Gen Z revival? UniteUS has drawn 45,000 college students this fall to lift up Jesus’ name

A movement of God on college campuses that began two years ago at Auburn University continued at Clemson University in South Carolina, where thousands of students packed the venue and hundreds streamed to the front to give their lives to Christ.

The UniteUS event last Tuesday at T. Ed Garrison Arena drew 6,000 college students to hear testimonies from speakers such as podcaster Bryce Crawford and to experience worship from Elevation Rhythm, one of the top groups in Christian music. At the end of the service, hundreds of members of Gen Z publicly professed their faith in Christ – many of them staying around to get baptized in portable tanks.

It wasn’t an isolated event. More than 45,000 college students have attended UniteUS gatherings this fall, with more than 140,000 participating since that first night at Auburn in the fall of 2023. 

The movement has drawn comparisons to revivals of the past, including the Jesus Movement of the 1970s. 

“It’s not a burden to follow Jesus. … It’s actually joyful. It’s actually freedom,” Crawford told the crowd, exhibiting the same energy and passion that have made his podcast popular among Gen Z. 

“Everything you’re looking for in your sin can be found just by handing it over to him,” he added. 

UniteUS was birthed in 2023 from an idea by founder Tonya Prewett, who grew burdened by the rising anxiety and depression she saw among the young women she mentored at Auburn University, where her daughters attended. 

She believes America is witnessing a revival among Gen Z. 

“Students right now are so hungry for truth and for hope,” she told Fox News, “and I think they’ve looked for it in every other place, and they’re realizing that the only truth and hope that they need is found in Jesus Christ.” 

More than 5,000 students filled Auburn’s Neville Arena on Sept. 12, 2023, for a night of worship, testimony and prayer, sparking a campuswide movement that soon went national. After the service, crowds walked to a nearby lake for spontaneous baptisms, setting the tone for what would soon become a multicampus movement of God across the country. 

This fall alone, UniteUS events have drawn 5,500 students at the University of Cincinnati; 6,000 students at North Carolina State; 7,000 at Grand Canyon University; 8,000 at the University of Tennessee; 7,000 at the University of South Florida; and 9,000 at the University of Oklahoma. Thousands have made professions of faith – and countless college students have been baptized. 

Previously, Prewett’s family was best known for daughter Madison Prewett’s 2020 appearance on The Bachelor, where she drew widespread attention for openly sharing that she was saving herself for marriage because of her Christian faith. 

Today, though, the Prewetts are best known for spearheading UniteUS. Madison spoke to the Clemson crowd, telling them plainly, “Only the blood of Jesus can set you free.” 

“Only the grace of God, someone greater than you, someone outside of enslaved humanity, can rescue me and you,” she said. 

The college movement comes as new data reveal a sweeping resurgence of interest in God’s Word among young adults. A November Barna poll reported a surge in Scripture engagement among that age group, with 50% of Millennials and 49% of Gen Z now reading the Bible weekly – jumps of 16 and 19 points, respectively, in just one year. 

Tonya Prewett said teens who were isolated during COVID developed addictions to their phones that deepened anxiety and depression and made them feel desperate for purpose. 

“What’s happening now is they’re coming back out of it and they’re realizing, ‘Hey, I need truth and hope, and this phone – and the things that I’m looking at, or the comparison that’s created through this phone – is not satisfying me. So I’m looking for something real. 

“And they’re hungry for it,” she told Jonathan Pokluda’s Becoming Something podcast. “And I think it’s also very contagious. So when we go to an event and we see God move, when we get to the next one, that school is on fire, ready to see God move in the same way.”