PITTSBURGH — Something big is happening with America’s young people. It has been building for the past two years. It centers on faith, purpose, and a renewal toward more traditional American values. This new American youth counterculture movement looks very different from the one that burst onto the scene in the 1960s.
Sixty years ago, the youth movement on college campuses set out to upend our culture’s status quo — the rebellion created a seismic cultural and political shift away from post World War II traditionalism.
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And for the next 60 years, we inched towards leftist ideologies that began with noble purposes such as the Civil Rights Act and equal pay for women. Then we went from center-left to leftist to far left. The ideology infiltrated all of the dominant cultural centers: government, institutions, technology, academia, corporations, Hollywood, and legacy media.
And church attendance across all faiths, particularly among our young people, plummeted.
Pretty soon, what was once the counterculture was now the status quo — it had the power and influence on society. It wasn’t until COVID and the unbearable totalitarianism of its impact on our society that people began to see that our dominant cultural power base needed a dose of its own medicine.
Every counterculture movement is a rebellion against the dominant culture. Now, our young people are leading the way by rejecting the conformity demanded by our culture and its elite gatekeepers who crush dissent from anyone who questions their authority.
What has been missing for many young people is a relationship with God. I first noticed this soft awakening in 2023 when walking across the Roberto Clemente Bridge here in Pittsburgh and saw hundreds of young people literally jumping in the water while religious music was playing on the shore line.
It was a spontaneous baptism that included hundreds of young people who decided this was the day they would accept Jesus into their lives. The moment was powerful and moving — just as powerful and moving as two Sundays ago when days after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, young people showed up at The Sanctuary Church in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. They came by the droves to express their faith.
Pastor Jason Howard of Sanctuary Church called the moment powerful.
“And what we are witnessing across this country is an awakening with our young people, a true revival.”
These moments are not anecdotal. Two recent reports have shown a dramatic shift among young people and their relationship with their faith. First, the Pew Research Center released a report showing that the decades-long decline in Americans identifying as Christian leveled off, followed by a survey done by the Barna Group that showed that downward trend is now in full reverse.
And who is driving the return to church? These reports show the rise in faith is being driven by those in their 20s and 30s.
“Since the pandemic Millennials and Gen Z have shown significant increases in commitment to Jesus,” the Barna Group study reads, “while Boomers and Gen X, especially women, have remained flat in their commitment levels to Jesus.”
Last Thursday, a remarkable moment happened on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh when 600 college students showed up for a first-ever “Pitt for Jesus” event. There, it was clear we are in the midst of a revival.
The event featured nearly 100 baptisms, live worship music, prayer, testimonies by athletes and a spiritual awakening among young people that was profound to experience.
Led by local Pittsburgh ministries, including The Sanctuary, the student-athlete-led movement Pitt Purpose worked together to bring the spirit of a revival to the campus community. And it worked.
Pastor Howard said it began with Jake Overman, a tight end on the Pitt Football team, “He became a passionate Christian after having an encounter with God during college. Since he was transferred to Pitt to play he has led numerous other players to accept Jesus and get baptized,” he said.
“He had a vision of a large worship gathering on campus. Our church was able to partner with him and Life Church in Bridgeville to pull off the event after he was able to get permission from the university to hold a large event on Mazeroski Field, near the cathedral of learning,” he said.
The Sanctuary Church was able to provide the worship team and the sound and lighting.
“And Jake’s Instagram page, ‘Pitt Purpose,’ spread the word. He also networked with many of the Pitt athletes to spread the word.”
During the event, there was passionate worship and a number of Pitt athletes shared their testimonies of coming to faith in Jesus. Overman then invited people to make a decision to follow Jesus and get baptized.
“We had portable tubs on the field and over 80 young people came forward to be baptized. There were over 600 in attendance on the field during the event. Jake’s hope was that revival would touch the University of Pittsburgh like it has at other campuses recently. That is what happened on Thursday night.”
These events are happening under the radar from the national press. However, there is a real counter culture movement happening in our country right now that is centered on faith and purpose.
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Sunday’s memorial service for Charlie Kirk was an example of a large revival. These young people have behaved boldly since the horrid murder, but not in the way our current cultural curators find acceptable, as Erika Kirk said on Sunday.
“These past 10 days after Charlie’s assassination, we didn’t see violence. We didn’t see rioting. We didn’t see revolution. Instead, we saw what my husband always prayed he would see in this country. We saw revival.”