The Gospel of Jesus Christ was proclaimed on another college campus last week among a large gathering of students, resulting in professions of faith and on-site baptisms. Some Christian leaders are asking: Is an awakening being sparked among Generation Z?

This time, more than 10,000 students representing 37 different colleges gathered at the University of Arkansas’ Barnhill Arena in Fayetteville on Sept. 19 to worship Jesus and to hear a clear proclamation of the Gospel as part of a Unite US event.

It was the latest gathering organized by Unite US, which labels itself a “movement” that grew out of a large evangelistic and worship gathering at Auburn University in 2023 and has spread to places such as the University of Georgia and Texas A&M. Other Christian campus groups have hosted similar events on campuses nationwide in recent months.

At Ohio State University, a group of football players preached the Gospel and shared testimonies of how God had been working in them and among their teammates. The student newspaper, The Lantern, reported there were around 800 people at the outdoor campus gathering, resulting in decisions for Christ and an estimated 60 baptisms. At Texas A&M Corpus Christi earlier this month, 62 students publicly identified with Jesus Christ through baptism following a campus evangelistic rally.

“One thing I have people tell me sometimes is, ‘There’s no hope for this generation—they’re too far gone,’” said Tonya Prewitt of Unite US when asked on the Staytrue podcast if this is a spiritual awakening. “‘We can’t win this generation. They’re too involved in all these things—their phones, pornography, all the sin.’ But what I will say to them is, ‘I disagree with that. I believe this is the generation that will usher in the greatest move of God we’ve ever seen. And I believe what we’ve seen this past year in the fall and the spring is just the beginning.”  

In the last 12 months at Unite US gatherings on campuses mostly in the South, more than 2,000 salvation decisions and 800 baptisms have been recorded, Prewitt said.

Following a weeks-long revival that began at Asbury University in Kentucky in 2023, another revival occurred at Samford University in Alabama, followed by revival meetings at Auburn and numerous other colleges across the nation.

Nate Kearns, a fraternity member at the University of Georgia, told Fox News last April, “I just heard the call from the Lord, and He said, ‘Be obedient.’ I listened to Him to take a step of faith and let my fraternity brothers watch [his baptism].” 

Ohio State star wide receiver Emeka Egbuka told his campus newspaper in August: “We were praying for years and years for an event like this, and we were praying with expectation—we serve a miracle-working God. So we definitely had an expectation when it came out, but God did increasingly and abundantly more than what we thought. So, we’re just so blessed and thankful.”

David Kinnaman, CEO of Barna Research, said a Barna study on teenagers’ beliefs called The Open Generation should give the church reason for hope in this generation.

The study indicates that “young people may be fueling this rise in spiritual hunger. Overwhelmingly, Christian teens today say that Jesus still matters to them; 76 percent say ‘Jesus speaks to me in a way that is relevant to my life,’” Kinnaman wrote.

“In a culture that has generally downgraded the reputation of Christians and relegated Sunday worship and other church-related activities to the sidelines of society, teens remain refreshingly open to Jesus as an influence in their lives.”

Screenshot: Unite US / Instagram