by Mike James

In a few of my blogs over the past three years, I have addressed the decline in church attendance and the percentage of Christians in the United States and the United Kingdom. After reading a recent article, I think it is important to continue to address this subject moving forward. I think it is important because I believe the decline of Christianity anywhere will impact society.

The recent article I read focused primarily on the increase in the closure of churches in the United States. According to Lifeway Research, 4,500 Protestant churches closed in 2019, and only 3,000 new ones opened. This information is from 2019, the last year data was available to draw from, and this is the first year church numbers have not grown since Lifeway began doing this type of research.

Some speculate that since this was just the beginning of the pandemic, the increase in church closures may have increased in the intervening years (2020 to present). Those statistics remain to be tabulated.

According to Scott McConnell, executive director at Lifeway Research, "The closures, even for a temporary period of time, impacted a lot of churches. People breaking that habit of attending church means a lot of churches had to work hard to get people back to attending again."

McConnell went on to say, "In the last three years, all signs are pointing to a continued pace of closures probably similar to 2019 or possibly higher, as there's been a really rapid rise in American individuals who say they're not religious."

Protestant pastors report typical church attendance is only 85 percent of pre-pandemic levels, according to McConnell.

The Survey Center on American Life and the University of Chicago researchers found that in the spring of 2022, 67 percent of Americans reported attending church at least once a year compared to 75 percent prior to the pandemic.

The drop in numbers in church attendance is primarily due to young people choosing not to continue attending. According to McConnell, the reason younger people are no longer attending is that "the younger generation just doesn't feel like they're being accepted in a church environment, or some of their choices aren't being accepted by those at church."

McConnell also said about a quarter of the young people who left church said they disagreed with their church's stance on political and social issues.

Stephen Bullivant, author of Nonverts: The Making of Ex-Christian America and professor of theology and the sociology of religion at St Mary's University, said in the Christian world it had been a generational change.

While grandparents might have been regular churchgoers, their children would say they believe in God but not go to church regularly. By the time millennials came around, they had little experience or relationship with churchgoing or religion.

On the Catholic side of Christianity, I'm sure the scandals relating to sexual abuse by priests over the past 50 years have influenced other young people to view Christianity negatively. And not just young people, but all kinds of people.

Now that could change. Young people still have time to gain experience in life and possibly come back around. But the other side of the coin is this: When they have children, there will be even less of an interest to pass on to the next generation.

So what can we do about this? Keep reading the Bible. Keep attending church services. Maintain the relationship you have with your children. I had met a number of people who were in the church when they were young and then returned after life had punched them in the gut a few times.

Don't stop relating to your young people just because they don't seem interested in church anymore. Please don't give up on them. The fact that you are still relating to them will provide you with future opportunities. But letting go of those relationships will not lead to any good results.

Christianity is not going away anytime soon, but it is important to recognize the trends that are occurring in this world. Those trends will impact future generations. One of our tasks as Christians is to keep the words of God viable in the world. It is the only hope for mankind. Make sure you are doing your part.

Source: "Losing Their Religion: Why US Churches Are on the Decline," by Adam Gabbatt, January 22, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/22/us-churches-closing-religion-covid-christianity