The 3 Things 19 Million Bibles Are Telling Us

by Jeff Jenkins

Americans bought more Bibles last year than in any year in over two decades. About nineteen million of them, which is roughly double what was purchased in 2019 (Circana BookScan, reported by Publishers Weekly, 2025).

I have been a pastor for thirty-two years. And I have watched seasons of faith come and go, watched crowds in churches swell and thin, watched the church get written off more times than I can count. And I want to tell you that I have never seen spiritual hunger like I am seeing right now.

When I sit with what I am reading in many data reports about our spiritual climate and what I am watching with my own eyes, I keep landing on three things that I think each of us can be encouraged by as we live the Gospel and share its truths with others.

1. The Hunger Is Real, and It Is Everywhere

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” — Matthew 5:6

Faith is not fading. The emerging generations are hungrier for Jesus than any other generations right now.

More than a third of Gen Z and nearly four in ten Millennials now read scripture on their own, outside of any church service (American Bible Society, State of the Bible USA 2025). The most popular Bible app crossed 150 million installs last year, up from 100 million two years before (YouVersion, 2025).

Here is what gets me.

In an age where everything fits on a screen you carry in your pocket, I keep meeting young people carrying Bibles that are three and four inches thick. Marked up. Tabbed. Highlighted. They could have all of it on their phone. They want the weight of it in their hands, and they carry it wherever they go—to school, to work, and yes, to church. There is a growing trend showing that young people are in fact attending church in record numbers even if their parents are not.

So, two things stand out to me in this:

First, we need to stop believing the story that nobody is searching for truth. They are, more than any time that I’ve seen in my fifty-two years on earth.

Second, we need to look and see that the harvest is ripe. We need to find where the Word is preached (for real) and with the power of the Spirit. Ask the Lord to show you, teach you and send you with His Word. You’ll see people gather for it. This is especially important for those of us who “work” in publishing or sharing the messages that God has put in our hearts. Bookstore owners, clerks, managers, authors and those responsible for getting our books into hands: this is especially good news for us!

2. Hunger Will Travel for Bread

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.” — Psalm 42:1

Blue Ridge, TX, is a small town in Collin County with only about two-thousand people. Every week for the past two years, there has been one girl who brought a friend and then dozens, and now there is a group of over eighty high school students in Blue Ridge, TX, who drive thirty-five miles on Wednesday nights to get the Word of God at our Anchor Church.

Every single week.

I keep coming back to that drive. Nobody makes a seventy-mile round trip unless you’ve found the Word, still waters and The Good Shepherd.

Here is the encouragement for you and for me.

Don’t try to grow your church or ministry. Just find the green grass and still waters of Jesus. Don’t water down His Word and don’t quench His Spirit. Let Him draw you and then He will work through you to draw one more and then another.

This is how He is moving today.

And finally, there’s the spiritual nourishment.

3. When You Feed It, It Blooms

“The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom...” — Isaiah 35:1

In 2022, our church had about 142 people.

In 2026, we are experiencing a hunger and community of more than 8,000.

Over 5,000 of them are under age 25. College students and young adults gather at ten o'clock at night, in someone's living room, for two and three hours of worship, testimony, and the Word. They are not waiting on a pastor to feed them. They study scripture themselves, teach it to each other, make podcasts about it, and flood their social media with it. It’s so inspiring to see!

They are making disciples of students and children. They are moving young parents into deeper faith. We see the hunger growing every week.

And they are not only reading and worshiping and witnessing. They are hungry for the gifts of the Spirit. They want the presence of Jesus, not a performance about Jesus. If He is not in the room, they are not interested in the room. And we need to equip them with the Word of God and when you help place a Bible or a biblical resource into someone’s hand, you are feeding the hungry as Jesus fed the multitudes.

SOMETHING SHIFTED IN ASBURY, KY

A few years ago, there was already a fire smoldering, and church families watched it grow. But when an ordinary college chapel service in Asbury refused to end and the whole country leaned in to watch, it was as if a window opened.

Since then, there has been a groundswell of what I now lovingly call unprofessional Jesus followers. Amateurs in the truest sense of the word, which comes from the Latin for love.

They just read what the Book says and went after it.

The revival stopped in one location, but it has spread to thousands of locations. Our Anchor Church has been one of them as are many other churches both near and far. What we are seeing is a response to the way God is revealing Himself to those who are hungry for it. To me, this is the difference, because people are seeking Him, and are we ready to help show them the way? Is there an unprecedented opportunity for us to use our gifts as we do?

SUPERBLOOM

A superbloom is what happens in the desert when seeds that have lain dormant for years finally get the water they were waiting for. The whole valley erupts into color overnight, and visitors assume it came from nowhere. But it was always there, underground, waiting.

This is the heartbeat behind the newest work that God called me to write: Superbloom: When All God’s Gifts in You Begin to Flourish.

Everything that has been dormant in the body of Christ is beginning to bloom.

And right now, in areas around our country and world, the rain is falling and His work is blooming.

People are hungry and thirsty. Humans want green grass and still water. They want real seed and real nurturing power.

It’s not just students carrying Bibles loaded with more notes and power and a deeper hunger every week. It’s parents and families and those who have never considered themselves “spiritual.”

It’s just the beginning. Are you with me to help inspire and nurture a generation that is all in and ready for God’s superbloom in their lives? I hope you are seeing the gifts God has put in you to win souls for the Kingdom not because it’s what we’re supposed to do but because it’s the work we are honored to be a part of. Let’s continue to partner with God so that as Hebrews 11:12 says: “No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”

Jeff Jenkins is the lead pastor at Anchor Church in McKinney, TX. His deepest desire is to draw near to the Lord and be filled with the fullness of knowing Him and helping others discover the same life-changing relationship with Jesus. Jeff and his wife Sarah have five children. Jeff is the author of Superbloom: When All God’s Gifts in You Begin to Flourish.