In July 2024, for reasons he still struggles to explain, Taiaroa became interested in Christianity.<\/p>\n
A descendant of Ng\u0101ti T\u016bwharetoa and Ng\u0101ti Apa, he had until then been deeply suspicious of the faith tradition, seeing it as emblematic of the colonisation of M\u0101ori. But despite feeling like a \u201ctraitor\u201d, he asked to borrow a Bible from his grandmother, a lapsed Christian, and started reading the Gospels. <\/p>\n
As he did, his hopelessness began to shift.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think on some level I just got really sick of being in a pit,\u201d he says. \u201cI was tired of not looking for answers, tired of being like this. There was a desperation for everything to mean something.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the next six months, he says, God spoke to him through scripture and prayer, culminating in a radical conversion in his bedroom one morning, where he experienced what he now understands as the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like fire and lightning all over my body \u2013 it was intense.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aIt was the first time in my life I was just overcome with real, true joy and peace \u2026 Drugs give you that artificially, but to feel the real peace that God gives for the first time, I\u2019d never felt anything like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taiaroa started attending church and gave up drugs and heavy drinking. After years of drifting without hope or a purpose, he now feels he has something to live for.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a complete 180. Instead of hating people, I want to get better at loving them. Instead of being apathetic, I want to have more of a heart for people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sounds weird, but grass looks way greener than it ever has, the sky looks way more blue and has more mauri [life force] … and I actually have a hope, a tangible hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ratoma Taiaroa turned to Christianity after his life hit rock bottom.<\/p>\n
The tide turns<\/p>\n
For decades, the overriding narrative about religion in New Zealand has not consisted of stories like Taiaroa\u2019s. It has been one of decline.<\/p>\n
Christianity has fallen from the heights of a century ago, when more than 85% of the population considered themselves Christian, and further still since 2013, when those who identified with the faith still outnumbered those of no religion.<\/p>\n
By the 2023 Census, not only had Christianity become a minority belief but the non-religious (51.6%) had for the first time surpassed those affiliated with religion of any kind.<\/p>\n
Recently, though, a counter-narrative has begun to emerge. Stories like Taiaroa\u2019s \u2013 of young people increasingly returning to the churches their parents and grandparents vacated \u2013 are now cropping up all over the West.<\/p>\n
Dubbed the Quiet Revival, this supposed trend was derived from a 2025 Bible Society UK report<\/a> which suggested that Gen Z \u2013 those born between 1997 and 2012 \u2013 were driving a spectacular resurgence in church-going in Britain.<\/p>\n Based on a survey by analytics firm YouGov, church attendance among Britons aged 18-24 had quadrupled from 4% in 2018 to 16% by 2024, with young men responsible for the largest share of that growth. The report\u2019s subsequent bullish claim that it had \u201cbust[ed] the myth of church decline\u201d spawned global headlines and energised the Christian community worldwide.<\/p>\n But the methodology behind it \u2013 an online survey that paid participants for their time \u2013 soon drew intense criticism, as other research pointed in the opposite direction. Last week, facing mounting scrutiny, the Bible Society retracted the report after YouGov admitted its standard quality controls had not been applied and the data was \u201cfaulty\u201d.<\/p>\n Dr Lynne Taylor, a senior lecturer at Otago University, who collects New Zealand church attendance data and researches contemporary faith formation, said she was \u201cunsurprised\u201d by the retraction, as the reported change in church-going was \u201cconsiderably more extensive than seemed reasonable\u201d.<\/p>\n But she believes the report\u2019s central premise \u2013 that there has been a change in the social and religious climate \u2013 is still legitimate.<\/p>\n Victoria University\u2019s Dr Geoff Troughton, a historian who researches contemporary religious change, says there is not yet strong enough evidence to suggest the \u201cQuiet Revival\u201d is occurring either here or abroad.<\/p>\n But he believes the pervasiveness of belief in a revival stems from a \u201crelief from embattlement\u201d among Christians, who are tired of being told the faith is in decline.<\/p>\n \u201cThe overwhelming story for Christians over the last 60 years has been \u2018we\u2019re losing people every year\u2019, so any feeling the mood might be different is met with understandable relief and anticipation.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a culture and discourse that\u2019s bedded into a lot of Christianity, that the great hope and aspiration is revival \u2013 and so you\u2019re looking for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Religious historian and Massey University emeritus professor Dr Peter Lineham agrees that what we\u2019re witnessing probably isn\u2019t quite as dramatic as the term \u201cQuiet Revival\u201d suggests.<\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps what we are seeing is remarkable impacts, but in specific places or largely in-house events. That\u2019s to say they\u2019re confined to one church or one denomination.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we are certainly seeing a greater awareness of spirituality in society. That\u2019s the phenomenon that should be highlighted, because there is a feeling that secular society is bereft of any spiritual resources, and is struggling.\u201d<\/p>\n The God-shaped hole<\/p>\n Regardless of the demise of the Bible Society report, the interest it generated in a potential spiritual revival has been a catalyst for renewed focus on the religiosity of young people, which does appear to be shifting.<\/p>\n While the overall picture is unclear, with some international studies suggesting young people are still falling away from religion, others hint at signs of life.<\/p>\n In the United States, Gen Z is bucking a decades-long pattern of rising secularity, with young Americans now attending church services more frequently<\/a> than millennials or younger Gen X-ers. Attendance at US Roman Catholic churches, in particular, is surging<\/a>.<\/p>\n Across the Tasman, many more young people are attending church and identifying with Christianity<\/a>. An Australian Community Survey found 39% of men and 28% of women aged 28 and under now call themselves Christian.<\/p>\n The Catholic Church in France is also booming; it baptised more than 17,800 people at Easter<\/a> last year \u2013 the highest figure since records began. Over 10,000 were adults, up 45% on the previous year, with under-25s accounting for 42% of that group.<\/p>\n Ireland, the Netherlands and Finland are all experiencing a notable rise in Gen Z church attendance and religious affiliation, too. Finland has seen nearly three-quarters (73%) of its young people confirmed in the Evangelical Lutheran Church.<\/p>\n Taylor says Gen Z is turning to Christianity to find meaning, purpose and belonging. They are also worried about the future of the world, and finding an \u201cinsufficiency of answers\u201d in secularism.<\/p>\n \u201c[They feel that] scientific and wholly rational explanations of our world are not actually sufficient for the yearnings deep within them, so there must be something else.\u201d<\/p>\n Lineham believes loneliness is another key driver. Covid weakened peer relationships among Gen Z, he says, leaving them \u201cwith a real void in their lives\u201d.<\/p>\n Finding a healthy church can thus be \u201cenormously positive\u201d because they are treated as people of significance and become part of a community.<\/p>\n The view from Aotearoa<\/p>\n Poor monitoring and record-keeping by churches and minimal data collection by government agencies make it difficult to tell whether or to what extent a Quiet Revival is taking root among Gen Z in New Zealand.<\/p>\n With Stats NZ opting <\/a>last year <\/a>to scrap the Census<\/a>, which recorded residents\u2019 religious identification every five years, that picture is unlikely to become clearer.<\/p>\n But churches in Aotearoa are awash with anecdotes of young people returning to faith, and excitement about a Quiet Revival has become a regular topic in Christian media, church services and conferences.<\/p>\n There is some basis for this increased optimism. Research commissioned in 2023 by the Wilberforce Foundation, a Christian philanthropic organisation, found Gen Z Kiwis were the most likely generation<\/a> to self-identify as either religious or spiritual (72%).<\/p>\n Just 18% of the population views Christianity negatively, with younger generations warmer to it than their elders. Gen Z is also most likely to believe in something beyond the material world, life after death, and that their spirituality influences their health.<\/p>\n An international study from Christian research firm Barna<\/a> backs this up, labelling Gen Z the \u201copen generation\u201d on account of their unusual receptivity to God, spiritual conversations and scripture.<\/p>\n This openness appears to be translating to pockets of growth in New Zealand.<\/p>\n Evangelical group Catalyst Movement oversaw the establishment of 30 new \u201cJesus clubs\u201d in high schools in 2025, taking its total to 150; while 24-7 Prayer NZ recorded 40,000 hours in prayer rooms across the country last year, more than doubling its previous record set in 2022.<\/p>\n Across the country, churches report a renewed interest in faith.<\/p>\n Reuben Porter, pastor of Crossroads Church in Palmerston North, has seen the number of young adults at services grow from about 75 to between 100 and 250 in a matter of years. He says this generation seems less worried that having a faith is seen as weird, so are bolder in inviting friends along.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t have the church upbringing, so they don\u2019t come with baggage or preconceived ideas. They come with an openness to what God\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing a lot more young people come who\u2019ve got no experience of church. They\u2019re like, \u2018We found you online, watched your services and just had to come.\u2019 These are pretty remarkable stories that would\u2019ve been rare 10 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n \u014crewa Baptist Church, north of Auckland, is noticing a similar pattern. The average pre-Covid service there would have seen about 380 people walk through the door; now congregations are regularly topping 500, and have exceeded 600 twice this year.<\/p>\n Pastor Mark Poole says this has been driven by its burgeoning young adult and youth communities. He\u2019s adamant that growth is happening \u201cin spite of us\u201d, and the church isn\u2019t doing anything special to attract them.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is something that\u2019s happening on a wider scale.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re having more people stop by and say, \u2018I know I don\u2019t know you, but can you pray for me?\u2019 In the last three or four years, we\u2019re seeing increases in baptisms and church membership.\u201d<\/p>\n The Baptist Church nationally is bouncing back after a couple of lean post-Covid years.<\/p>\n Attendances have increased for the third consecutive year, and the number of baptisms has jumped 23% to 876 in the year to 2025. Half of these (51%) were of people aged 25 and under.<\/p>\n These figures are still down on pre-Covid numbers, but Taylor says she wouldn\u2019t have expected growth to continue for so long if it were just a post-pandemic bounce.<\/p>\n Baptist Youth Ministries (BYM) Easter Camp numbers have grown by 42% in the past two years, and more than 4000 campers are at Northern Easter Camp in Hamilton, BYM\u2019s largest, this weekend.<\/p>\n \u2018Like a switch has flipped\u2019<\/p>\n Catholic Church attendance also appears to be surging.<\/p>\n The Catholic Enquiry Centre (CEC) said more than 300 people had made contact in 2025, two-thirds of whom were exploring Catholicism for the first time, returning after time away, or wondering how to become Catholic.<\/p>\n \u201cIn other words, most people contacting us are on a faith journey \u2013 curious, hopeful, sometimes unsure, but open.\u201d<\/p>\n The Auckland diocese, in particular, is flourishing. The average weekly Mass count in the region jumped 8.5% to nearly 40,000 in the year to 2024; and 350 people were baptised at St Patrick\u2019s Cathedral on Easter Sunday last year \u2013 a figure described by Lineham at the time as \u201castonishing\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n The diocese confirmed the 350 figure was \u201csignificantly more\u201d than in previous years. This Easter Sunday, another 660 people across the country, including 450 in Auckland, will officially join the Catholic Church.<\/p>\nReligious historian and Massey University emeritus professor Dr Peter Lineham thinks there has been a revival of spiritual awareness.<\/p>\n
The Cathedral of St Patrick and St Joseph in Auckland.<\/p>\n