500 Students Accept Christ at Texas University: ‘We're Seeing Things that We've Never Seen’
Michael Foust
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By Michael Foust, Crosswalk.com
An evangelist who led a campus-wide outreach where hundreds of students made decisions for Christ at a Texas college says a spiritual awakening is taking root across Gen Z – and that young people are hungry for Christ.
Evangelist Jay Lowder led an outreach at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas, in February that saw 500 students accept Christ – standing boldly before their peers to begin a new walk of faith. Stephen F. Austin is a public university that is part of the University of Texas system.
“We're seeing things that we've never seen,” Lowder told Crosswalk Headlines.
There were so many individuals coming forward to accept Christ, in fact, that Lowder asked those who were not making decisions to politely step out – giving him and other counselors room in the theater-like setting to minister to students.
“There's just such a hunger on the college campus,” he said, adding that there was no music played during the invitation, as is typically done during such a setting. “It's not an easy thing to do – to stand up in front of your peers and other people that you go to college with. … You couldn't stop these kids from saying yes to Christ.”
A similar movement is unfolding nationwide. The Unite US ministry, which began at Auburn University in the fall of 2023, has spread to campuses across the country, drawing roughly 50,000 students over two and a half years and resulting in thousands of decisions for Christ. A Barna survey released last fall found Bible reading among Gen Z and Millennials is rising, with nearly half engaging Scripture weekly.
Lowder sees a “real hunger” among young people. He heads Jay Lowder Harvest Ministries.
“I think some of the uncertainty that's going on in the culture, in the country – I think students are looking for something that's real. I think a lot of students have experimented with some of the vices that this life offers, and found those vices to be very empty.
“... If you could read the direct messages of some of these students who are lonely, who have mental health issues, who are suicidal, who are trying to find a reason not to end their life the night before they came to the event – it not only will break your heart, but it gives you a heart to see other people come to know Christ.”
The evangelist gently pushed back on skeptics who question the authenticity of such moments.
“I know there's always that crowd out there that says, ‘Well, is it emotionalism, or is it real?’ And the first thing I would say to those people is: Who are we to question anybody's salvation experience or commitment to Christ? We ought to always rejoice in that. But I think if you become so narrow-minded that the only news you're listening to is CNN or Fox, you're missing the point. I believe that the Scripture teaches that in the last days that God wants to pour out His Spirit. I mean, this is in black and white. And if we believe what God's Word says – we should not only be praying for that, we should be working towards that, we should be investing in that, and we should be rejoicing in that.”
Meanwhile, Lowder differentiated between the words “revival” and “awakening,” saying what he saw at Stephen F. Austin is an awakening.
“A lot of times these terms are used synonymously with one another, but they're completely different,” he said. “A revival is something that takes place among those of us who already know Christ. It's a reigniting, or a fanning of the flame that already exists. An awakening oftentimes is more synonymous with people who don't know Christ coming to know Christ.
“Undeniably, I would equate what we saw in SFA – I would call it an awakening.”
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Photo Credit: ©Jay Lowder Harvest Ministries
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
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