Women Are Leaving the Church. Let’s Reverse the Trend.

For generations, it was a given that women in the church outnumbered men, both in the pews and in volunteer service. But this reality is shifting.

According to Barna, as of 2025, 43 percent of American men attend church regularly, while only 36 percent of women do. Unfortunately, this isn’t simply because more men are coming to church. It’s also because “churches are losing women more than they are gaining men.” The downward trend among females spans generations:

• Among Gen Z, 46 percent of men attend church weekly, while only 44 percent of women do.
• Among millennials, it’s 55 percent of men compared to 38 percent of women.
• Among Gen X, it’s 42 percent of men compared to 34 percent of women.
• Among boomers, it’s 35 percent of men compared to 31 percent of women.

Many pastors and church leaders are concerned about this trend. I’ve been asked by some what’s going on and how the church can help. So I’ve considered this shift as a woman, a church leader, and a mother to four young adult women.

The factors leading women away from church are many, varied, and complex. One article, let alone a few paragraphs, will not suffice. But a good place to start is considering the example of the early church. It was incredibly attractive to women and can help us consider how we who love and lead the church can seek to make the church a place of refuge for women again.

Changing Perception

Women were drawn to Jesus during his earthly ministry, as he prioritized moving toward them with kindness. Even though it was counter to the Jewish culture of his day, and even though religious leaders questioned him for it, he warmly welcomed women into his sphere.

Women were present for Jesus’s birth, ministry, death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus received the embrace of women (Matt. 9:18–22; Luke 7:36–50; John 20:17) and embraced them himself (Matt. 8:14–15; 9:23–26; Luke 13:10–17). He welcomed them on mission with him, alongside the Twelve (Luke 8:1–3). Jesus assigned women the dignity, value, and worth they’re due as God’s image-bearers.

Jesus’s treatment of women shaped the early church. In the Greco-Roman context, where it was acceptable to discard baby girls through infanticide, to marry off child brides to older men, and to tolerate extramarital promiscuity by husbands but require fidelity from wives, the Christian church stood in stark contrast. The first-century church protected girls and welcomed women, treating them with the same value and worth shown to men, even inviting their participation and service.

As historian and sociologist Rodney Stark explains in his book The Rise of Christianity, “Christianity was unusually appealing [to women] because within the Christian subculture women enjoyed far higher status than did women in the Greco-Roman world at large.”

Jesus’s treatment of women shaped the early church.

Women today have a different perception of the church. More than 50 percent don’t believe most churches treat men and women equally. For women ages 18 to 29 and 30 to 49, that number climbs to 65 percent and 64 percent, respectively. We need to consider the disparity between how women viewed the New Testament church and how women view modern-day churches.

What’s Going On?

While the first-century church uniquely offered marginalized women a place to belong, receive care, and use their skills, today’s secular spheres present such opportunities in spades.

In the United States, more women than men now go to college and receive degrees. Women work in all sorts of professional spheres, from medicine to business to engineering and beyond. I often hear from women who struggle to transition between the professional sphere, where they exhibit leadership and expertise, and the church sphere, where their capabilities sometimes feel like a liability.

They sense the church is for a “different kind of woman” (a phrase I hear repeated by women around the country, as they don’t see a space for women like them in church groups, leadership, and services). They receive community, mentorship, and affirmation at work, online, and in community settings like the gym or a book club.

Additionally, women are increasingly overburdened. Working moms are the norm, and these same women typically bear the brunt of caregiving for aging parents while meeting the ever-increasing demands of kids’ academics, sports, and other activities. Many women are simply exhausted. They tell me that exerting extra effort on Sundays to attend a worship service where they don’t feel they belong isn’t worth it to them.

Women’s trust in the church is also declining. One in three women worldwide has suffered abuse, and nearly all women know someone who has been abused. While in many cases that abuse didn’t occur within the church, women are skeptical of contexts associated with abuse. So widely publicized church scandals and #ChurchToo, as well as an overwhelming decrease in trust of institutions in general, have furthered the gap between the church and women. For various reasons, women may not feel like they can fully entrust themselves and their families to church leadership.

There are other factors, of course. But the general trend is that women increasingly feel disconnected from the church rather than seeing it as a place of belonging in the way women in the early church did.

What Can We Do?

While we rejoice that our culture no longer devalues and marginalizes women in the ways of Greco-Roman culture, we may also wonder how the early church can serve as a model for drawing women into churches today. There’s no longer the same stark contrast between cultural and biblical views about women’s value and dignity. But there are subtle lies in today’s cultural messages to women, and just like the early church, we have the truth women need.

Women ultimately flocked to the early church because the gospel told a better, truer story than culture. And it still does! Women are leaving the church believing that the secular world offers them more dignity and opportunity. But the truth is, so many spaces in the secular world subtly teach women that they’re only as valuable as they are productive, educated, and beautiful.

Much of the secular world exploits and exhausts women without affirming their unconditional dignity and value. And it pushes women to be their own saviors, a proposition that will inevitably let women down. Today’s churches can and should shine brightly in contrast, offering women a place to belong, to rest, and to recenter their lives on the grace and goodness of the gospel.

Throughout history, the gospel has always been the better, truer story. But there are many ways to communicate that story depending on our audience and context. We’re wise to navigate this moment like missionaries, studying the people we live among and moving toward them.

I’m not suggesting we change our theology in response to culture. But I am suggesting that how we live out our theology matters. Churches can maintain theological convictions that certain roles are reserved for qualified men, while still demonstrating the value of women.

Here are five practical ideas church leaders can implement to signal to women that they’re essential to the church and inherently valuable as image-bearers of God.

1. Cultivate a brother-sister culture.

Our American culture is highly sexualized, and this spirit of the age has taken up residence in our evangelical culture as well. Men and women in the church often feel disunity and suspicion between the genders.

But the gospel offers a better way for men and women to relate because it unites us as siblings. Women will know the men in their church view them as valuable partners in the gospel when men have conversations with them, don’t avoid them, seek their opinions, equip them for ministry, and treat them like valued siblings, essential to God’s mission.

2. Make women visible.

Women and girls will sense the church’s value for them if women are visible in the Sunday service, on the church website, and in various church roles. There are many roles that both qualified men and women can fill in every church. Filling roles and responsibilities with qualified women—paid whenever possible—tells your church that your sisters’ strengths and skills are good and necessary.

3. Replace barriers with belonging.

Making it easier for women to participate in church life communicates that their involvement is valued. Offer women’s ministry at different times of the day and week to accommodate women who work. Provide childcare and cry rooms, and offer assistance for children with special needs to remove barriers to mothers. Create opportunities for women with special skills and professions to use those gifts to serve the church.

4. Seek input.

Women have a distinct perspective on the church and the world simply because we experience both as women. When pastors and church leaders invite female voices to speak into church mission and values, sermon content, programming, and more, it not only communicates value for women but also gives male leaders a more well-rounded perspective on the congregation.

5. Disciple and develop.

Many women in today’s church are driven and eager to learn and grow. What if the church channeled that drive into theological development and discipleship training? Consider how your church can provide developmental pathways for women, as you do for men. When women are resourced and sent to serve within the church and the community, God is honored, his people are served, and his kingdom grows.

Gospel Is Still Better

The departure of women is a loud alarm for the church. To lose women is to lose half our population, it’s to lose mothers and the nurturers of the next generation, it’s to lose image-bearers in whom God delights. This issue deserves our attention, concern, quick action, and long-term resolve.

Churches can maintain theological convictions that certain roles are reserved for qualified men, while still demonstrating the value of women.

Though times and cultures have changed, the church will always have the good news women need. We have a better answer for women because we have the gospel.

Brothers and sisters, may today’s church once again become irresistible to women. May today’s church be a place—the place—where women know they’re valued and welcomed. In humility, may we who lead in the church see the vibrant participation of women and girls as indispensable and hold tight to true biblical practices, which have always drawn in women.