Millennials at Worship Services Are Few But Passionate

Published on: Jan 7, 2013Updated on: Jan 7, 2013

A survey released this fall by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found 32% of those under age 30 claim no religious identity.

Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, a Nashville-based Christian research agency, analyzed Protestant trends from 1972 to 2010 in data collected by the General Social Survey, a biannual survey from the National Opinion Research Center.

When he looked at young adults ages 23 to 35 — an age group that is often away from their parents’ influence and the cocoon of college — he found that during those 38 years:

Mainline Protestant numbers dove from 24% to 6% and their worship attendance slid from more than 4% to less than 2%.
Black Protestants held steady in number, less than 10%, and their worship attendance did, as well, at about 2%.
Young evangelicals rose in number, up from about 21% to 25%. But only about 9% attended church at least once a week in 2010, up from about 7.5% in 1972.

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Don Chapman

A prolific arranger and songwriter, Don has had songs published by Word, Integrity Music, G3worship and Worship Today, and has orchestrated music for several Christian artists. He serves as the arranger for Hymncharts.com and Worshiphymns.com. He’s been featured on the 700 Club, has been quoted in USAToday and has been a guest lecturer at Liberty University.