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Ministry’s growth aligns with new report showing increase in church attendance among Gen Z
Reports of a spiritual awakening on campuses such as the University of Pittsburgh are adding to the evidence that more college students are embracing Christianity.
One professor told The College Fix many students are exhibiting a “spiritual hunger.” And new data from the Barna Group shows church attendance is up among college-age adults, especially young men.
A Christian group getting a lot of attention is Pitt Purpose, which the university’s football tight end Jake Overman began earlier this year with the help of a few area pastors, according to a Relevant article published in June.
Since the spring, the student-run group has been hosting weekly meetings, and a worship service and baptism that it held in September attracted more than 600 students, according to Pitt Purpose’s Instagram page.
“Pitt for Jesus 2025 was nothing short of revival. People met God at the altar, many were set free, addictions were broken, and an entire university was touched in just one night!” the group wrote on Instagram. “We declare that this will be the generation that turns back to God!”
The group also shares students’ testimonies on social media. In one recent post, student Aisha Norman spoke about how she strengthened her relationship with God during the September event.
“I could not believe and fathom how many young believers there was there giving their life to Christ,” she said.
“It was such a surreal moment, it was like [God’s] presence weighed down on me so heavy,” Norman said. “… That day, I felt so free from overthinking, and shame and guilt.”
Norman described the worship event as an amazing and humbling experience, and said being a part of the fellowship was truly rewarding.
Another student, Carter Dierdorf, who plays on the university’s baseball team, said he participated in the September baptism service, and it was “amazing beyond belief.”
“Going into the water and coming out, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders,” he said in an Instagram post shared by Pitt Purpose.
Through the ministry, student-athletes also have been meeting for weekly Bible studies and prayer groups, recently growing to more than 30 members, Relevant reports.
Pitt Purpose did not return several requests for comment from The Fix via email and social media asking for more details about its ministry and goals.
However, its leaders say the campus has begun to recognize the group’s impact.
“We’ve seen healings. We’ve had guys on the team and other students receive their prayer language. It’s just been God, and His breath has been on it,” Overman said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network.
Meanwhile, a professor at a Christian university in South Carolina said he has noticed a growing hunger for truth among young adults when asked about Pitt Purpose and other recent events, such as the spontaneous prayer and worship session in 2023 at Asbury University.
“My general sense is that there is a spiritual hunger among college students, especially (but not exclusively) young men in their late teens and twenties,” Professor Nathan Finn told The College Fix in a recent interview.
Finn is the director of the Institute for Faith and Culture at North Greenville University, a private Baptist institution.
“Even today, I was at the annual meeting of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, where it was announced that over 250 college students in South Carolina were baptized last year as new converts just because of the work of Baptist Collegiate Ministries,” he said via email.
Finn said a common theme among revivals throughout history is that they tend to be inspired by crises – often political or social events.
“Historically revivals are often a response to cultural unrest, and we are certainly in a season of unrest, or at least tension and polarization,” Finn said. “As to whether or not these spiritual stirrings are authentic revival, as a Christian I think only time will tell. I pray it is part of a pattern of authentic revival.”
The rise of student-led initiatives like Pitt Purpose, supported by local faith communities, suggests that these movements are not random, Finn said. Instead, they are part of a larger pattern driven by young adults’ desire for belonging, purpose, and stability as they face an increasingly uncertain future, he said.
Recent data also aligns with these observations. According to a September report from the Barna Group, Gen Z is attending church at a higher rate than Millennials. The report found that Gen Z’s church attendance rate has almost doubled since 2020.
“Gen Z churchgoers now attend an average of 1.9 times per month, while Millennials average 1.8 times per month,” the research group found. “These rates have nearly doubled since 2020, when the average was around once per month.”
A spokesperson for Barna referred The Fix to the report when asked about evidence of Christian revival among young adults.
The report also observed a particular increase in belief in Jesus among young adult males, especially after the 2020 COVID pandemic.
“Since the pandemic, Millennials and Gen Z have shown increases in commitment to Jesus, while Boomers and Gen X’s commitment (especially women in these older cohorts) has remained mostly flat,” according to the report.
“For example, among Gen Z men, commitment to Jesus jumped 15 percentage points between 2019 and 2025. Millennial men saw a similar spike of 19 percentage points,” it states.
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