Why People Leave Church and What A Church Should Do

I've written before in this blog about what it feels like to be a pastor at a time when people are abandoning religion. The shorthand is: it sucks, but there's also opportunity.

It sucks because it's stressful and painful. Budgets are always tight. Pastors hold a lot of anxiety. Churches have to downsize, lay people off, watch the congregation die off. It all feels lousy.

But there's also opportunity. I, for one, prayed for the end of Christendom, when the church wouldn't be "married" to the culture. Disentangling the mission of the church from mainstream American culture is a win for the church. But only if congregations and denominations are able to move with the changes and adapt our form to continue to connect with people in this new cultural moment.

There was an interesting radio show covering church decline on NPR today. One of the interesting take-aways for me is this nugget:

[For the majority, their reasons for leaving [church] are more mundane than you'd expect.

“Most people have left for really pedestrian reasons. Like, I moved; attendance was inconvenient; or, say, family change," Michael Graham, co-author of "The Great Dechurching" says.

The program is worth listening to, but his main point is that most of the conversation about de-churching focuses on theology--like "churches are too conservative" or "churches are too liberal" or "worship isn't exciting enough." But maybe church folks who care about the future should be focusing on much more practical matters.

It means church leaders can't necessarily build a model of church that depends on regular in-person church attendance (ie, "membership"). You CAN, however, build out tools that allow people to connect with your congregation outside of Sunday worship. Online worship. Podcasts. Livestreams. More and more, it feels like THIS is the new "capital campaign" building project. Building out capacities to connect with people who can not or will not be regular in-person attendees--but who still have deep spiritual lives that need tending by trained, compassionate clergy. This will mean smaller budgets, fewer staff, and fewer buildings. But maybe, ironically, more "engaged" participation.