Another Look at The Connected Generation: U.S. Country Report Now Available

Barna’s largest project yet, The Connected Generation, conducted in partnership with World Vision, includes survey responses from 15,369 individuals in 25 countries and nine languages, offering faith leaders both a broader and more focused lens with which to understand young adults. While The Connected Generation gives a global overview of 18–35-year-olds around the world, Barna also set out to provide more specific profiles of the regions and nations surveyed for this project. These reports offer localized insights on the connectivity levels and religious disposition of Millennials and Gen Z in the 25 countries included in The Connected Generation, building upon the themes explored at a global level.

Through country-specific data and analysis, expert commentary and actionable field guides, the country reports help faith leaders begin to apply the research in their local ministries and communities. The United States report, now available, adds global comparisons and new dimensions to Barna’s decades of research on the state of faith in America. Featured contributors include pastors and leaders such as Sam Collier, Jeanne Stevens, Eugene Cho, Jason Ballard and Edgar Sandoval, Sr.

These local snapshots from Barna’s largest study to date began rolling out in November 2019, as Barna president David Kinnaman joined World Vision and regional experts in Australia and New Zealand for a series of live events contextualizing the findings from the global study and the launch of the Australia / New Zealand country report.

What are leaders gleaning from these more focused findings and field guides?

“The Barna / World Vision partnership and subsequent roadshow was a unique experience for World Vision in NZ,” says Jonathan Fletcher, Head of Partnerships and Community Growth for World Vision New Zealand. “We were able to support and enhance the mission of the church in ways many didn’t expect.  As an expression of the church, we need the Church to be healthy and growing.  The insights from the research were alarming, but David Kinnaman’s ability to communicate them in ways that were tangible, and hopeful were profound.  Christian leaders of every denomination were left with an awareness of the enormity of the challenge but equipped with tools and inspired with hope to arrest its inevitability.”

“Christian leaders owe a big ‘thank you’ to Barna and World Vision for providing data that backs up what many of us suspected: Millennials are leaving the Church (or staying well clear of) in even greater numbers than their parents did,” adds Sam Bloore, Senior Teaching Fellow and Residential Host for Venn Foundation. “But we owe perhaps the biggest ‘thank you’ to those Millennials themselves, who have had the spiritual and emotional honesty to give us a timely warning that much of our church activity and focus has drifted away from that which produces resilient disciples of Jesus. The silver lining to the data is that the slow, unsexy work of discipleship—that allows the depth and richness of the gospel to work its way into and through a whole life—does still work! Just as it has for over 2000 years.” 

For more information on country reports or to view analysis for your area, visit theconnectedgeneration.com, which will be updated throughout the year as more country reports are released. Visit the Barna shop to order your own copy of a country report.

If you haven’t already, watch the Faith for the Future webcast (available for free replay until March 1, 2020) to discover more key findings from The Connected Generation study. You can purchase the report or access a suite of related resources at theconnectedgeneration.com.