While analysts talk a lot about the rise of the ‘nones’ who claim no church affiliation, there’s a new, more encouraging group. They don’t dislike church, and they just might come back.
A rise in the number of adults looking to the Bible for answers gives the church opportunity to draw more people to biblical truth. John F. Plake of the American Bible Society is optimistic about the 2019 State of the Bible report, which shows 18.1 million more people searching for wisdom in Scripture than in the previous report.
Categorized as ‘Bible friendly’ and ‘Bible neutral,’ the group totals 41.6 million Americans who are researching such areas as parenthood, relationships, grief and job loss. Some key findings among U.S. adults surveyed by Barna Group researchers in early 2019:
>81% see the church as a key place people can go to for help.
>102.7 million adults interact with the Bible, often seeking practical advice in their modern lives.
>60% believe the message of the Bible has transformed their lives.
“I think our job as the church is to know the questions that our society is asking and make sure that we’re standing there to provide biblical responses that are full of grace and truth,” Plake said.
“We don’t know in a quantitative way exactly what’s driving this movement to the middle…But we’re very grateful for it.”