Associate Dean, Division of Communication, School of Fine Arts and Communication,
Professor, Communication Studies,
Biola University
Joy Qualls is associate professor of communication studies and associate dean of the Division of Communication at Biola University. She holds a PhD in communication studies from Regent University, with research focusing on religious and political rhetoric.
Dr Joy’s academic work centres on gender, church leadership, and evangelical political discourse. Her research interests also include rhetoric in the age of tolerance.
A recognised author and speaker, she is known for her insights on communication, leadership, and theological reflections on the role of women in ministry. She is the author of God Forgive Us for Being Women: Rhetoric, Theology, and the Pentecostal Tradition (2018), and has contributed to various publications such as Influence Magazine and The Table.
Active in the broader academic and church community, Dr Joy is involved with the National Communication Association, the Religious Communication Association, and the Society for Pentecostal Studies. An ordained minister with the Assemblies of God, she serves on the national advisory committee for the Network for Women Ministers under of the General Council of the Assemblies of God.
This paper contends that Pentecostal youth are pneumatological agents – Spirit-empowered co-creators of theological praxis, leadership, and community life. Turning from reductive generational labels, it unveils how young people discern, imagine, and embody faith across cultural, ecclesial, and digital landscapes. It calls for a more robust Pentecostal theology of youth that is inherently youth-centered, one that recognizes and bears witness to their Spirit-given vocation within the global Pentecostal movement today.