The church in America is in decline, and even a secular news organization noticed it.
Adam Gabbatt of The Guardian newspaper said that “as the U.S. adjusts to an increasingly non-religious population, thousands of churches are closing each year in the country – a figure that experts believe may have accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic.”
A study by Lifeway Research showed that during 2014, approximately 4,000 new Protestant churches were planted, and 3,700 were closed. In 2019, the same group found 3,000 new church plants and 4,500 closings. That equates to an addition of 300 new churches in 2014 … and a loss of 1,500 churches in 2019. And those are pre-pandemic numbers.
“While COVID-19 may have accelerated the decline [since 2019],” Gabbatt added, “there is a broader, long-running trend of people moving away from religion.”
He cited a 2017 Lifeway survey of young adults between the ages of 18 and 22 who had attended church regularly for at least a year during high school. Less than one-third of respondents claimed to still attend church regularly.
The exodus
The answers as to why so many people are leaving the church are numerous and varied. For example, Trevin Wax, vice president of research and resource development at the North American Mission Board, a missions agency affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, believes the decline is because of “expressive individualism.” Barna Group’s The State of the Pastors study, released in February 2020, claims “watered-down gospel teachings” as the reason. In addition, Thom Rainer, founder and CEO of Church Answers, blames “greater polarization and divisions” within the church as to why so many people are vacating the pews.
While these experts offer valid reasons worthy of consideration, one can’t help but wonder if these reasons are more symptomatic than foundational.
In a November 2023 press release, founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham, acknowledged a “catastrophic generational loss of church attendance.” But he got more to the root problem when he said the first challenge is “an incredible undermining of biblical authority.” He suggested that the solution to this problem is a focus on apologetics – the defense of the Bible.
“If we continue to compromise on God’s Word, then we will continue to lose people from our churches,” Ham said.
Accordingly, Wax further explained that too many people go to church for the same reasons they do anything else: “to be affirmed.” So when church attendees do not agree with the very foundation of the church, which is the Bible, then what happens if the teaching of the church contradicts their personal feelings about such things as creation, sin, judgment, and repentance?
The habit of some
Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV) says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
This instruction is for the church – the true disciples of Christ.
For those who stop attending church, perhaps “Christianity” is nothing more than a checkbox for “religious affiliation” or a weekly activity. Or does the decrease in numbers simply identify the true church?
As the Apostle John concluded, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19).
(Digital Editor's Note: This article was published first in the January/February print edition of The Stand).
