Millennials turn to faith amid pandemic, but are disconnected from biblical truth

Millennials clung to their faith as they were buffeted emotionally and financially during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new survey by an evangelical research group.

But the millennial generation — those born between 1981 and 1996 — was the “least closely connected to biblical Christianity before the pandemic, and that connection was made even weaker” by the end of the pandemic, states the study by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University.

Millennials experienced a 9% jump in “embracing their life’s purpose as knowing, loving, and serving God” and an 8% increase in belief in the Bible as the “true and accurate word of God,” but saw a 7% drop in worship attendance in-person or online, the survey found.

What’s more, the study found among millennials a 6% decrease in personal reading and Bible study, and a 7% drop in the belief that God is the basis of truth.

“The last three years have been a time of high anxiety for tens of millions of adults. It was an ideal time for the Christian Church to provide wise guidance and emotional calm. Unfortunately, most churches agreed to the government’s dictate that they close their doors and remain mostly silent,” researcher George Barna, of the Cultural Research Center, said in a statement. “That left an unprepared populace to follow the primary form of leadership available to them — government perspectives and policies. Obviously, that has not worked out so well.”

Meanwhile, members of Generation X — aged 39 to 57 years old — reported declining belief in God creating humans, founding the basis for trust and being the omniscient, omnipotent ruler of the universe. The decline in belief was mirrored in Gen X’s less-frequent Bible reading, church attendance, confession of personal sin and worship.

By contrast, baby boomers moved toward classical biblical teachings during the pandemic: Those aged 59 to 76 years old were more likely to read the Bible, praise and worship God, attend church services and “seek and do God’s will,” the study reported.

Among the groups surveyed, people older than 76 “demonstrated the greatest degree of spiritual stability.” The so-called Elders “maintained the highest biblical worldview incidence of any generation,” Mr. Barna said.

Churches need to adopt “fresh ideas and approaches” in making biblical Christianity “relevant to younger Americans,” the evangelical researcher said. That should be done without compromising “the substance” of the faith, but in helping millennials and others “experience and express” faith in different ways, he added.

“As a nation, we may be past the danger of COVID-19, but we’re in the thick of the danger brought about by people relying upon syncretism as their dominant worldview,” Mr. Barna said. “Biblical churches must see this as a time for an urgent response to the direction society is taking.”

The survey was conducted in January among a nationally representative sample of 2,000 adults, providing an estimated maximum sampling error of about plus or minus 2 percentage points at a 95% confidence interval, organizers said.