Is Religion Dying in America? The Truth Every Pastor Should Know

Religious affiliation in America is undergoing a seismic shift, with the "nones" (religiously unaffiliated) now representing 28% of Americans—surpassing evangelical Christians as the largest religious category. This isn't the death of religion but rather an evolution and an opportunity for churches willing to focus on authentic relationships, meaningful discipleship, and community impact.

• Nearly 28% of Americans now identify as religiously unaffiliated, while white evangelical Protestants have declined to 23%
• Gen Z and millennials are the least religious generations on record
• People aren't rejecting spirituality but institutional religion
• Political entanglement, perceived judgmentalism, and irrelevance are driving people away
• Churches that are relational, community-based, and authentic are still growing
• Double down on relationships and discipleship—people need shepherds, not shows
• Reclaim a prophetic voice that speaks truth with grace
• Rethink metrics to focus on spiritual transformation, not just attendance
• This is a moment of opportunity for church leaders willing to go deeper

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Chapters

• 0:00 Religion's Decline and the Nones
• 2:36 Why People Are Leaving Churches
• 4:03 Finding Opportunity in the Crisis
• 5:06 Three Practical Steps for Church Leaders
• 8:00 Your Moment to Lead Change

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Is religion dying in America. New research shows that almost 28% of Americans now identify as kind of nothing religiously unaffiliated, and that's a cultural earthquake for the church. But here's the thing this isn't the end of the story. It could be our greatest opportunity and we're going to talk about that today and why it matters for you in ministry right now. Stick around, because at the end I've got three practical takeaways that you can act on this week. So stick around. You're listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:42

My name is Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom, and today we're going to do one of those episodes where we talk and we did this, I think, last week where we talked about another Pew study that talked about some of the trends in religion and specifically when it came to belief in God and prayer and church attendance and those kind of things. But today we want to talk about this is also from Pew, but from the PRRI. I'm not sure exactly what the PRRI is, but they did this study that they recently released along with Pew, and there's four different sections of this. I'll try and leave a link to that and you can go and actually read the research that they released. But the first thing I want to say is that numbers don't lie, okay. So let's start with some of the hard data and again some of the research that was just released by Pew. Only 23% of Americans now identify as white evangelical Protestants, and that's down from about 29% in 2006. So about 20 years not quite 20 years we've lost about six percentage points 29 to 23%. Meanwhile, at the same time, the religiously unaffiliated we often call these people the nuns, n-o-n-e-s, not N-U-N-S the nuns they've climbed to about 28%. So this is the single largest religious category in America. It's not evangelical Christians, it's the nuns. And this trend isn't just a blip, it's generational. Gen Z and millennials are the least religious generations on record ever.

Speaker 1: 2:22

But don't miss this People aren't necessarily rejecting spirituality, they're rejecting institutional religion. Okay, so that's the first thing. Second thing why people are leaving, and it's not just the culture. Let's talk about what's behind this mass exodus from the church. Researchers are quick to point out a few things in this area. Okay, the first is political entanglement, and boy we've seen this, particularly the last five years or so. Five to ten years, but particularly the last five years.

Speaker 1: 2:55

Many americans feel religion has become too partisan. Okay, and we've seen a huge influx into the church, into a lot of churches, of political and partisanship into the church. There's also an area of perceived judgmentalism, where people are just feeling more shame than grace when they go through the doors of a church, and there's the irrelevance issue. People don't see the church as speaking into their everyday lives. So this isn't a PR problem. Okay, it is a PR problem, but it's more than a PR problem. This is really a discipleship and an engagement problem. People aren't looking for slick services, they're looking for hope and they're looking for authenticity and they're looking for community. And we've seen this in like I said, this isn't just a blip. We've seen this in multiple research studies that particularly younger generations man, they're looking for that hope and that authenticity and that community, and who better to provide that than the church?

Speaker 1: 3:59

Okay, next let's talk quickly about the opportunity in the crisis. So here's the twist. The data isn't all bad news. Among black Protestants, hispanic Catholics, other non-white evangelical traditions, faith remains really vibrant. Churches that are engaged, that are community-based and are relational are growing, even thriving. We've seen this since the pandemic. Those churches that really leaned in, those churches that really engaged, those churches that really engaged with their community and really leaned into the relational areas of discipleship and evangelism. Those churches are growing and some of them are even thriving. So this moment isn't the death of religion thriving. So this moment isn't the death of religion, but it is a redefining of it. So we have a chance to build a more resilient, a more missional and a more Christ-centered church. We have that opportunity.

Speaker 1: 4:55

The question is will we do it Right? And that leads me to my last section here. What pastors and church leaders, what can we do now? Okay, I think there's three things that we can do right now, and you might want to take out a piece of paper and a pencil or a pen and write this down, maybe make a note on your phone, maybe go back and re-listen to this, because I think these are really important.

Speaker 1: 5:22

What are three things that we can do right now as church leaders? The first is man, double down on relationships. Start discipling, not just attracting. People don't need the show, they need a shepherd, okay. So double down on the relationships, double down on discipleship and helping people take their next step. Second is reclaim that prophetic voice, speak truth with grace, address real issues and be relevant without selling out. You can do that, okay.

Speaker 1: 5:55

And then, lastly, rethink your metrics. Okay, we all have things that we track, right, and one of the things that we track we have tracked this for as long as since I was a wee little boy we've always tracked attendance. We've tracked how we're going to measure butts in seats. Stop doing that as much. Every number counts, every person counts, yep, absolutely. But even more important than how many people are sitting in your room on Sunday morning or Saturday night or whenever, is the spiritual transformation and the community impact. So rethink those metrics. It's much, much more than butts and bucks, offerings and the number of people there on a Sunday morning.

Speaker 1: 6:45

And if you're a church staff member, this is your moment, okay, this is honestly why you got into it, right, because there are opportunities, the harvest is ripe and we want to make changes, we want to lead changes, we want to show people how to know Jesus and how to become more like him, and this is the moment church people, church staff people, church leaders this is the moment to lead the change, not by doing more, but by going deeper. Okay, so here's the bottom line for today. Religion in America isn't dying, but it is evolving, and that means your role as a pastor, your role as a church staff person, your role as a church leader. It's more important than ever. Do what you can with those three steps, even this week. Who can you personally disciple? Who can you come alongside? How can you start something in your church that helps people take their next step and move out of that pew or that seat on Sunday morning and do something really significant for the kingdom? I hope this has been encouraging. Sometimes the research comes out and it's not very encouraging. But as a church leader out and it's not very encouraging. But as a church leader, this is a great time. This is a great time to serve and I often say some days you wake up and you're just like I can't believe I get to do this. It's a great time to serve. I can't imagine another time in history that would be better than to serve Jesus right now.

Speaker 1: 8:15

Need some help Any way that we can help you at Chemistry, Staffing or your church. Reach out to me. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. We are for you, we're on your side and we want to assist you and help you and partner with you however we can if we're needed. So reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Let's go ahead and start a conversation on how we might be able to help each other and work together. All right, that's it for today's Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Hope you have a great day. Thanks so much for listening and we'll talk to you soon.