What the Research Found

• Faith conversations are the strongest predictor of lasting faith. Children who had daily faith conversations with their parents were 7.7 times more likely to have similar conversations with their own children. Even weekly conversations more than doubled the likelihood. Frequency of faith dialogue at home shapes not just their own faith conversations with their children, but also forgivingness, belonging, and the passing of faith to the next generation.

• Church attendance shapes habit, but not depth. Childhood attendance predicted adult attendance, but had little influence on forgivingness, sense of belonging, or whether adults would engage their own children in faith conversations. Exposure to religious environments, without relational engagement, is not enough.

• The father-child relationship matters a lot. Children with a very good relationship with their father scored 41% higher on forgivingness and were 65% more likely to feel a sense of belonging in their church community. For belonging, that difference was nearly twice as large as those with only a somewhat good relationship.

• Family structure matters less than family process. Whether parents were married, divorced, or never married had relatively little impact on adult religious outcomes. What mattered was the quality of relationships and the presence of meaningful conversation within the home.

A Challenge and an Opportunity

This study confirms and updates what Vern Bengtson's landmark Families and Faith research established: parental influence on faith is remarkably durable across generations. But it sharpens that finding considerably. It is not enough for parents to model attendance. Faith transmission happens when children experience warmth in their relationships, space for questions and doubt, and intentional conversation about what faith means in everyday life—what OneHope has come to call Warmth, Wonder, and Walk.

Five Forces Shaping Gen Z

Before exploring what Gen Z looks like in ministry, the report maps the forces that have shaped them: digital proliferation (the first generation for whom constant connectivity is a baseline, not a novelty), rising international migration, rapid urbanization, a more holistic approach to health, and—perhaps most acutely—COVID-19. Gen Z is the only generation whose mental health has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, and many entered adulthood feeling behind in ways that are difficult to recover from.

Four Dimensions

The report then organizes its findings around four characteristics that show up consistently across the diverse ministry contexts Dray visited:

What Makes It Different?

At this point in history, Bible access isn't primarily a translation problem anymore—it's a logistics, awareness, and coordination problem. And in the hardest contexts, those problems are too complex for any one organization to crack alone. CtBG projects are designed from the start to draw on the strengths of multiple partners and deploy an integrated mix of resources, including print, audio, video, digital, and children's materials. These resources are matched to what will actually land in each specific context. The goal isn't just getting Bibles into a country; it's getting Scripture into the hands of believers in the format they can engage with, share, and pass on.

What's Happening Right Now?

In 2025, over 8.2 million people gained Bible access across 18 priority countries, with more than 33,000 churches equipped and 7.1 million resources deployed across six formats. Those numbers are the result of coordinated, relationship-based distribution through trusted church networks.

Nepal is one window into what this looks like in practice. A 2025 mapping effort identified around 57,000 villages in Nepal with no believers, many in remote mountain regions. Through CtBG, partners including Faith Comes By Hearing, the Nepal Bible Society, and OneHope came together to get resources to church leaders in those areas: printed Bibles, solar-powered audio Bibles, preloaded tablets, and Scripture engagement materials for children. The collaboration has opened doors to church networks and ministry relationships that weren't previously accessible. Partners who once overlooked children's ministry are now actively asking for more.

Stories like that are multiplying. In Togo, 16 organizations aligned around a shared vision to plant churches and equip each one in the local language. 94% of surveyed church leaders reported increased interest in Scripture, and 97% reporting increased attendance. In East Asia, where traditional Bible distribution isn't possible, partners developed a secure, scalable approach that is estimated to have reached more than 12,000 congregations. 

The work looks different in every context, and that's exactly the point.

Looking ahead, the alliance plans to launch projects in 16 new countries in 2026, aiming to open Bible access for an additional 11.5 million people and equip 30,000 more churches.

Why It Matters for OneHope

OneHope is one of six alliance partners in this work. Reaching children and youth with Scripture is a natural fit in contexts where CtBG is opening doors for the first time. In Nepal, for example, the partnership is creating access to communities and age groups that weren't reachable before. When the whole Church works together to get God's Word to the places it's needed most, that's a movement worth investing in.

Want to learn more? 

Read the 2025 CtBG Impact Report.

Or learn more at CtBG’s website.