The Barna Group, a research agency focusing on Christianity, has found that just one in four Americans can be considered “practicing Christians,” a significantly smaller percentage (25 percent) of the U.S. population than in 2000 when “45 percent of all those sampled qualified as practicing Christians.”
Barna shared the finding in the latest report on the yearlong State of the Church 2020 project, which the report says explores “the current challenges and opportunities facing the Church” with an “aim to shed more light on why Americans’ relationship to churches is changing and help Christians discern a faithful direction forward.”
According to Barna, the State of the Church 2020 report, a study of the long-term cultural changes in the U.S. over the last two decades, is comprised of 96,171 surveys collected during the period.
This body of data, Barna says, offers “powerful insight into the changes happening in terms of faith practice, such as church attendance, Bible-reading and prayer.”
From this body of research, Barna says, “emerges is a nuanced portrait of people trying to figure out what faith means in the 21st Century and the role of Christianity in their lives. And while key markers of religiosity have diminished overall, there are some signs of steadiness among committed Christians that stand in contrast.”
Overall, the report concludes that “Christianity in…
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