Young people are using a combination of 21st-century technology and old school storytelling to learn about the Bible and spread the good word.Â
Young Americans, who often spend behind computer and smartphone screens, are finding solace in Christian prayer apps and comic books, which have garnered millions of views and reads, to help them learn about the Gospel. Â
Fox News Digital spoke with Hallow CEO and co-founder Alex Jones, Franciscan University of Steubenville president Rev. Dave Pivonka, Pray.com founder and CEO Steve Gatena and Kingstone Comics CEO Art Ayris on why young people are turning to God and how digital media can be used as a tool to help spark interest in faith.
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Gatena said he remembers a time when a “single act of sharing faith through technology” changed the trajectory of his life.Â
In 2016, he lost his business partner in a plane crash, and in a search for meaning, he was sent a Christian podcast that inspired him to share the Gospel with others. Now, he sees how digital media can be a powerful tool in bringing people to God.
“Younger audiences under 30 are engaging with biblical stories like never before,” Gatena said. “When Scripture is presented in formats that meet them where they already are, whether cinematic retellings, short-form video or audio devotionals, curiosity turns into genuine engagement… The Gospel has always traveled through the language of its time, from papyrus to the printing press to podcasts. Were simply the next chapter.”
Pivonka, who ministers to thousands of teenagers and young adults through the universitys Steubenville Conferences, said the search for meaning leads young people to find God.
“They find in the church a relationship with God, and I would say also with the Scriptures, a sense of meaning, purpose, boundaries, something worth it that they can invest themselves in,” he said. “The world is so loud, it’s so mechanical, it’s so digital. When they can go and be quiet, be still, encounter God â that’s really satisfying.”
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Storytelling plays a major role in reaching young people because the Bible is the “greatest story” ever told, Jones said. Hallow uses social media to invite young people to encounter God by inviting them to stop scrolling to hear a verse of Scripture.
“The only thing that gives you real peace is God, and He does that in Scripture,” Jones said. “What we see is just trying to break through that noise of letting God give you that peace and then share with you in that peace, how much He loves you. Its this pretty transformational thing, especially for young people, both men and women.”
Jones told Fox News Digital that storytelling is “incredibly important” and the company tries to bring Scripture to life in a new way for viewers.
Comic books are also proving to be a powerful tool in introducing the Gospel to younger audiences in a way they can understand. Ayris told Fox News Digital that in his work with kids and teenagers, he struggled to find engaging material until finding comics.
“The comic medium is near universal and communication is most effective when delivered in medium familiar to that culture⦠Over 41% of teens have never read the Bible, so we created a Bible that could be read and understood in a matter of months,” he said.
The has been a “perennial seller” for the company. Calling to mind a quote from Walt Disney, Ayris explained it best: “Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language.”
Pivonka said that while media can be used as a tool to help young people make that “initial connection,” ultimately, people are searching for authentic connections in the church.
“The digital world can only satisfy so much,” he said. “So, they’re starting to pray, they’re starting to read the Scriptures, they’re st
