By Mallory Mattingly
Nondenominational church attendance is on the rise in America.
“I’ve noticed a sharp drop in the number of Americans who say religion is important in their lives,” CBS anchor Maurice Dubois said. “In a new Gallup poll, fewer than half say it is. And another trend. While all major Christian denominations have seen membership decline, more and more of the faithful are turning to independent Christian churches.”
“They [the churches] really talk about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Many of them preach a conservative gospel on things like abortion, same sex marriage, but they don’t lead with those things,” Washington University professor Ryan Burge said of the rise of “non-demoms.”
One of those churches includes Rooftop Church just outside of St. Louis, Missouri, led by Pastor Matt Herndon.
“When a lot of people come in, they do notice some things that maybe they wouldn’t see at other churches. Oh, that’s strange. He’s wearing a hat. Oh, we just watched a video clip from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. We really do want to engage with people in a way that they can understand,” Herndon told Dubois.
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Nearly 40 million people currently attend a non-denominational church, a number Burge thinks will be even higher in the future.
“There’s a real chance in 15 years, there will be more non-denominational in America than there will be Roman Catholics. It might be the largest religious tradition in America,” he said.
When asked, “Why?” Burge responded, “I think that we’re moving away from authority structure.”
In 2023, Burge published a Substack that discussed the growth of non-denominational Protestant Christianity.
“In 1972, less than 3% of all American adults indicated that they were non-denominational,” he wrote. “In the 1970s and 1980s, the growth rate was undoubtedly small. It took until 1996 for the share of Americans who were non-denominational to surge past five percent. But from that point forward, that line has only gotten steeper.”
“They got to 7.5% of the population in 2004. They reached ten percent of the sample by 2012,” he continued. “The most recent data says that nearly thirteen percent of all adults in the United States are non-denominational Protestant Christians. There are more non-denominational’s in the U.S. today than mainline Protestants.”
Meanwhile, Gen Z’s interest in the Bible continues to grow as nearly half of them and Millennials “engage with” the Bible each week.
“2025 is showing a major rebound of Bible reading, along with a surge in usage among younger generations,” commented David Kinnaman, CEO of Barna Group. This aligns with other signs of spiritual interest and reinforces the finding that Christian faith and practice are experiencing a reset moment.”
Praise God that church attendance and interest in the Bible is on the rise!
Read Next: New Study Finds That Regular Church Attendance Improves Mental Health
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