Christian encouragement is expressed through prayer, scripture, worship, relationships, gratitude, and practical service. The statistics below show how often U.S. adults and Christians report these practices, while keeping each survey’s measurement period and population clear. The most recent figures come from Pew Research Center’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study and 2025 reporting; other sections use studies from 2015, 2018, 2020, and 2023.
Contents
- Prayer and core beliefs
- Scripture and inspirational reading
- Study groups and sharing faith
- Worship, belonging, and encouragement
- Online religious connection
- Gratitude, purpose, and service
Prayer and core beliefs
Prayer remains a central measure of religious practice, although the reported frequency differs across survey years. In the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study, 44% of Christians said they pray every day. Pew Research Center’s 2025 report on prayer and other religious practices also reported that 58% of Christians said they prayed every day in 2007. These are measurements from different study periods, so they should be read as historical comparisons rather than as a single continuous trend.
The same 2023-24 study found that 85% of Christians believe in heaven. In 2007, 83% of Christians said they believed in heaven. Belief in hell was reported by 72% of Christians in 2023-24, compared with 68% in 2007. In addition, 73% of Christians said they were absolutely certain that God or a universal spirit exists in 2023-24, while the comparable 2007 figure was 80%. (Source label for these figures: Pew Research Center, “Christian decline in the U.S.” report, 2025.)
Together, these figures describe several dimensions of Christian encouragement: daily practice, hope beyond the present, beliefs about accountability, and confidence in God or a universal spirit. They are not measures of how encouraged a person feels on a particular day, but they help show the religious convictions and habits that may shape encouragement.
The 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study also describes the racial composition of Christians in the United States: 61% are White, 18% are Hispanic, 13% are Black, 3% are Asian, and 4% are multiracial or another race. (Source label: Pew Research Center, “Christian decline in the U.S.” report, 2025.) These percentages provide important context for reading national Christian statistics as a picture of a diverse population.
Scripture and inspirational reading
Reading scripture outside religious services is another measurable way people seek instruction or encouragement. Among U.S. adults, 22% said they read scripture outside religious services at least weekly, according to Pew Research Center’s 2025 report on prayer and other religious practices. Another 7% did so once or twice a month, and 9% several times a year. A majority, 61%, said they seldom or never read scripture outside religious services.
The weekly figure varies by Christian tradition. Fifty-nine percent of Latter-day Saints read scripture outside religious services at least weekly, as did 51% of evangelical Protestants and 46% of historically Black Protestants. These figures are survey estimates for the reported populations, not a count of individual reading sessions.
The survey also measured reading beyond the Bible or other scripture. Twenty percent of U.S. adults read other holy texts, devotions, or inspirational literature at least weekly. Eight percent did so monthly, 11% yearly, and 60% seldom or never. At least-weekly reading was reported by 48% of Latter-day Saints, 41% of historically Black Protestants, and 39% of evangelical Protestants. (Source label for this section: Pew Research Center, “Prayer and other religious practices,” 2025.)
| Reading practice | U.S. adults | Selected Christian groups |
|---|---|---|
| Scripture outside services at least weekly | 22% | Latter-day Saints: 59%; evangelical Protestants: 51%; historically Black Protestants: 46% |
| Other holy texts, devotions, or inspirational literature at least weekly | 20% | Latter-day Saints: 48%; historically Black Protestants: 41%; evangelical Protestants: 39% |
These results suggest that encouragement resources may be encountered through several forms of reading. They also show why a single national percentage should not be treated as representative of every Christian tradition.
Study groups and sharing faith
Small groups and educational settings create another opportunity for encouragement. In the 2025 Pew Research Center report, 13% of Americans said they participate at least weekly in prayer groups, Bible-study groups, other scripture-study groups, or religious education programs. Six percent participate once or twice a month, and 7% several times a year.
Conversation across religious backgrounds is less frequent but still measurable. Nine percent of U.S. adults said they share their views about religion with people from other religious backgrounds at least weekly. Another 9% do so once or twice a month, while 16% do so several times a year. The survey does not say that every such conversation is intended as encouragement, but the figures identify how often faith-related exchange occurs across backgrounds. (Source label: Pew Research Center, “Prayer and other religious practices,” 2025.)
Earlier Pew Research Center data provide historical context. In the 2014 Religious Landscape Study, 24% of U.S. adults said they participated in prayer groups, scripture-study groups, or other religious education at least once a week. A separate measure in the 2014 reporting found that 35% of U.S. adults attended those groups at least weekly, while 30% of religiously affiliated adults did so. In 2007, 27% of religiously affiliated adults reported weekly participation. Because these measures come from different survey questions and populations, they should not be combined into one trend line. (Source label: Pew Research Center, “Religious practices and experiences,” 2015.)
The 2014 study also found that 35% of U.S. adults read scripture at least once a week. Weekly scripture reading was reported by 88% of Jehovah’s Witnesses, 77% of Mormons, 63% of evangelical Protestants, and 61% of historically Black Protestants. These tradition-level results show substantial differences in the frequency of scripture engagement.
Worship, belonging, and encouragement
In-person worship is often connected with belonging. Among regular religious service attenders, 65% said they feel a strong connection with fellow in-person worshippers. Twenty-eight percent reported a strong connection with fellow worshippers in virtual services, and 22% felt a strong connection in both virtual and in-person services. Protestant attenders were more likely than Catholic attenders to report feeling connected to fellow churchgoers: 71% compared with 50%. (Source label: Pew Research Center, “Virtual religious services,” 2023.)
Reasons for attending services also show how worship can support spiritual encouragement. In Pew Research Center’s 2018 study of why Americans go to religious services, 80% of regular attenders said they go to get closer to God. Seventy-three percent said services give them a sense of God’s presence, and 73% said services give them a sense of community. Sixty percent cited connection to a longstanding tradition. Smaller shares said they attend to socialize and meet new people, at 19%, or to please a spouse or family member, at 16%.
Welcome matters as well. Among frequent churchgoers who rarely attend, 14% said they do not go because they do not feel welcome at services. Among religiously unaffiliated non-attenders, 46% said lack of belief is a very important reason they do not attend. Another 25% of those who do not attend because they practice their faith in other ways said that reason is very important. Of the people who said they practice their faith in other ways, 44% reported praying every day. (Source label: Pew Research Center, “Why Americans go to religious services,” 2018.)
Online religious connection
Digital spaces extend religious contact but do not always reproduce the experience of meeting in person. In Pew Research Center’s 2023 study of religious life online, 7% of Americans had ever participated in online prayer groups, scripture-study groups, or religious education programs, compared with 19% who had ever participated in those groups in person. Four percent participated online at least weekly, and 11% participated in person at least weekly. Four percent participated at least once a month in both online and in-person versions.
Seventeen percent of U.S. adults had posted or shared things about religion on social media. Two percent did this daily, 3% weekly, and 12% monthly or less often. Thirty-one percent of evangelical Protestants and 31% of historically Black Protestants had ever posted about religion on social media. Prayer requests were posted online by 11% of U.S. adults, including 2% who said they did so daily. Forty-two percent said they see other people’s prayer requests online, including 9% who see them daily.
Digital religious content can encourage some people and create distance for others. Seventeen percent of U.S. adults had unfollowed, unfriended, blocked, or changed settings to see less of someone’s social media because of religious content. The figure was 23% among adults ages 18 to 29 and 7% among adults ages 65 and older. (Source label for this section: Pew Research Center, “Use of apps and websites in religious life,” 2023.)
Among regular virtual viewers, 51% watched alone, 25% watched with other people, and 23% said it depended on the service. The share watching alone was 53% among historically Black Protestant viewers and 63% among mainline Protestant viewers. Only 25% of regular virtual viewers felt like active participants in online services; 32% did not feel truly active, and 42% felt both active and not active depending on the service. Thirty-nine percent said they did things they would normally do in person, such as praying aloud or singing, all or most of the time. Forty-nine percent of mainline Protestant viewers watched only their local congregation online, while about one-third of historically Black Protestant viewers watched both local and non-local congregations.
Gratitude, purpose, and service
Encouragement also appears in emotional and practical religious life. In Pew Research Center’s 2015 study of religious practices and experiences, 82% of Christians said they regularly feel a deep sense of gratitude. Across U.S. adults, 55% said they think about the meaning and purpose of life at least once a week. The shares were 72% among members of historically Black Protestant churches, 71% among Mormons, 64% among evangelical Protestants, 63% among Orthodox Christians, 52% among Catholics, and 51% among mainline Protestants.
The same study reported that 80% of U.S. Christians seldom or never speak or pray in tongues. At least-weekly participation was reported by 34% of nondenominational charismatic evangelicals and 33% of Pentecostal churches in the historically Black Protestant tradition. These figures describe particular spiritual practices and should not be treated as a general measure of encouragement.
Service provides a practical expression of care. During the pandemic, 43% of Americans who typically attended religious services at least once or twice a month volunteered or made a donation through a religious organization, compared with 7% of less-frequent attenders. Forty-four percent of regular attenders helped friends or neighbors, compared with 36% of less-frequent attenders. Among Christians, 26% gave time or money to religious organizations and 26% gave time or money to nonreligious organizations. Overall, 18% of U.S. adults volunteered or donated through a religious organization, while 29% did so through a nonreligious charitable organization. (Source label: Pew Research Center, “Coronavirus coping report,” 2020.)
Help-seeking was also recorded during the pandemic. Seventeen percent of U.S. adults turned to family, friends, or neighbors for help with essential expenses, 9% turned to a nonreligious charitable organization, and 6% sought help from a religious organization. These figures place Christian encouragement within a wider pattern of mutual aid: spiritual support, community relationships, and material assistance can appear together, but the survey measured each response separately.