Well, a real revival is a rise to consistency. Whether or not this is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit will be evident by the number of lives changed over the long haul. When revival happens, church attendance surges, as do conversions to Christ.”

Did that happen at Asbury in 2023? I do know that church attendance in and around Asbury had not increased at the one-year and then two-year marks, nor was there an increase in professions of faith. Those things would have been positive indicators.

But something is happening around the country today—something very different. It’s not an emotional wave. I don’t know of any weeks-long singing and prayer services. And other Christians are not flying in from around the world to “check it out.” But there are signs of the movement of God that only the Holy Spirit produces. Surging conversion figures, resurgence of church attendance, escalation of baptisms, and a return to Bible reading.

And the greatest uptick of new Jesus-followers is in the demographic that was previously the lowest: young males. Gen Zers with little Christian influence in their upbringing are flocking to church in surprising numbers. Not only that, but men in their 20s, who have been the least frequent church attenders for the last hundred years, are now the most faithful to church—going more frequently than their parents and grandparents, as well as their sisters and girlfriends.

But that’s not all. Bible sales in the U.S. are up 42%. Bible app downloads are up 80%. And Christian music streaming is up 50%.

Why is this happening? God doesn’t need a reason to do His special work, but it does seem that the conditions have been ripe. No doubt, the assassination of Charlie Kirk has expedited the surge. At The Bridge, we had a huge uptick in first-time guests following his death.

But our increasingly secular world has degraded into out-and-out immoral norms, and ridiculous notions of human dignity have become accepted in mainstream entertainment and media. The inner essence of people senses the dissonance between how we were designed (image-bearers of God) and what is now “normal” and acceptable. So there has developed a hunger for meaning and a search for human worth and purpose, which will never be found in pop culture today.

Fortunately, despite church-slamming on social media, evangelical churches have been there to feed that hunger. Those churches that openly proclaim Jesus as the answer, along with a fearless proclamation of Bible truth, are seeing the fruit of that faithfulness. God is speaking on the inside while we proclaim Him on the outside.

Revival isn’t found in emotional outbursts and weeks-long church services. Revival is the work of God upon a people, drawing the lost to Himself through the faithfulness of His people.

It’s a blessing to be in a church that has a front-row seat to that work of God today.