It was a genuine response from a young person who paused to consider the question being asked during a man-on-the-street interview. A simple question, yet one that caused them to stop and think: What do you believe truth is? There was no script. Just a camera, a question, and a young person trying to figure out what they believed.
My team and I have spent a lot of time talking with young people about truth, identity, purpose, faith and Jesus. Their answers are different from person to person and city to city. Some are confident. Some change their answer halfway through. Some tell us they have never really thought about the question before. What still surprises me is how willing they are to stay and talk.
Sometimes it feels like they are glad somebody is asking these questions in the first place. And when we explain why we believe Jesus’ words in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” still matter today, they listen. That is one reason I have been paying attention to the conversation happening right now about revival among Gen Z.
TIME recently examined claims that a religious revival is taking place among young people, and the researchers it cited were skeptical. The national data has yet to show the kind of broad increase in Christian affiliation or church attendance that would clearly establish a widespread revival. I think we should be honest about that. But another part of the data is worth paying attention to.
After decades of religious decline in America, the rise in religious disaffiliation appears to be leveling off. Religion researcher Ryan Burge found that 42% of Gen Z identified as religiously unaffiliated in the 2023 Cooperative Election Study, the same share as millennials.