The Barna Group recently published results of a study they did on young adults and faith. One of the articles about their research was entitled, “Five Myths about Young Adult Church Dropouts.” It is a worthy and helpful read that examines young adult dropouts from several perspectives. Three comments caught my attention—riveted me, actually, to the point where I had a hard time catching my breath. In three different places the article said:
Two out of ten young Christians feel lost in the gap between church and society, saying things like, “I want to find a way to follow Jesus that connects with the world I live in,” or “I want to be a Christian without separating myself from the world around me.”
and
Only a small minority of young Christians has been taught to think about matters of faith, calling, and culture. Fewer than one out of five have any idea how the Bible ought to inform their scholastic and professional interests.
and
[Young believers] require a more holistic understanding of their vocation and calling in life—how their faith influences what they do with their lives, from Monday through Saturday.
Yes, I took these three comments out of context. There is much more to the Barna report than just this. But (as I said) these three came together for me in a breath-taking way.
I’ve been known to say lately that recent research on why people leave the church often lists as one of the top reasons, “Because the church doesn’t connect with the rest of my life.” This Barna report set me on an extended journey of looking for that research. I was surprised that I couldn’t find it, at least I couldn’t frequent mentions of this particular reason.
Most of what I found is along the lines of this:
Someone offended them, God disappointed them, they don’t have time (read: they’re not committed), they want a different style (music or preaching), they never put down roots, they need to hide a problem (pending divorce or drug problems), church members were judgmental or hypocrites, they didn’t like a change that was made, they have doubts about God and/or the church, or they want a church that offers a ministry their former congregation doesn’t.
A sampling of the many books available on the topic of leaving the church
First, it’s interesting to note that most of these reasons relate to “why I left a congregation” rather than “why I gave up on the church.” Second, I was intrigued that just about all the information I encountered came from evangelical/conservative leaders or institutions. With few exceptions, it seems that this isn’t a topic that respectable mainline leaders talk about. As I said, this is intriguing. Perhaps it’s because evangelical/conservative churches are focused like a laser on “saving souls” and “winning the lost.” Perhaps they are distraught over people who leave; maybe it’s seen as a personal failure.
Nevertheless, I did find one blog that cites British academics who researched why people leave church. Of the 18 reasons listed, the seventh highest (at 46%) was people who said the church “failed to connect with the rest of my life.”
Maybe it’s not the most frequently mentioned reason for leaving the church, as I had thought. But the Barna Group’s report certainly puts the Sunday–Monday disconnect in front of us in a way that is hard to avoid.
If you’ll allow me to engage in some unsubstantiated speculation, it seems the indicators that the Barna Group found about young adults could easily be applied to older adults as well.
- We want to find a way to follow Jesus that connects with our daily lives.
- Only a small minority of us have been taught to think about matters of faith, calling, and culture.
- We all require a more holistic understanding of our vocation and calling in life—how our faith influences what we do with our lives, from Monday through Saturday.
And yet the church persists in focusing on what happens in the church. What counts in our institution-centric way of thinking is what our members do in and for the church—and if we’re forward-thinking, how we can attract more people to join us. We value Sunday school teachers, board members, Bible study participants—we call them active members—and we count them because those numbers tell us whether we’re successful, if we’re growing, and how effective our leaders are. (In a related vein: I quipped recently that we need to ban talk about “how many people we worship on Sunday” because we worship God, not the people who participate. One person responded, “Maybe we do worship the people, that is, we place our trust in and we judge our faithfulness by our ability to attract people to our churches.” Ouch.)
One comment I ran across on this research journey was, “People on the outside see the church as candles, pews and flowers, rather than people living out their love for God by loving others.” That sounds like a simplified way of saying that people on the outside only see our love affair with life in the church rather than our embodied love of God in all of life. On another site, a comment in response to a blog about why people leave the church was much more to-the-point:
For the most part…leaders and staff of a church are often primarily concerned most, above all other things, about keeping people coming on Sunday mornings and catering to what the people want in order to sustain a consistent congregation. This is because the church has been “professionalized,” and the leaders of a church are driven to do things in a way that will keep the tithe money coming in. They aren’t believing that God will provide what they need (NEED–not want), and therefore their decisions and leadership are consumed by their own efforts in their own strength to keep themselves afloat. On the whole, “professional church” is lifeless, stale, and in many ways nothing like what the church was intended to be. People know this and feel this.
And, I would add, at least in part (according to the Barna Group report) they are looking for something that isn’t ghettoized in the church.
On a different but wholly related topic, I’ve been struck lately by the persistent theme of busyness and how it’s destroying the church. 
In fact, the research journey I’m describing started with several friends posting the Barna Group article on Facebook. One thread of comments that followed one of those posts went straight from the Barna research to lamenting that families don’t make the faith community a higher priority than sports, music, and other “competing” interests. I’ve heard pastors say (a lot!) that they “can’t ask their members to do anything more.” “They’re already so busy that the church just can’t burden them further.”
If we’re serious about the connection of faith and life in the world, if we’re serious about empowering and supporting ministry in daily life, why are we “competing” to take people out of the world? Shouldn’t we, instead, be working to help them “be a Christian without separating from the world around us”?
I have a vision of a church that sees its purpose in terms of forming followers of Christ who are ready, equipped, empowered to be his agents of love, care and compassion in the world (not just in the church). It is a vision of a community that gathers on a regular basis to hear “reports from the front lines,” and to engage the ancient practices of the church (scripture, worship, prayer) around matters of relationships, calling, and culture. I have a vision of a community that actively discerns how God’s presence influences what we do with our lives from Monday through Saturday, and then sends us back out into the world, in peace, to serve the Lord. This vision, if enacted (it seems to me) would make our congregations incredibly exciting and vibrant places, and we would finally have an answer to the question, “Why are so many people leaving the church?” Why, silly, they’re just heading back out into the world as God’s agents of hope, faith, and compassion.
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How do I apply God’s love and grace to all of my life. If we try to cultivate the Fruit of the Spirit in our life, then we will be relevant to those around us and indeed to ourselves. Otherwise we are a ‘noisy cymbal’. Results (fruit) is what God does – we are called to water and fertilize the soil with our fruit. Don’t worry about the church – worry about if you handed out any fruit today.
Thanks, Dave. I especially like your last sentence. I may just use that down the line.
Connecting Sunday with Monday – a very important idea. A foundation in our thinking must be laid to make this happen that involves a language that both can speak.
A basic problem is that we have been _taught_ that the “natural” languages of Sunday and Monday are incompatible. One is about the ‘real” world and the other is a “religious” world. That either would have anything to say to the other is ruled out at the start.
Both liberal and conservative attempts to solve this problem have not succeeded. The liberal attempt by and large has assumed that the language of the real world is the real language and the language of the religious world derivative from it. Conservative attempts have privileged the religious language and tended to completely discount the language of “Monday”.
A third way involves:
1) Restoring the doctrine of Creation to its rightful place as a key to understanding these issues
2) Understanding that the work of Monday, because of its “creatureliness” is intrinsically good
3) Removing the imposed distinctions between Sunday and Monday, especially by using the idea of worship as the common activity between the two. (Reaffirm the Power that comes from Sunday worship, that empowers Monday work, so that that work becomes itself worship)
4) Recover the expectancy that God can be “visibly” present on Sunday and Monday
Thanks, Charlie, for the thought you put in this. I’d be interested in hearing you spin out #1 a little further… Is it that creation is essentially “good” — or to use the Hebrew, “Tov”, that is, “just what God had in mind”?
Great post Dwight!
I guess if I wanted to generate a lot of comments in response to this post, I should’ve made some sweeping generalization about church music.
Just in via Twitter @davidkinnaman, the president of the Barna Group: Dwight, I really appreciated your perspective—thank you for using our work. Now that’s solid affirmation!
Dwight,
This is exactly where my thoughts have been lately. I have lots of questions and am ready to brainstorm ideas. How dos the church respond to your article? In what ways can we bridge the “gap” between Sunday and Monday? What would it mean to have a renewl of worship in my context?
Do you know of others who would like to wrestle with these questions?
Good questions, Donnita. Perhaps some others will chime in on this?
As you know from the Equipping Pastors conversations, there are a lot of people around here who are interested. I don’t have any conversations on the schedule right now.
Perhaps an option would be to take the EP study guide (www.renewingchurch.org> Worth Sharing> CFR Resources) and begin a conversation about this in your congregation? Should we talk by phone?
I plan to begin a conversation at church with a Task Force after the holidays. I’ll add this resource to the mix. Perhaps a phone conversation at the new year would be helpful.
Work is a part of the original Creation (see Andy Crouch’s _Culture Making_). But however you understand what is meant by “the Fall,” work seems to be tainted by sin (thorns and thistles in the language of Gen 3). A Sunday-Monday reuniting will need to take into account this malformation in work.
But I don’t see either humanity nor Creation as a whole having lost its “good” and “very good,” because in the end, God will bring about a New Creation (the old creation released from its bondage to death and decay, Romans 8).
On the one hand I seek to avoid a world-denying Gnosticism and on the other, a world affirming, but God redefining pantheism (in any of its forms: liberal, secular, or pagan)..
A theology of Creation is a bit hard to spell out in a blog comment, but I hope you can see some of the contours.
one added piece: I think the Sunday-Monday divide needs a Trinitarian answer, especially a recovery of the Holy Spirit (a good Creational theology will provode avenues here, in that Creation is a Trinitarian doctrine.)
Thank you for your post. The topic caught my eye.
I am not a pastor or highly trained in church theology, but I do help lead music at my local church. I really appreciate your comments and identify with the “walk your talk” on Monday perspective. A lot of my music refers to drawing others to the faith by your daily actions. We attract a lot more by what we do than by what we say.
Too many “Sunday Christians” turn potential followers away by how they act in their Mon-Sat lives. Christians need to think in terms of a 24/7 lifestyle that draws others to Christ.
As a pastor I have been trained look more deeply at the rich history in our ancient texts. I was not trained as to how we might hear reports back from the frontline in worship. I’m intrigued by the idea so am wondering how others might be embracing this idea in worship in a practical way.
Thanks for asking, Brad. Most of what I have heard in regard to your question is a growing reclamation of the practice of testimony—yes, even in mainline churches where that has been considered anathama. But creating an environment where people “on the front lines” are encouraged to speak to the faith is not limited to testimony. A friend of mine, right before the prayers, has people turn to one another in pairs or trios to answer the question, “Where have you seen God this week?” If not in worship, people can tell “faith on Monday” stories in newsletters or on the web (written or video). If you want to include more ministry in daily life stories in your preaching, I’d encourage you to find ways to listen to the stories people have about how faith connects to their daily work, decisions, or relationships. (Get permission to tell the stories, of course.)
Others? Chime in with ideas!
I have also been including the following in worship to try to help make connection between what we do in church and our lives-
-in some sermons a question in which they turn to the person near them to share thoughts
-small objects to take home (a rock, a paper heart, chocolate “kiss”) that relates to the theme of the text and sermon
-children’s sermons that teach about what some of our church traditions mean-like colors, advent wreath, church year, etc.
-time for reflection- our education committee had us all stand around a Nativity scene holding battery votive candles to listen to a recording of O Holy Night
My problem is with the church! when more than 50% of my churches budget goes to pay the pastor ($98,000) I have a huge problem with that. Whats wrong here? I can not suport that. I will not any longer. I will not pay for that any longer. I fell the church should help the community not the chosen few.
Thanks for your comment, Rodney. As you said on Facebook, while it is true, and sad, I still hope the church can catch what I’m saying: there is time to return to our purpose. And the title was a play on said purpose: I hope the people WILL leave the church, for the purpose of being God’s people at work in the world. And for me it’s not a problem that we’re paying pastors. The problem is that all of our attention, our pastors’ attention, and our money are focused on the institution, on keeping it healthy and “successful” instead of focusing our attention on equipping the baptized for their ministry in the world. Pastors have a role, and they need to be paid, but the role is far broader than keeping the machine going. In short, and to your point, the church *should* help the community, but “the church” is not just “the institution.” “The church” is “the people.” (Remember the childhood hand gesture rhyme?) And in that sense, the-church-as-the-people *is* already “helping the community” through our everyday lives. It’s just that the-church-as-the-institution doesn’t often recognize, support, or empower that. And that is why, I think, people are leaving. For the wrong purpose. …Or because the church isn’t giving us purpose.
Thank you for your response. I am leaving my church on purpose. I may be leaving for the wrong reasons but it is on purpose. I feel guilt and anger when I go. I love all of the people in my last church (18 years) and I will always love them. Sorry I did not understand your original comments. Please pray for me and I am sorry if I offended you. I am not happy with my choice but I feel this is how God is guiding me. Rodney Miller