Something remarkable appears to be happening in the Western church. Church attendance is up. News of this has come anecdotally at first, and you might have noticed it in your congregation, that young men (in particular) seem to have more openness towards the Christian faith.
There is also now some hard data to support these intuitions. The Bible Society in the UK commissioned the polling agency, YouGov, to map the changes in church attendance between 2018 and 2024. They surveyed 19,000 people in 2018 and another 13,000 in 2024 and found that over this period monthly attendance had increased fifty percent: from 8% of the population to 12%.
What is even more remarkable is that the increases are not even over the whole demographic. They found that church attendance among young men aged 18–24 in 2018 was less than 4%, but in 2024 this had increased to 21%. This represents a six-fold increase. As one commentator stated: men are waking up!
There is also a smaller, yet still significant, increase among women of a similar age. It means that in the UK, the average 21-year-old is three times more likely to attend church than a 51-year-old. Among this 18–24 age group, 35% report a belief in God(s) or some higher power, while 40% report that they pray at least monthly.
Is it the start of a revival? It is probably too early to say, but certainly, the spiritual tide seems to be moving. Is the Secular Narrative, which has long been contradicted by the ongoing growth of churches in the Global South, now also beginning to lose its grip on the Western mind-set?
To listen and read further:
- Glen Scrivener interviewing Justin Brierley on YouTube.
- John Stevens, National director of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (UK), “The ‘Quiet Revival’ Breaks Spiritual Stillness in the United Kingdom”.
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