What's Really Happening to the Church — and Why It's Not All Bad News

I've been in enough conversations lately with pastors and leaders around the world to know something's shifting.

Article of the Month by Glenn Bleakney

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From Crowds to Community: What’s Really Happening to the Church — and Why It’s Not All Bad News

I’ve been in enough conversations lately with pastors and leaders around the world to know something’s shifting.

You can feel it.

From the States to Sydney, from London to Lagos, everyone’s saying it in one way or another:

“Mega isn’t what it used to be.”
“People want something more local, more relational.”
“And attendance? It’s just not what it was before COVID.”

So what’s really happening?
Is the Church in decline?
Are people walking away from faith?
Or is God actually doing something new—something deeper, more authentic, more Kingdom?

Let’s dive in.

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The Truth About Attendance: A Slow Drift Before the Shock

Let’s start with the facts.

Church attendance didn’t start falling because of COVID. The decline has been underway for decades—across the entire Western world. The pandemic didn’t cause the problem; it simply exposed it and accelerated what was already there.

This is crucial to understand: we’re not looking at a sudden crisis that appeared in 2020. We’re looking at a long-term cultural shift that’s been unfolding since the 1960s in most Western nations. What COVID did was strip away the veneer of nominal Christianity and force everyone—leaders and attendees alike—to reckon with what was really there.

The United States

In the United States, surveys by Pew Research show that while a steady share of people still identify with faith and participate in some form of worship, regular in-person attendance is down compared to pre-pandemic levels. About a third of U.S. adults attend monthly, and digital engagement—streaming, online services, podcasts—has become the new norm.¹

But here’s what’s often missed in the headlines: the story isn’t just about decline. It’s about transformation. The way people engage with faith communities is fundamentally different than it was even a decade ago. Sunday morning is no longer the single, non-negotiable gathering point it once was. Discipleship is happening in living rooms, coffee shops, and yes—through screens.

Australia

It’s the same story in many other nations.

Australia’s National Church Life Survey shows that before the pandemic, roughly 22% of Australians attended church regularly. During the height of COVID, that dropped to 16%.² The disruption was real, the losses were painful, and many congregations wondered if they’d survive.

Yet interestingly, recent data reveals a rebound—attendance among 21 participating denominations jumped from about 1,025,200 in 2021 to 1,305,200 in 2024.³ That’s not a small bump—that’s a significant recovery. Pentecostals and Baptists are seeing the strongest growth since restrictions lifted.

But before we celebrate too quickly, Australian analysts offer this sobering observation: “While many churches are plateaued or declining, there are significant pockets of growth”—especially where congregations are adapting their ministry models.⁴ In other words, the rising tide isn’t lifting all boats. It’s lifting the boats that learned to sail differently.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the story is perhaps even more complex and, in some ways, more hopeful.

The long-term decline of institutional Christianity continues. Church membership in the UK dropped from 10.6 million in 1930 to 5.4 million by 2013.⁵ That’s a staggering loss over eight decades—a collapse that reflects profound cultural shifts, secularization, and the fading of Christendom as a social reality.

But here’s the fascinating twist: younger generations, particularly Gen Z, are showing renewed openness to faith. According to research by the Bible Society in their report “The Quiet Revival,” the number of 18–24-year-olds attending church in England and Wales has reportedly risen significantly—a claimed 56% increase between 2018 and 2024, with Gen Z attenders moving from 4% to 16%.⁶

Even secular media like The Guardian called it “a quiet revival.”⁷

Now, some analysts have raised questions about how representative these figures are, and whether the methodology captures the full picture. The Church of England itself has acknowledged that while there are green shoots of hope, attendance remains “significantly below pre-pandemic levels.”⁸ But even the skeptics acknowledge something unexpected is stirring among the young.

What’s driving this? Some researchers point to a hunger for meaning in a fragmented world, a desire for community in an age of digital isolation, and a surprising openness to the transcendent among a generation that was supposed to be the most secular yet.

The Pattern Across the West

So, yes—the numbers confirm it: overall attendance is lower than it used to be across the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and most Western nations.

But don’t miss this: the hunger hasn’t gone away. It’s just changing form.

The question isn’t whether people still want God, community, and meaning. They do. The question is: what kind of church are they looking for? And are we ready to become it?

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