“Demographics is destiny. And when it comes to American Protestant Christianity, the future looks a lot grayer.” This is the opening statement by Dr. Ryan Burge in his blog about Protestant denominations in the United States. By looking at the number of “gray hairs and babies,” Burge notes, you can tell a great deal about where a church (or denomination) is headed.[1]
Burge used a data set from the Cooperative Election Study (CES) collected in 2022 from 60,000 Americans over the age of 18. The data set is available on the Harvard University website for anyone to analyze. [2]
Survey results indicate Free Will Baptists are among the youngest of American Protestant denominations. For example, from the entire sample of CES respondents, only 23% indicated they were a parent or guardian of a child under the age of 18. In contrast, 28% percent of Free Will Baptists indicated they were a parent or guardian of a child. Only the Church of Christ and Pentecostal Church of God had higher percentages.
Burge points out a simple pathway to church growth, which is for young couples to have children, and then to retain those children as active church members who take on the roles and responsibilities of older members. In a recent sample of youth who participated in IM and D6 leadership programs, we discovered this is indeed the case among Free Will Baptists.
In her work, Generations, Dr. Jean Twenge notes, “All signs point toward religion continuing to retreat among Americans” with Gen Z being the least churched and religious generation in history. [3] However, in our sample of Gen Z Free Will Baptists who had been active in denominational programs, we found 99% are regular church attenders (85% at a Free Will Baptist church), and 87% are ministering in a church. [4]
The Opportunity Before Us
Free Will Baptists have a unique opportunity. We have the youth to meet our discipleship (and future pastor) needs. Let us focus on discipling the young people God has entrusted to us by making church a priority, stretching them in their teen years by promoting our denominational programs for youth, camps, and other activities.
Let's challenge them as children and teens to begin ministering in the church. If we do so, the future for Free Will Baptists is bright.
[2] Cooperative Election Study (formerly the Cooperative Congressional Election Study). Accessed: https://cces.gov.harvard.edu
[3] J. M. Twenge (2023). Generations: The Real Different Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America. New York: Atria Books, Page 501.
