Why People Are Leaving The Church
Recently John Pavlovitz wrote a post over at FaithIt.com called “Dear Church, Here’s Why People Are Really Leaving You”.
Based on the comments it generated on Facebook, it struck a chord with many people.
People Are Leaving Because…
The Church is the problem.
Pavlovitz elaborated in five ways listed below.
- Your Sunday productions have worn thin.
- You speak in a foreign tongue.
- Your vision can’t see past your building.
- You choose lousy battles. Your love doesn’t look like love.
The Underlying Reasons
While these are valid reasons, I believe the beginning of the end came the moment the “Church” went from making disciples to making “believers”.
Disciple making is difficult and time consuming. Making “believers” just requires getting people emotionally worked up to “come down front”.
[Tweet “Disciple making is difficult and time consuming.”]
It’s Not About Numbers
Stop focusing on the number of church atttenders, Sunday school attendance, whether you have a Christian school at your church, VBS attendance, etc. and focus on developing disciples.
We want to be more than a notch on your Salvation belt
When you make disciples, you pour your life into theirs and people will know and feel that you care for them.
The hard part with that is we can’t measure it.
[Tweet “Remember that Jesus loves us all.”]
How Do We Stem The Exodus?
What would you suggest to help stem the tide of people leaving the church?
What would it look like for you if the Church was to talking in the language that people understand?
What are you doing in your local church to bring people into the fellowship?
Share your creative ideas in the comments below.
