New research shows major rise in commitment to Jesus
Latest State of the Church research unpacks rising belief in Jesus and differences among generations
BOULDER, Colo. — Gloo and Barna Group today announced new findings from the latest State of the Church research. The report, which focused on five key trends, featured one surprising trend: that belief in Jesus among Americans has reached a decade-high level since 2013. The April research release unpacked this trend and provided additional research insights to Christians and church leaders heading into the Easter season and beyond.
The research release focused on five key trends:
The rise of personal faith in Jesus
Understanding the “spiritually open”
Faith sharing: how motivated are Christians to share?
Spiritual conversations: what works, and what doesn’t
What Americans long for spiritually
“The trends we explore this month are not only encouraging, but instructive,” said Brad Hill, chief solutions officer at Gloo. “It’s heartening to see that more people are finding and maintaining a personal relationship with Jesus, especially among younger generations. The other trends in this report really speak to the question, ‘How can we, as parents, friends, neighbors and church leaders, show up well for others?’ This research helps us better understand where we might start.”
Key highlights:
Belief is on the rise:
Since 2021, belief in Jesus among U.S. adults has increased by 12%, from 54% to 66%.
Among Gen Z men, commitment to Jesus jumped 15 percentage points between 2019 and 2025.
Millennial men saw a similar spike of 19 percentage points.
Spiritual openness has Christian roots:
Nearly two in five spiritually open non-Christians (37%) in the U.S. were raised Christian, and over half (55%) say they’ve identified as Christian at some point in their lives.
Of those with Christian roots, more than half (51%) left Christianity behind to distance themselves from the “politics of the Church.”
Faith sharing: While 61% of today’s U.S. Christians believe they have a personal responsibility to share their faith, only 28% feel strongly about it.
Inviting others to church: Nearly three in four non-churchgoing U.S. adults (74%) haven’t personally been invited to church in the past year.
“These findings point to the spiritually open moment we’re in,” said David Kinnaman, CEO of Barna Group. “Belief is on the rise from what has been a consistently downward trend since 2009. Spiritual openness continues to climb. This data gives us a window into how culture is changing and an incredible opportunity to share our faith in Jesus and increase our confidence that the decline of Christianity is not inevitable.”
In addition to the research, the State of the Church provides insights through its virtual event series. Leaders can also assess the state of their own church with free church health tools.
Barna and Gloo will continue to release additional monthly research insights throughout 2025. This month’s full findings are available exclusively on Barna Access Plus, Barna’s comprehensive research platform. To learn more or access tools for assessing local church health, visit stateofthechurch.com.
About the Research
The data reported above comes from the following Barna studies:
Beliefs in Jesus data: Barna Group’s tracking data is based on online and telephone interviews within nationwide random samples of 130,029 adults conducted over a twenty-five-year period ending in February 2025. These studies are conducted utilizing quota sampling for representation of all U.S. adults by age, gender, race/ethnicity, region, education and income. Minimal statistical weighting has been used when necessary to maximize statistical representativeness. Included in this data are 3,579 online interviews that were collected in January and February of 2025. These interviews were also conducted utilizing quota sampling for age, gender, race/ethnicity, region, education and income, and minimal statistical weighting was used to maximize statistical representation.
February 2025 Barna OmniPoll: In February of 2025, Barna Group conducted a survey of 1,532 U.S. adults. This survey utilized quota sampling for representation of all U.S. adults by age, gender, race/ethnicity, region, education and income. Minimal statistical weighting has been used when necessary to maximize statistical representativeness. The margin of error is +/- 2.3% on a 95 percent confidence interval.
Spiritually Open: The Spiritually Open project is based on a survey of 2,005 U.S. adults and teenagers (ages 13–17) conducted online from December 13–22, 2022 via a consumer research panel. The margin of error for the sample is +/- 2.0 percent at the 95 percent confidence level. Quotas were set to representation by region, race/ethnicity, education, age and gender based on the U.S. Census Bureau. Minimal statistical weighting has been applied to maximize sample representation.
View Barna’s glossary for full definitions of demographics and theolographics mentioned in this series.
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Gloo is a leading technology platform for the faith ecosystem providing values-based AI, resources, insights and funding so people and communities flourish and organizations thrive. Gloo serves over 100,000 faith, ministry and nonprofit leaders and is based in Boulder, Colorado.
Barna Group is a leading research organization focused on the intersection of faith and culture. Since 1984, Barna has conducted more than two million interviews over the course of thousands of studies and has become a go-to source for insights about religion, leadership, vocation and generations. Barna is an independent, privately-held, nonpartisan organization based in Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas.
Contact:
Sarah Bunyea
Gloo
571-205-1931
sarah.bunyea@pinkston.co
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Religion News Association
