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Making Sense of Mixed Signals on Church Attendance, Religious Affiliation in America

Mar 19, 2026Jerry CoxChristianityChristian, Church Ambassador Network

Public opinion polling seems to be sending mixed signals when it comes to Americans’ religious affiliation.

Bible reading surged in 2024 and 2025, and last year news outlets reported how a large share of American adults have rediscovered Christianity in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Barna, Millennial and Gen Z churchgoers attend services approximately twice a month, on average, and teens are “very motivated to learn about Jesus.“ Gallup even announced last June that a growing share of Americans actually see religion’s influence increasing.

But earlier this month, Gallup released a poll showing that “religious engagement” in America is still low. Religiously unaffiliated “Nones” in America rose to 24% last year. Less than half of U.S. adults now say religion is “very important,” and less than one in three attend church weekly. Some predict the U.S. could see as many as 100,000 churches close in the next few years.

Some reports seem to show Christianity growing in America while others suggest it’s declining. Which is it?

There are a few possible explanations.

One may be that the distinction between religious and non-religious people is becoming more pronounced.

Few people may go to church weekly, but the ones who do go to church are highly committed to their faith.

Some people may describe this as a decline in cultural or “nominal” Christianity: People who don’t take their faith seriously may be less likely to call themselves Christians or attend church. But those who do profess to be Christians are very devout.

That could help explain why we see so much engagement with the Bible and so many headlines about young adults going to church even as the number of religious “Nones” has gone up.

Another point to consider is that Americans’ church preferences may be changing.

For decades Christians have shifted away from mainline churches and denominations in favor of less formal evangelical or nondenominational churches.

If some churches are shrinking — or closing altogether — while others are remaining stable or growing, that doesn’t represent a decline in Christianity. It may just mean that Christians’ church and denominational preferences are still changing.

On a broader level, in 2017, Pew Research Center found a growing share of Americans identify as “spiritual but not religious.” Many people may think they can be spiritual or even follow Christ without going to church. But being part of a local community of believers is an important part of discipleship. Christians encourage one another and help build each other up in the faith. Church isn’t optional for Christians. It’s essential.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

How Adults are Rediscovering Christianity Through Baptism: CBS Reports

Oct 7, 2025Jerry CoxChristianityChristianity, Religious Freedom, Religious Liberty

CBS Mornings recently reported that since the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of adults — particularly Gen Z men — have been baptized into the Christian faith.

During its news segment, CBS highlighted a massive baptism service recently held on the California coast.

We have shared before about the “quiet revival” taking place in America and the U.K.

Bible sales in America skyrocketed in 2024, and this year the American Bible Society released its annual “State of the Bible” report that examines Bible use and scripture engagement. The report found, “Millennials are leading the way in this move toward greater Bible Use, and in every generation men are using the Bible more.” The report also found a little more than one in three Gen Z adults (36%) qualify as Bible Users.

While pollsters have reported for years about the decline of weekly church attendance, Gallup announced in June that a growing share of Americans actually see religion’s influence increasing.

It’s good to see more Americans coming to faith in Jesus and engaging with scripture. As President Reagan said during a speech in 1984:

The truth is, politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality’s foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. We need religion as a guide. We need it because we are imperfect, and our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they’re sinners can bring to democracy the tolerance it requires in order to survive. . . .

Without God, there is no virtue, because there’s no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we’re mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.

Hopefully this “quiet revival” is one that will continue to spread.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

The Quiet Revival of Gen Z: Guest Column

Oct 3, 2025John StonestreetChristianityChristianity

Back in April, The Bible Society of the U.K. issued a report describing a “quiet revival” across England and Wales. “Church decline in England and Wales has not only stopped,” read the subheading, “but the Church is growing, as Gen Z leads an exciting turnaround in church attendance.” Though the report has its fair share of critics, it launched an essential conversation.

Last Sunday, James Marriott continued that conversation with an article in the U.K. publication The Times entitled “Full-fat faith: the young Christian converts filling our churches.” Marriott, who labels himself “a dry and desiccated materialist,” described what he called “a comeback for Christianity.” At least part of this comeback is, Marriott thinks, due to a widespread and growing disenchantment with atheism. Once, he wrote:

[I]t was widely held that the world was soaring ineluctably along an arc of enlightened progress. We were all destined to become richer, more democratic, more just, more rational and more secular. But those optimistic beliefs have been sorely tested in difficult recent years. Anyone tempted to simply dismiss the idea that religion could ever revive may not grasp how dramatically the cultural and economic landscape inhabited by young people has changed.

Instead of the utopia that was promised, the post-9/11 reality included economic disruption, Covid, wokeness, and thought police. As a result, many young people are rebelling to a more traditional form of the Christian faith. According to Marriott:

If you’re young, the establishment is obviously secular. Nowadays, it is precisely Christianity’s marginal status that lends it glamour and charisma, comparable perhaps to the appeal of exotic-seeming eastern religions in the 1960s. 

Last week, I spoke about the “quiet revival” in the U.K. with podcaster, author, and apologist Justin Brierley. He was among the first to identify what he called “the surprising rebirth of belief in God.” For example, according to a recent poll of non-Christian, Gen-Z students, 75% said they’d consider attending church if invited. And though church attendance is typically higher on Easter, this past Resurrection Sunday broke records all over Europe. According to one poll, the number of 16– to 24-year-olds in the U.K. attending church at least once a month jumped from 4% in 2018 to 16% in 2024.

There’s still much to learn about this phenomenon, and it remains to be seen how sticky this new-found faith will be for these young people raised in such highly secular environments. It’s fascinating how, merely a decade ago, we were focused on the rise of “the Nones,” who often claimed the church had let them down. Today, we are talking about the rise of the religious who were let down by secularism.

One more factor worth mentioning, as Marriott put it (perhaps channeling John Calvin)— humans are inescapably religious:

I suspect the supernatural side of life—not much catered for in secular rationalist democracies—is a constant of human nature, even if only for a minority. It has more room for expression now. If man is a religious animal, God may never really be banished.

Indeed, secularism as a worldview is simply not big enough for the God-shaped hole in the human heart. As more young people realize this, the Church has an incredible opportunity to help them find the One who can. You can hear my entire conversation with Justin Brierley about the “quiet revival” on a special bonus episode of the Breakpoint podcast.