APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – Research shows that more pews are staying empty at churches and millennials seem to be at the heart of this church exodus.
The most recent numbers from the Pew Research Center in 2014 show that 56% of adults said they were absolutely certain they believed in God, while only 27% said they attended a religious service at least once a week.
Aly Brown of Appleton fits into that grouping.
“I don’t think you need a physical church space as long as you’re reading the Bible or whatever you need to read,” says Brown.
Others, like Christa Zhang of Appleton, attend church weekly, but understand why others choose not too.
“I go to Appleton Gospel, it’s located in the YMCA,” Zhang explains. “I think sometimes there’s negative connotation to going to church.”
She adds that attending church isn’t the most importance thing when it comes to overall faith, in her opinion.
“I think that as long as you have the foundation of believing in God, that’s all you need to have to go to heaven,” Zhang said.
Not everyone is on-board with this shift, though.
Pastor Greg Dykstra with the Appleton Community Evangelical Free Church still thinks there’s plenty of value in showing up on Sunday mornings.
“God tells us we should stay in contact with other followers of Christ and we ought to relate to each other well and be supportive and be concerned with one another,” explains Dykstra. “The whole process of fellowship, relationships, that’s all part of that.”
He says there are a number of factors in play that are pushing the downward attendence trend.
“I think, one of the things that have pushed people away to an extent is, I think the education process has changed a lot,” says Dykstra. “Churches are looked at differently in the whole process of education from Pre-K through college.”
He also looks at himself and others his age as contributors as well.
“Sadly my generation, I think to some extent, has in some way let some millennials down as far as their expectations are concerned,” he explains.
For Brown, it’s frustrating that a number of churches aren’t more open-minded.
“I think oftentimes it’s about modesty and a lot of millennials are questioning about what modesty means,” she says.
12% said they did not believe in God, using the same Pew Research study in 2014.
44% of those surveyed said religion was important in a person’s life.
27% of Wisconsin adults said they attended a religious service at least once a week, while 41% say they go once or twice a month or a few times a year and 31% said they rarely or never attend service.
46% of people said they pray at least daily, while another 20% said they do it weekly and 25% said rarely or never.
