Long Island church attendance: Mostly flat, leaders say, as Pew survey shows U.S. Christian population stabilizing

The share of Americans identifying as Christian appears to have stabilized after falling for years, according to a new survey, with evidence on Long Island of renewed interest but below levels seen pre-pandemic, some area faith leaders said.

Out of 36,908 adults polled nationwide between July 2023 and last March by the Pew Research Center, 62% responded they were Christian, a figure that has changed only slightly over the past five years after a steep annual decline compared to 2007, according to the study. 

While some Long Island religious leaders said it’s a positive sign that the decline of Christians in the United States has slowed, the COVID-19 pandemic, an evermore corrosive political climate and ongoing tension between the secular and the spiritual have combined to keep church attendance relatively flat.

Pastor Mike Rice of the Dix Hills Evangelical Free Church said he would "love to see an upswing" in attendance at Sunday services but is realistic about the challenge he faces.

"My observation is that there is a general secularization of society over my lifetime. People are spiritual but not interested in organized religion or worship," he said in a phone interview. "Much of our upbringing and media and everything that influences us pushes us toward abandoning the sacred."

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Rockville Centre said in an email there are reasons to be optimistic: "Catholic pastors are reporting an uptick in Mass attendance across Long Island over the past year. Some suggest it is an ongoing return to normalcy from COVID."

According to the Pew Research Center, the largest subgroup of Christians in the nation are Protestants at 40% and Catholics at 19%. People who identify with other Christian groups make up about 3% of U.S. adults. Meanwhile, the number of Americans who identify with a religion other than Christianity has trended upward, "from 4.7% in 2007 to 7.1%," according to the survey.

In the metropolitan area, 57% of adults identified as Christians while another 15% identified with other religions, the survey found.

Learning lessons

A stabilization in "Christian adherence might mean, among other things, that Christian churches learned from the prior years’ huge decline not to take for granted its majority-religion status, and that the churches tried new strategies of tone, outreach, and connection that kept the people they already had," said Julie Byrne, professor of religion at Hofstra University, in an email.

In his more than 18 years as pastor at the Congregational Church of Patchogue, the Rev. Dwight Lee Wolter has witnessed an ongoing drop in attendance.

"We might have leveled off the decline but that does not mean that our houses of faith are sustainable," Wolter said in a phone interview.

On the plus side, he said, many remaining worshippers are more committed to ministry work. As a result, Wolter said, his church has been able to continue to provide a free barbershop, a mobile shower unit and a soup kitchen even while there is less money and declining attendance.

"That is a big problem but there is also a real opportunity to meet people where they’re at," Wolter said, noting he’d operate out of a parking lot if he couldn’t afford to maintain the church building.

Pandemic and politics

The Rev. Thomas Goodhue, former executive director of the Long Island Council of Churches, an umbrella group for Christian churches in Nassau and Suffolk, said in general, fewer people identify as Christians.

"You can see this dramatically. On Sunday morning in most churches, attendance is way down, and a lot of churches didn't really survive the pandemic. They may not have closed their doors completely, but they're really limping along," said Goodhue, who is now retired. 

He and other Christian leaders said the pandemic disrupted engagement with religious institutions and many have not replaced all the members lost.

He added that political disagreements have only served to alienate people sitting side by side at services. While citing other experts, he said Christianity has to rebrand itself.

"Whatever our theology is, whatever our position is on homosexuality or any other issue like that, if we come across as bigots, we're going to lose the next generation," Goodhue said. 

The Pew survey found there will continue to be a decline in the "religious landscape in future years." The survey also found younger Americans were more likely to be less religiously affiliated than those 74 and older. The youngest people surveyed ranged in age from 18 to 24. They were also less likely to identify as Christian, pray daily and attend religious services at least once a month.

The youngest adults were more likely than older Americans to have no religious affiliation. Twenty-nine percent of the population surveyed had no religious affiliation and identified as atheists, agnostics or "nothing in particular."

Wolter believes there will a continued shrinking number of Christians unless there is change. 

"Institutional religion as we know it will continue to transform or continue to die," he said.