Winner Announcement: TGC’s 2026 Essay Contest for Young Adults

It’s hard to navigate a fallen world. For Gen Z, this reality is compounded by the additional difficulties of growing up online. Thankfully, the Bible’s answers apply to each new generation.

Over the past month, more than 200 young writers from around the world submitted original essays, and The Gospel Coalition’s editorial team reviewed them. In their essays, members of Gen Z wrote about how they’re staying human in an AI age, the moments that made their church home theirs, and the destructive habits their faith helped them kick.

Thoughtful Writers

TGC received essays from 208 young writers:

• They ranged in age from 16 to 25. Many were high school students; others were college students or beginning their adult lives.
• Two-thirds of this year’s writers were female and one third were male.
• They’re members of local churches—Baptists, Presbyterians, and Anglicans predominated, with many nondenominational churches also represented.
• There were submissions from across the United States as well as from South Africa, the Philippines, Nigeria, Canada, England, India, China, Indonesia, Australia, and Malaysia.

Many writers told heartwarming stories of how their church families made them feel at home through hospitality, service, and mentorship. Others wrote passionately about how they express the imago Dei through creativity as a way of pushing back against AI. Some wrote thoughtfully about the difficult task of removing sinful habits from their lives.

The most selected prompt was “How I’m Staying Human in the Age of AI,” with just under half of the submissions covering this topic. Many other contestants wrote about the value of solid friendships that cross generations in the church and paint a picture of gospel unity.

We pray your hearts will be warmed and your souls edified as you read these essays.

Three Winners

Among the essays, three pieces stood out as well crafted, thoughtful, and engaging. Our editorial team was clear about which winners to select, and we’re delighted to publish them on the site for you to read.

First Place: “I Blocked My Search Engine So I Could Wait on God” by Audrey Hendricks

Using the example of her “Digital Rest” habit of blocking Safari for a month, Audrey explores what makes humans different from AI. “I began to find an unexpected joy and relief in the fact that I simply couldn’t know.” She considers the idea that as humans, we were never meant to have all the answers.

Second Place: “Embrace Your Humanity by Digging in the Dirt” by Elise Brandon

With technology and AI offering a host of ways to shorten tasks and make life efficient, Elise’s essay digs into this question: What are we saving time for? Using her own labor of love—gardening—she writes about the brevity of life and the fleeting nature of time. If time is so short, Elise urges, we should embrace tasks that God has given instead of using technology to avoid them.

Third Place: “Sister, Bring Your Sexual Sin to Light” by Mackenzie Slagle

Mackenzie’s essay offers a raw and genuine plea for readers to bring their sins into the light and let other Christians support them in the struggle. She writes about her testimony of battling sexual sin and the way the Lord drew her back to himself through confession and the help of fellow believers.