According to the Barna survey, Millenials and Generation Z are the most common churchgoers. The data indicates the younger generation, attuned to social justice, also is longing for connection and are more willing to engage with the church community during weekdays.
It’s become a familiar scene over the past few decades, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown: Black churches that, on Sundays, often have more empty pews than people worshipping in them. And the congregants singing from the hymnals are more likely gray-haired seniors than fresh-faced youngsters.
But a new report on the habits of churchgoers smashes that stereotype. It finds that Millennials and Gen Z’ers — the hyper-connected, socially conscious young people born between 1997 and 2012, who live on TikTok and Instagram — now lead the country in church attendance.
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Perhaps just as surprising, the report from Barna found that attendance among Baby Boomers, long considered the Black church’s backbone, has plunged. Adults born between 1947 and 1964 are more likely to sleep in on Sunday mornings.
Post-Pandemic Rebound
“Millennials and Gen Z Christians are attending church more frequently than before and much more often than are older generations,” according to the report. “The typical Gen Z churchgoer now attends 1.9 weekends per month, while Millennial churchgoers average 1.8 times—a steady upward shift since the lows seen during the pandemic.”
The upticks “are easily the highest rates of church attendance among young Christians since they first hit Barna’s tracking,” according to the report. “While overall church attendance trends have been flat in recent years, the return to church among the next generation stands out as a powerful sign of rising openness to faith.”
[COVID-19] forced many young people to deal with their mortality. Young people are coming back to church with questions about the impact of faith and looking to ask questions generations prior didn’t ask.
Rev. Therm James Jr., New Macedonia Baptist Church , Washington, D.C.
Obviously, people evaluated the need for in-person worship following the expedient establishment of virtual worship when the pandemic caused by COVID-19 caused the shutdown of churches to quell the spread of the deadly virus.
Churches that had contemplated hybrid worship were forced to immediately offer the option for mere survival. Those who couldn’t respond quickly enough were forced to shut their doors; some never reopened.
But black pastors credit the resurgence to young people considering their own mortality after the once-in-a-generation pandemic, as well as abandoning old traditions to create their own.
‘Who is God?’
COVID-19 “forced many young people to deal with their mortality,” says Rev. Therm James Jr., pastor of student life at The New Macedonia Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. “Young people are coming back to church with questions about the impact of faith and looking to ask questions generations prior didn’t ask.”
“I’ve seen Gen Z numbers increase in places where they feel free to be their entire selves,” James says. He noted that Zoomers have come of age amid violence and trauma: the 9/11 terrorist attacks, mass shootings at schools, and the murder of George Floyd.
“I’ve found that new faith interest is deeper than we understand because this generation has known trauma since birth,” he says. Gen Z, he says, is searching for meaning and willing to learn — a challenge for the traditional Black church.
“The question is who is God, and why is God not revealing Godself in these present evils,” James says. “The church must grapple with reteaching doctrine that speaks of who Jesus is in the presence of social ills and mental/ emotional unrest.”
Generations Searching
Rev. Keisha T. Jones, founder and international pastor of EP International Ministries, says Barna’s research findings are no surprise to her as she travels to minister. Gen Z worshippers, she says, “don’t want ritual. They don’t want recycled religion. They want real. And they can spot ‘fake’ a mile away.”
“I witness a growing spiritual appetite in this generation,” she says. “This is a generation inundated daily with fiction disguised as fact — through fake news, curated social media personas, and shallow reality shows.”
Yet when they encounter the Gospel in a way that speaks to them, she says, “they show up and keep coming back.”
She compares the current renewal to the historic 1906 Azusa Street revival credited with giving birth to modern Pentecostalism.
Building Connections
“What I’m witnessing is nothing short of an expedited miracle,” Jones says. “A Gen Z-style, Azusa Street Revival, not marked by tradition, but by intentional spaces that embrace truth, community, and relevance,”
“Churches that are thriving post-Covid are those that have made a clear and unapologetic shift: they are preaching and teaching in ways Gen Z can digest,” she says. “Hosting groups that align with their interests, and using platforms they already live on — social media — to build connections all week long, not just on Sundays.”
Those churches “aren’t gatekeeping the table; they’re pulling up more seats,” she says. “They are not judging outward appearances; they’re seeing hearts. And Gen Z is responding. They’re showing up with their tattoos, piercings, dyed hair, and most importantly, their hearts wide open to truth.”
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Jones says the Black church can no longer afford to continue shaping worship experiences solely around the Silent Generation and expect churches to survive.
“If we ignore Gen Z now, we lose not just a generation, but the future of the church itself. Let’s be clear: Gen Z is not absent. They are present, vocal, and hungry for truth, for connection, for Jesus.”
She presents the challenge of whether or not the church will create space for Gen Zers to be fully seen, heard, and valued.
“After all,” Jones says, “God looks at the heart — so why don’t we?”
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