“Church leaders are searching for ways to address a situation unlike what they have experienced in their lifetimes. After a relatively stable decade in the 1990s, a major downward trend in attendance began in 2002 and continues today.

The pandemic cannot be blamed for all of today’s challenges. As disruptive as it was, it merely exacerbated and accelerated trends underway for years and even decades. For example, even as church statistics appeared stable in the 1990s, a new phenomenon was emerging. It was in these years that the number of “nones” began to increase dramatically. Nones are those who claim no religious affiliation.

The vast majority of the new nones came from the younger generations. Since the young participate less in church life, their presence was not immediately noticeable in congregations. However, these nones have not followed the pattern of previous generations in becoming more religiously active as they grow older.

Therefore, the higher number of nones grows even larger. When this change is combined with the increasing age of church members, increasing costs of operation with fewer donors, and the deaths and disruption from the pandemic, no wonder church leaders feel ill-equipped for what they face today.

Andy Lunt and Ted Brown offer a rich resource for congregations and their leaders to engage today’s circumstances with confidence and hope. They build their work around three essential components of any lasting change.”

– Lovett H. Weems, Jr.