The Decline of the Church-Type Person

Opinion

by

Special to United Methodist Insight | Oct. 14, 2025

There is a church-type person. That may seem like heresy to some readers. After all, doesn’t the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ claim to be decisive for human existence, for everyone, and for all time?

I was taught this in my Systematic Theology class in seminary years ago and it’s one way to state the central Christian claim. But there’s a difference between theory and practice; a difference between Christ’s universal church and the people who regularly show up at the bricks-and-mortar buildings.

Sociologist Ryan Burge identified the church-type person in 2023 with data. To be clear, “church-type person” is my label, not his, but he’s describing the same group. United Methodist Insight covered the article but there were only a few comments on it and very little discussion even though it’s highly significant for the church.

I love data. Looking at actual numbers and discussing/debating what they mean provides a safeguard against thinking what I see is true simply because I see it. It allows a bigger window on the world than our own limited experience. It may be that some people who attend church think that most people in the US look like them because that is primarily who they see in church each week, even though there are many more who don’t fit that description who aren’t there.

What Ryan Burge reported a couple of years ago was titled, “Religion Has Become a Luxury Good for the Middle Class, Married College Graduate with Children.” So, there are four boxes to check for the church-type person: (1) middle class, (2) college graduate, (3) married and (4) has children. A middle-class income in 2025, according to the Pew Research Center, ranges from $41,392 to $124,176.

That’s a problem for the church. In 1970, 40 percent of households contained married parents with children. These folks are, and always have been, the most likely to attend church and are the pool from which most churches draw. Churches are designed to serve this group very well. Now the share of households of married parents with children is just under 18 percent. Marriage rates are declining. Fewer American adults are marrying, and when they do they marry later in life. The average age for marriage now is about 30 for men and 28 for women. Most single adults have never been married, as opposed to being divorced or widowed. By 2030 it is projected that approximately 45% of women between the ages of 25–44 will be single and without children. I could go on, but this illustrates the big picture. The church is shrinking, in part, because there are fewer church-type people around. The people who have historically attended church comprise a thinner slice of the demographic pie each year.

There are a lot of church off-ramps now. College has gotten much more expensive. Some people don’t go. There’s a big push for people to go to trade school instead because the trades are less likely to be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI). Incomes have shrunk as income inequality has risen and become as harsh as it was in the Gilded Age. When fewer people can achieve a middle-class income, they’re less likely to have children whether married or not. It costs around $300,000 to bear and raise a child to age 18. If parents pay for college, the price tag is even higher. With wage stagnation, many people now find themselves with a second job just to make ends meet. That often means working on Sundays during worship services. Single adults frequently find the church to be marriage- and family-centric which makes them feel out of place. Most clergy, like their congregants, are middle-class and married with children, so that’s the perspective most often shared from the pulpit.

In his article, Ryan Burge gets quite preachy and wags a finger at churches for including only church-type people. He calls church attendance a prize for those who have lived a “proper” life and gotten things right. It is not so much a place for the poor or the working class, those without children, those who did not attend or finish college, or the single adult. (The single adult’s experience in church is a whole ‘nother story, as they say. I may follow up with another article focusing exclusively on that.) All in all, those whose life path deviates from the traditional American-approved way often don’t come to church.

Anecdotally, I can confirm what the data show. I’ve driven through the parking lots of several churches in my area. The baby strollers and child car seats are abundant. The clothes look new and good. The SUVs are shiny.

I choose not to chide churches for all this. Criticizing the church has become quite the thing to do and I don’t find it helpful. Many churches are struggling just to survive and around 15,000 United Methodist, Lutheran, and Presbyterian churches are projected to close in the next several years. Therefore, some compassion is in order. Even if churches remain affluent and middle-class, their members’ abundant resources allow the opportunity for a great deal of philanthropy. Offhand I know two United Methodist churches who have thriving ministries to the homeless. They also send nurses to medically underserved areas, give aid to those affected by natural disasters around the world, and provide school supplies to children from low-income families. These churches are probably going to accept that having middle-class college graduates with children as most of their congregants is simply the way things are. If they’re struggling to survive, it may be the only practical thing to do.

On the other hand, maybe there is a person or more than one who is as entrepreneurial as they are Christian and who finds this reality something to be challenged rather than accepted. I’m thinking especially of the people who imagined and then created Buc-ees, the popular gas-station-convenience-store birthed in Texas and now spread through the South.

Buc-ees founders redefined what a highway rest stop could be. In a similar way, maybe other “inventors” will not only think outside the box but lose the box altogether regarding what the church could be.  Maybe she, he, or they will find innovative ways to extend church attendance to more than the church-type person. Maybe this person or group will be able to involve more low-income (or extremely wealthy!) people in their church. Maybe they will involve more single adults. Maybe they will attract hotel housekeepers, office admins, janitors, maintenance workers, plumbers, electricians, HVAC repair people, and trash collectors.

As has been said before, all things are possible.

Ann Locasio is a former United Methodist pastor who now works in healthcare and does pet sitting as a side hustle. For fun Ann has taken improv and stand-up comedy classes and hosted a Spanish conversation group. She has published one book and is working on her second one. She lives in Austin, Texas.