{"id":17237,"date":"2026-01-27T12:58:33","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=17237"},"modified":"2026-01-27T12:58:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:58:33","slug":"dc-church-sees-2000-growth-as-gen-z-millennials-seek-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=17237","title":{"rendered":"DC church sees 2,000% growth as Gen Z, millennials seek answers"},"content":{"rendered":"


By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Sunday, January 25, 2026<\/span>Attendees at the King’s Church in Washington, D.C., gathered in worship.<\/span> | Courtesy of King’s Church<\/span><\/p>\n

A church in Washington, D.C., says it has seen a 2,000% growth in attendance over the last seven years, a trend that the congregation\u2019s leaders attribute mostly to Generation Z and millennials gradually returning to religious life after the COVID-19 lockdowns and, more recently, the shocking assassination of Charlie Kirk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a period of stagnant growth in its first few years, the King\u2019s Church DC now has nearly 600 members, according to Ben Palka, one of the church’s three pastors who also helped establish the church in the nation’s capital in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just had a lot of grit, a lot of God\u2019s grace the first couple of years to endure the storm,\u201d Palka said. \u201cAnd then during COVID, we decided to stay open, and the Lord really blessed that time. We grew. It felt like every month we doubled.\u201d<\/p>\n

From 2020 to today, the nondenominational church aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention and located blocks from the U.S. Capitol has usually had about 600 to 700 people in attendance, Palka told The Christian Post. Like many churches, attendance numbers are verified by weekly church attendance and membership rosters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw an influx of young people, particularly in 2020, and that was like a snowball effect,\u201d Palka explained. \u201cAnd we saw a lot of people who previously were not very serious about their faith get really serious about their faith. And we saw dozens and dozens of people \u2014 we see it every year \u2014 coming to faith in Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wesley Welch, another staff pastor at King\u2019s Church, also said that after a period of stagnant growth from 2018 to 2020, a \u201crevival\u201d occurred in the middle of 2020. According to Welch, the trend has continued, and it\u2019s \u201cgrowing fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to data that the church provided to CP, there were usually 30 attendees in 2018 and 50 in 2019. The number of attendees rose to 150 in 2020, 300 in 2021, 350 in 2022, 450 in 2023, 550 in 2024 and 650 in 2025, with year-over-year increases of 30 to 100%.<\/p>\n

The King\u2019s Church DC saw another influx in attendance, particularly among young people, after the assassination of Turning Point USA\u2019s founder, Kirk, on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University. Several pastors throughout the country reported that they had also seen a spike in attendance in the weeks after Kirk was fatally shot, particularly among young people.<\/p>\n

Palka said that the King\u2019s Church DC saw an influx of mostly young men, many of whom were \u201clooking for answers\u201d and for a \u201cvoice to speak sense\u201d after Kirk\u2019s assassination.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Welch also remembered one young man who had yet to find his identity in the Lord, but he had identified with Kirk and the conservative values the TPUSA founder promoted on college campuses. According to Welch, the young man was \u201creally shaken\u201d by Kirk\u2019s murder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe started coming to church and seeking the Lord, and this fall, we were able to baptize him, which was amazing,\u201d Welch said.<\/p>\n

Daniel Davis, a staff pastor at King\u2019s Church DC, believes that another reason some studies have reported higher worship attendance among Gen Zers\u00a0is that younger people have had to \u201cgrow up in a world that is deprived of meaning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been fed the idea that you have to make your own identity, your own meaning, to become your own source of significance, and that\u2019s a burden that no one can carry,\u201d Davis told CP.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey live in the ruins of Christianity, Christian institutions and ideas that have just been trashed to a certain degree and torn down,\u201d he added. \u201cThey have very strong intuitions, but they\u2019re not able to ground them in anything transcendent or eternal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut a lot of those intuitions do come from Christianity,\u201d Davis explained. \u201cI think that young people are connecting those dots in a way that maybe the older generations were able to rationalize \u2014 you know, these things just come from being a reasonable human being, or they come from evolution. But young people realize that doesn\u2019t hold any water.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Research released last year by the Barna Group found that Gen Z churchgoers attend services more frequently than their counterparts in older generations. The data is based on 5,580 online interviews conducted from January through July last year.<\/p>\n

After examining the church attendance patterns among 3,579 churchgoing adults, researchers found that the average attendance rate was 1.6 times per month. That number rose to 1.9 times per month among Gen Z, with Millennials close behind at 1.8 times per month.<\/p>\n

In addition to seeking answers, Davis believes younger generations desire community, which is another reason the pastor thinks they may be drawn to church. While most young people are familiar with digital media and algorithms, the pastor asserted that today\u2019s youth have started to realize that technology \u201cis not going to love them or be their friend.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the staff pastor, the church has seen many people who initially began attending for the community aspect develop a desire to understand the Gospel better or learn about it for the first time.<\/p>\n

In addition to Sunday worship services, the King\u2019s Church invites people to join small groups, typically composed of 10 to 20 people who meet in homes throughout the city. Through its REC program, the church provides opportunities to build fellowship by attending ice skating outings, pickleball tournaments, dances and other community-building activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there’s really a desire to recover human relationships and friendships,\u201d Davis said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s not the same as the Gospel, but that leads to the Gospel. The Gospel produces those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at:\u00a0samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter:\u00a0@Samantha_Kamman<\/a><\/p>\n