There’s a “Jesus resurgence” taking place in America, and young adults are leading the charge, according to Christian research organization Barna Group.
Barna’s data from February 2025 shows that 66% of all U.S. adults say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus that is still important in their life today – that’s a 12% jump since 2021. Of that, the percentage of Gen Z adults has jumped from 52% to 67% among men and 54% to 61% among women.
“Undeniably, there is renewed interest in Jesus,” said David Kinnaman, CEO of Barna. “This is the clearest trend we’ve seen in more than a decade pointing to spiritual renewal—and it’s the first time Barna has recorded such spiritual interest being led by younger generations.”
So how do we harness this zeal for Christ among young people to help achieve e3’s mission to see every people and place reached with the Gospel?
Two words: Team Second.
Team Second is an initiative by I Am Second, e3’s digital media ministry, to equip and encourage college athletes to share the Gospel and make disciples on their campuses.
Team Second Ambassadors are equipped on how to use their college sports platforms to influence others for Christ, which includes being trained in simple ways to start Gospel conversations with others, how to make disciples, and how to plant house churches at their colleges. The student-athletes are also taught how to harness social media and I Am Second merchandise to be lights for the Kingdom of God on their campuses and beyond.
“What makes Team Second special is the community aspect of it,” said Taylor Wooldridge, e3’s Ministry Manager. “It’s a community that’s focused on and wrapped around the Gospel and how to share it with their teammates and classmates. Not only are we having conversations about how to share the Gospel and how to make disciples on campus, but we’re strategizing together, learning tools together, and partnering together.”
Team Second currently consists of athletes and coaches representing 26 different campuses and 11 sports across 22 states.
“It’s been interesting to see how the Gospel is received within each sport and how God works differently in each sport,” Taylor said. “For example, the hockey world is a very dark world. A lot of our hockey guys on Team Second are getting to share the Gospel with people who are broken, and they are coming to Christ and getting baptized. Then you have the softball world, where there are all these Christian softball players who are passionate about using their platform to share the Gospel and train other believers.”
Each year, I Am Second hosts a Team Second Summit in North Texas to build community among the athletes and further equip them with tools for sharing Christ with others, plus ways to train other believers how to do the same. At the end of the Summit, each athlete creates a “campus plan” outlining how they would be sharing the Gospel and making disciples on campus in the coming semester.
“The Summit is such a fun time to get everyone together,” Taylor said. “We spend most of our time training on the basics of Gospel sharing and making disciples, but then further on how to start a church on your campus and stories of people who have done that. Then at the very end of the Summit they fill out their campus plan strategy—throughout the year, we follow up with them on it and travel to their campuses to help them execute on those plans.”
At the Team Second Summit in 2023, a college soccer player named Abigail was trained on how to create an Oikos map – a tool for identifying people within one’s sphere of influence who are far from God. The first name Abigail wrote down was her friend Emma, a soccer teammate and roommate who wasn’t following Jesus. After praying for Emma during the Summit, Abigail learned the 3 Circles, a method for sharing the Gospel. Abigail returned to college ready to share the Gospel with her team and those on her campus. She shared the Gospel with Emma, who decided to surrender to Jesus!
Following this, Emma and Abigail entered into a discipleship relationship. A few months later, Abigail, Emma, and a few others from their team traveled over an hour to attend an I Am Second training at a different campus, where they learned the same tools and principles that Abigail had learned at the Summit. Abigail, who was part of the training team, led fellow student-athletes in simple and reproducible tools for evangelism. Emma was so excited about what God was doing, and she decided to apply to the Team Second Ambassador program!
At the next Team Second Summit in 2024, Emma stood in front of 30 other college athletes leading the “Who Do We Make Disciples Of” portion of the training. In less than a year, Emma went from being lost to an emerging leader. Today, she and Abigail lead a discipleship group with their teammates each week.
This year’s Team Second Summit is from June 3-7, and we’d love for you to join us in praying for the athletes and coaches who will be traveling to Plano, TX for the event. There will be 14 states, 18 colleges, and 10 sports represented.
Learn more about Team Second – and other ways God is working through you and e3 Partners – in our Greater Together quarterly report below: