In a striking shift amid declining trust in organized religion, a new Barna Group study signals a surge in Americans’ commitment to Jesus, with younger generations leading the charge. The research, part of the State of the Church 2025 initiative, finds 66% of U.S. adults affirm a personal commitment to Jesus that remains vital, a 12-point leap from 2021’s record low of 54%.
David Kinnaman, the CEO of Barna said, “This is the clearest trend we’ve seen in more than a decade pointing to spiritual renewal.”
The data equates to roughly 30 million more Jesus followers since 2021.
According to the survey, revival is most pronounced among Gen Zers and millennials, bucking decades of Barna data that pegged older generations like boomers as Christianity’s stalwarts.
Interestingly, this “commitment to Jesus” is higher than ever among those who don’t identify as Christian: roughly 3 in 10 people — a number which Kinnaman says is near an all-time high — who don’t identify as Christian say they have made a “personal commitment to Jesus.”
This echoes Barna’s 2017 findings on the “spiritual but not religious,” where openness to Jesus often sidesteps church pews or Christian identity. The pandemic, Kinnaman posits, might have catalyzed this shift.