LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A growing movement among college students and young adults will visit Rupp Arena on Wednesday night. The event is called Unite Kentucky, part of the larger UniteUS movement.
“They've been to 11 campuses, had 11 gatherings,” said Trosper Buchanan, a junior at UK. “We're expecting Rupp Arena to be full to the brim and that be made up of university students from not just Kentucky, but Louisville, Eastern, Western.”
UniteUs is a faith-based event that started at Auburn University’s Neville Arena on September 12, 2023. Since then, students from multiple universities have reached out, and the event has brought in more than 70,000 college students from across the country.
“There's something about these thousands of young adults standing shoulder to shoulder seeking the same thing and being present with something that's bigger than their own experience,” said Dr. Sarah Baldwin, Vice President of Student Life at Asbury University.
Dr. Baldwin was at Asbury two years ago when thousands of students from across the country attended an extended worship service that lasted 16 days, now known as “the Outpouring.”
“That has changed me,” Baldwin added. “It was so powerful, and we know that what God was doing and is still doing here at Asbury is just a taste of what God is doing globally. So, we're seeing the whole movement around faith rise up in young adults.”
These recent, faith-based movements buck a trend of younger generations being closed off from religion and spirituality.
In 2018, Gen Z was twice as likely to identify as atheist, according to Christian research organization Barna Group. Just five years later, Barna's research shows that 74% of Gen Z teens are moderately or highly open to spiritual elements.
In a few more statistics, Gen Z is the least likely to report very good or excellent mental health, according to the American Psychological Association, and Pew Research adds that 70% of teens see anxiety and depression as the top problem among their peers.
“Young adults are really looking for something to bring them hope,” said Baldwin. “Many of them will really describe being really kind of at the end of the rope, um, just done with their culture and done with their experience and really recognizing that anxiety is really high.”
“I think we're a generation of critical thinkers, and I think we're a generation of authenticity, and we're a generation of vulnerability,” Buchanan said.
“I've seen and, and experienced firsthand, the death and the depravity that is disguised as the college experience. We're just taught like this is what fulfills you and then this is life and then we, we take it and it kills us, and we're like ‘well I guess, I guess something's wrong with me.’”
It’s events like Unite Kentucky that are spreading a movement – and a message – that fills a Gen Z desire for connection and purpose.
“They do desire to have real authentic relationships,” Baldwin said. “They, they want to show up for one another they're an incredibly connected generation, and so they really want to be present in real ways, and they value relationships a lot, and so we do see them being incredibly caring for one another and supportive in a way I haven't seen before.”
“The students are recognizing that like, ‘no, this is what I was designed for; this is the purpose that was set aside for me, this is the life that's had that has for me, this is, this is the love that Jesus has for me.’
You can learn more about UniteUs and how to attend Unite Kentucky here.
