Is the switch still on?

I don’t know about you, but my church is full on Sunday mornings. So is my previous church. So is the church my sister-in-law attends. Others seem to have never recovered after Covid. When I listen to surveys, they don’t always jive with what I’m experiencing. For example, a recent Pew Research study, conducted in 36 countries, showed that more than 20 percent of adults have switched out of the faith communities they were brought up in. Christianity and Buddhism have been hit the hardest with a switch of high percentages to unaffiliated status. A poll by Fuller Youth Institute says that youth, 13-25, are three times more likely to be hurt by the unkindness, moral failures, and hypocrisy in the church. Often, they might leave.

But our churches are full! And I’m seeing conversions and baptisms. Just this past Sunday a family of Persians were baptized, including their young adult sons. In my wife’s English learning class, there are learners from Russia, Kazikstan, Persia, China, the Czech Republic, Turkiye, Armenia, Belgium, Ukraine, and the Philippines. Every Sunday, new faces show up.

Are we benefitting from the switch more than being hurt by it? Are we simply seeing our youth switching up their attendance to other denominations across town? Cara Powell (PhD), executive director of the Fuller Youth Institute and Chief of leadership formation at Fuller Theological Seminary, shares a story: “One of my favourite stories is a campus staff member who showed up at the first weekly Bible study at the start of this fall… And she thought for sure she was in the wrong room because there were 120 college students who were at this first Bible study. And last year there had been 20 college students. And here the first week, like they’ve just put up flyers, put it out on social media, and there’s 120 college students. She was in the right room. It was just this overflow of interest…”

So, are the next generations finding their hope outside our traditional churches? Are we benefitting from immigration, the influx of international students, and the spiritually curious? The New York Times recently trumpeted the headline that Christianity’s decline in the US has halted. Church attendance has moved up from 28 percent to 32 percent after a 16 year slide. Millennials and Gen Zs are leading the way. Carey Nieuwhof says we “should celebrate the wins but don’t declare victory too soon,” because “full rooms don’t mean mission accomplished.”

While Gen Zs are leading the way toward revival they are also leading toward retreat – becoming a divided generation. The number of practicing Christian adults has decreased from 45 percent in 2000 to 20 percent in 2024, and as a result, the number of non-practicing Christian followers has gone from 35 percent to 44 percent.

Anugrah Kumar (Christian Post, March 31, 2025), notes that some countries like India, Israel, Nigeria, and Thailand “report high religious retention rates of 95 percent or more” while the far east, Europe and the Americas show “significant religious mobility.” 50 percent of Koreans no longer identify with their childhood religion, along with 36 percent of the Dutch, 28 percent of Americans, and 21 percent of Brazilians, so is this a reality for every faith system? Many are becoming unaffiliated rather than embracing alternate faiths.

Regarding her observations on the college scene, Powell, in an interview with Carey Nieuwhof, says, “I think young people feel so lonely, depressed, stressed, like that’s where the peace of Jesus and a God of grace loves you not based on what you do, but just because of who you are, and loves you unconditionally. Like that’s what really connects. So, what I would say is let’s look past the tattoos and the time on technology and what folks are posting on social media and whether or not they like Kendrick Lamar. And let’s look at young people’s core heart cries. And that is what Jesus can meet. And that’s the future of the church.”

Alternatively, Kumar notes that 29 percent of Swedes have abandoned their ‘Christian faith’ to become religiously unaffiliated. In Germany, 20 people leave their ‘Christian faith’ for every one that joins. In Nigeria there are equal numbers joining and leaving; in Singapore, a few more joining than leaving.

Perhaps we need to take on the attitude of my 94-year-old father-in-law who recently moved into a senior’s care home. He announced on his recent birthday that his greatest joy was leading a fellow senior to Christ while starting a prayer meeting to win the rest of his new community. His spirits and energy and prayers and vitality have revived and so perhaps will the faith of those around him.

Whether our Sunday morning rooms are full or half-empty, the mission isn’t over. Perhaps there are others nearby who are ready to switch.