With 28 percent of Americans saying they don’t belong to a religious tradition, the “nones” now outnumber any single faith group in the US, according to a Pew Research Center study released in 2024.
According to Pew Research, their disengagement from the church results from their dissatisfaction with Christian institutions and leaders and their doubts about secularism. Evangelical Protestants comprise 24% of the population and may view this trend as a setback or a tremendous opportunity.
Evangelical leaders are aware of the things driving people away from faith: religious settings where they feel uncomfortable asking questions, hurt and mistrust stemming from church scandals, and changes in society that diminish the social acceptability of orthodox beliefs, to mention a few.
However, they insist the church shouldn’t be concerned about the nones’ rise or the disaffiliation and deconstruction movements.
“We have a chance to connect with them by returning to the core of our faith and the message,” said Texas Baptists’ director of women’s ministry and theologian Katie McCoy. “The message remains the same. Regardless of prevailing cultural trends, people are still searching for everything Jesus offers.”
Nor are most religious monastics or atheists. The majority of unaffiliated individuals, over 60%, identify as “nothing in particular.”
“They want to look beyond themselves, but they suspect organizations, including the church,” said Mark Teasdale, evangelism professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, who cited the country’s overall decline in institutional trust. Because they isolate themselves from society, the issue is that it leaves them feeling purposeless and alone. That causes anxiety, and there is no practical way to address it.
Americans who believe “nothing in particular” are the least involved. According to Pew researchers, “they are less likely to volunteer recently, to vote, to be satisfied with their social lives, and to be satisfied with their local communities.”
“As the relational ties are less strong, people try to fill that void,” said McCoy, who writes on issues of gender, sexuality, and relationships and has seen identity politics take the place of Christian formation.
Many non-religious people are exploring their spiritual paths as New Age practices like energy healing, sage smudging, and crystal charging gain popularity. According to Pew, Americans who answer “nothing in particular” are more likely than any other group to believe that items and locations can have spiritual energies and to use crystals (20%), jewelry (19%), tattoos, or piercings (14%), or other spiritual tools.
What prevents them from pursuing religion, then? Among those, around 30 percent don’t see a need for it. More than half (55%) say they dislike religious organizations or have had bad experiences with religious individuals.
Women and younger people are more likely to say they left their faith due to past interactions with religious people.
None of the population can be classified as young compared to the others. Nevertheless, Gen Z’s approach to faith differs from previous generations of skeptics. Mary Jo Sharp, an apologist, has observed that young people today often gauge theodicy questions based on their perception of Christians’ actions.
“For instance, the traditional question of evil morphs into, If God is good, why do Christians misbehave?” Sharp, Confident Christianity’s founder and a Houston Christian University professor, says, “The hypocrisy of Christian believers has become one of their more frequent apologetic concerns.”
Multiple leaders told CT about how Gen Z takes a more holistic approach to faith, looking for its implications for politics, social issues, and daily life.
And for the unaffiliated of all ages to trust the church and see its value, it will take Christians working against some negative perceptions.
“We show we care about the common good, particularly in physical ways because they can appreciate that,” said Teasdale. Additionally, we make it clear that we care about their concerns.
Sharp similarly said that, rather than just bringing people along to church, Christians “now need to think about emphasizing the local church’s engagement… in ways that visibly demonstrate commitment to the two greatest commandments: in short, love God and love others as ourselves.”
None were ambivalent over whether faith encourages people to treat others well—45 percent of the Pew study said it doesn’t. Compared to atheists and agnostics, the unaffiliated, who are nothing in particular, hold a better view of religion. However, half believe religion does “equal amounts of good and harm.”
More than a quarter of respondents associate “superstition and illogical thinking” with religion. Eric Hernandez, an apologist with Texas Baptists who specializes in reaching younger generations, emphasizes the importance of the church being a safe space for questions and intellectual engagement.
Hernandez said Q&A events in the state have drawn unchurched and unaffiliated community members. “We’re seeing more people check the ‘none’ box.” He’s excited to answer their questions about science and faith or correct what might be a distorted or incomplete view of Christianity.
Even if people say they were raised in the church, “I’m not so sure that they do understand,” he said. “We want to make sure the God they’re rejecting is the biblical view of God.”
Erik Thoennes at Biola University’s Talbot School of Theology said the rise in disaffiliation can also offer a helpful “clarifying effect” that comes with “a greater difficulty of being a Christian in a public way.”
Rather than feeling the pressure to appeal to the unaffiliated or the next generation, Thoennes has seen his Gen Z students turned off by attempts to market the church or make it extraordinary. They’re still asking questions and wrestling but looking for an authentic and genuine expression of faith.
So Thoennes, a pastor at Grace Evangelical Free Church in La Mirada, California, is leaning on what the church has always been built around: the power and beauty of Christ. More people may be lost and seeking, but Christians believe the church still has the answer.
“I don’t have to stay on top of the latest trends to prevent de-churching at my church,” he said. The simplicity lies in staying focused on Jesus.