Alan Jamieson is the General Director of Arotahi, the New Zealand Baptist mission arm.
News of the ‘Quiet Revival’ research from the UK may only be recent, but it has raised considerable interest and for some, is the evidence they needed, in order to say – revival is coming!
But before jumping to conclusions let’s look at three key questions:
- What does the research tell us is happening?
- Why might this be happening?
- How do we best respond?
Let’s begin with:
What is the research telling us?
‘The Quiet Revival’ is the work of The UK Bible Society’s online questionnaire of adults throughout England and Wales, in 2018 (sample surveyed 19,101) and 2025 (sample surveyed 13,146).[1] In the foreword to the study we read: “The results of this thorough and robust study demonstrate that over the space of only six years, there has been a significant growth in the numbers of people going to church; Christians are practising their religion more intentionally; more young people are finding faith; more people are reading the Bible.”[2] This is a shift away from the decline in church attendance that decades of previous studies had shown was occurring. As the studies’ writers state “In churches across society something amazing is happening, challenging long-held predictions about the future of Christianity in the twenty-first century. Where once we saw aging congregations and a steady decline in attendance, we see dramatic growth, led by the young.”[3]
Among the findings are:
- 12% of the UK population attends church at least once a month. This is a 56% increase in five years. But more surprising was a 400% increase among young women, and a 500% increase among young men. “In 2018, just 4% of 18–24 year olds said they attended church at least monthly. Today this has risen to 16%, with young men increasing from 4% to 21%, and young women from 3% to 12%. [4] “The report states “We found that the Church is in a period of rapid growth, driven by young adults and in particular young men”. [5]
- Church attendance is more ethnically diverse than the wider population. “Among under-55s, around one-third of churchgoers (32%) come from ethnic minorities, compared to just 6% of churchgoers over the age of 55.”[6]
- Christian faith is again being normalised and is “arguably even culturally attractive.” Christianity is no longer seen as “bizarre, nonsensical or embarrassing.”
- A large number of young adults now “appear to be looking towards the Church as a space for healing and community as well as a deeper sense of meaning in their life”.
- This growth is not hitting all churches equally. As the report says “Catholicism has risen sharply and Pentecostalism has become the third biggest Christian tradition, with the share of churchgoers identifying as Anglicans dropping steadily.”[7]
- 67% of church goers read the bible at least weekly.[8]
These are startling results that come from a study whose methodology we can have confidence in.[9] It is showing indications of a renewed interest in Christian faith in England and Wales that is far bigger than the impact of immigration.
This is just one study that has raised many questions, but also links with an anecdotal sense across the UK that something is happening. It is not just in England and Wales. In France Catholic baptisms have been growing rapidly with 7,135 adults baptised on Easter Sunday in 2024, up 32% on the previous year. This number grew again this year with 10,384 adult baptisms on Easter Sunday 2025.[10]
In Australia the McCrindle report (April 2025) – “An Undercurrent of Faith: Exploring Australia’s renewed relationship with Christianity”[11] shows similar growth in interest in the Christian faith. This study drew on census data and a national survey of 3000+ people. The report shows more than 784,000 Australians changed from no religion to Christian in the most recent census. The top three reasons for this shift were (1) feeling a spiritual connection or sense of divine presence; (2) finding personal meaning and purpose through Christianity; and (3), Christianity offers answers to questions they can’t find elsewhere. However it wasn’t all positive news as the report showed “Australians are increasingly moving from Christianity to no religion, and young Australians are moving away fastest.” In general the report states that “about 19 per cent of Christians moved to no religion between the 2016 and 2021 Census”. Younger Australians, in the research, present a more complex picture. On one hand, more than 85,000 young people (aged 15–24) came to faith between 2016 and 2021, many without any Christian family background. On the other hand, these younger Australians are also more likely than older believers to attend church regularly.
Interestingly the McCrindle research found that younger Australians are also the most likely to abandon Christianity. One in three young Christians (36%) left the faith between 2016 and 2021 — nearly double the national average of 19%.
Data from the United States is harder to interpret with politics, nationalism and church attendance sometimes being conflated in ways arguably unique to the U.S. as compared to the UK, Australia and NZ. The Pew Research survey shows a levelling off in church decline in the U.S.[12] Their latest survey (2023-24) finds that 62% of U.S. adults identify as Christians. That is a decline of 9 percentage points since 2014 and a 16-point drop since 2007.
However, in 2021 a Barna study researched 24,870 teenagers from 26 countries. Calling them the open generationbecause of their openness to Jesus compared to the Millennials before them.[13] This openness may now be leading to increased commitment to Jesus Christ in western contexts.
Back here in NZ there are no recent studies that can guide us. However, we do know that St Patrick’s Catholic cathedral baptised 350 people at Easter this year (2025)[14] which is a large increase and we have anecdotal stories from Catholic priests, our own Baptist youth leaders and pastors from across the country that hint to something shifting. But let’s not rush ahead. As NZ religion expert Emeritus Professor Peter Lineham has said, “I don’t want to call anything significant at the moment, but it does look like the same trend that has been evident in Britain and in the States, specifically among younger people, is a search for meaning and looking towards the church.”[15] Could a quiet revival be happening here?
Our own NZ census data shows a continued decline in those who call themselves Christian.
From 2018 to 2023 the population of Aotearoa grew by 6.4%, Those naming themselves as ‘no religion’ grew by 14% and those self-identifying as Baptist dropped by 20%. This is consistent with Anglicans (-22%) and Presbyterians (-19%).
Our own Baptist attendance figures show a modest rise over the last 12 months of 6.8%. Yet how much of this is a post-COVID recovery or a real rise is unknown. From 2021-2024 we dropped 9.4% in Baptist church attendance as measured in our annual Baptist statistics. So a 6.8% increase could be a post-COVID recovery and/or an indication of increased interest in Christian faith. Taking a longer perspective NZ Baptist attendances dropped by 24.5% over the last ten years and a total of 36.3% over the last twenty years. Looking at youth in particular in our own NZ Baptist context:
- Youth in Baptist churches increased by 24% between 2022 and 2024, (2036-2523).
- Easter Camps grew 42% between 2023 and 2025.
- King’s Birthday Youth Leaders Training (predominantly young adults) grew by over 100 people (30%) to 445 youth leaders between 2024–2025.
- There were over 710 baptisms reported in Baptist churches in 2024, 58% (411) were under 25, with the majority under 18 (43%).
- There have been more than eight new youth ministries in the last two years, and several more on the way. [16]
So, is there a quiet revival happening in New Zealand? Certainly, the anecdotal evidence of teenagers turning up to youth groups and church are being seen nationally in the figures above. Stories from Baptist youth pastors and leaders at a recent Regional Hui show that young people are deciding to read the bible, come to Easter camps and make commitments to Christ. I also hear similar stories when I talk to Catholic Priests, who are certainly saying the tide seems to be coming in and people are regularly walking in off the street and becoming part of the churches they lead.
Statistically it seems too early to make a judgement although in the UK Justin Brieley, in his podcast series and in his book ‘The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God’, thinks there is evidence of a return to Christian faith.
When the tide goes out, we know the tide will come in again. I was part of the Jesus movement-early charismatic movement in NZ. Then it seemed that the tide was coming in and a segment of the population was open to Christian faith, seeking God and turning up in some churches. Are we entering a new era like that? While it is too early to be certain I think we might be.
Next, we will try to explain what might be driving a renewed interest in Jesus.
Why might a quiet revival be happening?
We’ve looked at some of the research that indicates a quiet revival may be appearing in ‘Western countries’ like the UK, Western Europe, Australia, and Aotearoa. But, why is this happening?
At the recent ‘Little Revolutions’ conference in Christchurch, a group from a geographically remote mainline church were telling stories of revival in their small Anglican parish. Up until a few months earlier, they had regularly held church services with less than 20 people present, but now people were arriving an hour or more before the service began and their little church building was full. Is this a micro example of a wider movement?
When anyone comes to faith in Jesus it is always the Holy Spirit who is at work. God is seeking each one of us long before we begin our own search for God. When there is a wave of people drawn to faith, what we might call a revival, it is always the Holy Spirit’s doing. While it is the Spirit’s work, the Spirit’s work will manifest in sociological factors. It is right to both pray for revival and to look closely at who is being drawn to become followers of Jesus and why. If we listen to individuals who are searching for God we often find personal pain or nagging desire, or personal need are motivating them. As Augustine said nearly 2,000 years ago “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee”. If we begin to listen to many of those coming to faith we often see commonalities or themes that we might call a societal angst or societal longing. It is this longing that the Holy Spirit uses to draw people to faith in God.
The studies we have discussed have pointed to people’s desire for community and meaning. I want to expand this by suggesting four flames of light that may be speaking to the deep restlessness at the heart of many individuals and is endemic in young adults across Western contexts. Here I am drawing from the work of people like Justin Brierley and his podcast series on the Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God. [17]
Four flames of light
1: A search for meaning. For many years the internet has been awash with the opinions, podcasts, interviews and rhetoric of the so called ‘new atheists’. Led by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett, the new atheists have, for nearly two decades, caustically critiqued and callously ridiculed belief in God.
From the start of the new millennium these writers and on-line influencers used sarcastic attacks like ‘all belief in God does is cause people to fly planes into buildings’. Proving, they would say, we are better off without God. While the arguments they used in their publications were not new, and had been debated in philosophical circles for decades, they were presented as if they were fact and beyond reasonable doubt.
However, their popular appeal began to drop as followers realized they had no positive alternatives to offer. They could only point to perpetual nihilism. Their arguments were essentially modernist and disconnected from the emerging social movements like #BlackLivesMatter, gender and sexual equity, (for example the #MeToo movement) and urgent global concerns like climate change, extreme poverty, human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
But also, because Christian Philosophers like Professor William Lane Craig and Professor John Lennox were simply out debating them on stages, live-stream interviews and podcasts. Lennox and Craig, and others like them, offered coherent responses to the new atheists’ critiques of a belief in God, and while not proving God existed, they were able to offer more compelling arguments and examples of how living a life shaped by deep faith in God brings good to individuals and societies.
2: Credibility for the Christian Faith from unlikely sources. Learned and well researched nonbelievers have developed huge on-line followings as experts in their respective fields that give credibility to the Christian faith. Let’s consider two of these figures. The first would be historian Tom Holland who, after writing a number of popular accounts of history, turned his attention to what lies behind western civilisation. In his substantial book - ‘Dominion’ he describes the impact of Christianity on the core values and principles of Western Civilisation.
In the book and in online podcasts, debates, interviews and panels he argues that what made Western Civilisation unique, and determined its positive aspects, was the underlying Christian faith. From our systems of justice, health care, government, and education as well as; our view of individuals, care for those in need, through to the care for animals and the environment, Holland argues it is all a direct result of the Christian faith. He claims – “The emergence of Christianity is the single most transformative development in Western history.”
The second is Psychologist Jordan Peterson who has toured the world speaking about the psychological and mythical truth of the bible. While he doesn’t hold to the historical reality of the scriptural events, he believes deeply in the power of the archetypes, the principles of living taught in the bible and applies them in his, often sold out, talks.
He will lecture on the psychological truth of scripture and a thousand or more people will pay to attend. Yet all he does is talk for two hours or more on the truth embedded in books like Genesis and Exodus. Specifically the deep psychological reality of evil, the need to choose, to bring order into our lives, and the need to take personal responsibility. While Jordan Peterson’s wife has become a Christian believer and was baptised at Easter 2024; Jordan says he supports her decision, but he himself is not a believer and is not looking to claim faith in Jesus.
Peterson and Holland, while not Christians, do point to the historical and psychological credibility of the choice to believe in God and follow the ways of Jesus. They have effectively opened the door for many to pursue Christian faith encouraged by their sympathy to the Christian faith and the way they point to the historical (Holland) and psychological (Peterson) credibility of the Christian faith and belief in God.
3: A courageous speaking of truth to power where someone speaks up about injustice and gives a voice to the down trodden and the poor has always been the witness of Christians.
When Bishop Mariann Budde called newly inaugurated President Donald Trump to have mercy on immigrants, many of whom who lived in fear. To have mercy on transgender people. To have mercy on the poor, is a recent example. At that moment the newly appointed President, his family and those freshly called to positions of power sat in the front pews of the church, while she pleaded with them to be merciful. The President responded saying “The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a radical left hard line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.” Bishop Mariann Budde simply responded saying, “There are times when taking a stand is precisely what’s needed from people of faith.”
Whether we agree with her or not, whether we like her theology or her moral stance or not, that is not the point I want us to grasp. Because it is less the content of what she said as the fact she said it. As a person of faith she felt a compelling conviction, based firmly in her belief in the character of God, to speak out. To speak out graciously, without a word of critique but with pleas for mercy and to see the concerns of others. Her action points to an insight of Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn; that it is those with faith in God who most typically have the moral courage to speak truth to confronting oppressive regimes. An insight that came from his decades in Soviet gulags where he saw whose courage stood out. It was after his time in the gulag that his faith became a source of strength and moral conviction, his foundation for resisting the lies and injustices of the cruel regime. Many people don’t know of Solzhenitsyn’s writings but they were surprised and moved by the simple courage of this woman of faith as she called for mercy.
4: The last flame I want to point to is seen in the life and statements of Pope Francis. Whatever you think of the Catholic faith and the place of the Pope, we were all aware of the public appeal and popularity of Pope Francis. He was a beacon of hope. Lived, grounded, tangible hope. His autobiography that came out just months before his death is simply titled – “Hope”. His hope held tightly to the power of the resurrected Jesus Christ that calls us to touch human misery. To touch, he said, “the suffering flesh of others, so that we enter into the reality of other people’s lives and know the power of tenderness. When we do so, life always becomes marvellously complex and we feel the intense experience of being people, the experience of belonging to people.” He called the church to live in that hope and to reach out to those in need. As he said, “to go out of yourselves, out of yourselves to touch and meet the needs of the world”. A tangibly lived hope.
I heard Nicky Gumbel saying recently that Alpha had grown 233% in the last two years and “that this is the greatest season of evangelism in our generation and that young people across the world want to explore at the moment”. I believe he is right and the studies we have looked at hints of a potential new wave of exploration of Christian faith by young people in Western settings. I wonder if they convey a deep societal hunger for a meaningful credible hope. A hope that can credibly speak to the great needs of their own lives and the tragic situations of our world. I wonder if this deep desire for realistic faith is being glimpsed in the words of very unlikely people like Tom Holland, Jordan Peterson, Mariann Budde and Pope Francis; who are each pointing to the power of God and life of Jesus Christ.
How do we respond?
If there is a quiet revival happening then how do we best respond?
Let me start with a story from my youth. In the late 1970s I was a teenager in an Anglican church that was positively influenced by the Jesus movement, (or early charismatic movement). Quite suddenly our little youth group became the place to be with a hundred or more teenagers turning up each Sunday night. In fact, our rapidly growing, charismatic youth group, often eclipsed the established adult congregation in numbers at the 7pm Sunday evening service.
I enjoyed the opportunities and experienced the generous inclusion given to us teenaged charismatics by our wise vicar. He, and many of the wider church leadership, continually chose to embrace us, despite our overly enthusiastic, at times outrageous and dubious tendencies
Our Sunday night services were regularly a mix of elderly people in a robed choir and a band of guitars played by bare-foot, long-haired, scruffy teenagers. The liturgy combined Old and New Testament readings with enthusiastic altar calls, opportunities for prayer for ‘the baptism of the Holy Spirit’ and emotional messages from youth leaders. Services followed the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and included open prayer times calling on the Holy Spirit to heal, work miracles and give the ultimate gift of tongues. When the service was over, it was off to the Vicar’s place for supper, more worship, prayer and conversations around what God was doing. The vicarage was big, and the formal lounge could squash in over 50 young people all crammed on the floor or standing in doorways and perched on windowsills.
The Vicar and many of the church leadership were embracing this new movement, giving us room to try, and opportunities to lead with consistent and wise support. But that was only half of it. The Vicar’s other work was validating, supporting and encouraging the many established congregants, furious about these crazy teenaged charismatics, who rightly complained our theology was more passion than exegetical reasoning. Our critics were wary of our open prayer times, Holy Spirit encounters and constant calls for conversion.
The Vicar was both very patient and exceptionally wise. He allowed younger, competent leaders to lead the youth work but included us in the Sunday night services and hosted the Sunday evening suppers. He made room for, knew and supported us, but he didn’t pretend he was part of us. At the same time, he visited congregation members who criticised what was happening, helped navigate the decisions of the vestry, and ensured the Bishop heard the stories of young people coming to faith.
As I reflect on my teenage church experience I feel very privileged to have grown up in such a wisely supportive church and then to move city and be part of an equally wise leadership in Spreydon Baptist Church under Murray Robertson. In the early years that I was part of Spreydon we had all sorts of people coming and all sorts of things happening. From the man who tied his goat up at the bike rack while the service was on, to long haired ex-druggies in places of leadership in the music, prayers and preaching. There was a willingness in the leadership to listen to what the Holy Spirit was doing in people without telling those ‘living together’ that they had to split up before becoming a follower or that you had to speak in tongues to be baptised or that women couldn’t preach, prophecy or be elders.
Looking back there was a lot of trust in the Holy Spirit and in what God was doing through people. But there was also high relationship, open communication and an expectation that we would all be out of our comfort zones when God was at work amongst us. This mix of deep trust in God, high relationship and respect was undergirded by real humility. And this is what I sense church leaders will need again if the Spirit is indeed at work and a new revival is quietly drawing many young people and others into our midst.
The fact is the people who are drawn to speak with us, or to try out our youth group or church will be outsiders. They won’t be part of the Christian sub-culture, know the bible or how Christians live, but that doesn’t mean God isn’t at work in their lives. What it does mean is that we need to listen carefully and watch closely. Can we see or sense where God is drawing them and what they are sensing they need to do next. Notice I underlined the words – them, they and they. This is because we need to flow with the way God is at work in them and not, even for one second, start imposing our agenda, ways or experience onto them. Archbishop Justin Duckworth and I wrote a book about these dynamics that came out last year, called ‘Intensional: A Way Forward for the Church’.[18] It might be helpful.
I remember talking with a man who came to faith in the 1970’s – ‘Jesus Movement’. He described walking into the city centre on a Friday evening and meeting one of the church elders who he had recently talked with on a Sunday night at church. The young Jesus Movement guy, with long hair and bare feet, went up to the elder and chatted with him and asked, “Why do you wear shoes? Do you think Jesus wore shoes like those?” The elder, in his wisdom to ‘keep the main thing the main thing’ and not to introduce unnecessary stumbling blocks to a young man seeking Jesus, took off his shoes and gave them to another guy sitting on the side of the road. The man I talked with said. “I remember meeting that elder again in town, a couple of weeks later. He was still walking around with no shoes. I always remember that he said, even decades later.”
We need to expect God to be at work in people who are quite different to us and for God’s way in their lives to be quite different too.
We also need to consider that if God is drawing people who have a hunger for meaning, and a deep desire for credible hope, that they will be looking at our lives and the life of our church to see if there is evidence of that credible meaning and evidenced hope in us. We will need to hear Pope Francis call to go out of ourselves to those in need, offering genuine friendship and care. We need to show concern for the peoples of the world and world crises. We will need to express a meaningful faith that speaks to the critiques of the atheists and the nihilists with respect, clear responses and a lived alternative.
You see when the Holy Spirit is at work and revival comes everyone is changed. The new followers are certainly changed but so too is the church. When the church won’t listen, doesn’t make room for new followers to be and worship as they are, and won’t change then the Spirit moves on quickly.
Endnotes
[1] The 2018 sample surveyed 19,101 adults in England and Wales, while the 2024 sample surveyed 13,146 adults. Both samples therefore give a 1% margin of error at a 99% confidence level, meaning they are highly reliable. The surveys were conducted through YouGov’s online panel to population targets, and further refined with post stratification weighting. It is worth noting that because we surveyed adults, we are not able to comment in depth on the portion of the population, or the Church, which is under 18” Quiet Revival (p11).
A summary of the study and free download of the study findings are available at - https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/research/quiet-revival
[2] Quiet Revival Report (p4)
[3] Quiet Revival Report (p5)
[4] Quiet Revival Report (p6)
[5] Quiet Revival Report (p6)
[6] Quiet Revival Report (p11)
[7] Quiet Revival Report (p6)
[8] Quiet Revival (p7)
[9] The authors of the study defend the methodology saying – “Yes, both surveys we draw from are based on large, representative samples from one of the country’s leading research companies. Both sample sizes give a 1% margin of error at a 99% confidence level, meaning they are highly reliable. While minor changes were made to the questionnaire between the 2018 and 2024 waves, all questions used for comparison have remained the same, and the surveys were conducted under the same conditions at the same time of year.” - The Quiet Revival report p46. For more information see https://yougov.co.uk/about/panel-methodology
[10] God has undoubtedly decided to take over’: France’s continuing (and surprising) Catholic shift against secular progressivism. In the Catholic Herald - 2 April 2024.
https://thecatholicherald.com/god-has-undoubtedly-decided-to-take-over-frances-continuing-and-surprising-catholic-shift/ and Catholic News Agency 12th April 2025
See:- https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/263349/france-sees-record-10384-adult-baptisms-in-2025-45-percent-increase-asyoung-catholics-lead-revival
[12] See Pew Research summary - https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/decline-of-christianity-in-the-us-has-slowed-may-haveleveled-off/
[13] https://www.barna.com/the-open-generation/
[14] Auckland Herald – 20 April 2025. Based on a Radio NZ story - https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/st-patricks-cathedral-to-conduct-350baptisms-on-easter-sunday-religion-expert/YI2XZIK6AZB3ZJPDXMIHYZT4OI/
[15] Auckland Herald – 20 April 2024.
[16] From Ethan Millar – NZ Baptist National Youth Catalyst.
[17] https://justinbrierley.com/surprisingrebirth/
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Photo credits: Top image: Emma Diack. Last image: Morgan Dews
