The new study shows dramatic church growth among young adults in the UK.
The Bible Society has surveyed “quiet revivals” that surveyed more than 13,000 people, tracking a 12% increase since 2018 among people aged 18 to 24 who attend churches at least monthly. And in the past six years, that number among men has been shot from 4% to 21%.
More young women also began attending churches, increasing from 3% to 12%.
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Many news stories from Gen Z members face reports from CBN News detailing the spiritual awakening unfolding across the UK last summer
“I’ve never seen the church decline low between 2020 and 2023, so I often felt like we were experiencing a post-Covid move, the church was struggling, the number of them was declining.” “But there was not just their number, but there was a lack of enthusiasm, a lack of passion, a lack of enthusiasm, a lack of enthusiasm, a lack of enthusiasm, a lack of growth. And something changed earlier this year, and I say, and it’s difficult to explain or define.”
For example, last summer, 70,000 people gathered at Trafalgar Square in London to hear the gospel.
Tracking along with that shift, Bible Society research showed that church attendance is increasing among many demographics, including Generation Z, Millennials and over 65 years of age.
Church attendance has increased by approximately 50% overall in the UK over the past six years.
Dr. Rhiannon McAleer, one of the study’s co-authors, said the findings challenge the belief that the churches in England are “end.”
“While some traditional denominations continue to face challenges, we have seen significant broad growth in most of the church’s representations, particularly in Roman Catholicism and Pentecostalism,” she said. “More than 2 million people are now participating in the church than they did six years ago.”
And the shifts seem very realistic.
John Stevens, pastor of the British town of Market Harborough, wrote in a recent post in the Evangelical Union that it is “more encouraging than any other point in the last 20 years.”
Interestingly, Stevens has honoured at least a part of the recent transition to massive migration to the UK, noting that it now has a net migration rate of 728,000 people per year. The notable rise in the number of Catholics and Pentecostals “are likely resulted from migration from Africa and elsewhere, strengthening the number of church attendance,” he wrote.
“The UK population has grown below 2 million since 2018, which is roughly the same as an increase in church attendance,” he added. “Overall statistics hide the challenge of reassessing the post-war British population and ethnic minorities who migrated to the UK.”
With that in mind, he expressed his reasons for his hope. “It’s a new movement of the British God, and it appears to have greater openness and responses among young people, especially men.”
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