God is Moving in Gen Z: Reflections on My Time at The Awakening Project
I often hear my generation (Gen Z) referred to as, “a lost cause.” It seems like now, more than ever, it is common to be uninterested in God, the Church, or any title related to Christianity. As believers, we are like the sower in Matthew 13, our pockets full with the good seed– the Gospel. As I consider the field of this generation, the ground looks rocky– making it impossible for the Word to take root. Thorns are choking out abundant life. The birds are ready to devour any seed that falls along the path. There seems to be no good soil.
But what if I told you the ground is not as rocky as it looks? What if the thorns don’t have the final word? What if I told you there is a way to keep the birds from devouring the seed? What if there is a hundred-fold-harvest waiting for its laborers?
In May of 2022, a group of 120 people from all over the United States gathered in Lexington, Kentucky for The Awakening Project. This project is characterized by a community of emerging adults, college students, and pastors who are passionately pursuing and sowing into the next Great Awakening. For an entire week, they prayed, they worshiped, they learned about revival history, they listened to teachings from church leaders, they testified, and they broke bread together. They had surrendered and repentant hearts. There was a deep desperation in the room. In response to how God moved among them, they made a commitment to be like the sower described in Matthew 13.
Weeks before the event, David Thomas, leader of the Awakening Project and senior advisor to the New Room Conference and Network, viewed a testimony video that was developed for the Spirit & Truth conference. After a few phone calls and conversations, he invited a group of us to do a Q&A at the event. Upon arriving, I noticed that the culture of the Awakening Project felt wonderfully familiar. It reminded me of the heart of Spirit & Truth. We share similar visions and missions in that each long to see the Body of Christ fully alive, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
It was a privilege to participate for two days in the Awakening Project. Within the span of 48 hours, God moved my heart for this generation, and not in a momentary way. There was nothing fleeting about the Holy Spirit’s conviction. I witnessed my brothers and sisters weep, even travail over their college campuses, hometowns, families, and friend groups. Their weeping was not in vain. As Psalm 126:5 says, “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.” With humble hearts, they trusted in this promise. It was one of the most beautiful acts of sowing I have ever seen. Watching God move in the hearts of these people prompted me to cry out for a renewed commitment.
To be transparent, apathy was beginning to steal my urgency of the Gospel. Before attending this event, I would scroll on social media, see my friends from highschool suffering, and then proceed with my compulsive scrolling. I would disregard the emptiness in my brother's voice as he spoke to me. I ignored the Holy Spirit’s invitation to intercede for those He loves. There was no way I was sowing tears over the lost. The devil almost had me convinced that my generation was a lost cause.
God’s grace met me at The Awakening Project in the presence of spiritual family. My heart that was drifting to sleep began to awaken. God gave me vision to see my generation through the eyes of compassion. He gave me ears to hear their cry for spiritual mothers and fathers. He gave me, in some measure, a heart freshly devoted to loving Him and loving others out of our communion. The Lord showed me that there is good soil in the field of my generation.
As I looked around the room, I realized that it wasn’t just my generation down on their knees. There were people from elder generations bowing low, too. It is because of the spiritual mothers, fathers, grandmas, and grandpas in the faith that I stand where I stand today. Their years of cultivation and intercession has tended the ground of my heart for the good seed to land on. I am grateful for the faithfulness of the generations before me. I honor them by acknowledging that it is because they stewarded the seed of the gospel given to them, that young adults, like me, now have the opportunity to participate in the Awakening Project.
So what if collectively, we asked God to give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts that align with His? What if the upcoming generation is not a lost cause? What would happen if we started to sow with tears? What if we were willing to bow down and get our knees dirty? What if we prayed fervently that the birds would fly away? What if we allowed God to uproot the apathy that keeps us from tending His field? What if we prayed for opportunities to sow into good soil?
I can tell you what will happen. This is the promise we hold onto as co-laborers.
“Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:8)