NBC “Today” Show Hosts Praise Return to Faith by Gen-Z
Several NBC “Today” hosts welcomed signs that younger Americans are taking religion more seriously after Carson Daly reported on a New York gathering that pairs pizza with Sunday Mass.
Pizza to Pews, started by Kate DePetro and Anthony Gross, brings young adults together at a Greenwich Village pizza shop before they walk to St. Joseph’s Church. The effort has drawn hundreds.
“Young adults are reengaging in the faith,” New York Archbishop Ronald Hicks said. “Many of them feel that the world around them is somewhat broken.”
Daly said young people are “seeking for something higher than the immediacy that technology is putting in front of their faces.”
NBC hosts respond
“That just feels good for us older folks to feel like, you know, maybe this is a great direction,” he told NBC.
Al Roker connected the moment to his Catholic upbringing. “We’re in this time of division and people looking for unity, and this happened back in the late 60s and early 70s,” he said, recalling folk Masses intended to bring young people back.
Craig Melvin also pointed to the influence of parents who introduce their children to faith. Even if young adults “veer off the path” in college and leave church for a time, he said, “you come back, because the seed has been planted.”
Read: Gen Z finds answers to life’s problems
“It’s never too late,” Daly replied.
As Metro Voice has reported this year, surveys continue to record gains, but the picture is a little fuzzy. Gallup found 42% of men ages 18 to 29 called religion very important in 2024-25, up from 28% in 2022-23. Monthly attendance among young men rose to 40% now outpaces women of the same age.
Barna found Gen Z churchgoers attended an average 1.9 weekends each month, more than older generations. And 45% of Protestant senior pastors told Barna that Gen Z engagement had increased at their churches.
The numbers are encouraging to those in the church and those who study the numbers. Pew found Christianity’s decline may have leveled off.
-Dwight Widaman
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