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Survey Asks, "What Do You Think about Church?"

A survey (in 2013) by Barna Group asked over 1,000 American adults the following question: "What do you think about going to church?" About 30 percent of Americans say attending church is very important, about 40 percent are ambivalent about attending church, and 30 percent say attending church is not important at all. Those who are ambivalent about attending church gave two top reasons for their ambivalence: "I find God elsewhere" (40 percent) and it's not "personally relevant" (35 percent).

Millennials who are opting out of church cite the following three factors with equal weight in their decision: the moral failures of church leaders, hypocrisy, and the church's irrelevance. 20 percent of Millennials say that "God is missing" from church and 10 percent sense that doubt is prohibited. Also, when asked to list "What made your faith grow?" the church didn't even make the top ten.

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