Revival of the lost generation
- Dom Camerino
- Mar 29
- 7 min read
Many titles have marked Generation Z recently. This generation (those born in the late 90's and early 2000's) has been called "The New Lost Generation" and the "Least Religious Generation". They are the generation that grew up with iPhones, the internet, and social media. They are the generation who spent their formative years during the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic, a pivotal developmental time as most were in high school. For better or worse, this generation is the future of our society and churches. The problem is, for the past few decades, we've seen a sharp decrease in church engagement, with many of this younger demographic leaving the faith entirely. The popular reasons cited as justification for this are things like hypocritical Christians, church hurts or the lack of leaders addressing social concerns they are passionate about.
This isn't a new problem for the church, as for a very long time, the church has been wrestling with how to engage the younger generation. I think this feels more glaring in the aftermath of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, as a Pew Research study found that there is a lower percentage of people going to religious services compared to the start of the Pandemic. [1]
We all know we need to engage the younger generation, the future of the church depends on it.
Working with college students
I currently serve as a Campus Minister at Cola Church in Columbia, SC, and I am a Registered Religious Affiliate at the University of South Carolina. I'm 26 years old, and for the last few years, I have been engaging in this conversation and being on the front lines of ministering directly to them. It hasn't been easy, and honestly, being a campus minister after the Pandemic has not be the most glorious job in the world. It was an extremely difficult season that proved challenging not only in resilience but also a test of character. It is a very difficult task to try and lead a group of physically and spiritually young people who were not taught how to read the bible well and then were isolated for an extended period, with their primary influence being social media. What you receive as a result is a group of people who tend to be emotionally charged by the social problems of the time and are more convinced the world has better solutions than the church. Not only do they tend to turn to the world for solutions, but they have been told to believe the church is an obstacle to the solutions, and so by default, you can become the face of the very thing they see as the problem. It wasn't a fun time, and many other campus ministers I call friends from around the nation would relate a lot to that feeling.
As I write this article, it's March 2025, and something is beginning to change. A few statistics from recent studies highlight this. Towards the end of 2024, there was a reported 22% increase in Bible sales compared to other books, which mostly saw a decrease in sales. [2] According to an NY Times article, Gen Z men are more likely to be religious where this has traditionally been the opposite. [3] Even anecdotally, what I am observing in the ministry I am serving in is an increase in college students becoming Christians and taking great interest in their faith. It is also being reported among other denominations at the University of South Carolina that involvement in religious communities has increased this year. What does this all mean? I don't know yet, but it is positive, and it feels like the tide is turning. I'm careful not to call it a full revival yet, but there are whispers of it, and God seems to be doing something. But what has changed, and what can we learn about this generation of people, and how can we take what God is doing and steward it well?
I don't claim to have all the answers. I still have a lot of questions and am pondering many things about my generation. I know a lot about the world my two small daughters are growing up in and how their generation will have to navigate the new challenges to come. However, I'll share some thoughts to add to this dialogue in hopes of edifying some.
Authenticity is meaningful
Generation Z values "Authenticity" over everything else. The reason? We live in a world loaded with fake things. Fake news is everywhere, and nearly everything is biased. Social media is just the parts of people's lives they want you to see; it's not entirely genuine. Society has told us to say the right things and use the correct terms to be seen as the most "morally correct." It's called virtue-signaling, and it's exhausting to some to try to posture in the way others want you to, even if you don't feel or agree with it. Generation Z is looking for something REAL, even if it's difficult - what the world has sold them for the past 5-10 years doesn't bring life and comes across as ingenuine anyway. Let me expound on this in a few ways I've seen the desire for authenticity push people towards discipleship of Jesus.
Desire to not to be swindled
Postmodern thought and critical theory are the guiding force behind much of the
scholarship at our universities. Ours is no different. Some of my students have taken classes on religion and history, and even classes focusing on the Bible and Christianity, but have heard many jarring claims, to say the least. Claims like "Jesus wasn't born of a virgin, Mary had an affair with a Roman soldier," or "White patriarchal men wrote the Bible and is oppressive and wrong." These have been good teaching moments for my students to learn about Critical Theory, Progressive Theology, and Postmodern thought.
When students learn about these worldviews, they begin to see them in many of their classes and point them out. I knew these students didn't want to be taken for a fool and indoctrinated into something without their knowledge. This makes them dig deeper into their Bibles and do more research. Recently, we brought in Daren Overstreet from Biblically Resilient to do a workshop on progressive theology, and the reviews from my students were nothing but positive. They are eager to go deeper into this topic, as they want authentic and genuine truth. Teaching directly is not sneaky or looking to take a "back door" approach to manipulate them.
Cultural Christianity vs Kingdom of God
I live in "Bible Belt" or the southern part of the United States, and church is everywhere. I mean that there is a church on just about every street corner, and most people grew up in a Christian environment, learning about God from a young age. There's a tradition here that you attend church service on Sunday mornings, even if you don't want to. Most children have the images of their parents dragging them to church. However, most end up distancing themselves from the church after they get into college as they get a taste of freedom for the first time.
So what brings them back? Authentic community. We've seen many people deeply impacted by the depth of relationships the church offers. When true discipleship to Jesus is lived out within a community, it's beautiful to a generation of people who are also categorized by a high degree of loneliness. Many are used to the church where you go on Sundays to do a ritual together, but not the people you live with. Living out the Kingdom of God is refreshing to this generation.
Vision of Family
The last thing I'll say is the vision of a future family. This generation seems discouraged by the high rates of divorce and broken and single-parent homes in the world, and often, what they grew up seeing in their family experience isn't working. This may be why fewer people in this generation marry young and have children. But anecdotally, many men in our campus ministry wish to break this generational cycle. They look at families in the church with healthy marriages and kids who are happy and growing, and they desire that. It's motivated them to pursue being mentored by these people.
I also have a unique opportunity to invite many of these students into my home often to have them witness my marriage and my kids. I usually don't say much, but I've learned I don't have to; these students learn a lot just by watching and catching a vision of what they desire. I don't have anything perfect, but these students have expressed that it's more inspiring and different than they have seen before. To them, what the world offers regarding dating, marriage, and family isn't working, but Jesus' way is.
This generation craves authenticity, so preach that even if it's complicated. There will be some who leave. However, there will be others who stay. Even if the goal of a church is being relevant or not offending people, I believe it won’t last. Those who are kept around by watering down the teachings of Jesus will leave at some point anyway. The reason is they're also looking for something real, and they can feel when a fake version of Christianity is being preached. I pray God continues to move, and we can see a great revival, much like the Jesus movement in the 1960s or the great awakenings in the early years of our country. I pray this will be a time when God turns the tide of the spiritual battle we all face, and we see many people turning away from the Kingdoms of the world and turning to God's Kingdom.
Let's together see this new lost generation won for Christ.
Dom Camerino
Dom is a campus minister at the University of South Carolina in Columbia SC, along with his wife Emily. He was baptized in Clermont, Florida in 2014 and then worked as a campus minister intern before working in Gainesville, where he met and married his wife. He is a father of twin girls and enjoys watching football and playing all disc sports. You can reach him at domcamerino@gmail.com.
[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2023/03/28/how-the-pandemic-has-affected-attendance-at-u-s-religious-services/
