Spiritual hunger?
Is something happening in the West?
People know something is wrong. There’s something bigger and deeper human beings need now more than ever, something with purpose and meaning.
Everything the culture offers up is empty and hollow, and among Gen Z, addiction and anxiety are all too common. New York University Professor Scott Galloway communicated some young American angst on “Morning Joe.”
Consider that:
The fentanyl crisis plagues countless American cities, killing thousands.
A mental health crisis had been unfolding with American youth for sometime, and it predates the covid pandemic. Jonathan Haidt has documented this here, here, and here.
Young people are avoiding relationships and not having children.
These issues are the undercurrent of American culture, with no signs of abating.
Meanwhile, America has a growing trend of people with no faith community to support them. Nones, those who are atheist, agnostic, or claim no spiritual affiliation, have been increasing in size of the U.S. population since 2007 when they were 16 percent of the population.
The Pew Research Center reports the Nones climbed to 31 percent in 2022 and is currently 28 percent. Pew’s Gregory Smith and Alan Cooperman reported the following in January:
In 2022, our estimate of 31% was 3 percentage points higher, while the 29% we recorded in 2021 was just 1 point higher. We haven’t found any readings below 28% in the past five years.
Religion researcher Ryan Burge has identified 2016 as the year the number of young Nones who are females sailed past the males.
Yet, there are spiritual signs all around of people searching, exploring, hungering for spiritual significance, knowing the direction they’re headed ends in chaos.
I do not believe the signs begin with what unfolded at Asbury University in February 2023. The thousands who trekked to Wilmore, Kentucky, a town of more than 6,000 residents, can’t be called a revival yet. It’s regarded as an “outpouring.” Those who watch religious trends may call it a revival down the road.
This is one of the photos of the Asbury Outpouring in 2023 from Asbury University.
Remember, the chapel service didn't stop until the town was overrun with visitors that it couldn’t handle the crowds? The chapel service in early February 2023 continued with music, testimonies and worship, no glitz or glamor. They stayed, others came, and others kept coming.
However, it’s not just Asbury University. Other significant things are happening that should encourage every Christ follower in the world.
It’s the mass baptisms at California’s Pirate's Cove, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Auburn University, and churches. These are baptisms of immersion, like what John the Baptist did with Jesus Christ early in the Gospels. These are people who have decided to identify in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s a physical act that tells the world: “I’m following Jesus Christ!”
There’s a sense, a presence that people are searching and digging because everything American culture offers up leaves no answers, no purpose, no meaning, no direction. For example:
People are struggling to define what a woman is.
On April 19, the U.S. Department of Education blew up Title IX, which has protected opportunities for girls in schools and colleges since June 1972.
It’s acceptable practice for progressive adults to take young children to drag shows.
The left encourages mutilation of children through gender transition.
Bad guys who commit violent crimes are let go only to do it again.
The new docu-series “Quiet on Set,” which exposes the toxic culture on Nickelodeon in the 1990s and early 2000s with the sexualization of child actors, is the talk of Hollywood.
These are just some examples of the emptiness and hollowness of our culture.
Lest you think any spiritual move of God succumbs to Joe Biden, Donald Trump, the U.S. government, or any government, you are mistaken. There is no power in heaven or on earth that can possibly stop a move God starts.
Americans have seen this in the past. The American Revolution was a byproduct of the First Great Awakening. It brought reformed theology influenced by John Calvin to the colonies. It drove the founders to focus on freedom, separation of powers, and checks and balances in the constitutional republic.
The Second Great Awakening unfolded in the late 18th century to the mid 19th century. Those obsessed with “white privilege,” rewriting American history, tearing down statues, and renaming schools, buildings, and roads fail to grasp the significance of the Second Great Awakening’s role to abolish slavery and establish the women’s suffrage movement.
Christianity renews, restores and gives dignity and purpose to people. If people seek, they will find. Matthew 7:7-8 states (NASB): 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
People are connecting anecdotal evidence to a move of God. The person I have seen make the most profound case for Western nations returning to their Christian roots is Jamie Bamrick, associate pastor of Hope Church, Craigavon, Northern Ireland.
Again, it’s anecdotal evidence. At what point does where there’s smoke, there’s fire emerge where it’s no longer anecdotal?
Consider the prominent people who have made positive statements about Christianity or have made professions of faith in some way:
New atheist Richard Dawkins.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Actor Tom Holland.
Jordan Peterson’s wife.
Russell Brand.
Bambrick has taken to social media to establish the case that something is going on beyond noteworthy people because average people are exploring too.
In his Twitter video, he identifies people on both sides of the Atlantic who are pastors or people connected to churches who report something bigger based on church attendance. Some churches report filling overflow rooms.
Only time will tell, but God will build His church. There will be no stopping Him.
