Ed Stetzer: Is Revival Here?
By Ed Stetzer
I love research and data. To me, all church research is relevant and worth noting. But I know that it’s not normal for church research to make global news. It takes a significant study to grab widespread attention. And that happened last year when The Quiet Revival report came out of the United Kingdom regarding spiritual revival. It caught the attention of people worldwide.
Last Easter, I wrote an article referencing this research for USA Today, and I included data and widely reported research from the United States that pointed to similar stirrings of spiritual interests in the population. However, in the fulfillment of the old expression, “There are lies, [darn] lies, and statistics,” religious research is major news yet again. The British and Foreign Bible Society and YouGov research issued releases earlier this year retracting the very widely quoted study.
What Is Happening?
It’s worth noting that the Bible Society in the U.K. actually pressed YouGov on multiple occasions about the legitimacy of the research, specifically because the findings were so surprising. While the Bible Society had a vested interest in the encouraging conclusions drawn from the data, they wanted accurate data and integrity. And it turns out that YouGov (in a major embarrassment for their organization) failed to follow proper procedures, confirming to the Bible Society recently that the data was wrong.
Having formerly led a faith-based research company that specifically studied religious trends, it is hard for me to imagine how a project of this size from a company of YouGov’s stature could be so badly mismanaged. For what it’s worth, in my own writing about this research, I specifically caveated that I was surprised by the data. I warned that we should be careful about drawing conclusions from a single study. But I and many others had confidence in it, because of YouGov’s reputation. Now that confidence is gone, and YouGov’s reputation surrounding its screening and methodological rigor is damaged.
While the story surrounding the mechanics of the study and its failure are important, the question it was addressing is still a pressing one. What are we to think about all of this talk about a religious resurgence and increased spiritual interest? In my case, I’ve tried to avoid using words like “revival” to describe this phenomenon. The retraction of this data only adds to that conclusion. But we should still ask, “What is really happening?”
This isn’t simply a side interest for me. When the retraction of the study released, I was working on my lecture notes for the “Christianity and Contemporary Culture” class I teach every May at Wycliffe Hall at The University of Oxford. As a Visiting Scholar, I revise my notes yearly to ensure that we’re addressing the most pressing issues of the day through the lens of Christian mission.
While The Quiet Revival report specifically addressed religious interest in the United Kingdom, this data and these questions have also been a major point of conversation in the United States (and around the world). And they start with a big question we need to answer head on: Is there a spiritual revival? This is a question that is especially relevant to pastors and church leaders, and one we need to answer accurately for the sake of our leadership’s credibility.
Is There a Revival?
No.
That’s the short answer. Not when we are talking about a powerful, spiritual movement of God.
The longer explanation is that if you have to ask if something is a revival, there is not yet a revival.
A true religious revival is unmistakable. Everyone can see it and recognize it. The question itself leads us to the answer. For example, when what became known as the Welsh Revival broke out in Wales in 1904, the fruit of the revival was blatantly clear: renewed evangelistic fervor, extended prayer and thousands of people giving their lives to Jesus. There was no need to ask, “Are we experiencing a revival?” The work of the Spirit through the renewed passion of God’s people made that obvious.
But many will ask, what about other data that points to religious interest or spiritual openness?
As I’ve said, I give a lot of my attention to religious research, so I’m well aware of reports—in the U.K. and the U.S.—of increased religious interest and influence. From my perspective, these reports indicate what we might call brush fires of spiritual renewal. Brush fires have real impact. But there is a massive difference between a brush fire and a prairie fire. A revival is a wild, widespread prairie fire of religious transformation.
A true spiritual revival in our culture would be accompanied by significant spikes in church attendance, salvations, evangelistic fervor and sweeping change in culture and society. For example, some research of past revivals has shown reduced crime rates and more. These wildfires of God’s grace ended up changing lives and transforming communities at scale. We have to be honest and say that’s not what’s been happening in the U.K. or the U.S.
I want our society to experience a spiritual revival. I want to be able to answer the question about whether revival is here with a strong, “Yes!” I pray for revival as a Christian leader. Like you, I share the gospel hoping for a revival.
But by any statistical measurement or historical comparison we aren’t yet seeing a revival in the United Kingdom or the United States.
If Not a Revival, Then What?
Even if we can’t call what’s happening a revival, something still is clearly happening in the culture—and in the data. The ever-popular data guru (and professor) Ryan Burge released a chart recently that shows for the third year in a row that the percentage of people who claim no religious affiliation (the “nones”) has declined. He said, “The share of Americans who are non-religious has dropped for the third year in a row. Atheists and agnostics are down to 5% each. Those are 2014 levels.”
We can see this resurgent growth in spiritual interest in other factors pointing toward a growing awareness of faith or religion. What some have called the “vibe shift” includes openness to religion and spirituality. We see signs of this in increased Bible sales, in the increasing reach and excellence of Christian media like Theo of Golden and The Chosen, and in young men becoming more interested in realities of religion.
For example, Gallup recently released data from a research study that shows young men’s religiosity approaching 25-year highs. Young men are growing in their interest in spiritual and religious things, with “42% of young men saying religion is very important to them, up sharply from 28% in 2022-2023.”
Additionally, in an article last fall for USA Today, I pointed to data from Barna that showed growth in church attendance in the first half of 2025. And new research from Hartford Institute for Religion Research shows that church attendance is recovering. After median congregational size had dropped to 65 before COVID-19, that number has now recovered and the median congregation is 70 people.
We’re also seeing pockets of renewed “intensification” of religious commitment among people who are already religiously committed. Data has indicated that church attendance among Gen Z and Millennials has increased while Gen X attendance has held steady and Baby Boomer and Elder attendance has waned.
It’s also noteworthy that the heightened religious interest among young men has been accompanied by women disaffiliating at a concerning rate. Gallup’s research also shows that both “women of all age groups and older men are at or near their historical lows” (emphasis added).
This gives the appearance of a youth-led revival-esque surge in church attendance, but that surge is offset by waning attendance among older generations. Hartford Institute’s report shows a slight uptick in median worship attendance, but we’re still at barely half of the median worship attendance of a quarter century ago—a drop from 137 to 70. We’re also still well-below levels of just a decade ago.
So, facts are our friends. While a revival isn’t happening yet, a renewal of spiritual interest exists, particularly among young men. And young people are leading the way in expectations of revival. New data from Barna and Gloo’s State of the Church initiative shows that 29% of all U.S. adults are expecting revival and that number grows to 38% with Gen Z.
This encouraging sign should fuel our prayers. I encourage all of us to seize this moment of spiritual openness with hope—hope that a decade from now those brush fires would become a wild, wide-ranging prairie fire of God’s grace, for the glory of God and the good of our world.
