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Church Tomorrow?: What the 'Nones' and 'Dones' Teach Us About the Future of Faith
256 pages, Hardcover
Published December 2, 2025
6 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
Stephanie Spellers
16 books10 followersSTEPHANIE SPELLERS serves as Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s Canon for Evangelism and Reconciliation. The author of The Church Cracked Open, and The Episcopal Way (with Eric Law), she has directed mission and evangelism work at General Theological Seminary and in the Diocese of Long Island. A native of Kentucky and a graduate of both Episcopal Divinity School and Harvard Divinity School, she lives in Harlem, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 23, 2025
I somehow finished this in a single day.
I have some mixed feelings about this book, but mostly I found it encouraging and refreshing in several ways. I was encouraged to hear a priest/reverend call out publicly the White Christo-Nationalism we're seeing take over certain branches of the church as the heresy it so clearly is. I was also encouraged that she took time to talk to and listen to people who have been leaving the church, have left the church, or were never a part of it, and actually get to know them instead of assuming she knew why they left and judging them for it (as many evangelical preachers seem too quick to do). I think her suggestions for ways the church could move forward were interesting, and at least beg more thought.
I have mixed feelings about some of the more nuanced theological takes or suggestions she had, but overall I think this is worth the read and the conversation it should spark.
I have some mixed feelings about this book, but mostly I found it encouraging and refreshing in several ways. I was encouraged to hear a priest/reverend call out publicly the White Christo-Nationalism we're seeing take over certain branches of the church as the heresy it so clearly is. I was also encouraged that she took time to talk to and listen to people who have been leaving the church, have left the church, or were never a part of it, and actually get to know them instead of assuming she knew why they left and judging them for it (as many evangelical preachers seem too quick to do). I think her suggestions for ways the church could move forward were interesting, and at least beg more thought.
I have mixed feelings about some of the more nuanced theological takes or suggestions she had, but overall I think this is worth the read and the conversation it should spark.
January 11, 2026
Stephanie Spellers has done church folk a great service in researching and writing “Church Tomorrow?” Beginning with a particular insightful and well written look at the statistics of decline, she then turns to listen to those who check the box for no religion who are the “nones and dones” when it comes to institutional religion. What she finds are people who may be done with church, but not with God and certainly not with Jesus.
She explains well the “three currents propelling American culture beyond Christianity: privatization, secularization, and pluralization.” These don’t necessarily take people away from faith as much as organized religion. Spellers offers the memorable line that captures spirituality for many, “They've all got their own bespoke spiritual bento box, too.”
Yet, “Millennial and Gen Z Nones and Dones regularly battle with loneliness and isolation, so they have a keen sense of the human need for social networks.” Communities of faith do have something vital to offer.
The heart of the book comes from her many interviews, which she threads together well into a well woven narrative. The dones are those, “disappointed because they actually wanted a deep spirituality and transformative action, and Christianity failed to deliver.”
Spellers offers prophecies from her dive into statistics and her interviews and then gives some concrete next steps, but she is rightly humble about charting the course too far forward. All in all, I find this book from the priest who served as Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s Canon for Evangelism, Racial Reconciliation, and Creation Care offers a word the church, especially the Episcopal Church needs to hear and reflect on.
In an evocative passage that connected for me from similar experience, Spellers told of how as a young person she loved her Selectric typewriter that she naturally abandoned for a desktop computer. She says that, “while seeing a typewriter might inspire fond memories, and I bear no ill will toward the machine, I wouldn't dream of actually using one now.” She adds, “that's how a growing proportion of Americans feel about traditional religion. Even if they are interested in spirituality, organized religions simply don't cross their minds.”
Ouch. We would do well to read and reflect on this book and then use the resources she offers at a companion website and most importantly, listen to the younger nones and dones around us.
She explains well the “three currents propelling American culture beyond Christianity: privatization, secularization, and pluralization.” These don’t necessarily take people away from faith as much as organized religion. Spellers offers the memorable line that captures spirituality for many, “They've all got their own bespoke spiritual bento box, too.”
Yet, “Millennial and Gen Z Nones and Dones regularly battle with loneliness and isolation, so they have a keen sense of the human need for social networks.” Communities of faith do have something vital to offer.
The heart of the book comes from her many interviews, which she threads together well into a well woven narrative. The dones are those, “disappointed because they actually wanted a deep spirituality and transformative action, and Christianity failed to deliver.”
Spellers offers prophecies from her dive into statistics and her interviews and then gives some concrete next steps, but she is rightly humble about charting the course too far forward. All in all, I find this book from the priest who served as Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s Canon for Evangelism, Racial Reconciliation, and Creation Care offers a word the church, especially the Episcopal Church needs to hear and reflect on.
In an evocative passage that connected for me from similar experience, Spellers told of how as a young person she loved her Selectric typewriter that she naturally abandoned for a desktop computer. She says that, “while seeing a typewriter might inspire fond memories, and I bear no ill will toward the machine, I wouldn't dream of actually using one now.” She adds, “that's how a growing proportion of Americans feel about traditional religion. Even if they are interested in spirituality, organized religions simply don't cross their minds.”
Ouch. We would do well to read and reflect on this book and then use the resources she offers at a companion website and most importantly, listen to the younger nones and dones around us.
December 15, 2025
Data and interviews are fun! Let’s all give up worshipping underused buildings.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews