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A Strong Believer just Not in Church
According to a twelve-year research project overseen by British demographer David Barrett for Oxford University Press, some 2,765,100 church attendees in Europe and North America leave the church each year. That works out to be an average of 7,600 a day, 53,000 a week!
Most of us have not lost faith in God but have rather lost faith in the contemporary church. We may have "grown disillusioned with the church and other institutions of Christianity" and have "lost the energy and enthusiasm they once had for programs of spiritual development." Consequently, we "are now looking elsewhere to meet their deepest spiritual needs".
In a book called, Exit Interviews: Revealing Stories of Why People are Leaving the Church, William Hendricks provides us with a "focus group" of approximately twenty former church members who offer honest, critical feedback concerning their church experience. Not one expressed a desire to abandon their faith in God. Not one judged the clergy as dishonest. Not one condemned the church as a place full of hypocrites. Not one really wanted to leave the church. They left for numerous reasons - legalism, boredom, disillusionment, and burn-out were typical reasons for leaving.
Meanwhile another line of research has produced new findings. George Gallup, Jr. approached church researchers and offered his services. A committee was formed to sponsor a survey of "unchurched Americans." The survey's purpose was to find out who the unchurched people are and what might encourage them to church participation. A coalition of thirty-two religious groups contributed to the costs, and the survey was carried out.
In the Gallup study, an "unchurched" person is defined as one who is not a member of a church or synagogue or one who may nominally be a member but has not attended in the last six months, except for weddings, funerals, or special religious holidays. By this definition 41 percent of adult Americans are unchurched. Most of them have had religious training sometime in their lives; 77 percent have had some Sunday school education. Most were reared in homes having some religious identification. They do not comprise a separate anti-church subculture. Few are philosophically or ideologically opposed to Christianity or the church.
George Barna in his book Revolution (Tyndale) makes the following explosive observations about the future of the modern institutional church:
* A quiet revolution is rocking America, though the nation is largely unaware of it.
*The quiet revolution is about recognizing that we are not called to go to church. We are called to be the church.
* Modern research demonstrates that the institutional church has little to no ability to transform the lives of God's people. It also has virtually no influence on our culture.
*The Bible never describes "church" the way we have configured it.
*The fastest growing models of church are the house church and cybercommunities.
*The United States will see a reduction in the number of institutional churches. Church services will decline as Christians devote their time to a wider array of spiritual events. Donations to institutional churches will drop because millions of believers will invest their money in other ministry ventures. A declining number of professional clergy will receive a livable salary from their church. Denominations will go through cutbacks and executives will be relieved of their duties as their boards attempt to understand and halt the hemorrhaging. To some, this will sound like the Great Fall of the church.
This trend has begun. A growing number of Christians are leaving the modern institutional church.
David Barrett, author of The World Christian Encyclopedia, estimates that there are already 112 million "out-of-church Christians" around the world.
This phenomenon is not new – Its Growing!
Is this a revolution of dissatisfaction or is it the Purpose of God in our generation?
We believe that Jesus is calling his people out to be a true New Testament Church!
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