Why Young People Leave Churches (New Data)
The Pro Church Tools Show with Brady Shearer
Release Date: 05/06/2026
![The Church Announcements Formula [Building Block #6] show art](https://assets.libsyn.com/item/42257165?height=50&width=50)
The Church Announcements Formula [Building Block #6]
The Pro Church Tools Show with Brady Shearer
GET YOUR CHAOS SCORE: https://prochur.ch/3U2rdXm If your announcements are just dates, times, locations, logistics, the room quietly tunes out. Information doesn't move people; inspiration does. Today, we'll unpack the formula that fixes church announcements for good - one story, one next step - then rewrite real ones live. ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro 1:08 - 7 Building Blocks Recap 6:53 - Building Block #6: The Church Announcements Formula 10:20 - Why Lead With One Story? 19:29 - One Next Step 22:07 - Different...
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The New Church Bulletin Design [Building Block #5]
The Pro Church Tools Show with Brady Shearer
GET YOUR CHAOS SCORE: The more you announce, the less they listen. But every ministry you turn down walks away feeling like their event doesn't matter. Today, we'll unpack the weekly bulletin - one place where everything gets seen without stealing a second of Sunday. ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro 3:11 - The 7 Building Blocks 4:30 - Building Block #5: Create the Weekly Bulletin 7:04 - Why Did The "Old" Weekly Bulletin Fail? 10:34 - Setting Up The Digital Bulletin 17:58 - The Reason The Bulletin Works 24:23 - How To...
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The Church Event Promotions Playbook [Building Block #4]
The Pro Church Tools Show with Brady Shearer
GET YOUR CHAOS SCORE: https://prochur.ch/3TNrMnO Your biggest event gets under-promoted. A tiny ministry floods the feed - because one passionate leader pushed hard. Today, we'll unpack the playbooks that answer "how will my event get promoted?" before anyone asks - what channels, what timing, what assets. ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro 1:27 - The 7 Building Blocks 4:00 - Building Block #4: Supply Promotions Playbooks 7:50 - Step 1 - Take Inventory of Every Channel 14:14 - Step 2 - Define Your Promo Formats 14:44 - Sprinkle Promos...
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The Secret Weapon of Church Communications [Building Block #3]
The Pro Church Tools Show with Brady Shearer
GET YOUR CHAOS SCORE: Announce everything, and people tune out. Cut back, and entire ministries vanish. Today, we'll unpack Building Block #3 - giving every ministry a home so visibility no longer depends on stage time - with real examples from churches already running it. ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro 6:25 - Building Block #3: Give Each Ministry A Home 9:11 - Real Church Testimony 10:36 - What is a Post Collection? 20:20 - The SEO benefit of Post Collections in an AI-Search world 22:30 - Examples from outside the church...
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The Rulebook For Church Communications [Building Block #2]
The Pro Church Tools Show with Brady Shearer
GET YOUR CHAOS SCORE: https://prochur.ch/4fyiowP More announcements. More stage time. More reminders. That's how most churches try to get people to listen - but across the audits we've run, the average service crams in 7 announcements and points people to 8.7 different destinations, and the more we say, the less they hear. Today, we'll install Building Block #2: a six-part publish policy that decides what your church says from stage, where every promo points, and how to move people from awareness to action. ============================= Table of Contents: ...
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Church Communications 101: The 7 Building Blocks
The Pro Church Tools Show with Brady Shearer
GET YOUR CHAOS SCORE: https://prochur.ch/4p2CGSk Sunday announcements drag. Too many events, too much competition for attention, ministries quietly fighting to be heard from the stage. But the problem isn't effort - it's the lack of a system underneath. This is The 7 Building Blocks, our summer blueprint for fixing church communications, and today we start with Block 1: assigning a level to every ministry. We'll break down the four communication levels and audit two real churches to show you exactly what no hierarchy sounds like from the stage. ============================= Table of Contents:...
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Great vs. Average: A Church Announcement Workshop
The Pro Church Tools Show with Brady Shearer
GET YOUR CHAOS SCORE: https://churchchaos.com/ Most church announcements are forgettable. In this episode, we take a real one and rebuild it live - showing what separates average from great, step by step. Turn average church announcements into clear, compelling moments that actually move people to action. ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro 5:39 - Version 1: Information 9:46 - Version 2: Information + Values 16:37 - Version 3: Information + Values + Voice 23:39 - Version 4: Information + Values + Voice + People 28:03...
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Sprint, Sprinkle, Smuggle: How to Promote Anything at Church
The Pro Church Tools Show with Brady Shearer
GET YOUR CHAOS SCORE: https://churchchaos.com/ Church promotions can start to sound the same - repetitive, predictable, and easy to ignore. Today, we’ll show you three better approaches - Sprint, Sprinkle, and Smuggle - so your announcements drive action without sounding like promotions. ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro 2:40 - The No Promo Code 6:30 - Sprinkle Promotions 17:53 - Sprint 28:13 - Smuggle 34:20 - When To Use Which IMPORTANT LINKS - Church Chaos Index: https://churchchaos.com/ - The Church...
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1 in 3 Christians Trust AI as Much as Their Pastor (Now What?)
The Pro Church Tools Show with Brady Shearer
Get the AI Policy Template: https://prochur.ch/4cZowNq 30% of practicing Christians say AI is as trustworthy as a pastor for spiritual advice - closer to 40% among younger generations. And many are already using it for prayer and spiritual growth. ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro 0:56 - The Barna Data 4:47 - Why This Is (and Isn't) as Alarming as It Sounds 11:00 - What Your Church Should Do About It 17:33 - AI POLICY IMPORTANT LINKS - AI Policy Template: https://prochur.ch/4cZowNq - Barna Group, “State of the...
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Nobody Trusts Your Pastor Anymore (The Numbers Are Ugly)
The Pro Church Tools Show with Brady Shearer
In 1985, 67% of Americans rated pastors high in honesty and ethics. Today? Just 27% - and only 17% among those under 35. It’s one of the steepest trust declines of any profession. The question isn’t if this affects your church - it does. The question is what you do about it. ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro 1:15 - The Numbers Are Worse Than You Think 3:38 - Why This Happened 13:18 - How to Rebuild Trust Through Communications THE 167 NEWSLETTER 📫 62,646+ churches read our free newsletter to figure out the 167 hours...
info_outlineIs it the worship? Politics? Programs? That’s what we tend to blame. But new data from Pew and PRRI - covering 80,000+ respondents - points to a very different primary reason people leave. Today, we’ll unpack what the data actually says, why common assumptions fall short, and what churches can do in response.
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Table of Contents:
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0:00 - Intro
3:39 - The #1 Reason People Leave - They Stopped Believing
10:05 - The Quiet Exit - Drift, Not Drama
16:07 - Childhood Experience Is the Strongest Predictor of Whether Someone Stays
29:50 - Scandals and Institutional Distrust
36:49 - Big Takeaways
IMPORTANT LINKS
- The Gen Z Church Communication Playbook: https://youtu.be/zQnhOKlV91Q
- People Complained Our Church Was Too Loud. So We Did This: https://youtu.be/4ij1tR-EMHE
THE 167 NEWSLETTER
📫 62,646+ churches read our free newsletter to figure out the 167 hours beyond Sunday service every week. Sign up: https://167.prochurchtools.com
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ALL CITATIONS
PEW RESEARCH CENTER
- "Why Do Some Americans Leave Their Religion While Others Stay?" (December 2025, n=8,937 ATP + n=36,908 RLS) — PRIMARY https://pewrsr.ch/3NATWA3
- "Religion Holds Steady in America" (December 2025) — PRIMARY https://pewrsr.ch/4bLrZ1y
- "Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off" — Religious Landscape Study (February 2025, n=36,908) — PRIMARY https://pewrsr.ch/4bZp7Nm
PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute)
- "Religious Change in America" (March 2024, n=40,000+ via American Values Atlas) — PRIMARY https://bit.ly/4s6Y2xM
- "Exodus: Why Americans Are Leaving Religion—and Why They're Unlikely to Come Back" (2016 baseline data) — PRIMARY https://bit.ly/3PGWdu1
- "Religion and Congregations in a Time of Social and Political Upheaval" / Health of Congregations survey (2024) — PRIMARY https://bit.ly/4tjNAUC
- "Unveiling the Exodus: Americans' Reasons for Leaving Religious Traditions" (2024) — PRIMARY https://bit.ly/3PRRy8z
SURVEY CENTER ON AMERICAN LIFE / AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
- "Young Women Are Leaving Church in Unprecedented Numbers" (2024) — PRIMARY https://bit.ly/4chJXZK
- Note: This is an AEI project, not PRRI — frequently conflated in church media.
PRRI CENSUS OF AMERICAN RELIGION (2024)
- Substack analysis by Melissa Deckman (PRRI CEO) — SECONDARY analysis of primary PRRI data https://bit.ly
3PK3I3k