The Question Is Who Is Awakening?

Sunday, September 28, 2025

About ten days ago we looked at Salena Zito looking at the influx of young people n churches in her area.  She continues to follow the story and yesterday she penned a deeper look into one of the congregations she had mentioned originally.  It’s not all about Charlie Kirk.

 Howard [ed note: Pastor of the 13 year old Shelter church that is Zito’s subject]  said that when they started, the question was, “How can we make this message relevant to people? And how can we relate this to young people in a way they can grasp?”

“That is not the dynamic at all anymore. Today, the dynamic is bold, unashamed: There is salvation in Jesus, and the whole world needs to know, and we are not trying to ease you into it or slowly convince you towards it. It’s like this bold, passionate battle cry. There’s hope in Jesus. And the boldness and the fearlessness has come along with Gen Z.”

That’s a fascinating thing to say.  “How do you make the gospel relevant?” seems almost oxymoronic to me.  The gospel is always relevant to everyone.  The question is how do we help them hear it?  It does not need to be relevant, it needs to be heard.

“These young people are rejecting an ideology that’s inherently against the idea of God. And so, somehow in interesting ways, that has crossed into what’s happening politically. But there in my church, there is very, very, very little conversation about politics. That’s not the conversation. The conversation is, people need Jesus and a return to traditional ways of thinking about identity and relationships, and our place in the world, and what really matters in life,” Howard explained.

What drew them to Kirk wasn’t politics. Instead, it was upholding traditions such as marriage and not being afraid to thank God for their blessings, said Howard.

“These young people are not afraid to get married and have children. It’s sort of a return to what really matters in life. And I’m seeing that all across the board with younger people. And people want a sense of meaning. People want a sense of belonging,” he said. “People want purpose.”

In other words, people are coming to church for the reasons they always have.  Again, the gospel is always relevant – if people think it is not, the problem is theirs, not the gospels.  This brings up interesting question about the future of the religious landscape in the country,

Many churches, most notably the mainline denominations, have chased “relevancy” to the point that they are only vaguely recognizable as Christian.  This is particularly true when it comes to policies about marriage and family.  If, as Zito contends, this awakening is a return to the traditional, how will the churches that have completely and officially abandoned the traditional respond?  Will they be able to respond in time to save their institutions?

Which raises even other interesting questions.  Congregations like the one Zito is examining, are independent.  They are not a part of a denomination or even a formally structured network of congregations.  Without such infrastructure will this movement be able to gain significant momentum and maintain itself?  Without such infrastructure can the movement gain serious affect outside of the local community?  Could this be an opportunity for social media networking to do good rather than evil?

So, this Sunday morning I head to church with three things on my mind and in my prayers.  One, I pray that I will be exposed to the true, traditional gospel.  Two, I pray that the church will become purposeful about moving into the revival that Zito is seeing.  Three, I pray that church infrastructure will support these moves and not act as hindrance or delaying mechanism.