Ella Cook, a native of Mountain Brook, Alabama, died tragically as a result of the senseless violence at Brown University on December 13, 2025. I was privileged to know Ella. She grew up in a youth ministry where I served as leader, and when reflecting on this precious young woman’s life, I’ve said repeatedly, “Ella is a model of the kind of young Christian we parents and church leaders are trying to form in today’s world.”
What qualities do I have in mind that have encouraged me to repeat this refrain? What attributes that marked God’s work in Ella will also mark other young Christians poised for influence in today’s culture? Here are four.
Tethered to the Local Church
In an age of individualism and anti-institutionalism, Ella loved her local church, the Cathedral Church of the Advent. She grew up attending every Sunday. In summers when she participated in programs abroad, she found a church to attend while away. When she went to college, she sought a gospel-preaching church and attended religiously.
What attributes that marked God’s work in Ella will also mark other young Christians poised for influence in today’s culture?
Not only did she attend church regularly, but Ella was also integrated into the church body in a cross-generational way. Ella faithfully served in the children’s ministry at the Advent, where both the kids and parents knew her. And at age 18, she signed up for her church’s women’s retreat and was intentional about making friends with people from different generations. On a hike at that retreat, a woman in her 40s became friends with Ella, and the two routinely corresponded afterward.
Studies show that one dangerous trend among young Christians today is a low regard for the local church. A young person may identify as a follower of Jesus, have a personal devotional life, and espouse biblical beliefs, but too often she lives divorced from a body of believers.
The Bible says Christians are defined by communion with God and others (1 Cor. 12; 1 Pet. 2:1–12). This is countercultural in our Western world of secular individualism. One of the most important values to instill in young Christians is commitment to and regular participation in the local church. Ella modeled this as well as any young person I’ve known.
Humble with Godly Character
In today’s world, it can feel like the people who receive the most airtime and attention are the most obnoxious. This is true even among Christians. There’s a genre of social media videos that highlights abrasive street evangelists who yell at crowds but then act like martyrs when they receive a negative response.
Too many secular people think of believers like the caricatures, as abrasive and self-righteous, as lacking godly character and seemingly more intent on winning arguments or promoting an unbiblical political ideology than on encouraging people to trust Christ.
Ella, by contrast, gained her peers’ respect, regardless of their worldview, because of her quiet selflessness. You’d never hear from her about her accomplishments or accolades (though there were many). But everyone noticed her modest spirit and moral integrity. To those close to her, she wasn’t reticent to confess her faults and sins. Her notable humility was a by-product of internalizing the gospel.
Few qualities win credibility like humility. People respect and admire it. No one criticizes it. Yet it’s hard to find humility in our culture. It comes from knowing our place as creatures before the Creator and from seeing the grace we’ve received through Christ’s blood despite our sins.
Humility is perhaps the most significant attribute parents and church leaders want young Christians to possess. You don’t grow in this virtue by effort but by faith in what the Bible teaches about God, humanity, and salvation.
Committed to Gentle Evangelism
I’ve never had a student in my ministry as committed to evangelism as Ella. Wherever she went, she shared Christ with her peers. She did so relationally, listening to others and conveying respect for them while boldly sharing her faith without any dilution.
By God’s grace, I want to equip young people with conviction and passion for sharing the gospel, young people who do so both without compromise and in a way that honors others. This is needed in any day and age, but especially in our time when public discourse both online and in the media is so uncharitable and ineffective.
The apostle Peter calls believers to share their faith with “gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15). We cultivate this posture when we recognize that while we have the message of salvation to share, we aren’t the Savior. We cultivate this posture when we, like Ella, respect those with whom we’re sharing truth and treat them kindly—as people with dignity, not as objects to fix. We cultivate this posture by learning humility and by recognizing that the only righteousness we have came as a gift of grace.
Well-Educated in Doctrinal Truth
Ella attended an Ivy League school. She had her choice of some of the world’s most prestigious institutions. She was exceedingly intelligent. But in addition to her educational excellence at school, she used her brain to study God’s Word.
Ella combined genuine personal faith with a robust Christian intellect. And she never used her intellect as a weapon to win arguments but as a way to compellingly communicate the hope of the resurrection.
Many young people in the West today don’t have a coherent worldview they live by. As a result, they struggle to find meaning in life, and they can’t think through suffering and evil in a way that yields hope. Sadly, they lack resilience and purpose.
I want to raise up young people with conviction and passion for sharing the gospel, who do so both without compromise and in a way that honors others.
If we train our kids to live in light of Scripture’s narrative of redemption, they’ll be pillars of hope for the world. They’ll be able to make sense of the chaos around them with stability, in a way that models the peace for which those around them yearn.
When we teach doctrine to the next generation, we’re not merely giving them the right Sunday school answers. We’re grounding them in a steady foundation that will hold them amid life’s turbulence. Such stability may be the most appealing quality a Christian can offer the world today.
I’m grateful to have known Ella Cook. God used her character, humility, and meekness to challenge me. Her courage as a light for Christ in difficult environments has emboldened me. Through his Word and by the grace of his Spirit, may God use us to form more and more young people with the same character.
The Gospel Coalition