A few thoughts of my own at the end of this short article.
A new survey conducted by the research division of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention looks at reasons why adults leave evangelical Christian churches.
This past summer LifeWay Research polled 469 adults who once attended church regularly in an effort to find out why they stopped going -- and also to discover what it would take to bring them back. According to the study, 59 percent of formerly churched adults say they left because of changes in their life situation. The top two specific life situations cited were schedules that became too hectic to allow for church attendance, and family responsibilities at home that prevented church attendance.
Brad Waggoner, president of LifeWay Research, says the recent survey shows how radically American culture has changed. "It used to be that Sunday was protected as a day of worship," he notes. "It's not good news that people are finding lots of competition with the church."
On the other hand, Waggoner observes, "I guess there's a little bit of good news that at least people are being honest that it's their lives that are out of whack." However, he points out, other reasons people gave for leaving church included feeling that other church members were hypocritical or judgmental, or the perception that their former church was run by a clique that discouraged involvement.
In regards to that last reason, Ruth and I have experienced this phenomena bigtime.
One of the last churches that we were involved in had an attitude that went something like this. You are welcome here, come sing songs with us, put money in the offering, lots of it, we'll smile at you and we may even shake your hand before you go out the door, but don't expect to get involved because we have a clique here and unless you have been with us from the beginning don't expect more than a cold handshake and weak smile brother because that's as close as you'll ever get.
You may think that I am exaggerating, but this is the philosophy in many churches and we wonder why people drop out.
Here is my definition of a clique, it is the sound when you pull the trigger of a gun and you have no cartridge in the chamber, just the hollow sound of "CLICK". What can be accomplished with an empty gun, not much.
Let's let the scripture comment on this by reading 1st John 3:10 "This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; neither is anyone who does not love his brother."
What is the acid test of what the real Church of Jesus Christ is about, "Do they love the brethren?"
A new survey conducted by the research division of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention looks at reasons why adults leave evangelical Christian churches.
This past summer LifeWay Research polled 469 adults who once attended church regularly in an effort to find out why they stopped going -- and also to discover what it would take to bring them back. According to the study, 59 percent of formerly churched adults say they left because of changes in their life situation. The top two specific life situations cited were schedules that became too hectic to allow for church attendance, and family responsibilities at home that prevented church attendance.
Brad Waggoner, president of LifeWay Research, says the recent survey shows how radically American culture has changed. "It used to be that Sunday was protected as a day of worship," he notes. "It's not good news that people are finding lots of competition with the church."
On the other hand, Waggoner observes, "I guess there's a little bit of good news that at least people are being honest that it's their lives that are out of whack." However, he points out, other reasons people gave for leaving church included feeling that other church members were hypocritical or judgmental, or the perception that their former church was run by a clique that discouraged involvement.
In regards to that last reason, Ruth and I have experienced this phenomena bigtime.
One of the last churches that we were involved in had an attitude that went something like this. You are welcome here, come sing songs with us, put money in the offering, lots of it, we'll smile at you and we may even shake your hand before you go out the door, but don't expect to get involved because we have a clique here and unless you have been with us from the beginning don't expect more than a cold handshake and weak smile brother because that's as close as you'll ever get.
You may think that I am exaggerating, but this is the philosophy in many churches and we wonder why people drop out.
Here is my definition of a clique, it is the sound when you pull the trigger of a gun and you have no cartridge in the chamber, just the hollow sound of "CLICK". What can be accomplished with an empty gun, not much.
Let's let the scripture comment on this by reading 1st John 3:10 "This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; neither is anyone who does not love his brother."
What is the acid test of what the real Church of Jesus Christ is about, "Do they love the brethren?"
posted by Jim Burton at 2:36 PM
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