The Interruption?

The presence of faith in the lives of Americans has reached a plateau, according to another survey. For the Christian, our faith in Christ is more than just a practice, it is a relationship with a living God, who gives us the ability to see beyond ourselves and to experience His presence daily. We can find strength and wisdom for living through the Word of God and power of the Spirit. In 1st Timothy 3, Paul writes about the strong foundation that our faith in Christ provides:
14 These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly;
15 but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.

Several months ago, I reported to you some of the findings of a Pew Research study on the practice of faith.  I stated at the time:

The survey summary said that in this most recent study, conducted over a seven-month span in 2023 and 24: "62% of U.S. adults identify as Christians. That is a decline of 9 percentage points since 2014 and a 16-point drop since 2007."  But it adds, "...for the last five years, between 2019 and 2024, the Christian share of the adult population has been relatively stable, hovering between 60% and 64%. The 62% figure in the new Religious Landscape Study is smack in the middle of that recent range."

Now, Gallup has released data that shows a stability among various faith groups.  It states in a survey summary:

Americans’ religious preferences have generally held steady in the past five years, after a sharp increase in the percentage of Americans with no religious affiliation and concurrent declines in Protestant and Catholic identification over the prior two decades. In 2024, 45% of Americans identified as Protestant or nondenominational Christian, 21% as Catholic and 10% as another religion, with 22% not identifying with any religion. Those figures are each within one percentage point of their 2018-2020 levels.

The data shows that, "Religious preferences are starkly different between younger and older Americans. More than three in 10 younger adults...have no religious preference, compared with about one in eight baby boomers and fewer than one in 10 of those in the Silent Generation (who were aged 79 or older in 2024)." In fact, among young adults, religious 'nones' rival Protestants as the largest religious subgroup."  Younger adults are the Gen Z and Millennial groups, encompassing adults between 18 and 43 years of age. 

Overall, as the summary relates: "The decline in religious affiliation in the U.S. over the past two decades is thus largely a result of generational change, as younger adults — who are much more likely to have no religious identity — have replaced older generations, which had relatively few unaffiliated members. However, population replacement does not entirely explain the decline in U.S. religiosity. Within each birth cohort, more adults over time have reported they have no religious identity."

Even though we are in a period of stabilization, the trajectory does not bode well for the practice of religion in the years to come. As Gallup notes: 

U.S. religious identification has stabilized after experiencing substantial change between 2000 and 2020. This change was largely driven by young Americans without a formal religious affiliation entering adulthood. That contrasts with older generations of U.S. adults, who overwhelmingly adhered to a Christian faith.

In Gallup language, that includes Protestant, Catholic, LDS, and others.

It warns:

If substantial shares of adults in future U.S. generations continue to eschew religion, Christian religious identification will drop into the 50% range once the millennial generation becomes the oldest generation of Americans, if not sooner.

The good news is that decline in the practice of the Christian faith does seems to have leveled off, according to Pew and Gallup.  But, the trends are still ominous.  What we need is a divine interruption.  Even though the trends may indicate otherwise, we can see pockets of revival and spiritual awakening that are occurring, and people, especially younger generations, are turning their hearts toward the Lord. 

So, we can continue to look to the Lord to show us spiritual deficiencies in our own lives and take the God-inspired steps to remedy those.  We can also be devoted to prayer for people to come to Christ. That God would use us individually and collectively to bring people to Him.  The trajectory is an opportunity, and the Church can move forward in the power of the Spirit in order to dramatically impact the world with the gospel.