Is Gen-Z Really Coming Back to Church?

You might have heard the news: Gen-Z is leading a quiet revival and coming back to church.

After decades of gloomy headlines, empty pews, and a cultural tide pulling faith into irrelevance, The Quiet Revival (QRR), a recent report by the Bible Society, tells us what we’ve wanted to hear for so long: church attendance in highly secular England and Wales is on the rise again. And not just slightly—up by more than 50% since 2018, with young adults, especially young men, leading the surge. 

At first glance, this feels like the tide is turning. And that’s good news.

But not everything is as it seems.

Why the Gen-Z Revival Isn’t What it Looks Like

I’m not here to hate on what is otherwise really good news. I get pumped anytime I hear that young people are giving their youth to Jesus and I actively advocate for doing church in new ways that disciple younger generations.

But there’s something fishy about the latest data. The main issue? Although its true that Gen-Z is coming back to church, the resurgence is being led predominantly by young men, not young women. In fact, as men start filling the pews, the women are leaving in droves. According to the QRR:

“Over a fifth of men aged 18–24 (21%) now say they are attending church monthly... far higher than their female peers at 12%.”

But why am I saying these stats are “fishy”? I mean, men have been absent from the church for decades. We’ve begged them to come back. And now they are. Shouldn’t I be celebrating?

Here’s my struggle with the Bible Society’s report. It tells us that young men are coming back in droves. But it misses the core issue fueling their return.

Because the truth is, this spike in male attendance isn’t driven by simple spiritual hunger. It is driven by broader forces—particularly the culture wars between the far right and far left.

In fact, the QRR quotes Ruth Graham’s September 2024 New York Times article, “In a First Among Christians, Young Men Are More Religious Than Young Women” as a positive thing. However, it ignores the main premise of that article in which Graham argues that young men are outpacing female church attendance for the first time in history because they are drawn to the promise of power conservative Christianity is offering them.

It makes perfect sense. When churches preach that women can’t lead, can’t teach, must submit without question, and should submit their bodily autonomy to a man, is it any wonder they’re leaving? And when these same churches turn around and say to men: “You were made to rule, to lead, to take back control”, is it any wonder they are flocking back?

In other words, this male resurgence is likely driven by a desire to reclaim power-based masculinity. Conservative Christianity has become appealing in this context because young men are being told Jesus can make them strong. Dominant. Unapologetically alpha. They’re trading a sense of far left emasculation for the promise of far right religious control. 

In short, the fanatical feminist left scared them—and the Christian right said, Come home, son. We'll make you a king.

This isn’t a revival of authentic servantlike masculinity. It’s idolatry. It’s a rearticulation of empire. And the church is offering a generation of young men who feel disempowered a way to take control again.

And just in case you think I’m making this up, spend five minutes on social media. Analyse how popular misogynist voices like Andrew Tate and strong man leaders like Donald Trump have become among young men. Medium contributor Eric Sentell said it best in his article, “Why Gen Z Men Are Flocking to Church” when he wrote, “Gen Z men are coming to churches and small groups that nurse their anxieties about being male in the 21st century and promise them top spot in the social hierarchy.”

Sociologists Paul A. Djupe and Brooklyn Walker argue the same point in their research “The Reactionary Religious Reengagement of Young Men,” revealing that “young Christian men have stronger Christian nationalist worldviews (measured using the Whitehead and Perry scale), and higher concentrations of apocalypticism (as measured by Djupe, Neiheisel, and Lewis).” This, they argue, is a demonstration that “younger Christians are more engaged with a very particular form of Christianity that seeks to exert control…”

In short, this isn’t a revival of the Jesus way. It’s a resurrection of Rome with Jesus as its mascot.

Now before the conservatives head to the comments section to declare war on my liberalism let me be clear - I can’t stand the left. I don’t consider myself a part of that tribe. And much of the extremes we see happening in the right are a reaction to the extremes that have already been happening in the left.

This point is expressed well in Phil Mitchel’s counter-article, “Why Are Young Men Returning to Church?” when he writes, “Young men have lived their entire lives listening to a negative, destructive narrative about who they are as human beings…. Young men hate this and are sick of it.”

And that frustration is finding a home in churchy religious systems that emphasize male power.

Which means this supposed revival is, to a certain degree, a rearticulation of the age old “who gets to be on top” ping-pong game that cultures, nations, and empires always play.

Now, we shouldn’t be too upset that the right is being rightish and the left is being leftish. They always have been. Always will be. What should provoke us is seeing the church staking a claim in that ping-pong game. Rather than introducing the world to a new game altogether - a “who gets to be at the bottom” game, we are joining the imperial one and then celebrating when we start scoring points not realizing that our very participation in the game is what the Bible refers to as “harlotry” - the quasi-romantic union of the people of God with the unjust machinery of empire.

Now of course, thats not new either. Christianity has been fusing itself to systems of power for millennia. Which means, as Adventists we have work to do in remembering that our prophetic identity calls us to protest and challenge this hierarchical, imperial appropriation of Jesus. We have a mission to share the character of God and the truth about his heart in a way that pushes back against the excesses of both the left and the right. As Christendom finds itself locked in a cultural war over who gets to have power, the way of Jesus calls us to walk a different road. An ancient road. A forgotten path of servanthood, rooted in the servant heart of God, the foundation of a new kingdom which will be inherited, not by the powerful, but by the meek. In other words, our mission as Adventists in this context is to let the world know they don’t have to play the systems game. There’s a whole other way of walking in the world. There’s a whole other game.

There Is Something Stirring—But We Have to Engage it Meaningfully

Yes, there’s good news here.

“37% of 18–24s say they are interested in learning more about the Bible.”'

“34% of non-churchgoing young adults would attend if invited by a friend.”

“47% say they would be happy to be prayed for.”

And let me be clear. Not every young person who is re-engaging the church falls under the category of “frustrated young man wanting to reclaim his position at the top of the social hierarchy”.

There are genuine conversions taking place. There is real longing being met. Even in the midst of our chaos, Jesus is doing his thing. And it matters because this generation is wading through a meaning crisis left in the rubble of postmodern cynicism and a full-blown loneliness epidemic fueled by social media, economic instability, and increasing political polarization. And anytime they approximate Jesus, even if its a flawed approximation, thats still worth celebrating and nurturing.

But this doesn’t mean we ignore our tense cultural mileu in which an increasing number of young men feel emasculated and villainized by far-left radical feminism. And in that kind of cultural void, where meaning, identity, and power are up for grabs, conservative, militant, imperial Christianity starts to look like salvation.

Which means this is our moment—not to repackage the same toxic version of Christianity with an Adventist twist—but to unveil the upside down alternative. A vision of the world built on the eternal, sanctuary-rooted, self-emptying love of a God who laid down power to lift us into new humanity. A humanity that walks in a new rhythm. A humanity that will birth a new civilization—one shaped by justice, servanthood, and true belonging.

And in doing so, we can reveal to frustrated young men that there is a true masculinity rooted in Jesus. And its more than masculinity. It’s humanity. It’s servanthood. It’s laying your power down to lift others up.

No other denomination is preaching that sermon. This is our story. Our message. Our protest.

And Adventists—let me just say it straight: our fundamentalist churches aren’t telling this story either. They’re too entangled with the radical right. Too enamored with control, nostalgia, dominance, and spiritualized abuse masking as holiness. 

Which means those lifting up the beauty of God’s heart in this moment are rare. Almost invisible. Like Noah—one voice standing before a flood of chaos—we must stand, even if we stand alone, to declare: there is a healing way.

So start ministries. Birth new church plants. Break the mold. Get creative.

We’ve got work to do.

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