Between 2024 and 2025, the number of Americans going to a Christian church at least twice a year grew by 8 million. Recent research from the American Bible Society called the trend encouraging — even as a closer look revealed deeper concerns and some generational differences.
ABS released its 16th edition of the State of the Bible report with a particular focus on the American church. “On a scale of 1–10,” researchers asked, “how healthy is the church in America?” While no specific rating was given, “there are reasons to believe the church isn’t very strong.”
The report’s chapter on Church Health ultimately concluded that “the reality is … complex. … In our research, we see an intriguing dichotomy. While half of self-identifying Christians in our country don’t regularly attend church, those who do say their churches are genuinely helping them grow. Though there’s a massive discipleship gap in America, individual churches are healthier than we might expect.”
Who’s going to church? Or rather, who’s not going?
It turns out more than half of those who claim to be Christians do not regularly attend church. This group includes people who appear to hold a genuine faith as well as those who might not. Still, the report emphasized, the data points to “a lot of nominals — people who claim a Christian faith but don’t engage in one of the defining practices of the Christian faith: going to church.”
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Sarah Holliday and originally published by Decision Magazine. Used with permission.
