What Would Jesus Do in a worldwide youth awakening?

I have been watching young people show up in person this month, from Tuesday nights in Dallas to a beach in South Devon, and the rooms keep filling in Lakeland, Toledo, Sweden, and Paris. Barna just put numbers under what I have been seeing: 34 percent of Gen Z and Millennials say they are attending church more than a year ago. The reasons they name are the oldest ones we have. Forty-five percent come for prayer. Thirty-eight percent come to worship Jesus with other people.

Article Summary

• Barna finds 34 percent of Gen Z and Millennials attending church more than a year ago. Prayer is the top spiritual reason, at 45 percent. Worshiping Jesus with others is second, at 38 percent.
• Young people gathered in person this season in Dallas, Lakeland, Toledo, South Devon, Sweden, and Paris.
• The Paris count is about 70,000 on June 6. Bigbury-on-Sea baptized about 170 on September 5.
• Toledo baptized about 50 of 400 on September 14. Southeastern stayed in chapel about ten days in February.
• Charles Sheldon, a pastor in Topeka, Kansas, put the question into print in 1896.

Paris 70,000 is the June 6, 2026 capital count. The 2025 nationwide France figure was about 60,000. Barna figures are U.S. young adults, September 15, 2026.

What Barna measured

Barna, working with Gloo, asked Gen Z and Millennials a simple question on September 15: compared with a year ago, are you attending church more, less, or about the same? Thirty-four percent said more. Forty-five percent said the same. Twenty-one percent said less. It is a real shift, and it is concentrated where I have spent most of my life watching: young men, Black and Hispanic young adults, and people ages 25 to 35.

The reasons they give are almost embarrassingly ordinary. Prayer is first. Worshiping Jesus with other people is second. Daniel Copeland at Barna put it the way a pastor would: they are showing up for the simple offerings, shoulder to shoulder.

They're showing up for the simple offerings, prayer and worship shoulder to shoulder with other people.

Daniel Copeland, Barna Group

PRO TIP When a young adult tells you they went to church this week, ask what they prayed. Then ask who they stood next to. Those two answers tell you more than the attendance number.

Where they showed up

Earlier this year I wrote about thousands of young adults at The Porch in Dallas on Tuesday nights, and about public baptisms that put faith in the water. This month the map got larger, and it did it in rooms I can picture: a chapel that stayed open, a training center with a tub on the turf, a beach, a boulevard.

Southeastern University students stayed in Bush Chapel about ten days in February, then recorded what those nights sounded like. Life Pacific closed Welcome Week on September 4 with worship, prayer, and student-led baptisms. On September 14 at Toledo, about five people had signed up to be baptized and about fifty went into the water. Lakeland, Toledo, and Liberty's Wednesday nights are campus stories, close enough to sit in if you are nearby.

Merlin Kraft's BibleLadUK channel has about 7,100 subscribers as of September 18, 2026, and still produced 170 baptisms at Bigbury-on-Sea in South Devon. In Sweden, confirmation classes fill in twenty-four hours, and a youth-trend survey named Jesus as a guiding authority. In Paris, about 70,000 walked on June 6. Devon, Sweden, and Paris each have their own piece if you want the names and the dates.

What I want from you this week

Charles Sheldon was a pastor in Topeka, Kansas, and he built a novel around the question in 1896. In the mid-1990s I watched that question spread one youth group at a time, with no feed to track it and no campaign to measure. I still ask it, usually on a Tuesday, about someone who already has my number.

If a young adult in your life is newly serious about Jesus, sit with them this week. Take them to church. Open Scripture. Ask What Would Jesus Do? about one real decision, not a slogan. In His Steps is free here and in the SuperApp if you want the story that started it.

PRO TIP In His Steps is free in the WWJD.COM SuperApp in more than 30 languages. Read the first chapter before you decide what the question means this week.

How to live this week

Take a next step with someone who is already in your life.

1. Read Barna's September 15 report, then look at the young adults already in your church and ask whether they have a place to pray and a place to stand.
2. If you know a student, ask what God is doing on their campus, then ask who they sit with on Sunday.
3. Pray by name for one person in these stories.
4. Read or listen to In His Steps, free on this site and in the WWJD.COM SuperApp.

FAQ

Sources

• Barna Group: What Young Adults Are Looking for Spiritually at Church
• InfoChrétienne: 70,000 in Paris (June 25, 2026)
• CBN: UK ocean baptisms (Stephen Little, Sept 17, 2026)
• CBN: Sweden (Dale Hurd, Sept 10, 2026)
• Sports Spectrum: Toledo baptism night (Cole Claybourn, Sept 17, 2026)
• JubileeCast: SEU Worship Found in the Field (Clara Bajalan, Sept 8, 2026)
• Life Pacific: Fall One Day (Sept 11, 2026)
• WWJD.COM: The Porch in Dallas
• WWJD.COM: Marche pour Jésus in Paris
• WWJD.COM: UK ocean baptisms
• WWJD.COM: Sweden's Gen Z
• WWJD.COM: SEU Found in the Field
• WWJD.COM: Toledo, after the water
• WWJD.COM: Liberty Campus Community
• WWJD.COM: In His Steps
• WWJD.COM: Faith Is Rising
• WWJD.COM: Statement of Faith

Ask the Question - Live the Answer