The “Quiet Revival” That Never Was?

Author: John Stonestreet

Have reports of a revival of Christianity in the Western world been, to paraphrase Mark Twain, “greatly exaggerated?”

Last week, the Bible Society of the UK pulled a much-discussed report that had suggested the nation was undergoing a “Quiet Revival.” On the website, CEO Paul Williams admitted that “the 2024 survey sample on which our report The Quiet Revival was based was faulty, and it can no longer be regarded as a reliable source of information about the spiritual landscape in Britain.” The data in question had been compiled by market research firm YouGov, which recently acknowledged that it had not employed usual quality controls and had included responses now known to be ‘fraudulent.’

The Bible Society report that coined the phrase “Quiet Revival” was issued in April of last year. It claimed that “(c)hurch decline in England and Wales has not only stopped but the Church is growing, as Gen Z leads an exciting turnaround in church attendance.” A few months later, The Times columnist James Marriott published a lengthy essay describing “the young converts filling (UK) churches.” What Marriott called “a comeback for Christianity” is, he said, due to “a backlash against secularism . . . set against the backdrop of global turmoil and a search for lost meaning and connection.”

Even then, Marriott wrote, the Bible Society’s report had already been “bitterly disputed.” And yet, he continued, “Christianity undoubtedly has a new energy,” and “Christianity’s status in public life is much improved.” Among the things he pointed to as proof of such claims were recent high-profile conversions and popular endorsements of Christianity and rising church attendance in some places.

Even as he admitted that to receive faulty data was “frustrating and disappointing,” Williams maintained that, when it comes to Christianity in the UK and the wider Western world, “there is in fact a very positive story to tell.” And he’s not wrong: Williams went on to say,

Over the past year we have seen an unprecedented public conversation about Christianity, with countless stories of a spiritual awakening among Gen Z, alongside greatly increased Bible sales in the UK, growing numbers of adult baptisms and confirmations, and increased attendance at evangelism courses.

This wider picture is also supported by several other surveys, based on probability sampling, which point to an increased engagement in faith among young adults compared to older generations. Both the Ipsos Mori 2023 Global Religion Survey and our analysis of the most recent data from the Pew Research Center on Spirituality Around the World indicate that young adults in the UK are more likely to pray and attend a place of worship than older generations. 

He then offered the following summary of what he thinks can be said about the state of religion there:

While religious identity overall is shifting from “Christian” to “no religion,” Christianity in Britain appears to be moving from a declining nominal faith to a committed and active one, as cultural shifts—especially among younger people—encourage a more proactive search for identity, meaning and purpose.

Of course, here in the U.S., especially in the weeks after the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the largest evangelistic event in human history, some claimed that America was experiencing revival. Now, months later, there is far less energy behind such claims and less evidence of a lasting return to church.

At the same time, we can be thankful for the “vibe shift,” that has left America in a much different place on a few consequential moral issues. In the end, it may be that Marriott’s analysis is the most accurate; that we are witnessing younger generations reacting against the confusion, meaninglessness, and ideological totalitarianism of modern secularism. However, we ought to remember that rebelling against what is not true is not the same as embracing what is true.

In The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, the great revivalist of the eighteenth-century Jonathan Edwards identified five marks of true revival, which can also help us evaluate this current moment. True revival, he said, is focused on Jesus Christ, opposes sin and evil, is grounded in the Bible, promotes sound doctrine, and produces love, humility, and unity among believers rather than self-aggrandizement and division. If accurate, especially by that last mark, it would be premature at best to think we are experiencing a revival in America.

And yet, perhaps what is most helpful to learn from Edwards is to guard against excess and ungrounded emotionalism, but also to not succumb to cynicism. Christians should expect God to be at work, and even to bring awakening. What a shame it would be to miss a movement of God because it came in a form we didn’t recognize, expect, or even worse, want. But we also must remember that we cannot manufacture what only God can do. Our place is to pray, to work, and to expect.