According to a Pew Research study posted on December 14, 2021, approximately three in ten USA adults are now “religiously unaffiliated.” The study reveals that self-identified Christians make up 63% of U.S. population in 2021, down from 75% a decade ago.
To anyone following the role of church in the over all numbers are not surprising. The study looks at the number primarily through a denominational lens. Protestantism is showing the sharpest decline. I wish the study provided even more data on race and ethnicity… my sense is that this part of the story is very important to the future of the church in this country.
From a systems perspective the “church system” is not broken, is is getting what it is designed to produce.
The struggle so many have in providing a meaningful lived responses to the questions of what is the church? What is church for? Why should anyone participate in church? Suggest that this decline will continue.
What is the big “Why” of your local faith community’s existence?
Peace, dwight
