‘The Revival Generation’ Film Debuting at Kennedy Center Shows Gen Z Embracing Christian Faith 

Suicidal ideation, drug dealing and abuse, pornography addiction, crippling anxiety, and unforgiveness. 

Those are just some of the wrenching problems a group of pastors and ministers personally endured before their Christian faith healed them. 

Armed with these experiences, these leaders over the past two years have guided more than 100,000 college students nationwide in how faith in Jesus can also heal Gen Z, a generation wrestling with record depression and other mental illnesses. 

The story of these college gatherings, led by students and organized through a nonprofit called UniteUS, will be unveiled in a new documentary called “The Revival Generation,” premiering at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. 

The film, directed by Laura Hand, founder of Handwritten Studios, is produced by Christian Broadcasting Network’s Abigail Robertson.

“The media paints Gen Z as broken and lost, but what I saw on campuses was the opposite,” Hand told The Daily Signal. “We hear endless headlines about chaos and division, but almost nothing about the unity and faith spreading among students. I knew it was a story that needed to be told because the strength of our nation depends on the strength of our young people.”

“The Revival Generation” film has been endorsed by the Trump administration, which is taking a hands-on approach to reshaping the cultural powerhouse that is the Kennedy Center.

“In the early 1900s, my mom’s family was part of the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles which helped ignite the Jesus movement of the 1970s,” Ambassador Richard Grenell, president of the Kennedy Center, said in a press statement. “Today, we are on the cusp of another exciting revival in America and this film premiere at our nation’s cultural center highlights some of those beginnings.”

The documentary also features comments from Dr. Ben Carson, secretary of housing and urban development during the first Trump administration. 

“The Revival Generation” shares the story of UniteUs founder Tonya Prewett, a loving mother of three members of Gen Z who felt ignited by concern for one of her daughters, who almost died and landed in jail for drunk driving. Prewett’s daughter shares on camera her struggle with alcoholism and her mother’s unconditional, Christlike love through her shame and suicidal ideation while in jail.

Burdened by her daughter’s pain and Gen Z’s technology-infused anxieties, Prewett envisioned a series of gatherings for Christian evangelism, not unlike Billy Graham’s famous revivals from generations ago.

Seasoned author and Bible teacher Jennie Allen, one of the UniteUS ministers, is shown throughout the film joining with pastor Jonathan “JP” Pokluda, to mentor and baptize thousands of students at the revival gatherings, which began Sept. 12, 2023, with 6,000 students at Auburn University’s Neville Arena. 

Since then, students have invited UniteUs onto numerous campuses including Ohio State University, Florida State, University of Mississippi, Purdue, University of Alabama, and the University of Georgia. In September, UniteUs will land in Oklahoma, Phoenix, Cincinnati, Tennessee, and University of South Florida in Tampa.

Prior to the large stadium gathering with bright stage lights and music from viral contemporary worship groups like Elevation Rhythm, UniteUs connects with local pastors and campus ministry leaders in each community, bringing them in to set up tables outside the event so students can get connected that night. This ensures that the commitment made amid the glitz and glamour of the thunderous applause and bright lights in the arenas during an emotional night isn’t just a flash in a pan. 

Partnerships with the local and campus churches ensure the students get plugged into their local church, with many reporting they’re now serving at their church or leading small groups or discipleship programs—continuing in their faith walk.

In the film, Allen powerfully challenges a dusty stereotype that church is a place where people dress in their finest, putting up fake, shiny facades of perfectionism while secretly deeply mired in pain, sin and doubt. This inauthenticity fails with Gen Z. 

Allen poignantly calls for Christians to treat church as a hospital, a place for recovering sinners who encounter Jesus, the “Divine Physician,” who heals souls and binds wounds. She’s absolutely right.This is how a lost generation is found.

“The Revival Generation” will be available for streaming and DVD on Aug. 28.

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