I was getting increasingly annoyed. Over the last few years I had been hearing more and more stories of increasing openness and interest in faith in the United Kingdom. Stories of miracles and visions, stories of answered prayer, and stories of people finding Jesus. But I wasn’t seeing these stories first hand. Just hearing about them from others. It was annoying.
So in my frustration, I prayed: “Jesus, why I am not seeing these stories? I want to see you moving too.”
The Evangelical Alliance’s latest research Finding Jesus details the whys, hows and whats of people finding faith in adulthood.
Over the next couple of weeks, Jesus answered my prayer. The UK Evangelical Alliance’s latest research Finding Jesus details the whys, hows and whats of people finding faith in adulthood. And in Jesus’ kindness I got to see some of the reported insights up close.
I was chatting to a guy who had come to our church for the first time one Sunday, I asked what had brought him to church and he answered, “ChatGPT.”
When he asked AI what he should do, it told him to try our church.
Our findings said that 23% of young people had found online resources, especially YouTube, helpful in exploring faith and here was a young man saying that after listening to Jordan Peterson, he’d been further exploring the Christian faith and Jesus. When he asked AI what he should do, it told him to try our church. (Well done, ChatGPT!)
That same Sunday, people were invited up to share stories of answered prayer. One woman stood and shared that she had been praying for her husband to come to Jesus for 40 years and it had felt as if he was still as far away from him as ever. She had no faith.
Then one morning that week, she woke and prayed the smallest faith prayer: "God, I know you are the God of the impossible." That was it. The smallest kernel of faith. That day, her husband gave his life to Jesus.
Whilst our research shows that younger people are coming to faith in larger numbers, still 20% of our survey respondents came to faith over the age of 55. It’s not all about Gen Z!
“How do I become a Christian?”
The next week, my pastor shared a story of a woman who had started coming to our church five months earlier after having a dream about Jesus. That week as the pack-down team were stacking chairs, the woman came up and asked, “How do I become a Christian?”
My pastor said, “We can pray now if you’d like?” She was shocked, expecting a long, drawn-out course and study and process, not a simple prayer on her knees as people collected the coffee mugs around her. She was baptized a few weeks later.
People are coming to faith quickly; 59% of respondents said that conversion took less than a year.
Our research shows that people are coming to faith quickly; 59% of respondents said that conversion took less than a year, and 28% of respondents said that it was a spiritual experience that they could not explain that prompted them to start exploring faith.
As I started hearing these accounts in my church and meeting people firsthand, I began to realize how easy it would have been to have missed these testimonies, or at least not connected them to each other and to the wider stories of answered prayer and faith encounters. The change in season we are witnessing at the moment is rightly being defined as quiet. It isn’t loud and obvious—it’s more like scattered mustard seed. We don’t notice that it’s growing until suddenly we see it’s grown into the largest of all the plants (Mark 4:30–32).
My prayer of frustration has now become a prayer of intercession: "help me to notice your kingdom coming. Help us all to see what you are up to, to pay attention to the work of the Spirit, and to join in with bringing in the harvest."
The God story, and the God of that story, is deeply and radically attractive to young adults in this moment.
At Being Human we have long spoken about our heart to help people live out and share the good, true, and beautiful news of Jesus. When our research for Finding Jesus asked people what was it that drew them to the gospel, 49% of under 25s said that it was that the gospel is good, profound and beautiful. The God story, and the God of that story, is deeply and radically attractive to young adults in this moment.
Each week we are chatting to people who are helping their friends or colleagues discover the goodness, truth and beauty of who they are and how they live when it is rooted in Christ. Our Finding Jesus research reveals that it is often the conversations and the practical outworking of Christians around someone that prompts them to explore faith for themselves.
So, whether it is life questions like, “what is my purpose?” or “where can I find hope?” or cultural conversations like migration, climate change, or assisted dying, our ministry, Being Human, is here to help you to live and share the beautifully good news that all these questions and more find their truth in Jesus.
Originally published by Being Human. Republished with permission.
Jo Frost is director of communications and engagement, Evangelical Alliance of the United Kingdom, leading the communications, membership and mission teams, as well as co-directing the Being Human project with Peter Lynas. She previously worked with a number of Christian charities. With a Master’s degree in Public Communications, she has a background in international human rights and environment campaigning. Jo has also been involved in church leadership for over 20 years, serving on leadership teams as well as helping planting churches in London and in France. She teaches, writes and preaches regularly on communications, culture, whole-life discipleship, mission and leadership.
The Evangelical Alliance in the United Kingdom is made up of hundreds of organisations, thousands of churches and tens of thousands of individuals, joined together for the sake of the gospel. Representing our members since 1846, the Evangelical Alliance is the oldest and largest evangelical unity movement in the UK. United in mission and voice, we exist to serve and strengthen the work of the church in our communities and throughout society. Highlighting the significant opportunities and challenges facing the church today, we work together to resource Christians so that they are able to act upon their faith in Jesus, to speak up for the gospel, justice and freedom in their areas of influence.
