The Art of Leadership Network.

Well, before we get to today's regularly scheduled podcast,

I've got David Kinneman with me for our monthly State of the Church update.

Man, things are happening, David.

Like, we are getting so much data in real time.

And one of the questions I think we're all asking,

you and I were on this podcast a couple months ago saying,

is there a revival?

Like, yes, but you've got to tap the brakes because there are other issues. So you've got some fresh data

just in. That kind of answers the question. Is there some growth happening in the church or not?

What have you got for us? Well, throughout 2025, we have been seeing all sorts of interesting and unexpected changes in our religious environment.

So we've seen rising spiritual openness, especially among Gen Z and millennials, more curiosity and commitment to Jesus, more engagement with Scripture.

And that led us to a simple question is, what's happening among local churches?

Are they seeing it?

So we asked a sample of senior pastors around the country. We actually did this research in January and February of 2026.

So brand new fresh day from 2026. The ink is not dry.

And we found that the way people are actually experiencing it is that most pastors say they're seeing increased engagement.

Well, I should say almost half of today's pastors are seeing increased engagement among Gen Z.

So we simply asked over the last year, did you observe lower, higher, or the same amount of engagement from each of the following

descriptions of people? And again, this is senior pastors, Protestant mainline, the full spectrum

of Christian churches. And we found that 45% said they saw higher engagement among Gen Z.

43% said the same amount of engagement. Only 12% said they saw a lower engagement among Gen Z.

...