Where’s Our Next Generation?

I remember a little rhyme I learned and recited as a child while doing the hand motions that went along with it. “Here is the church. Here is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people.”

During the pandemic, we were no longer able to “see all the people.” Even as the country slowly returns to a form of normalcy, we are now presented with the question, “where are all the people?” Churches all over the world, including the US, have experienced a loss. And this is not only in the number of people gathering to worship. Many churches had to close their doors for good. But the sad truth is that this was a reality even before the pandemic.

In 2014, an estimated 4,000 Protestant churches were planted, while 3,700 closed in a year according to Lifeway Research. In 2019, approximately 3,000 Protestant churches were started in the U.S., but 4,500 closed. Currently, more churches are closing than being started.

A Barna Group study reported that non-practicing Christians have grown from 35% to 43% from 2000 to 2020. During the same time, practicing Christians declined from 45% to 25%. Practicing Christians were identified as those who strongly agree that faith is very important in their lives and have attended church within the past month. The term, non-practicing Christians, is interesting as this is incredibly self-contradictory. Can one be a Christian without practicing one’s faith? Yet, we see there are those who don’t seem to find this a contradiction.

Of greater concern, however, is that the church is losing its future, the next generation – the Millennials, who were born between the early 80s and mid to late 90s, and Gen Z, who were born between the mid to late 90s to early-mid 2000s. According to another study done by the Barna Group in 2019, over 60% of young people raised in the church leave it before adulthood.

According to the Pew Research Center study in 2018 and 2019, only half of Millennials (49%) describe themselves as Christians. While this may not seem like an alarming or surprising statistic at face value, when you look more closely at the further breakout of this number, only 2 out of 10 of those who profess to be Christians regularly attend church (Chart 1).

There have been fewer surveys conducted with the Gen Z generation as most were not yet 18+, but we don’t expect the statistics to be more optimistic. Data from Barna Group surveys from 2016-2018 showed that in terms of priorities for the future, most, including churched Christians, prioritize either their personal interests or money.

This is our reality. Our next generation is becoming unchurched before our very own eyes, no different from the world. Though attendance does not directly translate to one’s personal relationship with God, it is a valid indicator that makes us question how many of those who profess to be Christians are living as true disciples of Christ. In addition, worldly ones are becoming prioritized and replacing biblical ones.

The forecast for the future of the church seems bleak. But it doesn’t have to remain this way. There is always hope in Jesus. Let us intercede for Holy Spirit fire to fall afresh on our next generation so they will be transformed into a mighty one that is no longer lost to the world but claims their identity as children of God and lives boldly for the name and kingdom of Jesus.