Members of Generation Z are significantly less engaged with their churches than their older counterparts, according to research showing that those with higher levels of church engagement tend to have higher levels of flourishing and well-being.
The American Bible Society released the fifth chapter of its State of the Bible: USA 2025 report Thursday. The survey examined levels of church engagement, which it defined as “the level of an individual’s involvement in the life, mission, and community of a local church” that “includes learning and growing in one’s faith, meaningful relationships with people in the church, and active use of one’s gifts in the work of the church.”
In a statement reacting to the research, American Bible Society Chief Innovation Officer and State of the Bible Editor-in-Chief John Farquhar Plake asserted that “People’s lives improve when they engage with their church — not just attending, but using their gifts, developing relationships, and taking advantage of opportunities to grow spiritually.”
The report measured church engagement based on respondents’ answers to five questions. Church engagement responses were broken down into four generational subgroups: Gen Z, which consists of the youngest group of American adults born in 1997 or later, millennials born between 1982 and 1996, Generation X born between 1965 and 1981, and baby boomers and elders born in 1964 or earlier.
Gen Z had lower levels of church engagement compared to their older counterparts. Only 35% of Gen Z adults agreed or strongly agreed that “In the past year, I have had opportunities to learn and grow in my faith.” By contrast, 46% of both millennials, baby boomers and elders agreed or strongly agreed that they had opportunities to grow in their faith, along with 48% of Gen X respondents.
Only 19% of Gen Z adults reported having a “best friend at church,” compared to 25% of Gen Xers, 26% of millennials, and 31% of baby boomers and elders. Just 27% of Gen Z adults agreed or strongly agreed that “there is someone in my church who encourages my spiritual development.” Forty-three percent of respondents from all three older generations held the same view.
When asked if they agreed or strongly agreed that “my pastor, or other church leaders, seem to care about me as a person,” 42% of Gen Z adults answered in the affirmative compared to 44% of Gen Xers, 48% of millennials and 49% of the oldest subset of adults. On the question of whether churchgoers felt they had the opportunity to use their “giftings,” 19% of Gen Z adults agreed or strongly agreed, as did 36% of millennials, 32% of Gen Xers and 35% of boomers and elders.
Differences in church engagement were also measured based on denominational groups. A plurality of Evangelicals (43%) reported average church engagement, followed by 39% who characterized their church engagement as high and 18% who considered it low.
Similarly, 43% of Mainline Protestants told pollsters they had an average level of church engagement. Compared to their Evangelical counterparts, a smaller share (30%) described their church engagement as high, and a larger percentage (27%) believed they had low church engagement.
The overwhelming majority of adherents to historically black denominations (62%) considered their church engagement high, while the remaining 38% were split evenly between high and low church engagement. A smaller majority of Catholics (51%) reported average church engagement, while just 12% said they had high church engagement. The remaining 37% had low church engagement.
The research also found that those with higher church engagement also had higher scores on the Human Flourishing Index, which measures an individual’s level of human flourishing on a scale of 0 to 10 based on their responses to questions about their happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, as well as close social relationships.
In the meaning and purpose domain, individuals with high church engagement had a higher average score (8.5) compared to those with average (7.6) and low (7.1) church engagement. Similarly, those with high church engagement also had a higher average score (8.1) on the close social relationships domain than respondents with average (7.5) and low (6.7) church engagement.
On measures of well-being, respondents with high church engagement have significantly lower levels of stress on a 40-point scale (5.8) than their counterparts with average (8.1) and low church engagement (9.4). This phenomenon extends to anxiety, with those with high church engagement reporting lower levels on a 20-point scale (3.3) than those with average (4.2) and low church engagement (4.7).
On a loneliness scale with a range of 0-20, respondents with high church engagement had a score of 9.9, while higher scores were recorded among those with average (11.0) and low church engagement (12.4). On a hope scale ranging from 0-24, those with high church engagement scored higher (20.0) than their counterparts with average (18.0) and low church engagement (16.9).
“Our survey shows that church-engaged Christians have significantly less stress, less anxiety, less loneliness, and more hope. For years now, we’ve seen these same effects with Scripture engagement, but the church provides a living environment where these factors can play out. The pairing of church and the Bible is a powerful force.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
