Not just at Easter: Gen Z is returning to Christianity. Data proves it. | Opinion
It's not time to call this a revival, but something is stirring in the culture. Christians would do well to pay attention, live out their faith and step into the opportunity to share with others.
Religious data rarely makes headlines, but a new wave of findings is creating a stir.
For three decades, the percentage of Americans who identify as Christian has steadily declined, a trend confirmed by countless studies. For many believers, it has felt like an inevitable slide into cultural irrelevance. In a season of overwhelmed news cycles, these religious shifts haven’t received the coverage they should, but they are significant, and they keep coming.
The dominant religious storyline in recent decades has been the rise of the "nones" − those who mark "none" for religious affiliation. Secularism pulls down religious commitment like gravity pulling down a satellite. Over time, the orbit decays until there is a crash.
Christianity in the United States has followed a similar trajectory, declining about 1% per year. It looked almost inevitable that a crash was looming. But now, something is shifting. And we can see it in the data among Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012.
Gen Z men more likely to attend church
Perhaps most surprisingly, Gen Z men are now more likely to attend church than Gen Z women. The New York Times reported that among young Christians, men are staying in church (at the same time, many women are leaving).
Overall, younger generations are more spiritually curious. Barna research group reports that most Gen Z teens are interested in learning more about Jesus, with younger cohorts leading the way in the growth of new commitments.
At the same time, the dramatic rise of the nones appears to be leveling off. Sociologist Ryan Burge recently observed that the share of non-religious Americans has stopped rising in any meaningful way − a surprising pause after 30 years of growth.
Americans' engagement with the Bible also appears to be increasing. The 2025 State of the Bible report from the American Bible Society found an increase in Bible use and engagement.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Bible sales have spiked, driven largely by first-time buyers.
Finally, Christian entertainment has seen a remarkable surge. From "The Chosen" to "The King of Kings," faith-based storytelling is gaining a wider audience.
It’s too soon to announce a change to the direction of secularism, but as someone who has been an observer of Christian trends for decades, including a stint leading a Christian research organization, I’ve never seen anything like this. As I’ve been sharing data as part of The State of the Church project, I did not expect it to change this quickly.
The cultural meteor of 2020 ‒ including the COVID-19 pandemic, social upheaval and political turmoil ‒ has shifted the conversation, and it’s too soon to determine where it is going. However, Christians love a good comeback story − more on that later.
Churches in the UK are growing rapidly
Next month, I will again teach “Christianity and Contemporary Culture” at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University, but I’m having to update my lecture notes. A surprising − perhaps shocking − report from the Bible Society in Great Britain describes a "Quiet Revival" in the United Kingdom.
The research was carried out by a well-known research firm, YouGov, in partnership with the Bible Society, which surveyed more than 13,000 adults in England and Wales.
The report says, encouragingly: "We found that the Church is in a period of rapid growth, driven by young adults and in particular young men. Along with this, the Church demonstrates greater ethnic diversity than ever before. Both within and outside the Church, young adults are more spiritually engaged than any other living generation, with Bible reading and belief in God on the rise."
Those of us who study trends in church adherence typically look to countries like the United Kingdom and Australia as harbingers of the trends that will unfold in the United States in the coming years. This is just one study, and we need more data, but in times of tumult and turbulence, people often turn to faith.
Mark Twain once quipped, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
The same could be true of Christian faith in the West. Yes, challenges remain, but the narrative of inevitable decline might no longer hold.
This does not mean that there is not work to be done or issues to address. Even in the data I cited, we cannot ignore that within the good news concerning increased church attendance within Gen Z is a concerning trend regarding young women.
Yes, Gen Z men are coming to church in higher numbers. But among those who disaffiliate from the faith, Gen Z women are represented in significantly higher numbers (54%) than previous generations (47% among millennials and 45% among Generation X, according to a 2023 study by the Survey Center on American Life).
So, it’s not time to call this a revival. But something is stirring in the data − in the culture. Christians would do well to pay attention, live out their faith and step into the opportunity to share with others.
Secularism, for many, has been found empty and wanting. The chaos and instability of the past few years has people returning to the age-old questions about where we came from, why the world is so messed up and where can we find hope.
As Christians, we can rejoice in a newfound openness because we have this strange belief about death and life − that resurrection is real in Christ, and possible for the church.
Ed Stetzer is the dean at the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University and a distinguished visiting scholar at Wycliffe Hall at Oxford University.