Key Takeaways

• The Institute for Family Studies published a major piece by Brad Wilcox and James Lynch arguing that America’s happiness crash is rooted in the decline of marriage — and that the local church, equipped with the right strategy, is the most capable institution to reverse it.

• Almost two-thirds of single young adults are not currently dating seriously, either because they lack confidence, haven’t met anyone promising, or have had negative experiences. Church communities are uniquely positioned to address this dating recession.

• Communio is named directly in the piece as a leading example of how churches can build marriage and family ministry that produces measurable results — including 74% of high-risk couples reporting high marriage satisfaction after participating.

• Husbands who worship regularly alongside their wives are 212% more likely to report being very happy in their marriage. Even among religious Americans, married men and women aged 25 to 55 are more than twice as likely to report being very happy compared to their unmarried counterparts.

• The piece outlines four concrete steps for churches: emphasize family-centered life, give people hope for strong marriages, get young adults to the altar, and integrate faith into the home.

The Story: One of the Most Respected Family Research Platforms Lays Out the Roadmap

The Institute for Family Studies is not a think tank that trades in vague aspirations. It is one of the most rigorous and widely cited sources of social science research on marriage, family, and faith in America. When it publishes a piece naming a specific ministry as a leading solution to one of the most pressing social crises in the country, pastors and church leaders should pay close attention.

On June 29, 2026, the IFS published “Can Churches Renew the Pursuit of Happiness?” by Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, and James Lynch, Director of Media at IFS. The piece frames the challenge plainly: 250 years after Thomas Jefferson enshrined the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence, Americans are losing that pursuit by almost every measure. Depression rates are near record highs. Optimism is at historic lows. And the primary cause, according to University of Chicago economist Sam Peltzman, is the retreat of marriage from American life.

The Core Finding: The Dating Recession Is the Church’s Most Overlooked Opportunity

The IFS piece surfaces a finding that most church leaders have not yet fully reckoned with: almost two-thirds of single young adults in America are not dating seriously right now.

Not because they don’t want to. The IFS State of Our Unions 2026 report on the dating recession finds that the barriers are primarily relational and psychological: lack of confidence, a shortage of promising partners, and the accumulated weight of negative relational experiences. Dating apps have made the problem worse, not better, turning human connection into a consumer experience that systematically erodes the relational orientation that commitment requires.

This is precisely the gap that churches are built to fill. Churches offer what no app can replicate: a community of shared values, real relationships built over time, and a vision of love and commitment that is ordered toward something transcendent rather than optimized for frictionless exit.

Wilcox and Lynch are direct about the stakes. Getting young adults to the altar, many of whom genuinely desire marriage and family life, is an essential component of tackling the happiness crisis and regenerating a family-oriented culture. The church that builds a vibrant young adult ministry, talks openly about marriage, and creates low-stakes environments where relationships can form naturally is doing some of the most culturally significant work available to any institution in America right now.

The Counterintuitive Angle: The Happiness Gap Isn’t Between the Religious and the Non-Religious. It’s Between the Married and the Unmarried.

Here is the finding that reframes the entire conversation about faith and flourishing.

The conventional assumption is that religious people are happier because of their faith. That is true as far as it goes. But the IFS piece adds a crucial dimension. According to the General Social Survey, religious, married women and men aged 25 to 55 are more than twice as likely to report being very happy in life compared to their unmarried religious counterparts.

The happiness gap, in other words, is not primarily between believers and non-believers. It is between the married and the unmarried — even among people of faith.

This means that a church full of committed, devout single adults is still a church where the happiness gap is real and significant. The most complete expression of what the Church has to offer, theologically and empirically, includes both faith and marriage. And the church that takes both seriously, that invests in helping its single adults move toward commitment and its married couples build strong unions, is the church producing the conditions most closely associated with human flourishing.

This is not sentiment. According to the IFS and Wheatley Institute research cited in the piece, husbands who worship regularly alongside their wives are 212% more likely to report being very happy in their marriage. Couples who attend church together are 30 to 50% less likely to divorce. The faith community doesn’t just support marriage. It dramatically amplifies it.

What This Means for Your Church

The IFS piece names Communio directly and specifically, with results from two partner churches that make the case concretely.

Mountain View Baptist Church in Tucson, Arizona, a congregation of under 300, attracted more than 1,600 people to its marriage and family ministry and saw more than 50% growth in Sunday attendance. St. Helen’s Church in Vero Beach, Florida, attracted 4,015 participants from inside and outside the congregation, saved dozens of marriages, fueled a two-thirds increase in new weddings annually, and saw Sunday attendance grow by 54% since 2023.

Across all Communio-partnered churches, 22,149 people completed marriage and relationship ministry skills activities and classes last year. Among those who self-reported being at high risk for divorce, 74% said they were very satisfied or better with their marriage after participating. Among singles who participated, 57% said they now had the knowledge and skills to build a healthy relationship.

These are not projections. They are documented outcomes from real congregations that decided to take marriage and family ministry seriously — and discovered that doing so changed everything around it: attendance, community, faith transmission, and the reputation of the church in its surrounding neighborhood.

Wilcox and Lynch close with a line that belongs on the desk of every pastor in America: “The path back to the pursuit of happiness doesn’t run through Washington. It runs through churches and homes across America.”

Communio helps churches build exactly that pathway. The IFS piece shows it is already working.

Take the Next Step

Communio partners with churches across Evangelical, Protestant, and Catholic contexts to build data-informed marriage and family ministry that strengthens congregations and renews communities.

► Read the full IFS article by Brad Wilcox and James Lynch → ifstudies.org

► Explore Communio’s resources for churches → communio.org

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the “dating recession” and why does it matter for churches? The IFS State of Our Unions 2026 report found that almost two-thirds of single young adults are not currently dating seriously. The barriers are primarily relational and psychological: lack of confidence, difficulty finding promising partners, and accumulated negative experiences. Churches are uniquely positioned to address this by creating genuine community, talking openly about marriage, and building low-stakes environments where relationships can form naturally.

Why are married religious Americans so much happier than unmarried religious Americans? According to the General Social Survey, religious married men and women aged 25 to 55 are more than twice as likely to report being very happy in life compared to their unmarried religious counterparts. Faith and marriage together produce dramatically better wellbeing outcomes than either does alone. The local church is the institution most capable of helping people access both.

What results have Communio-partnered churches seen? Mountain View Baptist Church in Tucson attracted more than 1,600 people to its marriage and family ministry and saw over 50% growth in Sunday attendance. St. Helen’s Church in Vero Beach attracted 4,015 participants, saved dozens of marriages, and saw 54% growth in Sunday attendance since 2023. Across all Communio partners, 74% of high-risk couples reported high marriage satisfaction after participating in relationship ministry programs.

What are the four steps Wilcox and Lynch recommend for churches? First, emphasize family-centered life boldly from the pulpit and through shared religious practices. Second, give young adults hope that strong, stable marriages are achievable by making the factual and theological case for marriage. Third, actively address the dating recession by building young adult ministry and creating environments where relationships can form. Fourth, equip parents to integrate faith into the daily rhythms of home life, since parental religious practice is among the strongest predictors of children retaining faith into adulthood.

How does Communio help churches build a marriage and family culture? Communio partners with local churches to provide consumer insights and survey tools that analyze the relational health of a congregation, then designs a customized ministry strategy to strengthen existing marriages, reach singles and young adults, and create the kind of community that makes family formation feel attainable. It is not a generic curriculum — it is a data-informed, church-specific approach that has produced measurable results across hundreds of congregations.

Credit: This post draws on “Can Churches Renew the Pursuit of Happiness?” by Brad Wilcox and James Lynch, published by the Institute for Family Studies on June 29, 2026. The piece originally appeared in the Deseret News on June 28, 2026. Read the IFS version here and the original Deseret News op-ed here.