Before they were charting on Billboard or starring in billion-dollar franchises, these seven celebrities were just kids in pews—singing worship songs, quoting Scripture and navigating the weird, wonderful world of church life. Some embraced it. Some ran from it. Some are still figuring it out.
Here’s a look at the faith journeys of seven stars who grew up in church—and where they are now.
1. James Austin Johnson
Before James Austin Johnson was impersonating Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, he was acting in Southern Baptist curriculum videos for Lifeway Christian Resources. He wasn’t just raised in a religious home—he was embedded in the Church as deeply as a person could be in Nashville.
“I grew up acting in Baptist propaganda for Lifeway Christian Resources, for the Southern Baptist Convention,” he told the Nashville Scene. “I acted in [Lifeway videos] as a child and as a teenager. And then I was in some indie Christian films in my early 20s as well.”
Nearly his entire family attended or worked at Trevecca Nazarene University, a Christian liberal arts college located in Nashville, including Johnson himself. He got his start performing through church connections, acting in Christian films and even landing a role in 2012’s October Baby, a milestone in the wave of faith-based cinema. But eventually, Johnson decided to step away.
“I respect these people too much to continue to halfheartedly be a part of what they’re trying to accomplish,” he said. “I don’t really make stuff like that anymore.”
That said, Johnson still carries traces of his upbringing, from his comedic instincts to his financial habits—he admitted his spending decisions are still influenced by “Dave Ramsey Christian financial management tapes.”
His faith journey may no longer look like revival services or VBS skits, but it’s still in the room, shaping what he creates.
2. Chris Martin
Chris Martin’s spiritual upbringing was rooted in tradition. Raised in a devout Anglican household—his father was a deacon—Martin attended a Christian boys’ school and developed a strong sense of faith early on. “I used to pray all the time,” he told Howard Stern.
But as he grew older, Martin began to question what he’d been taught.
“I had a God crisis,” he told Rolling Stone. “I was like, ‘I don’t really know what I believe.’”
Today, he describes himself as an “alltheist”—a term he coined to express his openness to all spiritual beliefs.
“I believe in all religions,” he said. “I believe in the idea of God, and I think that’s enough for me now.”
Coldplay’s lyrics often reflect that searching spirituality—light on dogma, heavy on wonder. Whether or not Martin ever lands on one answer seems beside the point. He’s more interested in the mystery.
3. Megan Fox
Did you know Transformers star Megan Fox used to speak in tongues?
Long before her Hollywood breakout, Fox was raised in a Pentecostal church in Tennessee, where speaking in tongues and spiritual healing were part of her everyday life.
“I have seen magical, crazy things happen,” she told Esquire. “I’ve seen people be healed.”
She says she was baptized in the Spirit as a child and often felt overcome during worship.
“It feels like a lot of energy coming through the top of your head… and you just start speaking, but you’re not thinking because you have no idea what you’re saying,” she explained. “It’s the language that’s spoken in heaven. It’s called ‘getting the Holy Ghost.’”
In more recent years, Fox has opened up about going on what she calls a “spiritual quest,” working through past trauma and reexamining her relationship with faith.
“I did a lot of work to remove that feeling of being a victim,” she told British GQ. “It allows you the space to have gratitude for something that previously you felt persecuted by.”
Fox’s beliefs today are a mix of Christianity, mysticism and personal healing.
“I never stopped believing,” she said. “I just stopped believing in man’s interpretation of God.”
4. Marcus Mumford
Marcus Mumford has never shied away from spiritual themes in his music, but his journey with faith has been anything but simple. Raised in a devout evangelical home in the U.K.—his parents were leaders in the Vineyard Church movement—Mumford’s early life was saturated in charismatic Christianity.
But as his career took off, Mumford distanced himself from the institutional Church.
“I spent a lot of time kicking against the Church and my own faith and just trying to work out what the hell I believed in,” he told Rolling Stone.
His 2022 solo album, Self-Titled, dealt head-on with trauma and redemption, hinting at a faith he wasn’t ready to give up on.
That sense of return comes into sharper focus on Rushmere, the 2025 Mumford & Sons album. The record is thick with themes of grace, doubt and spiritual longing. One standout track, “Malibu,” chronicles a moment of uncertainty as Mumford drives the California coast, singing, “If I’m honest, I don’t know what I still believe / But I’m begging You to speak.”
It’s not a return to tidy doctrine—but it’s undeniably a return. Less about certainty, more about presence. And in Mumford’s case, the presence of God still haunts the music.
5. Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo’s first experience performing wasn’t on a stage—it was at a Pentecostal altar in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Though his family began as Italian Catholic, his mother and grandmother converted to Pentecostal Christianity and brought him into a fervent Assemblies of God environment during the height of the Jimmy Swaggart era.
“My mom and her mother became evangelicals… and my dad split off completely in a whole other direction into the Baha’i faith,” Ruffalo told NPR’s Fresh Air.
For his grandmother’s birthday, she asked him to “get saved.” Ruffalo was eight. He walked forward during a high-intensity altar call, surrounded by sweaty kids and the sound of tongues. When he didn’t feel anything, he panicked—and faked it.
“I was like, ‘I’m not going to be the one who doesn’t get Jesus today.’ And I just kind of went with it.”
Afterward, he felt crushed by shame.
“Everyone here is feeling so much and I didn’t feel anything,” he said. “It became this thing that was always there that I didn’t understand.”
Years later, he would realize that experience planted two seeds—spiritual confusion and the desire to perform.
“That was really my first acting gig,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
6. Oscar Isaac
Before Oscar Isaac was an A-list actor, he was playing East Coast clubs in a Christian ska-punk band called the Blinking Underdogs.
Formed after high school in Miami, the band opened for Green Day, toured extensively and played a final show at L.A.’s iconic Viper Room.
“We started off as basically a punk band,” Isaac said. “As we kept going, we’ve tried to experiment with different types and styles… Stylistically it’s going all over the place.”
Isaac was also immersed in the evangelical subculture that surrounded the scene.
“I went to this thing called Cornerstone when I was in high school,” he told GQ. “It was like a Christian Coachella… They had Christian metal bands and Christian hardcore bands and all sorts of different tents and all that. That was pretty wild.”
After being raised in a conservative Christian household, Isaac has since distanced himself from organized religion. But that season of youth group shows, altar calls and sweaty faith festivals still lingers in his story—even if he’s no longer fronting a band with a horn section.
7. Avril Lavigne
Before the pop-punk anthems and black eyeliner, Avril Lavigne was just a girl with a big voice singing gospel songs in her church.
Raised in small-town Ontario, Lavigne’s earliest performances were in Sunday services.
“My mom said I was always singing, even in my crib,” she told People. Church was where she found her voice—and something deeper.
Though she left that world behind in her rise to fame, it came rushing back years later when she was diagnosed with Lyme disease. Bedridden and terrified, Lavigne says she turned to God.
“I thought I was dying,” she said. “I had this spiritual awakening.”
Her 2019 single “Head Above Water” was written in the middle of that battle.
“I felt like I was underwater and drowning,” she told Billboard. “I needed God.”
Lavigne doesn’t flaunt her faith, but it’s there: quiet, steady and forged through suffering. Not all prodigals come back in dramatic fashion. Some just hold on.
