In the News: How Gen Z Will Shape the Church
Springtide Research Institute was recently featured by Relevant Magazine. This article, How Gen Z Will Shape the Church is reprinted in part below, but we encourage you to visit their site to read the piece in its entirety.
From a purely mathematical standpoint, the Church has reason to be concerned about reaching the next generation. The most recent numbers say around 44.4 percent of Gen Z — people born after 1996 — spiritually characterize themselves as “Nones.” Nones can be atheist or agnostic but, by and large, they don’t claim any label at all. And now, there are statistically more Gen Z Nones than there are Gen Z Christians.
It wasn’t always this way. As recently as 2016, just 39 percent of Gen Z said they were Nones, while 41 percent said they were Catholic or Protestant. But it’s been a complicated few years, and the exodus from organized religion that began with Millennials has accelerated with Gen Z.
