NARRATOR: In part four of Christianity at a Crossroads.

JASON SHEPPERD: There is a forced rethinking happening in the Church in America.

TOM CORCORAN: In past generations, faith was passed down pretty automatically.

We're not in that culture anymore.

MELISSA WAGNER: Thank you for joining us for this, our final service.

ASA LEE: The overwhelming consensus about what moment we're in is that we're shifting.

HOWARD-JOHN WESLEY: Is the digital platform something we fight or embrace?

JUDY STEELE: It continually grew and it just got bigger and bigger.

JONAH TELLER: Our goal is not to be New York's hottest club.

BONIFACE ENDORF: They're looking for answers to the deepest questions of life.

WILL GREEN: Our communities have always been meant to be larger than the people who are sitting in our pews on Sunday.

[music] FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Major funding for this program was made possible by Lilly Endowment.

Additional funding provided by... The Catholic Communication Campaign through the MPT Foundation and The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

[music] SINGERS: ♪ How great, how great, how great is Your love?

♪ ♪ How great, how great, how great is Your love?

♪ ♪ How great, how great, how great is Your love for us?

♪ GREGORY SMITH: We have seen some growth over the years in the share of Americans who identify with non-denominational Protestantism.

Most Protestant denominational groups, Baptists, and Methodist, and Lutherans, and Presbyterians.

The trend for most of them is downward.

Non-denominational Protestants are the exception.

Today, about seven percent of American adults tell us they identify with non-denominational Christian churches.

NARRATOR: Church Project is the name given to what is essentially a church of house churches.

It launched in 2010 outside Houston, Texas, and now has scores of house churches across Texas and beyond.

JASON SHEPPERD: We have a saying in our church space is not sacred, but sacred things happen in space.

The first century, they didn't have crosses on walls and buildings with all of these icons.

They didn't have stained glass, they didn't have sacred space.

And so, I'm rethinking church by returning to the original church.

NARRATOR: The Apostle Paul, through his letters, would often be the glue that held these dispersed house churches together.

To the faithful in Corinth, he wrote, "the churches in the province of Asia send you greetings.

Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house."

JASON: The Apostle Paul would go into a town.

He would share the gospel with people who were seeking God.

He would help them understand that God came to us in Jesus to bring us salvation.

People would believe, and then they would start gathering together.

NARRATOR: Every Sunday, Church Project gathers together as an entire community.

Many of the people here are pastors of their own house churches.

They come to stay connected to each other and for the weekly message that will later guide discussions.

Each house church has between 10 and 20 members.

This one has a number of families with young children, so the evening often begins with a meal.

TED SMITH: House churches are a really important expression of the religious energies that are out there right now.

I think they're one of the nascent institutional forms that we can see emerging.

Now, the key to a house church is that there's very little institutional overhead.

So, you don't have to give a lot of time to sustaining the institution, because the institution itself isn't what's sacred.

What's sacred are these affective bonds between the individuals who are gathering.

JASON: A house church is in many ways a self-contained church.

It has connection to all the other house churches, and it has oversight, accountability, and support.

But these are actually little churches.

We're living life together, and we have a pastor who shepherds this community.

JOSE DE LEON: I thought, I'm just a small group leader.

I've led Bible studies before, but it got real when I started ministering to people, and people looked to me for answers.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for today.

God, thank you for Your faithfulness.

Thank you for Your goodness.

JASON: The qualifications of an overseer or an elder are listed in Scripture: Timothy and Titus.

We see these qualifications of an elder.

So, we say we're looking for qualifications that are biblical and we're looking for qualities that are practical.

We're also looking for commitment.

And so, we say every house church pastor comes from an existing house church.

PASTOR: It's an honor to baptize you, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

JASON: All the functions of a church happen in a house church.

If someone goes to the hospital, this house church pastor is going to go visit them in the hospital.

If someone has a funeral or a wedding or a baptism, their house church pastor is going to do that.

PASTOR: Hey, when you're struggling like, I'm here to help, to help pull you up and then I'm going to be struggling later.

So then, you're there to help pull me up.

And, you know, we do that for each other.

LAURA HULSMAN: He was drained the first couple of months because it was just exhausting handling all of this kind of emotional baggage of other people, along with your own and trying to navigate a new career path.

And so, that was definitely an adjustment.

But as he got rolling, he just felt like he was made for the role.

MELISSA DE LEON: The fact that there aren't women house church pastors, it doesn't, it doesn't bother me at all.

I don't, I don't see it as an issue because I just believe the design as husband and wife that God has given us is that I am the helpmate.

It doesn't mean I'm less.

It doesn't mean I'm not capable.

It just means that is God's design for how I think the leadership should work.

We're doing so much of it together.

I don't need the title.

JASON: And today, what I want to talk to you about is aspects of God's attributes revealed to us in the idea of marriage.

Some people in this room have really beautiful, strong marriages.

We have so many marriages in our church.

I look at people like I learn from you.

I'm encouraged by you, inspired by you, challenged by you.

And some marriages here are really hard and struggling.

And abuse.

Some of you have been in ongoing abuse and you shouldn't stay in that abuse.

So, we're not accommodating for that today.

But when it comes to most of us, our life, most people are not leaving their marriage because of adultery or abandonment or abuse.

They're leaving because "I'm not happy."

WOMAN: We've had two major marital crises, and what helped us make it through those times was there's no option.

There's no way out.

Divorce is not an option for us.

JASON: There are people who did not want to be divorced, and they're divorced.

And every divorce is a trauma.

If you caused your divorce, it affected you.

And if somebody divorced you, it rips your life apart.

LAURA: When we get into things at our house church, it really brings what we talk about on Sunday morning to life.

And we get into the real stuff and the brokenness, and the good things happening.

All of it kind of starts to come out.

And, you know, I know we were talking a lot about marriage, but then we have people going through divorces within our house church.

WOMAN: It isn't necessarily what we've done.

It's been done to us.

It's more of, is this a lesson that I was supposed to learn?

What...what am I supposed to learn from...from this?

How do I go past this, you know, and move on from it?

And I found God through that.

NARRATOR: The last part of the evening is set aside for members to share personal joys and struggles, and to ask their community for support.

WOMAN: If we're not speaking, then people think, oh, she's got it all together.

It really just helps to just vocalize it.

And I think in our small group something that helps is to just say, you know, I'm doing okay this week but last week was really hard.

WOMAN: When I get to come here and I get to talk to people and see how their weeks have been and know that some people have been going through the same struggles I've been going through.

It's encouraging to know that I'm not alone.

ERIEK HULSMAN: A lot of people come to Church Project, it's like this is our last stop on the church road.

They've tried their churches, they don't feel welcome or they've been hurt by other churches, other places, but for some reason they walk into Church Project, they feel welcome.

They feel known, they feel loved and cared for, and they feel challenged.

JASON: And if God is the Creator, and if the Creator had an intentional design for everything He created, then what we must look at is how did God determine this would be?

Not, oh, what do people vote?

Not what does culture say?

What does the Creator have to say about this?

Listen to this verse in Hebrews chapter 12.

It says, "let marriage be held in high honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled."

Like marriage is meant for a man and a woman, and it's meant for one man and one woman.

HANS MOLEGRAAF: We agree 100 percent with what was said today.

Marriage is between one man and one woman, between a man and a woman and one man and one woman.

And we believe in that.

And that is becoming more and more countercultural.

VICTOR NIEVES: We actually heard about this church because we heard that it was a place where the pastor had the courage to speak on cultural issues, things that matter, and present it from a biblical worldview.

JOAN KNIGHT: We've been in churches where they don't preach the Word and they don't want to offend people.

And I'll tell you what it's not life changing.

Jason's vision for this church is right out of the Book of Acts.

JASON: We need to be rethinking the church.

And right now, what I love is that there is a forced rethinking happening in the church in America.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is still as appealing as it always has been for people who are searching for the truth.

But the expression of church, which is the container of this gospel, the container is changing.

NARRATOR: The Church Project community gathers in what looks more like a convention facility than a traditional church, a space they often rent out to help offset costs and provide additional income for their various community projects.

JASON: We think, how can we steward the space that God has given us?

And if we don't believe space is sacred, then we can start to think, how else can we use this space?

We had a part of our building that we said, we can devote the use of this space to meet a significant need in our city, and we devoted the use of that space to a clinic.

I actually see the future of the church in America stronger than it's ever been.

The expressions that we're going to be seeing 10, 15, 20, 30 years from now are going to be more authentic, look more like the early church.

And those things are going to be more lasting than the church that we saw built in the '50s, '60s and '70s and '80s.

NARRATOR: The fact is, churches across America are closing.

Yet, despite the headwinds, it's estimated more than 2000 new churches are opening every year.

The term often used is church planting, and while denominations are starting some new churches, the majority of startups today are independent, non-denominational efforts.

In historic Charles Town, West Virginia, Anthology Church is one of those new hopefuls.

And in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, just off the campus of the University of Wisconsin, Ambassador Church is launching.

It hopes to reach into the college community.

Ambassador is taking on a century old building that in the past has known both success and failure.

Ambassador's pastor is former basketball standout Jarryd Cole.

JARRYD COLE: Opening a new church in an environment where people are leaving churches, and churches are shutting down at alarming rates, you can imagine it's scary.

[laughter] NARRATOR: Charles Town, West Virginia, is growing and growing rapidly.

CURTIS TEEL: Young families are moving here in droves.

And so, what better place to start a church focused on helping young families crush it than right here in Charles Town?

NARRATOR: It's been a year since Pastor Curtis Teel took a chance and moved his family to Charles Town.

He opened a storefront as the first step in launching Anthology Church.

ABBY TEEL: We have four kids, and so we decided as a family that this was something we were interested in.

We actually brought the kids to tour a few cities that we were looking at church planting at.

And Charles Town when we got here, when we left, they were like, "we can't wait to go back."

NARRATOR: Even before the first service, Pastor Teel had a launch team in place, made up mostly of family, neighbors, and new friends.

CURTIS: We have about 30 adults that live in this area that are committed to calling Anthology their church home.

And when you include kids, all the kids that are in, we're right around 60.

NARRATOR: For the next few years, Anthology plans to hold their weekly Sunday services in the Charles Town Middle School gym, a space they'll rent from the county.

It means, taking a truckload of staging equipment from their offices and doing hours of setup every week.

After more than a year of practice and preparation, this Sunday is the long awaited opening service.

CURTIS: One of the things that is true in churches across the globe is that people don't like to sit next to each other.

That's going to be even more true with a church plant where people don't know each other, right?

There's no community outside of us.

We're going to have to be ready to put them out tomorrow as service starts to fill up.

NARRATOR: Starting a new church with limited resources means mass mailings and a commitment to social media, something Curtis admits he's less than comfortable with.

CURTIS: Eventually my wife said, "Hey, we need to make a social media post telling people why we're here."

And I told her, I said, "I'm not ready for all the weird comments and things like that."

And understandably so.

People have been really hurt by the church.

And so, a lot of times you tell someone you work at a church or you invite them to church, it's not always a great response, but you've got to do it, right?

ABBY: We're hoping we see people tomorrow.

We've gotten lots of phone calls and emails and Facebook messages and that people are excited about it.

We hope that they take the leap and they come tomorrow.

CURTIS: I'm wore out, but I'm excited.

I'm scared.

You have these hopes and these dreams and these expectations, and you don't know what you're going to get, you know?

NARRATOR: Jarryd Cole also uprooted his wife and their four children to come to Milwaukee to start Ambassador Church.

TRISHA COLE: That's something I've never known or experienced.

I've never even lived in a big city before.

And so, there's definitely been learning curves, things to grow into.

SINGERS: ♪ Swing wide, all you heavens.

♪ ♪ Let the praise go up as the walls come down.

♪ JARRYD COLE: This is a church plant.

Just a few moments ago, this church didn't exist and now it exists.

Okay.

And we want to be a church that's in Milwaukee for Milwaukee.

Almost all churches are divided by ethnicity.

White people worship here, Black people worship there, Hispanics worship here.

And we at Ambassador Church are saying, hey, what if we could have a contemporary expression of worship that bridges the gap between so many of the divides that the church tends to have?

We have Black people and white people in this room and everything in between.

NARRATOR: Support for launching Ambassador Church came through an organization called the Salt Network, started in Iowa by Trisha Cole's father.

TROY NESBITT: We are a network that plants churches at major universities that loves college students, but also loves the city in which were planted.

We have 40 churches now in our network in route for 400, we hope.

MICAH HALES: They're really becoming their own people.

And I think when you step out on your own for the first time, you have to think about things, okay, what do I actually believe?

What do I want to build my life around?

Not just what I want to do for a major or things like that, but who do I want to be as a person?

NARRATOR: And like Anthology Church, Ambassador understood early on the importance of a launch team.

JARRYD COLE: We've had 90 people that said, Hey, yeah, we'll sell our home.

You know, we will move our kids to a new school.

We will come to a city that we don't know anything about.

We will look at neighborhoods and live in neighborhoods that we may not choose on any other basis, except for the fact that we want to come and see a new church be born.

A lot of church plants meet in schools, hotels, ballrooms, wedding venues, you name it.

We have churches out in Florida meeting in like parking garages.

You know, just like really weird stuff like that.

Places where you have to set up and tear down every single week, where things just aren't ready and prepared for you.

NARRATOR: After a year in preparation, the gym is filled for Anthology's opening service.

CURTIS: We are Anthology.

We are a brand new church and we are excited to get started here.

Yeah, yeah, you can clap for that.

That's fine.

Yeah, there we go.

We can clap for that.

DENISE MILLER: I got the little flier in the mail.

That's how I heard about it.

[chuckles] MARY MATTINGLY: We're always glad to see a new church start.

And if we can support it in any way by talking it up or coming for the launch, we'll do that.

CURTIS: A community of imperfect people made up of different stories from all kinds of different backgrounds.

And we believe that every person's story matters deeply.

JARRYD: As ambassadors, we are literally walking billboards of the grace and goodness of God to the people around us who are desperately wondering who our God is and what He is like.

CURTIS: Every person's story matters.

See, one of the definitions of the word anthology is a collection of stories written by one author, and that's who we are.

SINGERS: ♪ So, when I fight, I'll fight on my knees ♪ ♪ with my hands lifted high.

♪ ♪ Oh, God, the battle belongs to you.

♪ ABBY: The vision is that 2 - 3 years, we won't be setting up and tearing down every week.

We'll be somewhere else that's supporting all of the different aspects of this.

DENISE: I like the preacher.

He's young, he's energetic, and tied it right to the Bible.

I'm coming back next week.

MARY MATTINGLY: I was very pleased with the enthusiasm of the congregation.

When you talk about Christians, they seem to be a somber group, you know, not joyful.

But I think this congregation was very, very uplifting.

SINGERS: ♪ Anything is possible.

♪ OLIVIA HELM: It was very joyous and like everybody was super celebratory for the first one, which was special.

And it was cool to see the church so full.

JULLIANI SANCHEZ: It's a bit of a drive, but it's...it's very well worth it to...to be here with all the people.

SINGERS: ♪ Anything is possible.

♪ ♪ Hallelujah!

♪ NARRATOR: Both Anthology and Ambassador had successful opening services.

For Jarryd Cole, all the emotions, all the risk over the last year have come to this.

[applause] JARRYD: We want you to come back.

Go in peace and hopefully, we'll see you next week.

[applause] NARRATOR: The question now, is can the initial success be sustained?

JARRYD: Launch was incredible.

CURTIS: The work has started now.

These chapters are unwritten.

NARRATOR: Church attendance was in steady decline for years when the COVID pandemic struck in the spring of 2020.

Overnight, businesses, restaurants, public events, and churches were forced to shut their doors.

Public gatherings were suspended.

Throughout history, people gathering face to face has been the oxygen church communities needed to thrive.

For many, the choice became adapt or die.

JUDY FENTRESS-WILLIAMS: Pastor Wesley was on sabbatical when COVID happened, and so he was coming out of sabbatical at that moment and immediately focused on our digital presence.

And what he did was provide a vision and then find the young people with the gifts and the skills to bring it into reality.

HOWARD-JOHN WESLEY: Is the digital platform something we fight or embrace?

That's the fundamental question.

So, when COVID started to pass over, you saw this divide in churches.

Those who demanded people to get back, like you got to come back to church, got to come back to church.

Our thinking, my thinking was this is a new opportunity God has created.

We made a decision that whatever we do in-house, we're going to do online.

We used to be an in-person church with an online option.

We're now an online church with an in-person option.

People no longer limit Christianity, church, and growth to Sunday at 11am.

They want it on-demand.

They want it accessible.

Our sanctuary only seats about 800.

Our 8:00 worship on Sunday has 15,000 people watching.

JUDY: I think it was a way of asking ourselves, how can we make folks who cannot come feel that they are a part of the worship experience and not just watching TV?

ASA LEE: The overwhelming consensus about what moment we're in is that we're shifting, climbing stairs and standing behind an old wooden pulpit with a big cross behind you.

Those are few and far between moments.

Instagram... Facebook Live... YouTube channels... Snapchats... TikToks... These are pressure points that are pushing the preaching moment.

NARRATOR: The Washington National Cathedral in the nation's capital is one of the great cathedrals of the world.

America's house of prayer for all people.

It's a classic Gothic structure, the likes of which may never be built again.

Sustaining the structure, the staff, the grounds is an enormous, ongoing commitment.

Where some churches may see the online effort drawing away from in-person support; here, the commitment is to both.

RANDY HOLLERITH: Is there such a thing as a digital community?

Can you have real connection and relationship on a digital level around a religious institution?

I don't think one is a threat to the other.

I think they're adjuncts to each other.

I think one can strengthen the other and vice versa.

You will get a certain percentage of people who are living in places where they don't feel like they have a church home, they don't have a community.

You have others who have been upset with a congregation somewhere and are in transition, and find the Cathedral.

NARRATOR: To help build online community, the Cathedral hired the Reverend Jo Nygard Owens as its pastor for digital ministry, a position unheard of in the church world only a few years ago, but may well be more common in the future.

JO NYGARD OWENS: There are pastoral connections that I make.

I have coffee chats with folks online one on one, but then we have our online community, and in that space we're able to take care of each other, to pray, to connect.

We have a podcast, which is our way of reaching out.

RANDY: Our podcast draws people ages 25 to 44, which is a huge reduction in age from, you know, the average mainline congregation demographic.

NARRATOR: The Cathedral centered its digital effort around something called Cathedral Close Online.

A close is the name traditionally given to both the Cathedral and the surrounding grounds.

JO: Here on the Cathedral Close Online, we have a virtual space where all who follow the cathedral can make meaningful connections, find fellowship and community, and deepen relationships with one another and with God.

We have an online coffee hour, which somewhat replicates our in-person coffee hour, and that lets us see each other face to face, which we don't always get to do in the digital sphere.

I can't go to someone's hospital room and lay a hand on them and pray for them.

I can pray remotely, but it's not the same as physically touching someone and praying for them.

NARRATOR: Today, the National Cathedral is hosting the installation and seating of the new Presiding Bishop, the leading figure in the Episcopal Church.

It's an ideal event to not only broadcast, but to use Cathedral Close Online to engage and inform.

JO: While, I was on the live chat today, I got to do a number of different things.

I was answering questions because we saw a lot of things that we don't normally see.

A seating only happens every nine years, so when a bishop is knocking at the door.

Why?

Why are they doing that?

Well, it's so that the people can welcome him in.

In the chat most weeks I talk people through the service elements and then we offer prayers for one another.

We joke around on the chat.

It is a community that knows and loves each other.

Most of these folks have been together since the beginning of the pandemic, and they really are global pew mates.

That's what we call each other.

RANDY: Ultimately, I don't think there's any replacement for in-person community, but I do think digital community can be real and meaningful and redemptive.

ALINA DELP: When I go to church in virtual reality, I feel like I'm going to church.

Not like I'm watching church on the computer, but I am going to church.

DJ SOTO: So, are we saying then that God was unfair because maybe they're upset about hearing this?

And he says, of course not.

For God said to Moses, I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.

We started the virtual reality church movement a decade ago.

My wife and I were thinking about going into physical church planting.

That was the direction we were heading in, until we discovered VR and the metaverse, and realized we wanted to be church planters in the metaverse.

I remember summer of 2016 where this application came out and put on that headset.

I saw people from all over the world and their avatars talking, hanging out and chatting, and just my brain just lit up like, we need to have church in here.

Three days later, we had the very first church service in virtual reality.

NARRATOR: DJ Soto spent years as a pastor with the Pentecostal Assemblies of God.

He led youth groups and helped launch a multi-site church campus in Pennsylvania.

But now his focus is on virtual reality.

DJ: When people experience a VR church, it's very similar to physical church.

You know, when you go to a physical church and you walk in, there's people talking and hanging out, and then they gather for worship and the sermon.

That's really what VR Church is all about.

Whether, we're Jew or Gentile, Black, white, you name it, this, this tree represents the peoples of all the world, of all different types.

How we're all part of the family of God.

So, when I put the virtual reality headset on, it's different than watching TV or a movie screen.

I'm now immersed in this three dimensional world.

I can see this apartment and look out my window.

I can see my hands and my head movements going left and right.

It's an immersive experience.

So, it's more than just reading the words on the page.

You're seeing it with your eyeballs and experiencing it in a way that you've never experienced before.

NARRATOR: VR church services attract people from all over the world.

Many are seekers, others just curious.

Some couldn't attend a regular church service even if they wanted to.

Alina Delp is a co-pastor of VR Church, in charge of counseling.

A former flight attendant and skydiver, Alina discovered VR Church when illness prevented her from leaving home.

ALINA: As someone who has struggled with a disability for 15,17 years, one of the worst things that it takes from you is feeling useful.

You're always the one that everybody else has to help.

Church in virtual reality has given that back.

VR CHURCH MEMBER: At first, the doctors didn't think I was even going to walk at all, like I was going to be in the wheelchair for the rest of my life.

ALINA: It's good for you that you don't deny that grieving.

You don't push it aside.

What's really, really cool is that my husband still attends VR Church with me.

We're able to share the experience together, and it's something that I am profoundly grateful to God for.

Without church in the metaverse, for many people there would be no church.

DJ: As churches are expected to have a website and social media at some point, it's going to be expected to have some type of metaverse experience.

I think it'll take some time to get there, but I do think the future of the church is in the metaverse.

NARRATOR: Church in the metaverse may offer a glimpse into the not so distant future, but what is already changing lives is artificial intelligence.

The critical question is how should AI impact Christian practice and the daily lives of those in ministry?

WILL: AI offers a lot of opportunities in a changing world for sermon research, for data analysis, for all of those kinds of things that it can be hard to find time to do, and the busy realities of ministry.

But there are also significant ethical challenges, right?

How do you retain humanity in your writing and preaching and teaching?

How do you respond humanly to the need for pastoral care?

We have to be very careful about recognizing its ripple impacts, right?

As we look at economies shifting and the impacts that, that will have on families that may lose jobs, the impacts it will have on the environment.

NARRATOR: At a time when AI and social media are impacting congregational life in all new ways, Gen Z offers some insights.

KAITLYN GREEN: When it comes to our generation, I think that social media and AI can be very isolating for people; and that, you know, people use AI or use social media to form relationships and to feel heard.

Um, but really all it does is isolate us further.

JON-GABRIEL SALGUERO: AI is like any change that happens in society, a tool for good and a tool for bad because it's just a tool.

JAMES LUKISH: A lot of kids are kind of consumed by social media and technology, and most churches, I would say, do not really adapt to the technology.

They're very, you know, they kind of keep things very traditional.

NARRATOR: One important finding is that each new generation is now less religious than the previous one, and that presents real challenges for churches who try to stay relevant.

BROOKE TALBOT: The church really isn't connecting with the youth, but I think in the majority of my peers that I know in school or in extracurricular activities, they don't necessarily believe it's relevant and a large portion of them don't go to church.

And if they are going, it's because they're forced to by their parents.

And in fact, it's an experience that they often loathe and they don't want to go to church.

KAITLYN: I think that community is something that my generation craves.

Um, as we're more and more online, with social media school being online, everything kind of being ingrained with technology.

We really miss that face to face contact with other people.

NATE DAVIS: We often think too much about church as being, you know, a place you come once you're already formed.

But I think church is where that formation happens.

You know, church can be the place that they become that person, become that child of God, rather than expecting them to already be that person before we even let them in the door.

TOM CORCORAN: In past generations, faith was passed down pretty automatically.

It just happened.

Churches have to acknowledge we're not in that culture anymore, and you can be upset about that.

You might not like it, but it's the truth.

So, we have to be even more intentional about how we pass on the faith to the next generation.

Keep it fresh and keep it new.

BIG DADDY WEAVE: ♪ Your name is power.

♪ ♪ Your name is healing.

♪ ♪ Your name is life.

♪ ♪ Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows... ♪ NARRATOR: If there's one common path for engaging a younger generation, it's through music.

For decades, Hearts on Fire has organized an annual music festival that combines Christian rock with presentations, culminating in a call for personal commitment.

This event in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, features football star Tim Tebow.

TIM TEBOW: No matter who you are, no matter where you're at, no matter what you've done or where you're from, I want you to know, God loves you like crazy.

NARRATOR: In many ways, Hearts on Fire is a contemporary version of the tent revivals that were part of America's religious landscape for so many years.

SCOTT CARTER: Thirty-eight years ago, we started Hearts on Fire with a handful of young people.

It was really my youth group and a few other youth groups in...in our area right here in East Tennessee.

JUDY STEELE: It continually grew and it just got bigger and bigger, and we started having other churches contact us and say, "Hey, can we come to Hearts on Fire?

We'd really like to come and bring our youth."

ROGER WILLIAMS: ♪ Yes and when it's the darkest,♪ ♪ I'll sing the loudest - loud as you can.

♪ ♪ I am not alone.

♪ NICK CAMPBELL: If you were just to come in the door and see the lights and the haze in the room.

And hear the loud music, and see the artists in the rock concert atmosphere, it could appear that that's what it is.

It's just a big concert and it's a lot of fun.

And then, we go home.

But when you look at and really dig into the lyrics that those artists are singing and the message that the speakers get up and carry, it's all based on one thing, and that's Jesus.

HEARTS ON FIRE BAND: ♪ Healed my heart, changed my name.

♪ ♪ Forever free, I'm not the same.

♪ ♪ I thank the Master.

♪ SCOTT: What used to reach young people and draw them into the church, and really to a place where we could minister to them, what worked 40 years ago did not necessarily work today.

KATIE PERKINS: Coming here and seeing, you know, 6 or 7000 people that are in your session that are all here for Jesus, it kind of makes you think, oh, I'm not alone in this.

[music and applause] CLAYTON KING: The thing that feels strongest to me is how hungry they are for authenticity.

They don't want religious leaders.

They don't want political leaders that just parrot and repeat phrases.

They want more than talking points.

They want something that's real.

NARRATOR: And in the tradition of revivals, Hearts on Fire ends with an invitation for young people to make a commitment.

TODD HALLIBURTON: In every conference, there's always a time for students and adults to make decisions for the Lord.

We give an opportunity for people to work out in real time the decisions that are going on internally.

The heart of Hearts on Fire is the decision rooms where students can come back with their adult leaders.

They're provided an opportunity to talk about what God is doing in their life.

I've talked to four youth pastors today that made decisions in this counseling group that are now here with their own students and watching their students make decisions in this counseling room.

NARRATOR: A contemporary Christian music event in Tennessee may not be all that surprising.

What is surprising and capturing a lot of attention is a resurgence in traditional Catholic practice that seems to have struck a chord for Gen Z. St.

Joseph's Catholic Church in Greenwich Village, New York, dates back to 1828.

It's run by an order of Dominican friars founded over 800 years ago.

And that longevity and commitment seems to be attractive to the current generation.

BONIFACE ENDORF: Most of our congregation is young adults.

Offhand, about 80 percent of our parish is under 40 years old.

CARMEN EZCURRA: I was born and raised Catholic, but when I moved to New York four years ago, I stopped practicing the faith.

Um, and this was the church that saw me come back.

HUGH EBB: I've definitely seen it grow.

In October, you know, I was able to come in five minutes before mass and kind of get a seat, you know, wherever I wanted, whether it be upstairs or downstairs.

But now, it's crept up to where folks are getting 30 minutes beforehand.

BONIFACE: They're looking for answers to the deepest questions of life, of what is the meaning of my life?

How do I understand the struggles I have to endure in my life?

And our answer is the answer that the church has always given, that Jesus Christ is the answer to the deepest questions we have.

MAN: For the grace this week to have our hearts free of worry, fear, and doubt.

Let us pray to the Lord.

CONGREGATION: Lord, hear our prayer.

[SINGING] ♪ Lord God.

♪ LILLIAN MCKENNA: Young adults are trying to look for stability in this city and in this world where it's so unstable and there's so much anxiety about things.

So, I think having something that's traditional and firm in their values is really important.

WOMAN: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

MARK CARLSON: Over time, the discipline of the church and the discipline of coming to mass every Sunday and reading the Gospels and following in Jesus' example, that's...that's what gives us structure.

JONAH TELLER: They're New York young professionals.

That's who they are.

They work in finance.

They work in consulting.

They work in fashion, they work on Broadway.

But for whatever reason, St Joseph's has become a real spot for people in their 20s and 30s.

So, single young professionals is our demographic.

Wasn't something we aimed at, but it's just what's happened.

NARRATOR: Part of the church's growth can be attributed to social media created by those who come, and not by the friars.

KATE DEPETRO: I go to church in the West Village.

I'm really lucky that my neighborhood church has kind of become this, like viral church in the city.

Father Jonah's here and he's going to be on Fox and Friends tomorrow.

JONAH: I'll be there, I guess.

Yeah, we're excited about that.

KATE: Very exciting.

BONIFACE: Ironically, I've never even been on social media in my life.

And so, it's interesting being in a parish very affected by social media and the people coming here.

JONAH: We never set out to say we should become a young, professional parish.

Our goal is not to be New York's hottest club.

Our goal is to be a church that treats God like He's real and makes people feel welcome.

CARMEN: The men in the church are so much more committed to the faith.

They seem very serious about it in a way that I at least, I haven't experienced.

They really take mass as like a very important thing.

MAN: A reading from the Acts of the Apostles.

BONIFACE: The other pastors, at least here in New York City, have been telling me that their numbers are also going up.

The numbers of people at Sunday mass, the number of people seeking to enter the church, the numbers are going up.

And I know that the national statistics don't bear that out, but I think we're seeing different things at work.

MAN: The Word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly.

CARMEN: What I think the Dominicans have is a very deep love for truth, for actual truth, and the truth is unchanging.

And that's something in this world and in this city where everything is changing the whole time.

If you came in through the door because it was countercultural, then you stayed because you saw truth, and you're like, I can give my life for this.

And don't we all want something to, like, give our lives to, you know.

BONIFACE: Jesus said to his disciples, do not let your hearts be troubled.

You have faith in God.

Have faith also in me.

So, our biggest young adult ministry is called In Vino Veritas, which means, in wine there's truth.

And it's after our 6 p.m.

Sunday evening mass.

And then, it starts with wine and cheese, a social time for people to talk about a half hour.

And then, there's a discussion of the faith led by a friar.

LILLIAN: They meet people that are similar like minded, and they talk about things that are so important to them, like God, truth.

And I mean, also like a lot of people come here to find like, like a husband or wife, which I think is a big reason why a lot of people come now.

[singing] JONAH: Oh, I love that we have an American pope.

There's just a natural affection for the Holy Father.

And to know that he's from Chicago.

His name was Bob.

He knows what Costco is, like, things like that.

It's a great thing.

And also, you have this confidence that he understands me, you know?

He knows what it means to be an American.

GRETCHEN BEDNARZ: I don't think anyone was expecting an American pope.

What was going on here in New York City and at this church was happening well before he was Pope.

♪ Glory to God in the highest And on Earth peace, ♪ ♪ to the people of good will ♪ JONAH: Simply telling people that God loves them does change them, and that you can be the smartest person in the world and you can be working 120 hours at Goldman Sachs.

And if you tell people that God loves them and that you didn't have to earn that.

And so, actually understanding that is what changes people's lives.

BONIFACE: I'm excited about the future of the church in America.

I see the young adults here that will be the future of leadership in the church, and I'm very excited about the future, having gotten to know them.

They're excited about their faith.

They want to live their faith deeply.

♪ to people of good will ♪ MELISSA WAGNER: Thank you for joining us for this, our final service.

For those of you who don't know, Marianne is a third generation member of our church.

MARIANNE NICKEL: For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.

A time to be born and a time to die.

A time to weep and a time to laugh.

A time to mourn and a time to dance.

NARRATOR: After more than 120 years as an important part of this Michigan community, Belding United Methodist Church is closing its doors today.

With rising costs to maintain this exquisite building and a weekly attendance down to about a dozen faithful, there were no other options.

Today's final service brought out the media, old friends, and those who simply wanted to say goodbye.

MELISSA W.: This church is not the building, no matter how glorious.

Everything that mattered about this church...is in you.

MARIANNE: The community as a whole is going to be sad to see the church close, but, if they were that sad, then why weren't they here?

JENNIFER SCHUMAKER: I am going to take some time off to heal, because this is going to be devastating.

And then, I've gotten plenty invites to other churches, but I think I'm going to have to church hop to find one that I like.

MELISSA W.: If you are a member and I haven't talked to me about what you're going to do next, come talk to me.

MARIANNE: There's so many churches that are dying in town that it's going to be hard to pick which one do you want to go to.

NARRATOR: For now, there is no plan to keep this small but faithful community together.

Today, the church will be officially deconsecrated, meaning no longer sacred space.

It can then be sold and used for other purposes.

JOHN CASPER: I've watched some journey with this congregation as they came to some hard and difficult decisions.

I'd like to remind you that your work has not been in vain, that what has been done will indeed carry forward.

In our scriptures we have letters written to churches that no longer exist.

MELISSA W.: It is hard for these folks.

This is where they grew up.

This is where they got married.

This is where they were baptized, where they watched friends get married, and where they buried their parents.

And now they have to walk away.

JOHN CASPER: It has served well.

It is fitting, therefore, that we should take our leave of one another and of this consecrated house.

It has accomplished its purpose.

We declare that it is no longer a United Methodist congregation and is now disbanded.

CONGREGATION SINGING: ♪ Whatever my lot, thou has taught me ♪ ♪ to say it is well, it is well with my soul.

♪ DAVID HAINER: Churches have a life expectancy, they just do.

They grow.

They go through a period of extreme growth, and then they just get older and they mature and eventually they die.

MELISSA DECKMAN: As American churches are in decline, as people are less involved in religious communities; we're still uncertain as to what that means for the future of American society.

I don't think we really know what's going to be replacing a lot of these religious institutions.

I do know that many Americans are struggling with isolation, with loneliness, and closing churches is probably only going to increase that problem rather than improve it.

NARRATOR: Despite having to face the hard reality of selling the building that had been home for eight decades, Christ Congregational Church made it a priority to keep its community together.

So, rather than letting their people disperse, they're taking up residence in the basement of neighboring Silver Spring United Methodist Church.

MATT BRADDOCK: We have a lot in common, I think-- value wise and theologically with that Methodist church.

So, we're looking forward to affirming some cooperation and sharing some resources together.

This is a day of new beginnings, because we have an opportunity to take resources that we've been using to maintain this building and start funneling them into being more active into the community again.

What a great way to reconnect with that.

Now that we can get beyond these walls and do that work that I think Jesus is inviting us to do.

WILL: Welcome everyone to Silver Spring United Methodist Church.

We are so grateful for the opportunity to provide space and a new home for Christ Congregational Church, UCC, and to be partnering with you in ministry.

We simply have more space than we need.

Our building is 66,000 feet, occupying a little bit more than three acres in downtown Silver Spring.

We don't need all that space, but we have neighbors who do.

NARRATOR: In addition to welcoming in Christ Congregational, the Methodist Church is launching an ambitious affordable housing project on the back of their property.

It will provide much needed housing for the underserved in the area, but also some long term income for the church.

WILL: What's really exciting about this opportunity is the way that we're thinking about what it means to maintain bricks and mortar as communities of faith, and how our bricks and mortar can be places that really model our vision and values.

We're actually listening to what people are saying they need, what people are saying they feel like God is calling them to do, and creating the space and the opportunity for people to find that and to do that.

MATT BRADDOCK: One of the things that drew us here was the idea of a shared partnership with Silver Spring United Methodist Church, and the hope that we weren't just space sharers or people signing a lease, but there were opportunities for us to do mutual ministry.

NARRATOR: The first joint service brought out a full house, and the governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, who pledged to support the affordable housing project.

WES MOORE: I am so inspired by what we are seeing here, because this is a congregation who understands that faith is important, but faith without work is dead.

NARRATOR: This is a new moment filled with promise for both communities.

It's also a new beginning for The Well, a non-denominational community that purchased the building from Christ Congregational and is now growing its community.

WILL: Our role as worshiping communities is not simply to gather on Sundays for worship, nor is it to preserve, protect, or defend the particular institutions that we have been a part of.

Our identity is in Christ.

It's not in our denominations.

It's not in our congregational past.

Although those things inform who we are, they are not who we are.

[choir singing] WILL: I think the future for the church, the hope for the church, is going to be in recognizing that our communities have always been meant to be larger than the people who are sitting in our pews on Sunday.

That transcends denomination.

It transcends, in some cases, theological difference, because we're all grounded in the same commitment to proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

[choir singing] NARRATOR: The founders of the new nation dared to offer a vision that America might enjoy not only democracy, but alongside it, religious freedom.

And with that freedom, Christianity emerged as the religion of choice for the vast majority of the American people.

Now, American Christianity finds itself at a crossroads.

On the one hand, a generation of decline and widespread church closings, on the other, undeniable vibrancy and growth.

Christianity must find its footing amidst a very complex and often contentious culture as it navigates serious social and political tensions, not unlike the early days of the church.

Those challenges may inspire a genuine reimagining in a way that honors long held traditions without giving in to the temptations of institutional Christendom.

It is possible this time of adversity will lead to new growth, as it did for the early church.

The data suggests there are countless positive signs, but it may be premature to call it the next major revival.

What is certain is the story of Christianity in America continues to be written.

[music fades out] ANNOUNCER: For more information about this film, visit JourneyFilms.com [dramatic music] ♪ ♪ Major funding for this program was made possible by Lilly Endowment.

Additional funding provided by The Catholic Communication Campaign through the MPT Foundation and, The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

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