Hunger For The Holy by Josh Green

How a season of brokeness birthed a vision for revival in a generation

Josh Green is the Co-Founder of Gen Zeal, a movement born from a deep passion to reverse the statistics of decline in church attendance and engagement among the next generation. Driven by a vision to see young people awakened to Jesus, Gen Zeal exists to ignite fresh hunger for God, equip youth in prayer, ground them in Scripture, and release them into bold gospel mission. Through his leadership, Josh champions a growing call to see a generation encounter God in a real, transformative way and to rebuild the spiritual landscape of the UK and beyond.

I’m excited to share with you his contribution to this weeks Wisdom Digest…

Never in my wildest dreams did I think we’d see mainstream newspapers reporting “global crises sending Gen Z to church,” or reports of a Quiet Revival in the UK, at least, that would’ve described my mindset in 2020.

For many around the globe it was a time of crisis, panic, pain, and a multitude of other issues from very major life-threatening situations all the way to losing businesses and income, to homeschooling and spinning a thousand plates whilst on a Zoom call.

It still baffles me that God seems to use suffering in profound ways. I can explain how pain produces a sense of determination and resolve to never give up. Romans 5:3b-4 says, “suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” The reality of actually experiencing suffering, however, often makes us feel as if character and hope are the furthest things away from us in those times.

And yet…David strengthened himself in the Lord, the Hebrews groaned in their slavery and God heard them, Elijah despaired for his very life and cried out to God with his head between his knees, Jesus agonised in prayer in Gethsemane to the point of producing Blood.

This is our biblical example of how to deal with difficult situations; run to God in prayer and cry out to Him in desperation. I love the words of the song, “in desperation I turned to heaven and spoke your Name into the night.” (Phil Wickham, Living Hope).

That’s what I did in 2021. I spoke the Name of Jesus into the situations I was facing and began to develop a holy hunger for God’s Presence. That may sound nice but it was deeply painful, incredibly awkward and rather broken. I was confronted by my lack of hunger for God and prayer, my cynicism and scepticism, and my lack of knowledge of what God was doing in my life. A whole lot of repentance followed but what came after surprised me.

I began having visions of a youth revival stirring in the UK and beyond. I had a picture of little fires sparking all across the nation – groups of young people hungry for Jesus, praying and seeking Him, and going out preaching the gospel. I’ve since become aware of many others who’ve had similar visions. But these visions seemed so far away from the reality of where we were in 2021. Narratives of decline within church and hopelessness outside of it.

It felt like revival was the only reasonable option to believe for because nothing else could turn the tide.

Four years on we’ve seen what God did at Asbury University where young people led the way in an incredible outpouring of God’s Spirit that reached 100,000 people in 16 days with thousands of salvations and many healings and deliverances. Youth festivals growing in the UK year on year with many reports of hundreds of salvations. We’ve seen gatherings of young people praying in their hundreds and thousands, some even through the night. Believe me, I’m just as amazed as anyone else.

People have been praying for this kind of thing to happen for years. In many ways, I feel like I’m reaping where I haven’t sowed in light of everything we’re seeing. Yes, I’ve been praying, along with many others, but I’m highlighting it because it’s incredibly important to recognise the need for all generations to be all-in for what God is doing. Part of what God is doing right now in the young I think can be traced to old saints who’ve gone before; those who’ve put decades of prayer and leadership in. That’s why you matter, friend. Whether you’re old or young, you have a part to play.

The question I’ve been thinking through more recently though is how does this become sustainable? The answer is to pray and fast like never before. We can’t graduate from this. Alongside this, there are unique things about Gen Z we need to be aware of, and I want to offer some hopefully helpful tips for how to engage.

Hunger needs catalysing – there’s clearly a hunger for the holy in Gen Z. There’s a passion that can’t be ignored. Let’s throw wood on it! Give them the space to go long and deep in worship, equip them to pray fervently, teach them the rich depths of Scripture, encourage to share their faith.

Openness needs challenging – according to Barna this generation are more open to spirituality than previous generations. Openness to all forms of spirituality can be dangerous so we must preach the Word faithfully and proclaim the age-old, never-failing, matchless gospel message of Christ, and Christ alone, as the Way, Truth and Life.

Brokenness needs comforting – This generation need the love of God. They need fathers and mothers. We’re faced with a mental health crisis. Society seems to have been crumbling all around them in their formative years. And that’s perhaps just the tip of the iceberg. We must get our knees and pray, “break our hearts for what breaks Yours, Lord,” and bring the comfort of God.

In terms of how we lead young people effectively beyond this I’ll close by offering two suggestions of spiritual formation:

Stretch - We need to stretch our young people to go deeper in prayer, to study the Word of God, to worship longer and develop a deep passion for the Lord. The more you stretch, the more you develop capacity for more.

Sustain - We need to teach the next generation to sustain the fire, to be consistent and steadfast, to be faithful and trustworthy, this ensures the passion burns for a life time rather than burns out. Zeal needs wisdom, guidance, discipline to be long-term.

If the next generation are hungry for the holy, we must be too. If we want to see this so-called Quiet Revival last and go beyond our generation, we must pray and ask God to pour His Spirit out. We must contend for it. We can’t stop now; things have only just begun. Who knows what God could do through your prayers today?