More than half of U.S. Protestant pastors say their churches are drawing larger weekend worship crowds than they did two years ago, even as the share of newcomers with no previous church involvement continues to decline.
The survey, conducted by Lifeway Research and sponsored by the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center, polled 1,003 Protestant pastors by phone from Sept. 2-24, 2025, using a stratified random sample drawn from a list of all Protestant churches.
According to the findings, 54 percent of Protestant pastors said average worship attendance at their congregations had risen by at least 4 percent since 2023.
Another 30 percent reported attendance remained essentially unchanged, staying within 4 percent above or below 2023 levels, while 16 percent said their congregations declined by at least 4 percent. On average, pastors reported 16 percent growth over the two years.
Church size has shifted modestly over the past two years. Currently, 22 percent of congregations average fewer than 50 attendees, 27 percent draw between 50 and 99, 32 percent have between 100 and 249, and 18 percent report at least 250. In 2023, those figures were 22 percent, 32 percent, 30 percent and 16 percent, respectively.
Larger congregations were particularly likely to report growth. Seventy percent of churches averaging at least 250 attendees and 64 percent of those with 100 to 249 said attendance had increased. Churches with fewer than 50 worshippers were most likely to have plateaued, at 43 percent, while 25 percent of the smallest congregations and 22 percent of churches averaging 50 to 99 reported declines.
Denominational differences also emerged. Pentecostal pastors were among the most likely to report growth of at least 4 percent, at 63 percent, followed by Baptists and nondenominational pastors at 57 percent each. Lutherans were among the most likely to report stable attendance, at 37 percent, while 26 percent of Methodist pastors said their churches had declined.
Young adults ages 18 to 30 account for an average of 17 percent of attendance at Protestant churches, pastors reported, roughly matching their share of the overall U.S. population. About 19 percent of churches said young adults make up more than one-quarter of their congregations, while 27 percent reported that people ages 18 to 30 account for 5 percent or less of worshippers.
Evangelical pastors were more likely than mainline pastors to say young adults make up more than 25 percent of their congregations, 23 percent compared with 15 percent. Mainline clergy, meanwhile, were more likely to report that young adults comprise no more than 5 percent of attendees, 35 percent compared with 21 percent among evangelicals.
Pastors also reported an average of 18 people making new commitments to Jesus Christ as Savior through their churches during the previous 12 months, while the median congregation recorded six such commitments.
Mainline pastors were twice as likely as evangelical pastors to report no new commitments during the previous year, at 12 percent compared with 6 percent.
Churches retained an average of 81 percent of those making new commitments, according to pastors. Nearly three in five congregations, or 57 percent, said everyone who made a commitment had subsequently become active in church life.
Despite overall attendance gains, churches are drawing a smaller share of newcomers who previously had no church involvement. In 2016, pastors estimated that 27 percent of their new attendees had not previously attended church, compared with 20 percent today. The share of churches where more than 10 percent of newcomers were previously unchurched also fell from 63 percent in 2016 to 44 percent in the latest survey.
