Parshall Partners

Going to Church

         Psalm 122: 1 says, “I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord!” Going to Church should be a joy for most believers, but is it? Some interesting data reveals a shift in church attendance. 

          Barna’s has an ongoing State of the Church initiative that points both to signs of renewal in the Church and to specific areas of decline.  The report states that “for decades, women have outnumbered men in church attendance and have often led the way in spiritual participation. But a significant shift is occurring in American Christianity that demands attention: Women—particularly younger women—are attending church less frequently than men. This reversal isn’t just a numerical milestone; it signals a broader cultural and spiritual turning point”.

         According to Barna, women used to attend church more regularly than men by significant numbers but over the years, those numbers have started to decline while the numbers of men attending have been rising.  In 2025, 43% of men and 36% of women said they attend church regularly, and over the last six years, men have outpaced women in this area.

         Factor in age, and the numbers get even more interesting.  Since 2019, Gen Z and Millennials were the least likely to go to church and now, they are they most engaged.  Weekly attendance among older adults, especially women, falls behind attendance by younger adults. Clearly there is a shift taking place, but why?

         Barna offers several possibilities but notes that this is a complex issue. Women have always had to balance family with everything else.  As more women are working outside the home and are often caregivers for both children and older adults, adding going to church becomes just ‘one more thing’ on an already overtasked schedule. Single women can often feel out of place in a community that highly ministers to and values the nuclear family. When progressive Christianity starts to take hold of a woman’s heart, she may push back against the biblical directive of men only as pastors.  The culture roars one thing – the church says another.    

         Barna found that married dads are much more likely to attend church but single moms are now reported as the least likely to attend church regularly. That is a significant finding in light of Barna’s research which found that 78% of practicing Christians say that mom was their spiritual role model compared with 57% who said it was dad.

         The biggest take-away from this study is that, while church attendance overall is declining, the numbers of men attending is growing and the number of women attending has remained mostly steady. 

         This is an exciting moment for the Church to discover why more men are desiring church and what the Church needs to do to draw more women.  From my perspective, it isn’t more bells, whistles and large screens – it more Jesus and His word.

         Those are my thoughts.  I’m Janet Parshall.