For God So Loved This Anxious Generation: Signs of Revival on Campus

Haywood Stowe

It going Iowa State was a last minute decision I got here, and I remember, like, that whole, like, time of beginning school year, there’s all these events going on. People would say something they were gonna go do, and then throw salt on on the name of it. Like, they’d be like, yeah, we’re going to this volleyball thing. Apparently, it’s like, through salt, where they’d say, like, oh, there’s this stuff going on MWL fields by the residence hall, and there’s the salt people doing it. And I’m like, What the heck is this?

Sarah Zylstra

Meet Haywood Stowe. He’s a junior at Iowa State University this year. So I was just

Haywood Stowe

like, hearing this salt, and I’m thinking, it’s like a school thing. So I go to him. I went to volleyball, I went to all these things. I was like, Man, these people know how to have a good time. They know how to have fun stuff. I mean, it was like, you could tell these people with something different about them. I didn’t put my finger on it, but I should have earlier, because I just knew I was like, You guys must be Christians. There’s something fishy here. None of y’all are saying any bad words this whole entire time you know. So I’m just like, they’re a little too kind, a little so demure.

Sarah Zylstra

Haywood grew up in a Christian home. He knew that Jesus had died for his sins, that the Bible is true and that God’s plans for his life are best.

Haywood Stowe

 I did understand it, I just didn’t care.

Sarah Zylstra

Until he got to college and was invited to join a small connection group associated with salt.

Haywood Stowe

And honestly, that’s how my life changed, because I got like what I’ve never had in my life, which is actual community, like meeting people that were on fire for God but then really cared about you.

Sarah Zylstra

Heywood was hooked, and he wasn’t the only one. The salt company is probably the biggest campus ministry you’ve never heard of. It was started in the late 1980s by a tiny Baptist Church near Iowa State University. 30 years later, there are salt companies on 33 campuses in 16 states, reaching more than 12,000 college students a year. They do a lot of things you’d expect, large praise and worship gatherings, smaller Bible studies and summer mission trips, but they also do some things you wouldn’t anticipate, like being so committed to the authority of the local church that if they can’t find a suitable congregation near campus willing to partner with them. They’ll plant one, like taking kids through a gospel class that has essentially reformed systematic theology, and like talking over and over again about sin, I love the local church, and I think we should talk more about sin, but that is not why I love this story so much. Here’s haywood’s friend Morgan panache, who came to Christ during her time at salt. It was right after a bad breakup, so I was begging

Speaker 1

God. I was like, please just like, take this anger away. Like I can’t handle it right now, and miraculously, like it’s like the forgiveness for the first time made sense to me. It was like, like I was finally able to just forgive him. Like it was like a wash of God’s grace and peace went over me. I was like, wow, I can actually forgive him, and it’s not like a thing I’m putting on. Then it came from like, recognizing what God’s forgiveness was for me. And it was like, when those two things, it was like, Oh, I feel forgiveness for him. I was like, how much worse Am I in the eyes of God, and he fully forgives me. And that’s when everything just finally clicked. And it was like, yeah, like, this, can’t go in and out, like, I have to be for God.

Sarah Zylstra

We hear a lot about Gen Z these days. They don’t go to church, they don’t trust institutions, they don’t read their Bibles, and they don’t believe in Jesus, and that’s true. Overall, they don’t do any of those things as much as their parents and grandparents did. And yet, if you talk to campus ministry leaders, they will tell you that Gen Z is looking for help. Their culture is asking them to form their own identity around the rapidly changing trends on social media, and this is leading to all sorts of problems, anxieties, addictions and sin. Gen Z is struggling to find out who they are, what is real and what is trustworthy, and many of them are finding it in the Gospel. Campus ministry leaders keep telling me it looks like a revival is starting to bubble in some places like at Salt, it is boiling Over. I’m Sarah Zylstra, and you’re listening to record it.

Sarah Zylstra

Before we talk about Gen Z, we need to talk about Gen X. When that generation was in college back in 1985 Ronald Reagan was beginning his second term. Nintendo was making its American debut, and teacher, Christa McAuliffe, was selected to join the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger. That same year, Troy Nesbitt took his first job. I

Troy Nesbitt

was offered the job of the freshman director of the Bab Student Union, which at that time had about 60 students, and I would just work with freshmen.

Sarah Zylstra

I. The Baptist Student Union is the college ministry of the Southern Baptist Convention. It was founded in 1919 in Texas, and like the SBC itself, had grown like crazy by the mid 1990s it was larger than Campus Crusade navigators and InterVarsity combined. Troy was young, just out of college himself. He was energetic and fun. When the students managed to get 100 people to a large group gathering, he shaved his head and Troy loved the Bible. As Troy enthusiastically helped students understand the gospel, the ministry began to grow more rapidly when the lead director position came open two years later, Troy was an easy pick to fill it. Brent Haverkamp was a junior at Iowa State that year. He and his friend Chad were looking for a solid campus ministry,

Brent Haverkamp

so we went and visited every Christian student group that we could find. So third week in the semester, we went to a little group called Baptist Student Union, and it was Troy nesbitt’s first year of leading Chad and I looked at each other, said, Oh, we found it. We just found it. And I think it was because it was real and authentic. People were, you know, they weren’t pretty on show. They were just trying to figure out how to follow Jesus. Troy is one of the most authentic people, you know, that I know he’s very transparent and vulnerable, and so that was something that I was unused to in a more formal, you know, a little more liturgical church setting, really. That was the start of a whole changed life for me.

Sarah Zylstra

Brent loved the way that Troy didn’t paper over the parts of Christianity that could seem boring or confusing. He loved that Troy confessed his mistakes and sin out loud. He loved that Troy didn’t always know what to do, but that he was always eager to do something. Brent also loved the people Troy was gathering, especially a girl named Tori.

Tory

I came from a Methodist background, but I wasn’t really a Christian. Didn’t understand the gospel, and so my sister had visited. She said they called it Thursday night thing. You have to go to the TNT Thursday night thing with me. And so she started understanding the gospel, and then she just kind of brought me in. I went to a retreat, probably in the spring of that year, became Christian, and just ate

Sarah Zylstra

it up. You know, it was all so different than I knew church to be. Kids were being saved. Lives were being changed. Couples like Brent and Tory were dating and getting married. Troy should have been thrilled, but he wasn’t.

Troy Nesbitt

I was just convicted biblically that I didn’t want to lead a parachurch ministry and not a denominational ministry. I wanted to lead a local church ministry. To

Sarah Zylstra

me today, the desire to bring a campus ministry under the authority of a local church sounds good and right, but that wasn’t a normal desire back in the 1980s the most well known campus ministries, from the navigators to young life to Campus Crusade for Christ, were para church organizations. In other words, they weren’t under the authority of a single church, but they worked alongside many churches. Other ministries, like the Baptist Student Union, were under the authority of a denomination, but only loosely connected with local congregations. Now, neither of these are bad models. First, they allow smaller churches to combine their resources to support a larger ministry. And second, the parachurch models allows campus ministries to avoid getting stuck in denominational identities. If you went to the Baptist Student Union, you’re probably going to be Baptist, but if you went to InterVarsity, you could be from any denomination. Troy knew about those advantages, but he also knew something else.

Troy Nesbitt

The midst of studying the scriptures, saw that the local church was God’s plan A and the reason that churches weren’t reaching college students was because college students don’t pay the bills, and you could see these historic church facilities adjacent to every campus, but students weren’t going there. And so I felt like the Para church experience that I’m so grateful for, Bill Bright and Dawson Trotman and Stacy Wood, who knew the church was neglecting the next generation, and so they did what they did. But I just, in my conscience, wanted to have a church based college ministry. Wanted to disciple students in the context of the local church in

Sarah Zylstra

pursuing his convictions, Troy had a huge advantage. His dad was the pastor of Grand Avenue Baptist Church, which sits about a mile and a half from Iowa State in Ames without too much trouble. Troy moved his ministry there. He was still raising his own support, but now he was on staff at the church and under the authority of. Leaders there with its new name, salt company after Matthew 513 and its new church connection, the ministry grew rapidly. Within a few years, it had ballooned to 200 students. Another 50 had graduated, married each other, settled down in Ames and joined Grand Avenue Baptist Church, if you’re counting, that’s about 250 church attendees younger than 30.

Brent Haverkamp

And then maybe there’s 150 you know, maybe 40 and older. And that was the divide at Grand Avenue.

Sarah Zylstra

Divide is exactly the right word for it. Within a few years, this traditional Baptist Church had been swamped by students. Some of the church members were uncomfortable with the name salt, wondering if the students were trying to distance themselves from the Baptist label. Some didn’t like the way the students dressed, or the way they were pushing for a more contemporary worship style. Troy and his team didn’t like the way the church limited their small salaries, which they were raising themselves to what it could afford to pay its staff.

Haywood Stowe

My dad and I were not in conflict, but I was in conflict with much of leaders of the church, and in fact, I would have got fired at least three times had it not been for my dad. Troy’s

Sarah Zylstra

experiment seemed to be failing miserably. The natural solution was to stop back up and return to the Para church model.

Speaker 2

My brother and Pete, who were two guys that were on staff with me full time, said, Troy, just, let’s just start

Sarah Zylstra

a church. Or you could do that. Starting a church that welcomed, focused on and prioritized youth was an interesting idea. Troy is a bold guy, but in this he was hesitant. I said,

Speaker 2

I I’ve been a Maverick and a rebel, and I’m just not gonna do it. I want to serve my dad. I want to faithfully lead this church, and so I’m not gonna do that unless we can get the blessing of the Church, which there’s no way we were gonna get that. And so had lunch with my mom and dad, my wife and I did and shared the desire that we had, and God had already done a work in their heart. I think they were kind of ready.

Sarah Zylstra

Grand Avenue voted to plant their young people in a new church called cornerstone. Right off the bat, there were financial troubles. Cornerstone hardly had anybody older than 30. Most members were still in college. The rest were early in their careers, which means there was no real money, and at the same time there was a real financial need. You cannot fit 250 people into a living room. You cannot cheaply feed them or provide discipleship materials for them. You can’t really even have a bi vocational pastor because he would not have enough hours left in his evenings and weekends to adequately care for that many people.

Speaker 3

Theresa and I both gave plasma twice a week, and that was our food budget for our family.

Sarah Zylstra

That’s Jeff dodge, who moved with his wife, Teresa and his four kids to Ames to take care of the salt company so Troy could focus on Cornerstone the

Speaker 3

growth was happening so fast that any time there’s extra money in the budget that could have maybe gone to a raise or whatever. We wanted to hire more staff, or we wanted to get out of this rental situation we’re in, or there’s always something it seemed like more worthy than personal basis, you know. So, and I was all in, that’s not, I’m not saying that begrudgingly, like somebody else did that to me. I’m saying collectively, you’re all in. You just keep you know, so, yeah, that went for a while. Not gonna lie,

Sarah Zylstra

it went on for a few years. The church members held garage sales, sold cinnamon rolls from folding tables outside of Walmart, and bought their clothes at thrift stores. They gave each other haircuts, quit going to the movies and ate at home. They delayed buying houses or furniture, handed over their year end bonuses and asked other salt alumni for donations, anything that they earned or saved went to the church. Still they were nearly always out of money because the ministry wouldn’t quit growing. The 90s was a heady time for American evangelicals, while mainline church attendance was already dropping, the percent of Evangelicals was actually peaking with 15,000 weekly attendees. Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago was a prototype of the new seeker sensitive mega church movement in Atlanta Andy Stanley was doing the same thing. Within five years, his North Point church plant had 5000 members and an 83 acre campus. In California. Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church was busy building a $12,000,000.30 500 seat Worship Center in Iowa, the number of salt. Students tripled from 200 to 600 in the first 10 years. Cornerstone’s growth was even more dramatic, jumping from 250 to 1200 in some ways, Cornerstone did look like high balls willow creek or Stanley’s North Point church. They put on elaborate theatrical performances to drawing community members, created a professional level Kids program and built an auditorium that could hold 1800 people. But in other ways, Cornerstone didn’t look like Willow Creek at all.

Speaker 4

You know, we would go to a willow creek conference, you know, to learn about just practically how to do ministry, but we’d go to Bethlehem to learn theology. That’s

Sarah Zylstra

Mark Arendt, who is on staff with salt. Then, by Bethlehem, he means the conference and resources put out by Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, then led by longtime Pastor John Piper, the person influencing Cornerstone toward Bethlehem was Jeff dodge. Jeff had come to Christ in college when he asked a guy if he could borrow his ID, and the guy gave him the gospel. Instead, Jeff came to Christ stopped smoking pot and started listening to RC Sproul and John MacArthur. He went to seminary, and then he went to seminary again over the years, he has collected an M div from the Masters seminary and a d min and a PhD from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In 1996 Troy asked Jeff to head up the salt company. It was a good choice.

Speaker 3

When I first got there, you know, they were saying things like, you know, we just tell people not to bring their Bibles, because we don’t want the unbelievers to feel bad when they walk in and they’re the only ones without a Bible. And I was like, That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard that ends now. But Troy was great. Troy was like, hey, whatever you want to we brought you in to do what you think is right. And I didn’t say that again out of disdain or what I was watching, whatever they were doing was incredible.

Sarah Zylstra

Jeff looked at all those college students on fire for the Lord, and wanted to teach them theology.

Speaker 3

I’m like, we need substance. We need biblical literacy. And so, yeah, it was a great match, because Troy would often well, I even dedicated my first dissertation to him, like pushed me to do things that I didn’t think I could do, because he was like that. He could motivate, he could he could fuel you with vision, right? But I was more the get anchored in the Bible. We did a thing where we got enough ESV bibles to give to every single soul, so everybody would be reading their bible. Jeff

Sarah Zylstra

taught the scriptures expositionally, both Thursday nights and later when he became a pastor at Cornerstone on Sunday mornings. Then he designed something called gospel 101, and it’s a five week course. That’s Sophie Newberry. She’s a senior in college this year.

Speaker 5

So it lays out the definition of the gospel as the good news that God saves sinners through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. And so then each week, it focuses on, like, a different part of that definition. I’ve taken gospel one every semester of college so far, and I’m like, constantly like learning new things and like being able to pull out different things from different verses, or, like, just like the definition itself.

Sarah Zylstra

One of my favorite things about gospel 101, is the homework each

Speaker 5

week. It prompts, like survey questions. So one of the survey questions for week one is on a scale of one to 10. How would you rate humanity? So then that, like, we just go to random students on campus and ask that question, and then they’re like, oh yeah. Like, probably five six. Like, there’s good people, but there’s also bad people. And then it’s like, you flip the question to like, how would you rate yourself on a scale of one to 10? And they can say, like, oh, like, I think I’m a seven, like, I’m pretty good. Like, blah, blah. And then we have the opportunity to be like, can I tell you why I think I’m a zero? And like, I like, I know that I’m a sinner. Like, yeah, just like, the opportunity that gospel 101 gives to, like, fuel conversations like that, yeah, in a way that it’s like, we can phrase that. It’s like, oh, like, I’m taking this class and I have to do these survey questions. Can I ask you? Because then that’s like, I don’t know. It’s less intimidating when it’s homework.

Sarah Zylstra

By the time students are done with gospel 101, they should have a clear grasp of the Gospel, the beginnings of a theological framework and experience having conversations about faith with non Christians, the Gospel 101, curriculum is so effective that Jeff wrote it into a book that’s used by every salt company today. But the ministry doesn’t stop there. Here’s Graham Spruill, who is currently leading salt at Iowa State

Haywood Stowe

captains. Is a Monday morning meeting where we walk through Wayne Grudem, Bible doctrine, the abridged edition of. Of systematic theology. And so we just pick a chapter, and, you know, this week it’s on spiritual Yes, or this week it’s on the Trinity. So those are kind of the different streams to impact the head. And then weekly, our students are in discipleship groups, which is either with our staff or a community member, you know, lay leader on the church side of things, to just care for the heart as they do the hands the job

Sarah Zylstra

that close discipleship connection to church members is the direct fruit of Troy’s decision to move to a local church ministry. So is the clear on ramp for college students in salt to join cornerstone. It works like this. A student gets invited to salt events where he or she hears the gospel and hopefully accepts it, responds in community, and starts to be discipled by peers and small groups. The leaders are constantly inviting their small group to church. And not just want to come to church this Sunday, but more like, I really want to see you at church on Sunday. Can I pick you up and then after our pattern is established, it’s more like, I’ll text you what time I’m going to grab you from your dorm on Sunday morning. Cornerstone Lead Pastor Mark Vance said that about 60% of the students who come to salt on Thursday night also show up again on Sunday morning. Throughout the semester, all baptisms are done on Sunday morning with the church. The students are invited to special equipping events at the church, and there is special encouragement to come to church during Advent, Lent and Easter. To be a student leader in salt, a young person must become a student member at Cornerstone. Mark said these leaders are expected to attend church on Sundays, serve in church ministries, give financially and go to members events. Their discipleship groups are led by church elders or core church members, Mark told me that his goal is not a four year college experience, but to plant seeds of godly growth that would one day result in these students becoming elders or pillars of their own local churches after nearly 40 years of this. This is what Iowa State looks like.

Speaker 1

I can’t walk into the mu, which is our Memorial Union, and not see people being approached to like and asking spiritual questions and having conversations like, it’s impossible. I’ve been approached so many times by people who are like, Oh, do you believe in God? I’m like, Yes, I do. I’m actually leader at Salt. Thank you. Let’s have this conversation. Because you’re like, oh, I don’t want to bother you. Then I’m like, No, if you want to talk about God, I will talk about God, but come back when you’re done fishing. You know,

Sarah Zylstra

this is fascinating to me, because the Iowa state that Morgan goes to is not the same place that Brent and Tory attended. America’s shift away from religion has been especially pronounced among the younger generation and on university campuses that was already visible back in 2010 when the percentage of freshmen who had attended a church service in the past year had dropped to 75% Christian professors and students were starting to complain about religious discrimination over the next decade, a handful of campus ministries, including the Christian legal society, InterVarsity crew and young life were kicked off of campuses for requiring members to hold to Christian beliefs, specifically the belief that sex belongs inside the marriage of one man and one woman. One of the places that has shown some of the most blatant hostility to Christian groups is the University of Iowa, just two hours down the road from Iowa State. To understand the next part of the story, you need to know something about college rivalries. This is what happens when two schools are relatively close to one another and compete regularly, most notably in sports. Nearly every school has at least one main rival, and the emotion around them can be intense. Think Duke versus North Carolina, Auburn versus Alabama, or UCLA versus USC. Iowa State’s biggest rival is the University of Iowa in Iowa City, the state’s two biggest schools play each other in just about every sport, intensifying the rivalry is the fact that the state of Iowa has no major professional sports, and so most of the state’s population ends up picking one of these schools as their favorite sports team. Unsurprisingly, the salt alumni and their families cheered for Iowa State one of Troy’s daughters, Trisha, grew up dreaming of playing basketball there. She was an excellent point guard in high school, so it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. But that is not what happened.

Speaker 2

She didn’t get an offer at Iowa State because they had plenty of point guards, but got an offer to play University of Iowa, which was close, and she wanted to stay close, and so at that time, man, they were the Antichrist. You know, they were the enemy.

Sarah Zylstra

Troy and his family gritted their teeth and supported Tricia as she headed over to Iowa City.

Speaker 2

When she took that scholarship, we decided to go help her find a church.

Sarah Zylstra

They visited a few churches, but couldn’t find. Find anything that had both good theology and a love for young people. So when Troy got back to Ames, he asked Mark Arendt, who was leading the salt company, if he’d plant a church and a college ministry in Iowa City. Now this was not an attractive opportunity. The folks at Cornerstone had just finished construction of a new space, not only would mark not get to enjoy it and the momentum of salt company, but he would have to start from scratch at a school he’d been cheering against since he was a freshman in college. Well, almost from scratch. Troy

Speaker 4

is like, hey, anyone on staff ask him. So we went to our salt staff. I think there were 12 of us. We sat in Jeff dodges dining room and announced to them, I’m going to Iowa City, and who wants to go? And we went around, and all of them said, yeah, we’ll go. Well, you can’t all go. And so let’s take some time to think about it. That Thursday night, we announced it at salt company. Who wants to go? There were, I mean, over 100 students that stood up and said, Yeah, we want to go. Really

Sarah Zylstra

the salt staff all wanted to go back to eating beans and rice in a new city. The Salt students, some of whom were seniors, wanted to transfer to a new school the next Sunday, Mark stood up at Cornerstone and asked the same thing. Brent and Tori were there, along with their high school senior, Luke, had decided to enroll at Iowa State and they were so thrilled that for Christmas, they bought him all kinds of Iowa State clothes.

Speaker 6

Tory and I are Iowa State graduates, and Tori has two sisters, and they’re both Iowa State graduates. They both have husbands that are Iowa State graduates. I have two sisters. They’re Iowa State graduates. They both have husbands. They’re Iowa State graduates. And so, you know, the University of Iowa is our rival. What kind of pro Iowa State? Yeah, you know, we’re, big Iowa State fans. We live in town, you know,

Speaker 7

we raise our children to be cyclones. But he asks out of the corner

Speaker 6

of my eye, I see somebody stand up, and I look and I say, That’s my son. Not only

Speaker 8

did he stand, but he was sitting right next to me, and he stood like he was 85 you know, he pushed up on the chair very shakily and just was so he knew the weight of this, and he was just shaky because he had chosen to do this really hard thing as an 18 year old. What on earth why? You

Speaker 6

know he and to me that I don’t remember something to the effect of, I know how important that was for you and mom and I just wanted the opportunity, you know, to do something like you were able to do that is impactful.

Sarah Zylstra

In the summer of 2010 about 50 salt kids transferred from Iowa State to the University of Iowa. Of the seven, salt staff, six chose to move. One stayed behind, but only because somebody had to rebuild the staff to serve the 800 kids coming to the original salt. There is strength in numbers, but still, there was no guarantee this second salt company was going to work

Speaker 4

Iowa City. It’s a very liberal city. It’s a different kind of university, right? It’s, they have the Writers Workshop. They have just more of a liberal arts culture. Marilyn Robinson’s there and there’s, it’s kind of a bastion for literature and the arts, and so it’s different. I had someone well intentioned pastor sat me down and said, Well, you know, this isn’t gonna work there. It’s a different place. So if you plan on trying to do Cornerstone Church in Iowa City, it’s just not gonna work

Sarah Zylstra

that pastor was right. The campus was more liberal. The University of Iowa was the first state university in the country to recognize a gay student organization and to offer insurance benefits to employees domestic partners. By 2010 they had a pride house, degrees in gender and sexuality and a medical student club advocating for LGBTQ healthcare. We

Speaker 4

got to Iowa, it was more common for students as part of their college experience to experiment with same sex relationships or hookups, just to find out, is that part of who am I?

Sarah Zylstra

So it surprised everyone when Veritas, church and the University of Iowa salt company took off. Students wanted to hear the Word of God. They wanted to confess sin. They wanted to learn theology and community members, especially those older than 50, wanted to be in a church that focused on youth. Within three years, about 600 people were coming to Veritas, 400 of them part of the college ministry.

Speaker 4

I’ve always said that I think salt company trained monkey. Could lead it, because it’s, it’s so God’s blessing. And I think that we are standing under a particular waterfall of God’s grace, that that is truly amazing. So, so anything that we did, it was so obviously God. I know, I think in the 2000 years of church history, there’s never been a more spoiled church planter than me. It’s put on a T and it probably even, you know, if you even miss the ball, you still hit the thing, and the ball still, and you still get to first base. It just, it was so, so from the Lord and and so now, how much more obvious is it that it was all God’s grace. Over

Sarah Zylstra

the last 11 years, with help from the Southern Baptist Convention, the salt network has planted churches and started salt companies in around 30 different places, including the University of Kansas, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Ohio State, Syracuse, Purdue, the University of Florida, the University of Oregon and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. By the end of 2024 the salt network was serving more than 12,000 college students in 16 states. Some of these chapters are exploding, like Florida, where 1200 kids showed up for the salt kickoff in August. Some are a little smaller, like at Syracuse, where salt isn’t allowed to operate on campus and holds its meetings in other nearby locations, but all of them are growing and in a university climate that is more liberal every year, from 1989 to 2017 basically from the time Troy launched the first salt to when the expansion began, the percent of university faculty identifying as politically liberal grew significantly, and the percent of liberal administrators grew even more. By 2017 for every conservative faculty member, there were five liberals for every conservative student facing administrator, there were 12 liberal or very liberal administrators. That’s not great news for Christians, because those who are politically liberal are statistically less likely to believe in God or call themselves evangelical Christians. That lopsided number of liberals has also contributed to the growth of things like trigger words, safe spaces, rescinded speaking invitations, or the firing of those who seem too controversial, and a lot of self censoring from students and faculty alike. So what does that mean for salt, how do Christians effectively engage a secular campus in 2025

Speaker 5

they jump right in the first couple weeks of school. They throw so many different events that it’s like impossible to run into someone on campus who hasn’t heard of something that’s going on. So the week before school is like freshman move in week on campus. So we do, as like student leaders, we do an event called MTC, which is mission trip to campus. And so during the day we’re on campus, just trying to meet students that are walking around and tell them about the events that we have going on. They

Brent Haverkamp

just had a bunch of puppies on campus with lollipops one day. The

Tory

environment that we have here, specifically at Oregon, is a very like sport, heavy, very social environment. And we do Saturday morning football is a thing that we do. We go down the on the fields and play touch two and touch football, we have like 30 guys who come out. We’ll do different events, like we would go hiking, or we’ll have sports games, and we have, like intramural clubs and stuff like that.

Sarah Zylstra

A lot of this might seem obvious. For decades, campus ministries have been pulling kids in through activities and relationships, but campus ministers tell me that Gen Z, hampered by cell phones and COVID is struggling to connect at Iowa State, one student told Sophie that it was intimidating to be in the worship time with 1000 other kids. Another told Graham that fellowship in the church lobby was causing social anxiety.

Haywood Stowe

Would there be a day in which the big gathering we need to it’s like we gotta plan some more acoustic sets, because it’s, it’s anxiety inducing to be like ripping five songs that are high energy. I think we want to keep our pulse on that.

Sarah Zylstra

Let’s dig into that a little bit. We know that from 2010 to 2019 the percent of undergraduates with a diagnosis of anxiety more than doubled from 10% to nearly 25% increasingly, I am hearing young people say things like, anxiety is part of my identity.

Speaker 9

I think the core struggle, and I’m not trying to put all Gen Z in a box, but I think the core struggle is certainly anxiety. I think part of the reason why people are anxious, why people are afraid, is all of it centered around this identity question, Who am I? What do I believe? What do I feel?

Sarah Zylstra

That’s Connell Christensen, assault ministry leader at Iowa State. I hear what he’s saying. This generation is struggling to come of age without much help from moral codes, healthy cultural expectations or strong community ties. And social media makes this struggle even worse. Here’s Sydney. Haggard a student at Oregon this year. Most

Brent Haverkamp

of us got it in middle school. It really creates this idea in your head that you have to have the perfect life, you have to put on a show, and all of that is just not real and not real life, and you’ll never be perfect.

Sarah Zylstra

You don’t have to look at anxiety from this angle for very long before you can start to see the pride underneath it.

Speaker 1

I’ve just seen a transition of learning to not need to control every aspect of my life and not being perfect like those were the two key parts of my anxiety. So I’m very blessed that, like, while I did struggle with anxiety, it wasn’t just like it all throughout my life. It’s just been there for no reason. So coming to actually, like, fully believe the truth, diminished so much of that anxiety because it was like, Oh, I actually don’t have control of my life, and that’s okay. Like, I can give that to God, and I can’t be perfect. So it’s like, He’s perfect for me. It’s okay. So that really helps with that anxiety.

Sarah Zylstra

Morgan told me that anxiety can sometimes be the way a person relates to those around her. I feel

Speaker 1

like a lot of people who are putting it on themselves were like, literally, like, finding reasons to become anxious and making themselves anxious, because that’s what fitting in looked like for our generation, and it very much was we had a really negative, painful mindset of, if something was bad for you someone, it had to be worse for you. Like, it was the same thing with sleep. We’d be like, Oh, I only slept for five hours. Oh, well, I only slept for three and a half. Like there was this mentality that we wanted to be in the lowest, like, the worst possible state. And I don’t know why that was. I think for me, it was like a cry out for oh, please give me love and attention and care for me. But it’s like a whole generation of people who are wanting to be in the worst possible shape, at first

Sarah Zylstra

glance, that might look like humility, but for Gen Z, the power structure is flipped to

Speaker 1

victims or the people, just like, if they oppressed or whatever, have more of a voice. It’s like everyone else doesn’t get an opinion, because, oh, I’ve been oppressed, so like I’m the one who should be talking. And I think that’s spread really, really far, really, really fast. And I think a lot of people are like, oh, I want to be with that oppressed group because I like, and then I can, like, share. It’s like, oh, I’m right. Like, I’ve been hurt. Like, I get to speak on this, you know, it’s like, a superiority thing too. It’s like, oh, I want to be the worst, but I want to use that because I want to show you that I am better because I’m lower. Like, it’s a really weird inverted scheme

Sarah Zylstra

for Morgan coming to Christ and walking out her faith with girls in her connection group significantly decreased her anxiety. I heard that from others too. Students who believe in Jesus can stop trying so hard, stop glorifying brokenness. They can rest in Jesus, perfection, his sovereignty, his care for them, they can serve instead of asking to be served. When Jonathan Haidt wrote the anxious generation, there was one chart he left out this summer, his research assistant released it in an article called, Why are religious teens happier than their secular peers? Here’s what he wrote, teens without a religious affiliation, across the political spectrum, started reporting that they felt lonely, worthless, anxious and depressed at much higher rates, starting in the early 2010s however, religious teens, especially those who report being more conservative, did not. You can see it in his chart. Kids who are religious and conservative report significantly better mental health than their peers who are secular, liberal or both. The Secret wrote the researcher is likely not any particular belief system, but the way organized religion and shared beliefs bind communities together. Hmm, that’s not exactly what I’m hearing. Community is really important, but it doesn’t change lives the way the gospel does. That is why one of the first things students hear in their salt connection groups is not a comfortable speech about Jesus’ care for the anxious and the depressed. In fact, the first big idea introduced through testimonies couldn’t be less comfortable or more challenging and unpopular. It’s sin.

Speaker 1

When I got to my first couple of small groups, or C groups with only a couple of people, get really personal really quick, we had the chance to all of us share our testimonies and share what our lives were like, and to be met by such love from my leaders and not judgment. I was like, these are some things are really shameful for me, and like, I’m carrying a lot of brokenness for but they weren’t shaming me, and they just wanted to get to know it even deeper, and to know how to better love me through that. At

Sarah Zylstra

the beginning of each year, C group leaders share their testimonies, including some of their past sin that Jesus has taken away this honesty and vulnerability comes from Troy’s DNA, but the idea of sin isn’t nearly as socially acceptable as it was back when Troy was leading the discussions. The concept of sin is rarely expressed in today’s popular culture. Author Hilary brand wrote after doing some research in 26 Mean, when the word does appear, it is frequently in ironic quotation marks and often used in terms of naughty but nice minor misdemeanors, something disapproved of, an outmoded Catholic shame culture, Islamic oppression or fundamentalist extremism. Rarely is it used the way the church understands it. In fact, the word sin has grown so unpopular that in 2007 the Oxford Junior dictionary removed it, arguing that it was no longer language children will commonly come across at home and at school in a hypersensitive college culture, then you would think that leading with sin might not be the best idea, but to a lot of students talking about sin, feels like being authentic. Here’s Sydney again, I

Brent Haverkamp

feel like salt company does a great job about being very authentic and real, and that’s something that’s difficult to find, especially in the Pacific Northwest, because people don’t really grow up Christian, and so a lot of churches will push the love part of the gospel, and I think that’s super important, but what salt company does is they also bring in the truth part. And so that was something that I was really looking for, was people to not call me out, but call me up and out of sin. Sidney

Sarah Zylstra

said that the sins she sees students struggling with the most are the misuse of alcohol and sex. It makes sense to me that kids, especially Christian kids, would identify those as sin. But I know college students these days aren’t as likely to grow up in a Christian household in the public schools, sexual experimentation and pornography use is often seen as normal and healthy. So what do those kids think about the confession of sin. There definitely

Tory

are some things with some of the guys where we’re confessing and they are maybe don’t agree that it’s a bad thing. That’s

Sarah Zylstra

Austin Fisher, a senior studying financial management with porn or

Tory

with drinking. They’re like, I went out and drink, but it’s like, I didn’t black out, or I didn’t throw up on other people. So it’s like, I’m healthy. It’s not gonna I’m not gonna die from it, like, if I do it more often and heavily maybe, but I’m not at that stage right now. It’s kind of like There’s levels to this kind of thing. There’s definitely other things where they may not understand why we’re confessing it, but they kind of get the the gist of how it affects the rest of the group,

Sarah Zylstra

as you can imagine, confessing sins of pride or discontentment or laziness can be even more confusing.

Brent Haverkamp

I definitely had parts of my life that I compartmentalized and didn’t want to fully give to the Lord, and a lot of that had to do with the overachiever mindset that I have, and I just had my goals and I had my plans, and I didn’t want to allow God to move within that. Sydney

Sarah Zylstra

confessed that to her C group, and I asked what the unbelieving girls thought of that.

Brent Haverkamp

Yeah, it’s definitely different, but a lot of girls are just that come to C group, are very open to hearing everything. So it definitely allows for a lot of deeper conversations. I’ll have girls text me after and be like, hey. Like, I really want to learn more about what you said. Like, that was interesting. Like, even though I don’t think that’s a sin, I would like to hear more about how you do think it is sin. And that just opens so many doors for really great gospel opportunities and conversations.

Sarah Zylstra

It’s also helpful for sanctification. I’ve

Tory

been Christian my whole life. I had faith my whole life. I’ve been committed to Christ my whole life. But it hasn’t always looked like it the past six months since, specifically joining a C group and getting plugged in with those guys and walking with brothers in faith and realizing like, hey, there’s so much that I thought was normal, and maybe normal to secular communities, but in faith and church, is like, hey, that’s something you got to cut out. It may not be a huge sin, like pouring or like drinking or partying, but it’s like the thoughts I have, like, I’m not in control of them, but once they pop into my head, I don’t have to dwell on it. I can push it to the side or the way I talk, whether it’s swearing or gossip or whatever it is, I have been reignited with this passion and with this fire to be like, Okay, I want 100% of my life and every aspect of my life, not just what I project to other people, not this front that I have like, I want everything in The background to be completely devoted to Christ in reading His word and applying it to my life

Sarah Zylstra

at Salt, finding gospel clarity on what is true and what is not, what is right or wrong extends beyond personal confession. Here’s Haywood. We first heard from him in the introduction. There was

Haywood Stowe

just something different about being around the people that were assault and secrets, was a place where we were talking about things. I’m like, no one’s gonna ever gonna open their mouth about I remember one secret we started talking about pronouns for people, especially, like, in the LGBTQ community, like, and then, like, biblically, how we should be as Christians. You know, with all that, never a topic I ever delve into. I’m like, Whoa. Really. Like, this is the stuff is that? You guys talk about, aren’t you supposed to say, Jesus loves us and let’s go home? Like, what? And no, like, these guys were actually like, ready to stand and talk on things that, like, are just uncommon for people to talk about, especially our age, because a lot of our generation just goes with the grain, goes with the flow, not really about sticking out or being canceled. And so it was really showing me, like, man, there’s a level of you that can, like, stand on what you believe, even if it’s unpopular, like, the unpopular opinion, and how much of that is true about the Bible being the unpopular opinion. And so, yeah, that really just drew me that light. And just like, Man, this is what I’ve needed, like, my entire life, and it brings me so much joy, you know, and so fulfilling. Morgan

Speaker 10

had the same experience. I remember going to conference and hearing Mark Vance talk about gender and sexuality, which was a really hard subject for me, because I did like going with the green I was comfortable not scathing out. I was like, Oh, I’m a nice person, so the nice people don’t say controversial things. And both of my siblings would say that they’re LGBTQ members. So I was like, I don’t want to go against what my family believed. But I felt this like, No, you need to stay and listen to mark talk about this, and be in that room exposed to me, of like, Oh, wow. God has a beautiful plan and purpose, and His word it’s good and it’s not bad. And so it started its journey of like, Oh, I really want to know what God’s plan is and what his design is, because it’s not a bad thing. And it might be hard for some people to talk about. But there’s blessings in that.

Sarah Zylstra

Another huge advantage of talking clearly and openly about counter cultural issues means that now C groups can help each other out every day, the student leaders Connell is discipling text him how many days it has been since they looked at pornography at Oregon. Austin and his roommates skip sex scenes in movies and encourage each other to stop lustful thoughts as soon as they pop into their heads. At Iowa State, having Christian friends helped Sophie to be bolder in class. Last

Speaker 5

semester, I was taking happiness class. It’s like the science behind happiness and well being. We talked a lot about, here’s the science backing up, like, why moving your body makes you feel good, and why like meditation and like things like that are like, good for your mind. We talked about like, instant gratification, and how like in the moment, that’s great, but then 10 minutes later, am I still like, riding that high, or, like, has that kind of fanned out, and now I’m kind of like, Oh, now what? And that was something that I, like, wanted to grab hold of and be like, yeah. Like, there’s so many things that we try and grab hold of that like we think are gonna satisfy us long term, but really it’s instant gratification. Of like, yeah, sin feels good in the moment. And like, if I were to go out to a party, or, like, do something crazy. Sure, that would be fun in the moment, but I’m gonna leave that feeling so like, just like, lost and confused and lonely. That was one thing where I kind of slipped in, like, Jesus is the only thing that’s gonna satisfy you eternally. And like, had one of my best friends in that class, too, of and like, I was like, hey, if I speak up, like, are you gonna go after me? So that, like, you can reiterate everything I’m saying. She’s like, Yeah, yeah, I got you. So then that was helpful. Of like, this is what I believe. Like, did it today, and she was like, Yeah. And I second all of that, here’s everything that she didn’t say that I’m gonna add on to.

Sarah Zylstra

I asked Sophie what her professor thought about that.

Speaker 5

Like, the professor was very like, that’s great that that’s what you believe. Like, professors here I’m noticing are really good at, like, giving the that’s your truth. And like, I want you to be able to express that. And like, that’s beautiful that you believe that, but you don’t have to force that on anyone else. And like, we’re not gonna unpack that at all. And like, I’m not going to open that up for discussion. I’m curious

Sarah Zylstra

about this because it’s dawning on me that the generation of Christians who deconstructed their faith are probably Sophie’s professors. Mike Graham, who co wrote the great de churching, told me that, sure enough, the older millennials have largely stayed in church, while the Gen Xers and younger boomers have gone. De churching in America will be a temporary phenomenon. He said, like COVID 19 pandemic spikes, the spike eventually has to come down because there aren’t enough people who grew up in church to keep the spike growing. Hence, the thing that follows a spike in de churching is a spike in the unchurched a generation later. In other words, de churched parents raise unchurched kids. That makes sense, and it is also exactly what campus ministry leaders are telling me,

Speaker 11

generationally, most of our college students are in salt company. Going to be either first generation Christians. We have a fraction that come from fervent believing homes. Let’s call it a quarter, then we’re gonna have another quarter that come from nominal Christian homes, another quarter that came from I’ve heard of Christ, another quarter they have nothing. But the vast majority of them, they don’t know Adam from Moses at all. Are

Sarah Zylstra

those unchurched kids of de churched parents hostile to Christ? Christianity. I mean, there

Speaker 12

certainly is opposition, but I think there’s a lot of times it’s just students. It’s just not on the radar in their world view. Even I

Tory

personally haven’t had any hostile interactions. I would say majority of them are kind of just indifferent. It’s like, oh, I go to church, or I’m going to a church group or a ministry or a Christian group, whatever I say, people are like, okay, cool. Like, good for you. Kind of thing. It’s very neutral, indifferent or extreme. Interest are kind of the two options. I

Brent Haverkamp

think a big phrase in my generation is the phrase, live your truth. And it kind of enables people to be like, Okay, that’s what your truth is. But my truth is different.

Sarah Zylstra

The my truth, your truth, language can be frustrating when salt students are trying to explain the one truth, but it also seems like the buffer of my truth, your truth, allows a little bit of space for conversation. Here’s Joanna Kramer, I think

Speaker 12

this generation too, like they, they want to know what’s true, and they and they want to figure out what they believe.

Sarah Zylstra

She told me about one of them, a girl who started coming to salt two years ago,

Speaker 12

you know, she was a student athlete, you know, and been at Syracuse for five years, was doing grad school, had a background in Catholicism, and yet was at a place that year where she was trying to figure out, like, what religion was, what if there was more than what she’d grown up experiencing, and and more and more to the college life. And so she began coming and just hearing the gospel weekly, early that fall, understood and believed. And I mean, went from partying and, you know, sleeping with her boyfriend and fill in the blank to leading a group, witnessing to her friends. I mean, the incredible work that God did, and you know, her life is now committed to him.

Brent Haverkamp

I have just seen so many transformations that I didn’t even think were possible, just seeing that God can work through any situation and through anybody has been so incredible to see. In particular up here, there’s a lot of witchcraft, a lot of people practicing crystals, astrology, tarot cards, and I’ve seen so many girls that were just so deep into that and came to salt company, like once or twice, and decided that Jesus was the life for them, and just seeing that transformation has been so encouraging for me, and has really encouraged me to pursue more ministry opportunities within salt company. I

Sarah Zylstra

heard that over and over again, salt students are being changed and watching other people be changed by the gospel. I want

Tory

to say there were 13 or 14 students who got baptized last year. There were four guys who I would meet with, like one on one outside of the salt company, and kind of just chat about life. It’s been incredible seeing from like the first week of spring, meeting these guys and seeing how their lives were, with the partying and being the freshmen and living in the dorms and drinking and all that, to now three months that we were just in that term, seeing how drastically their lives changed just by being in a community of men who held them accountable and were pushing them, going from people who weren’t baptized and didn’t really know much about faith, may have had a small background, but weren’t super interested to being baptized, completely committing their lives to Christ being small group leaders, just like complete 180 of their faith has been of absolutely incredible.

Sarah Zylstra

A few weeks ago, I asked college ministry leaders if they were seeing a revival on college campuses.

Speaker 13

I’m always hesitant to try to describe an entire generation at once. There’s so many outliers, but at least in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, what we’re seeing is a very deep hunger and spiritual expectation that feels different from the activism and energy of let’s change the world that we saw in

Sarah Zylstra

the millennials. Greg Howe has been with InterVarsity for nearly 30 years, we’re hearing

Speaker 13

reports on campus of kind of large groups of students seeking me baptized as a sign of their surrender to Jesus as Savior and Lord, right? We saw it at Auburn. There’s been a lot of talk about Ohio State recently. We’re hearing more and more stories of physical healings. And what’s been striking as I’ve been talking to conference directors and listening to them. It’s not just that more people, which is lovely, but there’s a deep hunger for worship and prayer that seems different. Crew

Sarah Zylstra

is seeing the same thing. Here’s author, speaker and campus minister, Shelby Abbott. I’m

Speaker 14

certain this isn’t happening on literally every campus across the country, but for my run ins with students on the East Coast. So I’m seeing a real groundswell of excitement for the gospel, to the point that others I know who lead campus ministries are talking about it, and it’s getting them super hyped up. Yes, numbers are increasing from everything that I’ve heard. But that’s not the only measurable aspect of stuff. People are coming to Christ. Discipleship is being taken very seriously, and commitments are being made to short term and long term missions. And again, I don’t know if this is happening everywhere, but frankly, I’ve asked the same question that a lot of people have asked, is there really revival happening on campuses?

Speaker 15

I’m hesitant to make pronouncements, but it does seem across the board that good things are happening an acceleration.

Sarah Zylstra

Olin Stubbs is the Executive Director of Campus outreach. I’m

Speaker 15

super encouraged. I really am. I’m seeing more prayer. I’m seeing more about and now I’m thinking more of our staff. But it trickles down the students, more prayer, more fasting, more more of a hunger for an out of the ordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And so I would say I’m cautiously optimistic. I’m hopeful.

Sarah Zylstra

So am I? Because at the Cross Conference this past January, 15,000 young people maxed the space out. Organizer Matt Schmucker told me that by God’s grace, He has seen more than 30% growth year over year. In fact, the next cross conference will be actually two back to back conferences to allow for more room at Campus. Outreaches, New Year’s conferences in Texas and Tennessee, about 1300 kids attended, the most they’ve ever had. Nearly 50 of them reported conversions. I don’t know if we’re looking at the beginning of a full scale revival, but here’s what I do know, after Austin graduates from the University of Oregon, he plans to take a financial planning job in Eugene so that he can continue his involvement with generations, his salt company church. When Morgan finishes up at Iowa State. She’ll choose between a couple of ministry opportunities, either in the States or overseas. When Sydney gets her degree from Oregon, she’s headed to graduate school. She narrowed down her choices to two, one in Knoxville and one in Denton, because that’s where salt is planting new ministries and she wants to help by the time this podcast comes out, Sophie will have graduated and moved to Las Vegas to look for a job and to help with the brand new salt church plant there. These students are doing what Troy and Jeff and Mark did, what Brent and Tory did, what Luke did when he stood up and said he would transfer to the University of Iowa, they are choosing a harder life, shaping their future around the spread of the gospel and the planting of churches. They are choosing to eat rice and beans, to give up their evenings and weekends and maybe their year end bonuses, to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with their generation. The

Speaker 5

people around me are so, like, ready to get after it. We literally have the best news ever. I’m gonna go tell everyone I know about it.

Haywood Stowe

I see God working in salt company, where it’s really stirring up young people in this generation that I think a lot of the world has given up on, but they don’t even understand that. Like, as the world gets evil and more evil, because it’s like, end times and darker. That means the light God this light, it has to shine brighter.

Sarah Zylstra

Yes, as the culture darkens, especially on university campuses, the light of Jesus is shining brighter as the promises of sin prove themselves false, the image bearers of God in the next generation are looking for something better, and what they’re finding is an identity more beautiful than any brand they could imagine for themselves, a salvation more holy and gentle than any virtue signaling, a security stronger than their anxiety. They are finding a community knit tighter than their blood relatives, a purpose big enough to shape their lives around and a joy and relief so big they cannot keep it to themselves, For God so loved this lonely, anxious, addicted, upside down generation that He gave His only son.

Sarah Zylstra

Thank you for listening to this episode of recorded, which is part of the gospel coalition’s Podcast Network. This episode was written by me, Sarah Zylstra, and edited by Colin Hanson, Megan Hill and Cassie Watson. Our audio editor was Scott Caro and our producer was Newbridge studios. Recorded is made possible by generous donations. If you would like to join in supporting this work, we would love for you to do so at tgc.org/donate.