When all the people saw it, they fell face down and said, “The LORD, he is God! The LORD, he is God!
In 2024 the UK’s Bible Society released a report called “The Quiet Revival”, which caused a considerable stir. Based on a survey they commissioned by pollster YouGov, it showed that there is a considerable uptick in regular church attendance among a younger generation. But the report had to be withdrawn when they found snags in the research method. They are working on a new report with a method that avoids any of these potential biases.
However, a different organisation, Passion For Life, has also been polling, quite independently. At yesterday’s Evangelical Ministry Assembly in London (Thursday 25 June 2026), Nick McQuaker, who heads up PfL, announced their results.
Strikingly, these showed that the Bible Society may have been close to the mark first time: PfL’s results also show a striking surge in church attendance and openness among a younger generation.
Anecdotal evidence backs this up. Bible sales have surged. And we are getting used to seeing quite a lot of openly professing Christians in the world of sport, especially football.
What’s going on? McQuaker suggested that the philosophy of this age is proving unliveable. For 1500 years our society had a basically Christian view of the world and ourselves: a fixed set of values, given by God. We knew who we are, and why we matter. But now we’re supposed to define ourselves, to believe in ourselves and live for ourselves. We’re told from school upwards that we’re the greatest – but that becomes harder to believe after the umpteenth job rejection.
The sexual revolution of the 1960s has left us with greater loneliness than ever. Moreover, we’re given no meaning to live by.
So people are realising that the prevailing world view they’ve been brought up on simply doesn’t work. As a friend of mine put it to me: “you can’t breathe in a vacuum”.
The book of Romans tells us that God hands us over to the consequences of our rebellion when we reject Him. It seems He’s been doing that to us as a society. But at the same time His Spirit is awakening people to begin to seek the only answer – in Jesus Christ.
Every Sunday we may meet people in church who are just finding out. So may we welcome them! And be aware of this increased interest in our conversations with friends and family. May there be many who encounter Jesus, and come to realise, as the people in Elijah’s day, that the Lord is God!
