Do Not Merely Gather the Young: The Pentecostal Future Must Be Intergenerational

The demographic centre of global Christianity has shifted. Pew Research Center’s 2025 analysis of more than 2,700 censuses and surveys found that sub-Saharan Africa had become home to the largest regional share of the world’s Christians by 2020. More recent reporting based on the World Christian Database estimates that Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity in Africa grew from about 23 million adherents in 1975 to more than 252 million in 2025. This is one of the defining religious developments of our time.

Yet Africa is also the world’s youngest continent. The African Union reports that roughly 60 per cent of the continent’s population is under twenty-five, while more than 400 million people are between fifteen and thirty-five. These two realities meet inside African Pentecostalism: a rapidly growing spiritual movement is carrying its witness within an overwhelmingly young society. The future will therefore be decided not only by whether young people attend our churches, but by whether they are formed, heard, trusted and prepared to carry responsibility.

Pentecostal churches often attract young people through energetic worship, testimony, music, prayer, digital communication and the promise that God can transform ordinary lives. These are genuine strengths. A young person who encounters hope, belonging and the reality of the Holy Spirit has received something precious. But attendance is only the beginning of formation.

Young people can fill a conference, lead…