CNLP 777 | 2026 Disruptive Church Trends: Gen Z Leading Church Attendance Surge, Women Exiting Faith, + The Impact of Discipleship By Algorithm
The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast
Carey Nieuwhof
4.8 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2026
⏱️ 33 minutes
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Summary
Carey Nieuwhof unveils 7 disruptive church trends to track in 2026. The trends include Gen Z leading a surge in young church attendance and a rise in women exiting the Christian faith.
Plus, Carey discusses discipleship by algorithm and why that makes it impossible to lead people with harmony.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Art of Leadership Network. |
| 0:03.0 | Or if you're attracting a particular demographic, say only wealthy people or white people or just males, |
| 0:09.9 | maybe it's time to audit your ministry and ask why. |
| 0:17.5 | Welcome to the Kerry Newhoff Leadership Podcast. |
| 0:20.0 | Man, I'm so excited for this episode. This is the |
| 0:22.8 | annual Church Trends. 2026 Church Trends. I'm going to look at seven this year. And this is a kickoff |
| 0:30.2 | to a church trend series. We've been doing this every year for a while now. And so coming up, |
| 0:35.7 | I've got episodes with David Kinnaman, |
| 0:38.0 | Barnes David Kinnaman, with Luke Lefevre and Daniel McLeod, |
| 0:41.4 | Ruslan KD, talking about one of the trends, |
| 0:44.6 | and then even John Mark Comer weighs in on what he thinks the trend is. |
| 0:48.9 | It's gonna be an incredible conversation. |
| 0:51.4 | So I'm really glad that you've joined us. |
| 0:53.1 | Whether you're watching, whether you're |
| 0:54.3 | listening, welcome. This is kind of a church trends month, so we have a whole lot coming up. |
| 0:59.8 | The best thing you can do is to follow. Hit follow right now. Hit subscribe. You won't miss a thing. |
| 1:05.4 | This year, I unveil seven disruptive church trends we're going to look at together and track in |
| 1:10.4 | 2026, including |
| 1:11.7 | Gen Z, leading a surge in young church attendance, a rise in women exiting the faith, and |
| 1:18.5 | discipleship by algorithm, which is actually what makes it impossible for you to make anybody |
| 1:22.3 | happy right now. But before we jump in, I want you to know about something I'm really excited about. |
| 1:28.8 | We've officially launched the 2026 Church Trends Hub. So that's a brand new place where you can |
... |
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