Saturated x Deepen with Jennie Allen

The most striking moment of the night came when people in the congregation began yelling out their sins aloud. Jennie Allen, who has spoken in prisons and on college campuses, said she had never seen all generations respond that way at once. "That was wild," she said. The desperation in the room was palpable—and that desperation, she argued, is exactly what the American church has been missing.

The cost of revival

Allen's central claim was simple: "We want revival without the cost." She explained that she goes into many rooms, and some break open with the Spirit while others don't. The difference is desperation—whether people are willing to say they don't have it and need God. "Most people won't do that," she said. "College students do it real easily. When I go in prisons, inmates do it real easily."

The cost, she explained, is honesty. Confession means saying what is true—whether about sin or about need. But people protect their reputations. It is easier to be cynical, to water things down, to say something safe. The real question is whether you will say what is actually going on.

Pastor Joby Martin connected this to a pattern he sees: people want the benefits without the work. They want to be influencers without creating content, to be in shape without going to the gym. Spiritually, they want transformation without repentance.