The Barna Group, the evangelical research organization, has issued a report entitled New Research: Belief in Jesus Rises, Fueled by Younger Adults. “This shift is not only statistically significant,” says the tag line, “it may be the clearest indication of meaningful spiritual renewal in the U.S.”
Barna surveyed Americans to measure how many agree with this statement: “I have made a personal commitment to follow Jesus that is still important in my life today.”
The study found that 66% of Americans say that they have made such a commitment. This is a 12 point rise since 2021, when only 54% said they had made a personal commitment to Christ.
To take a larger view, in 2009, a high of 77% made that claim. Then the numbers fell year after year until 2020, when it hit that 54% low, which held stead in 2021. But since then, the numbers have shot upward in each of the next four years, hitting the 66% mark in 2025.
Barna notes that the higher numbers are driven by young men. The highest rate and the sharpest growth is among Millennial men at 71% (women, 64%), followed by Generation Z at 67% (women, 61%). Generation X (men, 66%; women, 64%) and Boomer rates (men, 66%; women, 62%) have been relatively flat since 2019. This data is in line with other research that has shown the historically unusual finding that men have become more religious than women. Though this study suggests this is not just a young adult phenomenon but that it holds for each generational cohort.
But what does this mean? Evangelicals, like the Barna researchers, believe that what saves a person is “making a personal commitment to Christ.” So it’s not surprising that the Barna team is overjoyed at these numbers. If two-thirds of Americans have made a personal commitment to Christ, then two-thirds are evangelical Christians and secularism is finished!
But a commitment is not the same thing as faith. A commitment ties in to “decision theology,” a once-in-a-lifetime choice that supposedly sets up the person who made it for eternity. But faith is a continual trust and dependence, an ongoing belief, a gift from God, created and nourished by the Holy Spirit through the Word and the Sacraments.
Also, since we can have faith in all kinds of things including ourselves, what makes faith saving is the object of the faith. For a Christian, this means faith in Christ, that He is true God and true Man, who died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins and who rose from the dead to give us new life that will extend into eternity.
Barna’s statement says nothing about who the person believes Jesus to be. The incarnation of God? A great moral teacher? Another prophet, as Muslims believe? A spiritual avatar as New Agers will say?
The statement also says that the commitment is to “follow” Jesus. That puts the nature of the commitment into a moral promise, to live as He lived, to do as He said. Good luck with keeping that commitment! But this is the extent of many people’s admiration of Jesus.
Saving faith begins with the realization that I don’t follow Jesus as I should, and that I need Him to save me! I need Him as my savior above all, and then I can acknowledge Him as my Lord.
Now I don’t want to throw cold water on those who told Barna that they have made a “personal commitment”–well, maybe I’d like to throw Baptismal water on them–because people mean different things by that. And saving faith in Christ no doubt includes a personal commitment. The Christian life is full of commitments to Christ, as evident in Baptism, Confirmation, Absolution, marriage, vocation, prayer, and on and on, though these are framed above all in terms of His commitment to us.
But the Barna study itself shows a curious fact:
Barna’s study compares findings in two similar but not identical survey questions: Christian self-identity and commitment to Jesus—that is, whether a person self-describes as Christian and whether a respondent indicates a commitment to Christ. Interestingly, responses to the two questions are not always in lock-step, reflecting that people are often a patchwork of religious beliefs and identities.
In other words, some people identify as Christian and others express commitment to Jesus, but these groups don’t always overlap. Almost 3 in 10 people who don’t identify as Christian say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus. This number is currently near an all-time high. This may be due to a combination of people returning to their faith and new people becoming interested in Jesus, without identifying as Christian. Many people are now open to spirituality and Jesus, but hesitant to embrace organized religion or identify as Christian.
So nearly a third of non-Christians have made a personal commitment to follow Jesus? The Barna researchers think this is good news and, in a sense, it might suggest an openness to hearing the Christian gospel.
“At this time, we are seeing interest in Jesus that is growing among those who do not otherwise describe themselves as Christians,” says David Kinnaman, the CEO of Barna, “indicating that many of the new followers of Jesus are not just ‘recycled’ believers.” Well, it also indicates that many of the new followers of Jesus are not believers in Jesus at all.
If a personal commitment to follow Jesus is all that is necessary, there is really no need for the church or for the Christian religion, with its theology, the Word, and the Sacraments. But the church is the Body of Christ, so it’s hardly possible to follow Christ while rejecting His Body.
And yet, that Jesus is such a compelling figure even to non-believers is certainly significant. Those who want to follow Jesus can be taught who it is they are following and those who make a commitment to Him can come to understand His commitment to them.
Let’s talk about that tomorrow.
Illustration: Follow Jesus by New Life Church Collingwood via Flickr, CC BY 2.0
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