Blog
Dec 9, 2025
The Silent Crisis in Church Attendance: Why Older Adults Are Leaving
Wait, There's Good News About Church Attendance?
For most of my life, studies of church participation in the U.S. have featured bad news. Church attendance and church membership have steadily declined for years, with no apparent end in sight.
But recently, there has been good news. In February 2025, findings from the 2023-2024 Pew Religious Landscape Study were released. The headline read, “Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off.” Less decline isn’t the best news, to be sure. It’s not church growth. But it’s certainly better than what we’ve been hearing for a long time.
Then, in September 2025, surprisingly good news emerged from the State of the Church study conducted by Barna and Gloo. The headline of a Christianity Today article read, “Study: Gen Z Now Leads in Church Attendance.” The Barna story was even more upbeat: “New Barna Data: Young Adults Lead a Resurgence in Church Attendance.” Similarly, a commentary piece in The Christian Index proclaimed, “Commentary: Think young adults don’t attend church? Think again.”
Could it be true that the church in the U.S. is growing and being renewed by younger generations? Yes, according to the Barna/Gloo study. Their research found that “Millennials and Gen Z Christians are attending church more frequently than before and much more often than are older generations.” Today, if younger people attend worship services, they average 23 services per year. Boomers and Elders attend an average of 17 services per year. (I have tried to find how Barna/Gloo defines attendance, whether in-person only or also virtual. I have not seen any mention of this in official publications. Either I missed it, or I expect it will come out later.) So, to be clear, the Barna/Gloo study isn’t saying there are more young people in church than older people. Rather, it shows that if young people participate in worship, they do so more frequently than older people.
Surely, the greater interest and participation of young people is good news for the church. As Daniel Copeland, Barna’s VP for research, comments,
[T]he fact that young people are showing up more frequently than before is not a typical trend . . . . It’s typically older adults who are the most loyal churchgoers. This data represents good news for church leaders and adds to the picture that spiritual renewal is shaping Gen Z and Millennials today.
Gloo president Brad Hill adds,
These shifts in church attendance open the door for leaders to innovate…. Churches that prioritize relational touchpoints and digital engagement—through text, social media and other online tools—can better reach younger generations where they already are.
As a pastor and Christian leader with a great desire to see the church flourish, and with more than 50 years of ministering to youth and young adults, I’m excited by the Barna/Gloo findings. Indeed, they are both encouraging and indicative of new opportunities for outreach and discipleship.
Like I said, good news!
What the Headlines Miss: Younger Generations Remain Less Religious Overall
You might think from those headlines that we are seeing numerical growth among young adults. While it may be true in certain contexts, the bigger picture, according to the findings of Pew’s Religious Landscape study,
[Y]ounger Americans remain far less religious than older adults.
For example, the youngest adults in the survey (ages 18 to 24) are less likely than today’s oldest adults (ages 74 and older) to:
Identify as Christian (46% vs. 80%)
Pray daily (27% vs. 58%)
Say they attend religious services at least monthly (25% vs. 49%)
Though we welcome the fact that younger adults who go to church are more faithful in worship attendance, it is still true that there are many more older people than younger people in churches. Younger people are, in general, less religious than their parents and especially their grandparents, and less apt as a whole to go to church.
Older Adults are Leaving: Why Aren't We Talking About It?
Unfortunately, my reading of the news stories related to the Barna/Gloo study turned up even more “not good news.” This had to do not with the study data, but with the way people talked about and reported on the data.
For example, earlier I quoted from Barna’s Daniel Copeland, who said,
[T]he fact that young people are showing up more frequently than before is not a typical trend . . . . It’s typically older adults who are the most loyal churchgoers. This data represents good news for church leaders and adds to the picture that spiritual renewal is shaping Gen Z and Millennials today.
Yes, the news about young people is good. But shouldn’t church leaders also be concerned about the bad news: the drop-off in participation by older adults? Does the data actually represent just good news? It seems to me that what Barna found is really both good news and bad news for church leaders. Right?
Similarly, Gloo’s Brad Hill said,
These shifts in church attendance open the door for leaders to innovate… Churches that prioritize relational touchpoints and digital engagement—through text, social media and other online tools—can better reach younger generations where they already are.
That’s true, for sure. But Hill seems not to realize that churches that prioritize such relational touchpoints will also do better at reaching older generations in addition to younger generations. Does he think that older generations are not tech-savvy? Or does he simply not care to reach them? I highly doubt either of these, actually. But it’s so easy for us to talk in ways that do not affirm the value of older people for the church.
Perhaps the most distressing example of the bad news I’m noting came in a story in The Christian Index. The author writes, and I quote verbatim:
The frequency of churchgoing among Gen Z and Millennials has nearly doubled in five years, rising from about one weekend per month in 2020 to almost two in 2025.
Across all self-described Christian adults, average attendance is about 1.6 times per month.
Older generations have trended down. Boomers are now around 1.4 times per month, and Elders are also about 1.4, after long-term declines from higher levels in 2000.
This is good news for churches in Georgia! Young adults want to attend your church more than any other current generation.
Now, I realize the author is focusing mainly on the upswing in interest and attendance among younger people. But, strictly speaking, his statement that “Older generations have trended down” is followed by “This is good news for churches in Georgia!” Wouldn’t we want both young adults and “other current generations” to want to attend our churches?
What we see in these examples is extremely common among churches and Christian leaders, namely, an admirable commitment to reach younger people that’s combined with an unfortunate ageism that either ignores or devalues older people. Usually, this ageism is unintentional. It’s neither mean nor hateful. But it can seem to imply that Jesus wants us to make disciples of younger people, but not older people.
We Need to Have a Talk About Ageism in the Church
As I read several stories on the encouraging findings from the Barna/Gloo study with respect to younger people, I kept looking for someone who seemed to worry that the church is missing the mark with older adults.
Finally, I did find such a piece in The Christian Post (from October 2025). Thom S. Rainier, in “Senior adults are leaving the Church in alarming numbers,” draws from research by Gallup and Pew that shows how older people are leaving their churches in significant numbers. (Rainier does not mention the Barna/Gloo study.) While affirming the church’s concern about the historical departure of younger generations, Rainier adds,
But there is another exodus taking place in our churches, one that rarely makes the headlines and seldom finds its way into our strategy sessions. It is the quiet departure of senior adults.
Moreover, he writes,
If we only focus on the losses among younger generations, we risk missing another erosion that is happening right in front of us. The Church cannot afford to ignore the silent exodus of senior adults. Their presence is not optional; it is essential.
Rainier offers several insightful reasons why older adults are leaving their churches. These reasons include mobility and health; painful loss of peers; shifting church priorities; seniors feel sidelined; they rarely hear their own lives addressed; and changes in worship and leadership. I say “yes” to all of these, but there is more.
That “more” is implied in the phrase “seniors feel sidelined.” I would say that it’s not just that they feel sidelined. They often are sidelined by their church and its leadership. I hear this consistently from faithful church members, most of whom have not left their church, though perhaps they attend less often. And I see it enacted by many Christian leaders. In fact, in the quotes I used above, you see clear examples of such sidelining.
Nobody actually said, “Older adults don’t really matter.” But nobody said, “We need to figure out how to reach younger people more effectively and older people too. We don’t want the older people to leave the church.” That kind of vision was missing in the articles and reports I read. Thus, not unreasonably, many older adults would hear an exclusive focus on younger people as, “You don’t really matter.” And sometimes, I’m sorry to say, they’re hearing accurately.
I’ve spent the last six years in Fuller’s Max De Pree Center for Leadership, focusing on helping people in the third third of life flourish as disciples of Jesus. I’ve read hundreds of studies and dozens of books. I’ve interacted with hundreds of older adults and dozens of pastors and other church leaders.
In all that I’ve encountered, I have regularly witnessed ageism in the church that ignores and/or devalues older adults. Sadly, this is often mixed up with a laudable and vital focus on young people and young families. But too often, it’s as if making disciples of young people or old people is an either/or proposition. This is especially unfortunate, given the fact that older Christians could be excellent disciplers of younger Christians, and that both parties would flourish through such an intergenerational ministry.
Ironically, Barna gets this right in an excellent resource called Aging Well: A Renewed Vision for Ministering to Older Adults. I highly recommend this piece to anyone interested in ministry with older people. It has great things to say about intergenerational ministry, among other things.
As I re-read Aging Well recently, however, I did note that it did not mention explicitly the problem of ageism in society or the church. This is an oversight, especially given the fact that the World Health Organization’s Global Report on Ageism observes: “Globally, one in two people are ageist against older people.” Ageism in the church keeps us from being all that God intends us to be, and it must be addressed.
Intergenerational Ministry: A Both/And Approach
Don’t we believe that the church of Jesus Christ is for all people, including all ages? If so, then we should be open to learning how we might better serve all the people entrusted to our care, including those who are in the third third of life.
We should be concerned if older adults are disconnecting from church (and not mainly because they tend to be the most faithful donors).
I am convinced that one reason for the disappearance of older people from worship and church membership is the fact that, often, our longings, losses, and loves are not part of the worship experience. (I say “our” because I am 68 years old.) Of course, there are other reasons, including the fact that some older adults might have a hard time getting to church. But if what we hear and sing and pray in worship really doesn’t address our experience, then we might be inclined to miss a few services each year. Or we might choose to disconnect from our church completely. I’m not defending this; just trying to make sense of it.
Please understand, I am not saying that churches should not focus on children, youth, young adults, and young families. This is absolutely right and praiseworthy. But we don’t have an either/or situation here. We can reach out to the young and the old and everyone else, too.
I know this to be true because I experience it regularly in my own church. Our pastor, Joel, is leading us in a new effort to reach the young and doing a great job of it. I am 100% supportive of his leadership and excited about the fruit that’s beginning to grow on our part of the vine.
But Joel has not neglected those of us in the third third of life. He regularly mentions us and our challenges in his sermons. He includes us in calls to worship, prayers, and benedictions.
He partners with older adults in worship leadership and overall church leadership. Plus, as we’re focusing on the young, he asks me to teach Sunday School classes specifically meant for our third third folk. We who are older are not sidelined or forgotten. We are not treated as if our time of valuable ministry is over. Rather, we consistently experience the fact that we matter to our church and its mission. Our experiences matter. Our faith matters. Our challenges matter. Our longings matter. Our losses matter. Our ministry efforts matter. Our attendance matters. Our lives matter.
So, if our churches are drawing more young people, thanks be to God! If younger generations are more regular in worship participation, thanks be to God! Their involvement will enrich us all. If churches are learning to do a better job with digital engagement, thanks be to God! That will make a difference for young and old. If those younger folk who were once on the outside have been drawn in, thanks be God! But let’s not ignore the fact that some older folks are drifting away at the same time. Let’s discover how to be a church for all peoples, all ages.
To God be the glory! Amen.
Practical Steps: Ministry Resources for All Ages
As a pastor, you may be thinking:
I'm with you, but I need help getting started. How can my church effectively minister to all people, including older adults? How can we help all ages flourish as disciples of Jesus?
Let's get practical. What can you do?
The De Pree Center at Fuller
At Fuller’s Max De Pree Center for Leadership, we have a large collection of free resources to help leaders with what we call "third third ministry." These are a great place to start educating and equipping yourself to take a both/and approach to all-age ministry.
For those looking for full courses we offer two video-based courses for individuals and groups at reasonable rates.
Stay Tuned
Second, in the coming months, I’ll be writing a series of articles for The Pastor’s Workshop. (Such a helpful web ministry, by the way! I’m glad to be part of it.)
These articles will continue to equip you for effective ministry with older adults.
In the meantime, if you have specific questions or concerns, feel free to contact me: markroberts@fuller.edu.
You can also explore Mark's existing articles on ministry to older adults on the site!