As you lead your church in 2026, the world—and the church—is shifting faster than anyone expected.

Even more surprising, the shifts include a lot of positive movement—surges in faith among the next generation and rising commitment to Christ. Yes, there are warning signs, but this year’s church trends are as much a story of hope as they are of caution.

As a church leader, you live with the constant tension of managing the urgent while trying not to lose sight of the important. The danger is that if you miss the big picture, your daily efforts can end up off-target, no matter how faithful or hardworking you are.

That’s why I write this annual Church Trends Report: to help you and your team see what’s changing, why it matters, and how to lead with clarity in the middle of massive change. Read it in one sitting, then take time to digest it.

2025 was the first year we began to see the stirrings and anecdotes associated with revival become statistically meaningful. My goodness, did things begin to change quickly!

The reversal is as surprising as it is encouraging, especially for those of us who have seen years of mostly decline in the numbers and trends. For example, Bible sales are up 41.6% since 2022, spiritual app downloads rose 79.5% since 2019, and Christian music streams are up 50% since 2019.

According to Barna, the number of Americans who say they have a personal commitment to Jesus that is still meaningful in their lives rose 12 percentage points between 2022 and 2025.

All of these stirrings continue to fuel the 2026 church trends.

The Meta-Trend: America is Still Becoming Less Christian

All of that said, we need to take a breath. Despite all the positive evidence and talk of revival, there is a meta-trend hanging over all the other church trends we’ll look at for 2026: the ongoing general decline of Christianity in America.

Fresh data from Barna shows that, at the same time we’re seeing some positive trends, Christianity as a whole is less important to Americans than in years past. And more Christians than ever don’t practice their faith.

For example, in 2000, 74% of Christians said faith was central to their lives. Today, it’s 54%.

That means that 46% of US Christians do not consider their faith to be central to their lives, which is, I think you’d agree, a bit of an issue.

Similarly, half of all US adults (48%) now qualify as non-practicing Christians.

In fact, only 24% of Christians actively pursue their faith. That’s a significant finding and a big change from 15 years ago, when more Christians practiced their faith than didn’t. Perhaps this helps describe the crisis in discipleship and the partisanship we’re seeing.

All of this confirms what we noted in 2025: that Gen Z is in a revival and retreat at the same time.

So, as you read the 2026 trends, remember that the mission of the church is hardly accomplished. There’s so much to do this year to reach more people.

Before we go further, you can access all of my Church Trends reports back to 2016. Many are still relevant today because shifts continue to unfold over many years.

2025 Church Trends | 2024 Church Trends  | 2023 Church Trends | 2022 Church Trends | 2021 Church Trends | 2020 Church Trends & Update | 2019 Church Trends | 2018 Church Trends | 2017 Church Trends | 2016 Church Trends

So, with that significant meta-trend addressed, what’s changing this year? What should you look for?

Here are seven disruptive church trends to look for in 2026.

1. Gen Z Is Leading the Surge in Church Attendance

The recent rise in church attendance is being fueled by young adults.

Gen Z is now the most frequent church attenders of any demographic, attending 1.9 times a month, which is marginally higher than Millennials and meaningfully higher than their Gen X or Boomer parents and grandparents.

Drilling down a little further, you can see that this isn’t just a generational shift; it’s a spike in engagement amongst Gen Z, who in 2021 were barely attending once a month.

That’s now doubled to almost twice a month. Millennials have seen a similar surge.

Startling data from the UK also shows that Gen Z church attendance among ages 18-24 has quadrupled over the last eight years, growing from 4% of young adults attending church to 16% today.

What’s At Stake

At the most charitable level, the surge back to church among many young adults might stem from their having explored what the culture has to offer and found it wanting.

To borrow Luke LeFevre, who spoke at our live event in Dallas last September, Gen Z has gone from despair to desperation, and that’s driven many to Jesus.

Gen Z has gone from despair to desperation, and that’s driven many to Jesus.Luke LeFevreShare on X

They’re not seeking an echo of the culture, but an alternative to it, and that’s what they’re finding in Christianity.

Back in 2023, pollsters started to notice that Gen Z and younger Millennials were spiritually open. The challenge is that spiritual openness doesn’t automatically lead to Jesus. And many who are open haven’t found Christ.

Also, as you’ll see in Trend 2 below, not everyone is flocking to church. Young women are exiting. So, challenges remain.

What To Do

As Jon Tyson points out, you cannot create a revival, but you can position yourself spiritually for renewal and revival.

Revival is God’s action, not something you can manufacture or produce. Share on X

That said, preparing your church to reach the next generation is something every leader can embrace.

2. Young Men Are Coming To Church… And Women Are Leaving

With every shift in culture and trends, there’s unexpected news. On the positive side, young men—who are often thought of as the most difficult group to reach—appear to be heading to church in ways no one had anticipated.
At the same time, younger women seem to be leaving the church in record numbers—the first time pollsters have seen this kind of trend.

Despite the good news stories that keep popping up about Gen Z’s resurgence in faith, the spiritual languishing of Gen Z women goes beyond church attendance.

Across the board, Gen Z women are less plugged in spiritually than Gen Z men.

As you can see in the chart below, when it comes to prayer, bible reading, and attending church, Gen Z women lag behind their male counterparts. There’s also a concerning drop-off in engagement among college-age women.

What’s At Stake

When one gender is checking out at unprecedented rates, it’s important to ask why.

That’s a complicated question, and hopefully 2026 provides new insights. For what it’s worth, though, here’s an early take on what might be going on.

While I don’t in any way want to disparage the conversions happening among young men, one has to wonder whether the hard right swing among many US evangelical churches is simultaneously driving the resurgence among young men and exit among women.

With influencers like Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, and others preaching a conservative message of life change, many young men are finding resonance in churches that demand something of them. That’s not necessarily bad.

If you see this from a positive viewpoint, the church offers a counterpoint to the culture for young men. As one young megachurch pastor told me, for decades, men have been portrayed by culture as dumb, incapable, and often oppressive. What many of them are finding through the teachings of Jesus is that they are called to be more than conquerors and have a purpose far greater than what their jobs can offer.

Churches that continue to call men higher and cast a vision for their lives to count will continue to see men find their life purpose.

So that’s the positive side.

However, one also has to ask whether some churches are embracing a bro-culture that is driving women away.

Anecdotal evidence (emails I’ve received and conversations I’ve had) suggests that many women feel disempowered in church leadership or disagree with the partisan/political agenda of some churches.

While we don’t have data on this, one common theme I’ve heard in talking to women leaders is that women have risen to higher levels of leadership in their jobs or as elected government officials, but don’t see the same opportunities or valuing of their gifts in the church.

There are certainly theological considerations around women in leadership for many Christians, but in an era where women are empowered to lead in vocational and civic circles but prevented from leading within the Church, you have to wonder if they are expressing their gifts elsewhere.

Witness the number of female podcasters, authors, and (rather large) ministries and non-profits that have sprung up outside the church, including many led by women in their twenties and thirties. Most female next-gen influencers don’t lead from a position in their congregation, but from their organizations, books, podcasts, and speaking engagements.

Finally, the lingering impacts of church scandals, #MeToo, #ChurchToo, and the prevalence of the abuse of women by male church leaders may be contributing to the exodus.

Again, the data hasn’t fully shown what’s driving the exit, but people don’t leave without a reason. I’m hoping 2026 will provide more insight into this.

What To Do

The most important thing to do is to see whether young women are leaving your congregation and, if so, explore why.

Don’t get me wrong, the fact that the church is reaching young men is to be celebrated.

But embracing a Gospel consistent with the church at its best over the last 2000 years means reaching all people, regardless of gender, age, income, or how they vote.

If you’re attracting only a particular demographic (wealthy people, white people, just males, etc), it’s time to audit your ministry and ask why. The Gospel reaches into the hearts of all people.

3. Evangelism is Getting Bolder and More Direct

For years, churches viewed evangelism as hosting weekend services where people could invite friends. Christians saw their role as building relationships with unchurched friends, sharing their faith, and bringing them to church.

The challenge with this model is that many Christians never invite anyone to church, despite the astonishing reality that 80% of non-churchgoers say they would come to church if someone invited them.

Enter the next generation and a rise in bolder, more direct evangelism.

We’ve seen the rise of college campus crusades of the Unite Us movement and pastors like JP Pokluda, challenging Christ-followers to share Christ every day with anyone, from Uber drivers to servers to barbers.

Probably the biggest shift is the emergence of YouTubers, artists, and social media influencers like Bryce Crawford, Wesley Huff,  Rusland KD, the late Charlie Kirk, and, to some extent, even Forrest Frank, taking apologetics, evangelism, and their message directly to YouTube, to crowds, and to the streets.

What’s At Stake

On the one hand, this is remarkably positive.

On the other hand, churches are being somewhat bypassed with this trend. I’m not saying the listed group isn’t associated with a local church. I’m just noting that the local congregation is not the vehicle for sharing the Gospel in this case. It’s moved from the seats to the streets.

Pastors tend to share sermon clips. Next-generation evangelists share the Gospel directly with people, online, and one-on-one. Share on X

What To Do

Most churches don’t have a direct-to-YouTube, direct-to-the-street, or even direct-to-social-media ministry. For the most part, pastors have their social media team share sermon clips, invite people to a new series, and that’s about it.

The vast majority of pastors who took their communication directly to camera in 2020 quickly reverted to sharing clips of sermons and talks.

One practical thing your team can do this year is to consider exploring more off-stage moments. Brainstorm how you can start speaking directly to people on social media and to do more in-person sharing of the Gospel, some filmed, some maybe not.

Not comfortable with that? Well, even studying YouTubers and street evangelists can help pastors think beyond their services and beyond the Sunday message for fresh ways to do evangelism and to mobilize their congregations.

One pastor I know at an influential mega-church is rethinking how he uses social media in light of the shift.

And after the ‘back to normal’ push of social and church online post-COVID, perhaps 2026 is a year to rethink your social media and online strategy from the ground up, breaking your current pattern and speaking more directly to the people who are following you.

Innovation doesn’t always lead to breakthroughs, but breakthroughs never happen without innovation.Share on X

So who could help you figure this out locally?

It’s almost guaranteed that any church with a vibrant student or young adult ministry has some social media influencers and YouTubers attending their church.

The problem? Online influencers who attend church get ignored or asked if they can run the soundboard or ProPresenter on a Sunday.

Perhaps the best thing you can do for that group is to pour fuel on their fire, encouraging them, supporting them, resourcing them, and learning from them, asking their input on how to be more effective at it yourself.

4. Preaching is Starting to Shift From Presentation to Encounter

While the world has changed immensely in the last 30 years, Sunday services have not.

Sure, the music, dress code, and technology have shifted. But fundamentally, the sermon is still primarily a 30-40 minute presentation.

To some extent, that’s good and necessary.

But in light of how much has changed, it might be time to rethink exactly what it means to preach in a Sunday morning service.

A few decades ago, content was scarce. If you wanted to hear a sermon, you needed to be present in person or subscribe to the cassette ministry. What was plentiful were community and connection.

Fast forward to today, and content is plentiful. People are swimming (drowning?) in it. You can get pretty much any sermon anywhere in the world for free. And not just sermons—TED talks, keynotes, and YouTubers talking directly to you on virtually any topic of your choosing.

Meanwhile, in an exact reversal of three decades ago, community and connection have become scarce.

So if that’s the case, what becomes of Sunday morning? Functionally speaking, many churches still operate as though nothing different is happening in the room than what is happening online.

One of the shifts some church leaders are starting to embrace is moving beyond Sunday morning being about disseminating information or, worse, engaging in a public performance to be ‘the best’ preacher or worship leader around.

Instead, they’re seeing Sundays as facilitating an experience or encounter between people and God. You could argue that charismatic churches have done this for years, but now it’s spreading further.

If something truly special or transformative happens, or at least can happen when the Body of Christ gathers, then we should approach Sundays with that in mind. That sets Sunday morning in-person services apart from any streamed experience.

The problem is that most churches approach Sunday as information or presentation, not as an encounter between God and his people.

In an age drowning in information, people are tired of showing up for church to find God, only to find us instead.Share on X

What’s At Stake

If pastors keep approaching Sunday morning as a way to disseminate information among randomly assembled individuals, rather than an opportunity to facilitate an encounter with God, it will likely lead to a decrease in attendance.

If you study what’s happening with Gen Z, they’re not showing up to church to go through the motions. It’s a passionate, full-on embrace of a new faith that is both emotional and intellectual. And when they gather, it becomes more of an experience than simply a gathering.

The internet disseminates information. The church should facilitate an experience with the living God.

What To Do

So what does this actually mean?

Well, as basic as this sounds, it means approaching worship more prayerfully, with anticipation that God might do something in people’s hearts and minds that is bigger than what we do or intend to do. It means intentionally inviting the Holy Spirit to be at work in us and in our services.

There are scores of books and treatises on how to invite God’s presence and Spirit into your life and into your church. I won’t repeat that here. But perhaps the shift is made more clear by what it is not.

• It means that you perform less and listen more to what the Holy Spirit might be saying and doing.
• It means making Sundays less about how we did and more about what God did.
• It means valuing what people bring to worship, not just what they get from it.

And perhaps it means praying just a little more for God to be active in what we’re doing.

5. Discipleship is Now Largely Controlled By Algorithm (And Pastors Are Paying a Huge Price)

As David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock pointed out, most people today are discipled by algorithms more than they’re discipled by their pastor or church.

While that was true a decade ago, the compound effects of this are now unmistakable and deeply painful to most church leaders.

As J.D. Greear noted in episode 770 of my leadership podcast, talk to any pastor and they’ll tell you that no matter what they do, it’s increasingly impossible to say anything on key cultural or theological issues that doesn’t generate a slew of negative responses, online and in person (with people in your church).

As the culture wars rage on, almost any move you make as a church will be labeled “too something.” Too liberal. Too conservative. Too partisan. You name it.

You’ll just never get it right.

And that’s because everyone in your congregation is being discipled all week long by different algorithms.

If you were to get a look into what’s actually happening in your congregation, you’d see that one person’s Instagram feed is serving up ultra-right-wing partisan commentary, while another’s TikTok is feeding them progressive politics. Yet another member’s YouTube is taking them deep into conspiracy theories. Others are obsessed with interior design, crypto-bro get-rich prosperity, true crime, wellness, alternative medicine, or Christian deconstruction.

By the time your congregation arrives at church ready to be discipled, they’ve already spent 49 hours of screen time that week being formed by algorithms, each click reinforcing whatever caught their attention. A 30-minute message and two hours of small group hardly stand a chance.

All of this means that by the time this disparate group walks into church on Sunday, they’re already primed to hear what you say through a filter someone else created for them.

Except they don’t even realize it’s happening.

As a result, no matter what you say as a pastor, you’re fighting a battle heavily weighted against you.

What’s At Stake

Digital discipleship is happening, it’s just being led by an algorithm, not the church.Share on X

Think of the current algorithm fragmentation as a discipleship fragmentation. Digital discipleship ecosystems have outpaced local formation. And AI won’t make it better (see Trend 7 below)… it might even make it worse.

So what’s really at stake here?

The calling of the church is not to win the culture wars. It’s to be the church. To preach Christ crucified, risen, and reigning—not to echo the latest talking points from whichever news outlet or algorithm people happen to be steeped in.

If everyone in your church agrees with you all the time, chances are you’re discipling an echo chamber, not a church. The gospel is bigger than party lines. It’s bigger than algorithms. And while the culture wars will keep raging, the mission of the church is to keep pointing people to Jesus.

What To Do

Well, you could change your approach to grow your church by echoing a particular algorithm or extreme point of view. It will divide your church into camps, and many who don’t agree will leave.

I wish I were sharing this entirely tongue-in-cheek, but that’s exactly what a number of church leaders have done in the anti-woke era we live in. And guess what? It works.

But if you do this, it won’t be long until you realize you’ve attracted a group of angry, factionalized people. You might experience short-term gain in numbers, but you’ll probably experience long-term pain in mission and overall congregational health.

Besides, if people join you because of what they’re against, it won’t be long before they decide to turn against you.Share on X

The real issue, of course, is that you’ll miss the full Gospel in the process. When your message is a reflection of the culture and not a thoughtful critique and commentary on it, you’ve effectively stopped preaching the Gospel and started preaching partisan ideology.

Moreover, you’ve lost the plot for the future church.

We’ve already seen this happen as mainline churches embraced progressive politics and their message became indistinguishable from what left-wing culture was endorsing.

My prediction is that over time, the partisan right in the church will fall to the same fate as the progressive left of the mainline church.

When you become indistinguishable from the culture, there is nothing left to convert to.Share on X

Witness Ryan Burge’s research that shows that 27% of people who identify as ‘evangelicals’ rarely, if ever, go to church. It’s become a secular, political term.

If you’re effectively preaching the Gospel, you will inevitably be accused of being too liberal, too conservative, too vocal, too silent, too partisan, not partisan enough. You will always be ‘too something’, and if you’re doing it right, the accusations will always shift. If you were too vocal last time, you’ll be too silent this time.

Paradoxically, that’s a sign you’re probably preaching faithfully. Keep going.

6. Senior Pastors Are Aging Out, and Few Are Replacing Them

I’ve flagged this a few times in previous Church Trends editions, but pastoral succession continues to be a concern.

With the average age of senior pastors in America hovering around 58, the church has some serious work ahead of it, both in terms of raising up next-generation leaders and filling future vacancies.

Things haven’t always been like this. In 1992, the average pastor was 44 years old. Only 6% were over age 65. Not anymore.

Several factors will help escalate the shortage into a probable crisis.

First, the math alone suggests that the generation of young Christians heading into ministry won’t be numerically large enough to fill the gap. The math just doesn’t work.

Second, many churches have been hit by inflation and rising costs, and salaries have not kept pace with reasonable expectations. The stereotype is that senior pastors are overpaid. The reality is that many are underpaid, and other positions on church staff haven’t kept up with what a living wage pays these days.

That’s going to make it even harder to attract next-generation leaders to the church staff.

Finally, despite Gen Z leading the turnaround in the church today, the current generation of leaders doesn’t seem to have a lot of confidence in the next generation.

71% of leaders agree or somewhat agree that they are concerned with the quality of future Christian leaders.Share on X

What’s At Stake

This trend is not surprising. Given the amount of scandal in the church, the church hurt, and the trauma associated with too much of Christian leadership, it’s not hard to guess why the next generation isn’t racing to embrace church leadership.

Just as perplexing is the fact that many pastors today are reluctant to release leadership to anyone under 40. A lot of today’s leaders were given huge responsibility at 23, but for some reason, now that they’re in their 50s or 60s, they won’t trust the next generation the way someone trusted them. There are also selfish and practical reasons for not giving up ministry, all of which are fuelling the crisis.

What To Do

It’s not hard to imagine how difficult senior pastor and senior staff searches are going to become, given how challenging it can be right now to fill a vacancy with an excellent pastor.

Small churches might go without leadership or pool resources with other small congregations.

Bi-vocational ministry will continue to grow as church leaders need to get inventive to serve in the local church and feed their families.

But if you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of churches that will be looking for a new pastor in the next decade, the time to start planning for succession in any size church is now. Planning goes beyond just exiting the current pastor well. It also involves helping the new pastor thrive in the first five years. Resources like The Art of Pastoral Succession can help.

Mostly, that will involve developing leaders from within and hiring them to fill pastoral vacancies. Theological training can be tricky when you’re training leaders who perhaps already hold non-ministry degrees and are beyond their college years, but it can be done.

Many churches will need to adjust pay as well. While the inflated pastoral salaries make headlines, the reality is that the vast majority of church staff salaries haven’t kept pace with today’s wages. One of the best ways to correct that (which you’ll have to do anyway when you bring on a new senior pastor) is to rationalize your staff, removing B and C players and keeping only A players, but paying them a generous living wage.

A few highly competent, motivated, and called staff will lead the church much better than twice the number of average or below-average team members.Share on X

Finally, church leaders can start challenging middle school and high school students to pray about a call to ministry and identify pastoral and even apostolic gifting in the next generation. That won’t solve a crisis in two years, but it will help address it in five or ten years, and it’s a great direction to pursue. Wise church leaders will address culture and pay gap issues at the same time.

7. The Church Has Yet To Brace for the Coming AI Revolution

Ah, now we saved the grimmest for last.

While it’s hard to say exactly when, artificial intelligence will become the dominant story not just in technology (which it already is), but in society as a whole.

Why?

Well, not only will AI be the biggest revolution humanity has ever seen, it will be the biggest disruption we’ve experienced in our lifetimes, and perhaps in human history.

While this is an incomplete list of the challenges the rise of AI will pose to civilization, here are a few things to watch for as they develop.

You’ve already seen the first seeds of each disruption happen, but what will likely transpire will be 10x to 1000x the impact of what we’re seeing now.

1. A White Collar Job Bloodbath.  Many CEOs are already announcing layoffs in white-collar firms because of their adoption of AI, but less than a year ago, Anthroptic’s CEO predicted a ‘white collar bloodbath’. The same kind of disruption that came to farming in the 1980s and manufacturing in the 1990s and 2000s is about to hit professions like law, accounting, banking, and engineering.
2. Mental Health Challenges Increase As AI Companionship Surges. Currently, the #1 use of AI  is companionship and therapy. 72% of teens use AI companions, and 31% of them say they prefer their AI companion to humans. We’ve seen tragic teen suicides already that have resulted from relationships teens created with AI, but expect those (sadly) to spike.
3. Deepfakes Are Going to Erode the Line Between Truth and Fiction. We already live in a post-truth culture, but the rise of AI-generated deepfakes that are imperceptible from reality will fill our feeds more and more. Chances are your social media feed is already jammed with AI slop, and that’s only going to intensify.

This is a very partial list. I’m working on a new book called AI and the Future Church: How to Lead in a World You Barely Recognize, which will be released later in 2026. I’ll have much more to say about this in the future. So stay tuned.

What’s At Stake?

Perhaps the better question here is ‘what isn’t at stake?” Because almost everything you can imagine is an issue.

Again, the staggering implications of what we’re going through and what we will go through deserve more than a few words in an article, hence the book.

Imagine a scenario in which 25% of your congregation is unemployed, and they happen to be your best givers who once held the most lucrative jobs.Share on X

Not only are they unemployed, but imagine a scenario where they are unemployable because their industry is wiped out.

What happens to them? To their ability to feed their families? To their identity?

What happens when the mental health crisis that arises from AI makes the mental health crisis caused by social media look like the kiddie pool?

What happens when your congregation, already discipled by an algorithm, can no longer tell the difference between truth and fiction?

Exactly.

What To Do

There’s so much to do, but the first thing is to educate yourself.

It’s important for church leaders to be spiritually, mentally, and theologically prepared to pastor people in a highly disruptive era. So start now. Again, we’re not exactly sure what’s going to unfold, how it will unfold, or when it will unfold, but God knows. And you can be prepared.

Preparing for the AI disruption is about much more than finding the best prompts or AI agent or getting an AI policy for your church (all of which matter, but they’re not the main point).

The good news is that I believe the church is perfectly positioned to minister to a world fundamentally disrupted by AI. Why? Not because we’re super tech savvy, but because as the world becomes more artificial, the church can become more human.

The church is perfectly positioned to minister to a world fundamentally disrupted by AIShare on X

We are perfectly positioned by God to minister to the profound human needs that will surface during the disruption, because we can connect people with Christ and with each other.

I believe the church’s future direction is human connection. The more we connect people with God and each other and help them navigate an entirely new landscape, the more people will find hope and meaning in life amidst the chaos.

So, What’s Next For Your Church?

These are the church trends I’m keeping an eye on in 2026. I hope and pray they help you and your team thrive as you respond to the organizational, cultural, and personal challenges you face.

We’re in a very unique moment as a church—one that many leaders have prayed for for years. If we leverage it well, we could see the mission of the church realized at a level we haven’t seen in our lifetimes. Let’s work and pray toward that end.