The Revival No One Saw Coming
WELCOME to Issue #255 of The Seedhead from Alex and Hannah at Dandelion Resourcing - a weekly confidence booster to help you step into naturally supernatural discipleship and mission!
Church attendance among 18-24-year-olds has quadrupled since 2018 – and it's just the beginning of what God is doing across Britain.
While we were in England this summer, we went to church with my sister and her family. As we pushed open the huge oak door on the ancient building - the oldest part dating back to the 1100s - we were amazed by what we saw. Here’s a photo I snapped….
It was one minute before the service officially began, and the place was packed! There was such an energy in the air - both of joyful conversation (and the tea making station - truly a foretaste of the Kingdom), and also the presence of the Holy Spirit. We were squeezed into the far back corner of the building, as the surprisingly good band led us in some worshipful praise.
Before you think this was in some cool urban spot, this scene took place in a rural village, with the nearest college at least 10 miles away.
Being hardwired to count attendance (occupational hazard!), I saw around 120 folks in the ancient space, plus another dozen or so youth meeting in the church’s cafe, which they’d built a 1/4 mile away a few years previously as a community meeting space.
Talking with the vicar (lead pastor) after the service, he told me that since Christmas they had grown by 60 people, many of whom were either finding their way back to faith after often decades away, or completely new to faith.
Last Christmas they had zero youth, now they had a fully fledged youth group and an excellent leader who was now being brought on in a part-time capacity, as they could see lots of teens coming to faith in the months ahead.
When asked what had brought the change, he said that while the church was great at praying, and was mission minded, really the difference maker was the Holy Spirit. “This”, he declared, “is a work of God!”
The Numbers That Nobody Expected
Something remarkable is happening in the pews of Britain's churches – and it's not what you'd expect.
While headlines trumpet the decline of traditional religion, a counter-narrative is quietly unfolding. Young adults, the demographic supposedly most resistant to organized faith, are walking through church doors in unprecedented numbers. The statistics are startling: church attendance among 18-24-year-olds has quadrupled since 2018, jumping from just 4% to 16% in six short years.
The most dramatic shift? Young men are leading the charge. Male church attendance in this age group has surged from 4% to 21% – a five-fold increase that defies every cultural assumption about millennial and Gen Z spirituality. Young women have tripled their attendance, rising from 3% to 12%.
This isn't just a statistical blip. Overall church attendance has exploded by 56% between 2018 and 2024, with regular churchgoing Christians now representing 12% of England and Wales' population – up from 8% just six years ago.
The Bible Society calls it the “Quiet Revival”, and quiet it has been. While social media buzzed with debates about secularization and the supposed death of faith, young Britons were quietly filling church pews, seeking something that secular culture couldn't provide.
We’re not fans of calling it a revival (definitions matter!). It’s more than a renewal (of the church) - probably this is best described as an awakening, where some lost people (especially young adults) are waking up to the presence and necessity of walking with Jesus. However, it’s still not a massive culture-shaking and defining transformation… but it could become that!
When the Holy Spirit Blows in the Lost
We visited friends in a small blue-collar town in northern England. After the community’s main employer, a tractor factory, closed in the 1980s, the struggle with lack of employment, poverty, and social breakdown had been all too real.
Yet the small band of faithful believers had prayed and worked to create a different story. Gathering from across denominations, first they started a small charity shop, with proceeds being plowed back into that community. That grew and flourished, and other services began popping up within it: legal aid, financial management, skills trainings, marriage support, and so on. The regional council was facing financial cutbacks, so they decided to close the town hall - which the churches together team offered to take over to run their services, particularly the growing food bank.
So here’s the context: switched-on believers who had built up a good reputation in the wider community. However, church attendance was still low, and they’d never seen much break through evangelistically. All that has changed in under a year.
The Christians began adopting and praying a specific phrase - “Holy Spirit, please blow in the lost!”
During one midweek morning prayer meeting at the church in the town center, a little group were literally praying this afresh when the big old Victorian doors banged open, and in walked a middle aged couple, who started to look around. The local vicar said, “You carry on praying, I’d better go over and say hello!” It turned out this couple had last been in church 25 years ago, but had been feeling for a while that they wanted to try out church again! They came the next Sunday, and have been faithfully attending ever since.
Another man felt he was meant to go to church one Sunday, and brought his 17 yr old son. Three weeks later he was there again, and told our friends that his son had told him, “I feel such peace when I go”.
All sorts of similar stories have occurred, and that church has grown by 50% in about a year. God is quietly on the move.
Small Towns, Big Moves of God
In Kent, south-east of London, some friends in church leadership told us about their 22-year-old son (we remember praying over him after he was born!), who had taken to boldly praying not just for, but also with, his lost friends. Three of his mates in particular noticed that life had improved significantly since Aidan had prayed with them, so they asked our friends if they could come to church with the family! On their first Sunday, one of those guys was on the receiving end of an accurate and deeply encouraging prophetic word, which impacted them all.
Another young unchurched friend confessed that he had been listening to the Bible for 6 months, because he felt the world was in such a bad state. Eventually he asked his Mum if it would be alright if he could go to church!
These experiences are not outliers - they are becoming more and more commonplace. Next week we’ll share some more stories, and some thoughts on what might be going on.
Next Steps
As you read these stories, what response do you have? Are you cynical, doubtful, or dismissive? Or are you rejoicing, encouraged, and hungry to see something similar in your context? Reflect on your response, and if anything needs to change in your expectations.
“Holy Spirit, please blow in the lost!” Ask God for a phrase that you can start praying in your specific context - and begin praying it out loud with other believers, so they can join you too. If nothing specific comes to mind, start with this one!
It is so exciting to hear of God growing his church, especially in a postmodern Western context, where stories of rapid growth seem far less common. Let’s be prayerful, hopeful, and faithful in playing our part to pray in more of this move of God.
With love,
Alex + Hannah
ALEX AND HANNAH ABSALOM
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