Is there a Christian Revival Happening 2026
Yesterday I went to a discussion which included representatives from the Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian regional jurisdictions. The UCC was invited but none showed up. There was one from a non-denominational church also there. The theme was United at the Font. Most of the congregations represented were small, rural churches in the area. Many of them are slowly dying.
I went on behalf of the rural congregation I have been supplying.
When visiting with other people from some of the congregations there, I realized my small group was really not that small.
One of the larger congregations represented was a Methodist church which had just completed a merger of four smaller Methodist congregations in a community of close to 75,000 people.
One of the challenges nearly all the congregations there said they had was the influence of Christian Nationalism. We do have a strong center of CN within our area. Either they have drawn out members of the congregations that were in attendance, or outsiders are thinking all Christians espouse CN.
In the end, I really left the meeting depressed.
Is there any hope for a revival of progressive Christianity?
In the United States, about 25% of the population is regularly attending a Christian denomination. It has actually bottomed out in the last 10 years. Some people are pointing to increased Bible sales and increased visitations to Christian websites. But the real numbers just are not showing up. It is said a Christian Revival would mean about a 3% increase in overall attendance. But is that really possible.
How do you see it?
I went on behalf of the rural congregation I have been supplying.
When visiting with other people from some of the congregations there, I realized my small group was really not that small.
One of the larger congregations represented was a Methodist church which had just completed a merger of four smaller Methodist congregations in a community of close to 75,000 people.
One of the challenges nearly all the congregations there said they had was the influence of Christian Nationalism. We do have a strong center of CN within our area. Either they have drawn out members of the congregations that were in attendance, or outsiders are thinking all Christians espouse CN.
In the end, I really left the meeting depressed.
Is there any hope for a revival of progressive Christianity?
In the United States, about 25% of the population is regularly attending a Christian denomination. It has actually bottomed out in the last 10 years. Some people are pointing to increased Bible sales and increased visitations to Christian websites. But the real numbers just are not showing up. It is said a Christian Revival would mean about a 3% increase in overall attendance. But is that really possible.
How do you see it?
Comments
Please could you point me in the direction of the criticism? My husband, even as we speak, is at a meeting with a speaker talking about this quiet revival. Today is the first time I've heard of it.
My own take is:
- It depends on what you mean by 'revival'.
- It depends on what you mean by 'progressive Christianity'.
A good many years ago now, I opined provocatively on these boards that 'liberal Christianity' was like a mule. It could not reproduce. It could only leech parisitically off more traditional forms of the Christian faith.
I wouldn't be as brash nor as abrasive as that now. I think figures like the late Desmond Tutu show that liberal Christianity can be full of fire and fervour just as much as some of its more traditional or conservative counterparts.
The problem those of us at the more conservative end of the theological spectrum have is that things can easily be hijacked by things like Christian Nationalism, a brittle and obscurantist fundamentalism and arrant fruit-cakery.
In reaction to that, people are likely to opt for 'no Christianity' rather than 'progressive Christianity.'
As a case in point it's sometimes argued that the Welsh Revival of 1904-05 fizzled out because the revivalists took a hard line on people playing sport, engaging in non-churchy activities and doing anything other than attending prayer meetings to sing 'Here is love vast as the ocean ...' in Welsh or English over and over and over again.
There was a marked drop in church attendance after WW1 here in the UK. Things went into free-fall during the 1960s and for all the talk of a 'Quiet Revival' that trend hasn't been reversed, although the decline seems to have levelled out in some places.
I think there is 'something' going on. There's an increase in attendance at many Orthodox, RC and evangelical churches here in the UK. France is seeing an increase in attendance at RC Mass for the first time in many years.
A priest in the Greek Archdiocese (Thyatira), observed to me that he wondered how 'deep' all this was after a parish in London reported 30 odd baptisms including that of whole families.
We've got about 19 people in our catechesis class although we have had others drop out.
What's happening on the liberal or 'progressive' scene, I don’t know. The Methodists, URC and liberal Anglican parishes are struggling hereabouts. One URC church I know has closed recently. The liberal Anglican parish here now only has about 30 regular worshippers compared to around 85 to 100 pre-Covid.
Will some of the earnest new converts and enquirers find their way into more liberal settings in the fulness of time? Perhaps.
At the moment, those I speak to who have visited more liberal establishments are saying that they've seen nothing there that inspires them or makes them want to go back. In my neck of the woods some are saying the same about 'seeker-friendly' or evangelical charismatic churches also.
If I were in a liberal or 'progessive' church I'd be looking to find some kind of 'hook' to attract and retain people other than singing songs that say that 'all are welcome in this place' or 'there's a wideness in God's mercy' - which there undoubtedly is, but ...
It's often struck me how the Quakers aren't attracting more people than they do given that their values are in tune with the liberal and progessive zeitgeist.
My guess would be, with no disrespect to the Friends intended, that what they offer is generally available if people want it without having to attend a Meeting House and sit quietly for an hour.
I think liberal and progessive churches will pick up casualties from full on fundamentalist or very conservative groups who want to maintain some form of Christian faith.
My concern would be that most lapsed conservative Christians would disappear into the ether rather than investigating their nearest URC, Methodist or liberal Anglican church.
And this is not proof of anything, but I asked specifically this morning for him to send us some new people--and just got off the phone with one who's very likely to be the first... She called me.
As something of an outsider, I do think that progressive denominations have a lot to offer but often get tied up in bureaucracy while Evangelicals are often more "fly by the seat of your pants", but also the progressive denominations often lack something more numinous about them (of course there are exceptions) that the RCs and Orthodox are good at capturing or at least holding onto.
There was some discussion of the quality of the data in the BBC’s More or Less programme a few months ago.
I can't speak for Anglo-Catholics. The only groups I've heard mentioned in connection with what some are describing as 'revival' are various evangelical and Pentecostal churches, the RCs and the Orthodox.
As to how 'reactionary' this is, I think that varies from individual to individual, as I've already indicated in observations I've made on these boards.
I know of instances of individuals who say they started out exploring Orthodoxy for reactionary reasons only to loosen up as it were as they got more involved. Equally, I know of enquirers who have stopped coming along because they didn't think we were reactionary enough.
There are concerns about a kind of skewed macho and misogynistic strain at work within the assumptions and motivations of some of the young men we are getting. Even the bishops are waking up to that.
Does this apply to the so-called 'revival' as a whole? No, I wouldn't say so but would certainly say there are grounds for concern.
Check the context of the question. The denominations I mentioned are usually considered progressive. They are the ones reporting the greater losses. I am asking if there is a developing revival, will it also include progressive denominations, as in a rising tide floats all boats.
But I also wonder as people become disenchanted with Christian Nationalism, will they take a look at progressive expressions?
Why, in your view, would someone who was previously fired up about Christian Nationalism become disenchanted by it?
Not that I'm doubting that could happen, but I'm just wondering what you think the mental process would be, along the lines of eg. "People became disenchanted with Communism when they saw that Communist regimes were turning against the workers themselves."
Well, I guess my answer would be that only God knows what the future holds. I’m not at all convinced there is a developing “revival” to start with; I don’t see much real evidence of it in the US.
That said, I doubt that if one were to happen, any church relying on doing things the same way they’ve always done things will get left behind.
Do you mean that if a revival happens, churches who continue doing things the same way WILL get left behind?
And yes, the nod to those silly rapture books was intentional.
Thanks.
And, yeah, you don't wanna get left behind if there's a new world coming.
https://mccrindle.com.au/article/a-demographic-snapshot-of-christianity-and-church-attenders-in-australia/
I was involved with a congregation that took the approach of doing things to attract parents of young children. I don't think that will work. I don't think the aim is to get people to go to services, even messy church services, will work in the long run.
I remember reading a report (which I am unable to find again) of a survey which said the reason that young people are joining churches are mostly one of:
Not that this is revival.
So, you're saying those three motivations for joining churches don't qualify as revival?
If so, what would, in your view, qualify as revival?
How do you define progressive Christianity here?
Numbers are increasing, rather than decreasing.
The numbers joining are less than the numbers leaving/dying.
The first question that springs to mind for me: is this immigration-driven? If there are additional young Roman Catholics is that because there are lots of second-generation Poles, for example? This may be completely off-beam but I would like to check this possibility before concluding that lots of people have been converted.
I imagine the situation in the US is very different.
Most of the speakers came from charismatic evangelical or conservative evangelical backgrounds and most of those who attended were various flavours of evangelical or Pentecostal.
No surprises there.
By and large it was very balanced, reflective and 'realistic' - with what I felt were good definitions of what a revival was or wasn't.
Many of the reflections from that conference have stayed with me and have informed my thinking since.
My observations would generally accord with those that @Nick Tamen and @LatchKeyKid have aired. I don't think we are seeing a 'revival' in the Anglophone world- not in the US, not in Australia ((which I'll be visiting soon) and certainly not here in the UK.
That said, I think we are seeing an upsurge in enquirers and people wanting to explore the Christian faith in a way many of us haven't seen for some considerable time.
We currently have 19 people in our catechesis group.
Would the Orthodox Church change its modus operandi if there were a large-scale religious revival? No, I don't think we would. We aren't like that... 😉
But I could see us adjusting some of our infrastructure and the way we deal with enquirers and converts.
What does it mean by churches getting 'left behind' during a revival? In the Welsh Revival of 1904-05 the converts were apparently spread pretty evenly across most churches and denominations. Everyone thinks it affected the non-conformist chapels the most, the Calvinistic Methodists, the Congregationalists and Baptists or the small Pentecostal groups that emerged in its aftermath.
But the Anglicans gained 25,000 converts during that period too.
Fast forward a generation or two and the picture was one of overall decline. Do revivals 'stick'?
As for whether 'progressive churches' will soak up people disillusioned with Christian Nationalism or revivalist fervour, well yes, to some extent.
I've met a few Anglican clergy from the US recently who've told me they are picking up plenty of people disillusioned with fundamentalist or revivalist churches or megachurches. Equally, they are picking up RCs who can't cope with highly conservative elements in their own Church.
Traffic tends to go in several directions at once on the Christian scene.
I think we have both challenges and opportunities whatever Christian tradition we inhabit and whether we are at the conservative or progressive end of the spectrum.
I don't often quote conservative evangelical figures these days but I do agree with something I heard George Verwer of 'Operation Mobilisation' say at a rally many years ago:
'We don't need revival, we need vival.'
What that looks like will depend on our tradition/Tradition and how we work out our faith in practice in the day to day. If it's running food banks, run them to the best of our ability and resources. If it's running Bible studies let's do that as well as we can. If it's being a hermit or monastic then let's do that with all our might. If it's visiting the sick or housebound, prisoners or those on the margins, let's do that as well as we can also.
We can't 'manufacture' revival. But we can be faithful to our own lights, vocations and callings.
And, I would add, remain so after excluding demographic growth (Anglican churches in the Global South have on occasion used their increasing numbers as a sign of faithfulness, despite being outpaced by population growth).
Try this: https://www.churchmousepublishing.co.uk/2025/08/the-quiet-revival-under-microscope.html
This is also of interest: https://www.psephizo.com/life-ministry/is-the-church-of-england-growing-again/
On the way the far-Right is annexing Christian trophes. Dr Helen Paynter at Bristol Baptist College is IMO the "eminence grise" and I've heard her speaking on this: https://www.baptist.org.uk/Articles/697015/The_Church_the.aspx
What is being seen is young men coming to churches. These churches are predominantly Catholic and Conservative. There are fewer young women, and as time goes on, families come and other older people as well. I have watched this happening for over eight years, remember.
Importantly, these are unchurched. If they commit, they will be converts. They have very different needs from the Dechurched. Progressive apologetics appeals to the Dechurched. In some ways, the Gospel message needs to be simple and clear, something that conservative forms are good at. They can be challenged, almost expect it. Christianity is not expected by them to fit with the society around them. On the other hand, they are not discipled, they do not know what is expected of a Christian, and they have no idea of congregational culture. There is a need for everything from basic Catechesis, through basic Christian moral teaching to teaching that tells them that the reason the heat is on is because the congregation has stumped up the money to pay for it. All this in a group that does not naturally come to extra classes on a weekday night because that is not yet something they think is necessary. Where to get the teachers? The older members are too busy keeping the church running. They were often in chaplaincy mode prior to these young people coming. The priest is running around trying to look after everyone. Can this be sustainable?
If they take root and grow, when the next generation starts to come through, then we may talk of revival. That will also mean this group are maturing, and that is when I think we will see growth among progressive Christianity from these.
We keep making up as we go along. A small victory here, one there. People move on pretty quickly, partly because a large number of them are students. We will run Advent groups in the run-up to Christmas. It will be on Dilexit Te (On the Love of the Poor), which is hardly going to go down well with many on the right. Then I expect few of those who have recently come through the door will think this is an opportunity for them, and maybe it is not even intended for them.
So yes, the people turning up are turning up, it's not imaginary, but revival? Ask me again in twenty years. I am fed up with people over hyping these small shoots and not getting on with trying to tend the saplings in their own backyard.
As I've observed several times on these boards now, my observations are that some of those 'coming in' on a far-right ticket or with those kind of expectations can and do modify their position over time - or else clear off looking for something that accords more fully with their expectations.
I think it's more complex and multi-layered than 'all these young guys turning up at church are motivated by toxic masculinity or an anti-woke agenda'.
I think some of it is a reaction against liberalism but not all of it- that's if we even accept there's an 'it' happening.
And this.
That said, there have been sporadic influxes of new people to Orthodox parishes in the past but not on the scale we've seen of late. I'd see it as saplings and scrub rather than mighty oaks.
And like @Baptist Trainfan I also got fed up of the 'we're on the verge of revival' rhetoric that characterised charismatic evangelicalism back in the '80s and '90s. I thought it had died down but apparently not.
I'd like to join others in thanking you for a very convincing and insightful post.
Should they continue to practise,and many will, they would not be counted as 'converts' as entry into the Catholic Church starts at baptism and for many that is in babyhood.
Certainly in the East of Scotland there were many Polish soldiers who remained here after WW2 and who were able to bring their families to join them. They played quite a large role in Catholic Edinburgh but I'm not sure how much they were noticed by the general population. We are now on to the third generation of these families and they are now no different from the general Catholic population. The later influx of Poles from the early 2000s are from a different Poland and while they may be on the whole more likely to go to church than do the general members of the Scottish population they are not at all like the Poles who arrived during wartime.
For almost 30 years I have been involved with our parish RCIA group and there has never been a Polish enquirer. (Admittedly there are several Polish Catholic communities with their own outreach groups in the city)
However I have to say that every year amongst our enquirers we have one or two people
who have some sort of Catholic background. It could be a Catholic grandparent or it could be a parent who abandoned the Church at the time of marriage but who sometimes even without meaning to,
passed on some interest in Catholicism to their child.
We are not a conservative,traditionalist group and do not ask people about their political views.
Post communism there was a kind of reversion to religious thought in the countries in Central and Eastern Europe, it didn't necessarily always go in traditional directions, but it did sometimes.
Over time the assimilation you mention will probably occur, but in the meantime Polish immigrants in particular will swell the attendance of RC churches.
I don't disagree, I was narrowly addressing the question of young Poles attending Mass.
Is that a sufficient definition? There is a continuum of responses even within conservative groups.
Yeah, the Polish Catholic Mission has a fairly significant presence where there are larger Polish communities.
Even if it does, I don't think it will become a major component of the populist-right, given the basically irreligious character of the English people, as noted by Orwell et al.
(Literary bombast aside, I have been following British politics since the early 1980s, and I can't think of a person or organization comparable to the Falwell, Pat Robertson, their groups, etc in their profile or influence. The Orangemen would come closest, but their entry into politics was, to say the least, entirely separate from the 1980s US theocrats, and was done so in response to entirely different issues.
Based on what I'm seeing in UK media, outfits like Christian Voice would, in the grand scheme of any social-conservative coalition, function as very junior-partners to the TERF brigade.
Agreed. And it doesn’t say anything about whether the churches in question accept or reject the Creeds, for instance.
A church can also be theologically “conservative” but not necessarily politically “conservative” or MAGA or such.
I go there if I visit Sydney.
https://pittstreetuniting.org.au/
It does not mention creeds. The UCA does say this on its site.
Some, but not all, UCA congregations would use the adjective "progressive" of themselves.
It's itself a broad church.
I see more information here:
https://pittstreetuniting.org.au/theology/
Well, I wasn't knocking around in evangelical circles during the 1970s. I dropped out of our middle-of-the-road / broadly liberal Anglican parish church when I started at secondary school in 1972.
I remember Jean Darnall being mentioned from time to time during the '80s.
I'm not as au fait with what's going on in charismatic evangelical circles these days but had rather gained the impression that revivalist expectations has waned to some extent. It appears not.
That may have varied a bit by location. I'm aware of one RC parish in Lincolnshire that had a huge influx of Polish worshippers, to the point where they even asked to use the (large) mediaeval parish church so they could accommodate them.
From the Psephizo article: In the context of the UK, I think this is more nuanced than implying that Christian revival would involve a shift to the right - maybe that churches that want to see (numerical) growth need to be friendlier to right-coded (young) people.
PS Jean Darnall's vision about revival in the UK was in 1967. "The British Isles were covered in mist…"