A basement full of young adults, playing games and hanging out, then, once social time ends, they quickly get down to business – talking politics through a Christian worldview.

“Politics matter. People matter,” said Counteract USA founder and CEO, Abigail DeJarnatt. “It’s not so much that our generation has nothing to do with politics. It’s too divisive, it’s too polarizing. But what we want to counter that narrative with is if our culture is so hyper-political, how can we help but bring the Gospel, the good news, into that bad news conversation?”

For this Generation Z organization that includes conversations around tough topics like abortion, gender identity, and same-sex marriage. Counteract USA started in Arkansas in 2021 and has expanded to more than 200 members operating cell groups in six states.

“So we break down a topic like biblical marriage and we say, what does the world say that marriage is and how has our culture distorted that definition? What does the word of God have to say about that and how do we enter into the narrative, how do we change our culture to better reflect the view of God’s design for marriage?” DeJarnatt said.

The goal is evangelizing and advocating, such as peacefully demonstrating for life or preparing members to better discuss gender identity with a fellow student.

“It can be really easy to be swept away by those fleeting winds of doctrine,” said 26-year-old Counteract USA member Jacob Keeney.  “So, Counteract for me is a place where like-minded believers can come together and discuss, honestly, what is being taught in culture and what we, as believers, are called to do about it.”

“The LGBTQ movement looking for liberation. They’re trying to find their identity in sexuality and gender but the only identity that could ever satisfy is a relationship with Jesus Christ,” said DeJarnatt.

“I find myself more willing to talk about these things with my family, my cousins and I’ve practiced and rehearsed these conversations and just flushed out the ideas to form what do I actually believe,” said 20-year-old Counteract USA member, Arianna Dotson.

Counteract USA is growing at a pivotal time. Surveys from Barna Group, a Christian research organization, show 82% of Gen Z identify as non-Christians or nominal Christians. And this age group overwhelmingly holds far-left positions on cultural and political policies.

“If you don’t have a firm foundation, if you don’t personalize your faith as a young Christian, it’s going to be more likely that you are going to see young Christians fall away or flounder in some of these conversations,” said John Brown University associate political science professor, Dr. Daniel Bennett

“We’ve had students who might have considered themselves a progressive Christian, a pro-abortion Christian who started to come to these meetings to have these conversations with these people, and within the year they say, okay, I can’t help but vote in accordance with my biblical values,” said DeJarnatt.

“Young Christians who are involved in some of these groups like Counteract, they’re going to be pretty serious about things and they’re going to be pretty forceful about the ways their faith is going to be affecting their viewpoints on politics and culture. It’s going to be really fascinating to see what that looks like in the years and decades ahead,” Bennett said.

And if you ask these young adults, they’ll tell you the future starts now.

“Gen Z is ready for something different. The Christians in our generation, all they need to be is inspired, encouraged, equipped to actually go change their culture… and they will,” said DeJarnatt.