For years, church leaders have been asking an important question: What will it take to reach the next generation?

The answers have often focused on what needs to change. New approaches. New experiences. New ways of communicating. New technology.

But new research suggests the next generation may be looking for something much more foundational.

Last year, Barna’s State of the Church research with Gloo documented a significant shift in church attendance. Gen Z and Millennials were attending church more frequently, reversing patterns that had defined church participation for years.

That research showed us that something was changing.

Now, new State of the Church research from Barna and Gloo helps us better understand what young adults are looking for spiritually when they attend.

Among adults ages 18 to 35, 34% say they are attending church more often than they were a year ago. Prayer is the number one spiritual reason young adults give for attending church, selected by 45%. Worshiping Jesus alongside others follows at 38%.

Prayer also ranks first across every racial group measured.

Taken together, these findings point toward an important opportunity for the Church.

A Generation Looking for Spiritual Depth

It can be tempting to assume that reaching a new generation requires reinventing the experience of church.

Innovation matters. Churches should continue learning how people communicate, build relationships and experience community. Technology will continue to create new opportunities to reach and serve people.

But innovation and formation are not the same thing.

The practices young adults are pointing toward are some of the oldest practices of the Church: prayer, worship and life with other believers.

That matters, particularly at a moment when so much of life is being reshaped by technology.

The more our world becomes personalized, automated and digital, the more significant deeply human experiences may become. Gathering with other people. Praying together. Worshiping together. Being known. Finding a place to belong.

Technology can help create pathways toward those moments. It can help churches better understand people, remove barriers to connection and stay engaged throughout the week.

But it should strengthen human and spiritual relationships, not replace them.

Pay Attention to Who Is Showing Up

The research also shows that increased attendance is not happening evenly across every group.

As noted above, 34% of young adults say they are attending church more often than a year ago but that increase is not happening evenly. 

Among young men, that number rises to 41%. The same is true among Black young adults, while 36% of Hispanic young adults report attending more often.

These findings add important detail to the broader resurgence in young adult attendance.

The story is no longer simply that young adults are showing up more.

The opportunity now is to understand who is showing up, what they are seeking and how churches can help initial spiritual curiosity grow into deeper faith, relationships and belonging.

The Opportunity Is Formation

Getting someone through the doors of a church has never been the ultimate goal.

Formation is.

That makes this moment particularly important for church leaders.

If more young adults are showing up, the question becomes what happens next.

Can curiosity become connection?

Can attendance become belonging?

Can an interest in prayer become a deeper life of prayer?

Can someone beginning to explore faith find relationships that help them continue growing?

Those questions move the conversation beyond attendance and toward flourishing.

And they reflect a larger opportunity for the Church in this moment.

We should continue to innovate. We should use technology wisely. We should learn from research and pay close attention to how people and culture are changing.

But we don't have to choose between innovation and the enduring practices that have formed Christians for generations.

The best innovation can help us understand people better and remove barriers between them and meaningful relationships.

Then the Church can do what it has always been uniquely positioned to do: create communities where people can pray, worship, belong and grow.

Perhaps reaching the next generation isn't primarily about reinventing church for them.

It may begin with understanding what they're already reaching for and taking those things seriously.