Un-Churching and De-Christianing in America - The Research

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE HERE

1. We have a clear and serious problem with contemporary Christianity in the U.S.

2. My first exposure to the problem is when I first read unChristian by Barna Group President, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons

3. This is a widely reported and historical shift in American religion

4. Since the mid-1990s Christian churches have seen dramatic decrease in church attendance and number of persons calling themselves Christian

5. Who's reporting - a partial list

6. Deseret/Marist poll last year

7. Pew Research Center on Religion

8. Gallop

9. National Review

10. Forbes

11. The Atlantic

12. Katie Kouric

13. Huffington Post

14. American Enterprise Institute

15. US News and World Report

16. CNN

17. Fox News

18. Washington Post

19. NPR

20. CBS News 

21. The Heritage Foundation

22. Washington Examiner

23. New York Times

24. The Times of Israel

25. BBC

26. Newsweek

27. NBC News

28. Yahoo News

29. Christianity Today

30. The Economist

31. National Institutes of Health

II. Let’s start with the initial findings of The Barna Group

1. BOOK: unChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, c. 2012

2. Interviewed 440 “outsiders” (atheists, agnostics, persons of other faiths)

3. Also focused on millennials (born c. 1977) and Gen-Z (born c. 1996)

4. Premise: 

5. “Christianity has an image problem”

6. Understanding outsiders’ skepticism can help the church change their behavior  

1. About 90% had negative impressions of and experiences w/ Christians

2. Three strongest impressions (based on 440 surveys)

3. Anti-gay

4. Judgemental

5. Hypocritical

6. General impressions

7. Hypocritical

8. View unbelievers as targets

9. Anti-gay

10. Out of touch - Can’t engage with culture and can’t effectively engage with others (work place, neighborhoods, family’s)

11. Too political

12. Judgemental

13. Recent Barna Data: 

14. Practicing Christians between 2000 - 2020 - 45% to 25% (Down 45%)

15. Non-practicing Christians grew from 35% to 43% (Up 37%) 

16. Non-Christian, atheist, or none from 20% to 32% (Up 60%)

17. Survey specifies that “practicing Christian” includes:

18. Referring to oneself as Christian

19. Prioritizing faith 

20. Regular church attendance

21. Reasons young persons are leaving

22. Fear-based Christianity: Want faith help engage and navigate world

23. Not interested in culture wars 

24. Lack of depth and spirituality: Want to be challenged and have robust faith - distaste for shallow messages or content disconnected from real questions and challenges they face

25. Disengage with war on science 

26. Judgemental - especially re gender & sexuality - reject shunning gays

27. Lack of open-mindedness: Exposed to broader range of ethnicities, religions, worldviews - want to respect differences & honor similarities  

28. Dismissal of serious questions and doubts with simplistic platitudes

29. Sense content was more important than persons and personal connections

30. Meanness of Christians on social media

31. Davis and Graham and “The Great Dechurching” (2023) 

32. Wanted science-driven data - engaged two academics, both political science professors

33. Three-part Study

34. How large is the problem: Surveyed 1,043

35. Who’s leaving and why: Surveyed 4,099

36. What’s happening within Evangelicalism: Surveyed 2,043

37. Forty-Million have stopped attending in the past 25 years (15% of Am adult population)

38. More have left in 25 years than became Christian in the 1rst and 2nd Great Awakenings and Billy Graham Crusades combined

39. Protestants, Catholics, all ages, incomes, ethnicities, denominations

40. “Nones” have increased 1% to 2% per year for 30 years - 2% total the previous 20 years

41. “Largest and fastest religious shift in American history

42. Reasons for leaving:

43. Over-emphasis on culture wars 

44. Lack of love, joy, gentleness, and kindness

45. Inability to listen

46. Inability to engage with persons with other views (gong & clanging cymbal)

47. Racial attitudes

48. DeChurched Beliefs - Two-thirds believe in:

49. Trinity

50. Divinity of Jesus

51. Bible

52. Death and resurrection of Jesus

53. Attend church 1972 v. 2021

54. Never 9% 31%      (+ 244%)

55. Less than 1x/year 8% 15%    (+ 88%)

56. Denominational decline: 1990 v 2020

57. Lutherans: Down 42%

58. Presbyterians: Down 45%

59. Presbyterian Church USA: Down 58%

60. United Church of Christ: Down 52%

61. Methodist: Down 37%

62. Baptist: 29%

63. Snapshot: 2019 - 3K churches started; 4.5K closed 

64. Conversation between two guys mis-managing a failing company: “There’s bad news and good news. The bad news is that we’re losing money on every sale, but the good news is that we make up for it with high volume.” 

65. Conclusion

66. This is how it is that the declining numbers are the first of the three Big Ideas that this podcast is built on. 

67. I don’t disagree with the Barna Group that Christianity has an image problem, but that’s not THE problem. 

68. Having taught organizational problem-solving, once you’ve identified a problem, you do comprehensive Root Cause Analysis

69. This ensures that the attempts at solving the problem are aimed at undoing or reversing the effects of the main cause

70. My view is that trying harder to give outsiders a better impression is a bit like throwing a snowball at a photo of a forest fire. It’s not only woefully shy on ammunition, but it’s aimed at the wrong target

71. I believe this is a problem worth addressing, and I also believe it’s a solvable problem

72. Based on stated impressions and documented experiences that outsiders and many insiders have had with contemporary Christianity, I wouldn’t blame anyone for walking away

73. In my “Dear Christianity” letter, I submit a remedy that I believe would the numbers back around

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE HERE

LINKS TO RESEARCH

• https://www.barna.com/stateofthechurch/

• https://www.barna.com/research/doubt-faith/

• https://www.barna.com/research/rising-spiritual-openness/

• https://www.barna.com/research/church-attendance-2022/

• https://www.barna.com/research/pastors-quitting-ministry/

• https://www.barna.com/research/meet-love-jesus-not-church/

• https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/09/13/modeling-the-future-of-religion-in-america/

• https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/#:~:text=In%20GSS%20surveys%20conducted%20in,Protestant%2C%2023%25%20Catholic).

• https://www.barna.com/research/changing-state-of-the-church/

• https://www.christianpost.com/news/steep-decline-in-practicing-christians-will-have-major-repercussions-for-church-leaders-study.html

• https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/september/christian-decline-inexorable-nones-rise-pew-study.html

• https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/China-s-Christians-keep-the-faith-rattling-the-country-s-leaders

• https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/faith-after-the-pandemic-how-covid-19-changed-american-religion/

• https://www.arizonachristian.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/CRC_AWVI2023_Release_03.pdf

• https://www.barna.com/research/changing-state-of-the-church/

• https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/09/29/religious-switching-patterns-will-help-determine-christianitys-course-in-u-s/

• https://baptistnews.com/article/i-asked-people-why-theyre-leaving-christianity-and-heres-what-i-heard/

• https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/

• https://katiecouric.com/entertainment/why-religion-christianity-decline-america/