Why People Leave Your Church?

I subscribe to the blog, Monday Morning Insight. This one caught my eye along with some of the comments. I'll share the top 10 reasons adults switch churches, according to LifeWay Reaseach's 2006 study.

1. The church was not helping me to devlop spiritually. (28%)
2. I did not feel engaged or involved in meaningful church work. (20%)
3. Church members were judgmental of others. (18%)
4. Pastor was not a good preacher (16%)
5. Too many changes. (16%)
6. Members seem hypocritical. (15%)
7. Church didn't seem to be a place where God was at work. (14%)
8. Church was run by a clique that discouraged involvement. (14%)
9. Pastor was judgmental of others. (14%)
10. Pastor seemed hypocritical. (13%)

Now here are several responses to the above blog for further thoughts. One wrote:

"My responses.
1. The church doesn’t exist to spoon-feed us. Rather, we exist to serve God in community.
2. Many of us who say this aren’t even “plugged in” to meaningful church work.
3. Yes, and that sounds like a judgemental statement to me, and I’ve made it before!
4. In Modern America the sermon has become the center of church life. wrong…
5. Hey, the world changes, everything changes except God.
6. Yes, we are all hypocritical, and they will be in the next church you go to.
7. WE are God at work.
8. The first really legitimate complaint I read here.
9. If true, the second…
10. See 6 above.

I’m sorry to say this, but in my experience, most of the “complaints” of people who leave churches I’ve served in have been selfish and shallow. (Not all, but most...) This list just confirms that for me. Sometimes, people want to be “fed” as if they are animals at a trough where the pastor is the farmer doling out food. (Sounds like we have a spiritual eating disorder in America.)

We have such great resources for spiritual growth in our churches and in our homes (the average American home has half a dozen Bibles I once heard) that if we really want to grow, we will."

Another wrote:

"Most people who leave a church say “I was not being fed” in an attempt to spiritualize and justify their leaving. What it reveals is the person’s self-centeredness and consumerism mentality. I would love to see a survey of people who recently left a church and claim it was because they were not being fed, which asked:

1) How often do you read your Bible?
2) In what capacity were you serving in your church? 3) Were you a part of a small group?
4) How many people have you shared your faith with or invited to church this year?
5) What percentage of your spiritual growth do you think is your responsibilty, and what percentage is your church’s?"

Still another wrote:

"I’m always dissapointed at how my first reaction is to brush these off as “selfish” before really diving into what’s behind them. Sometimes it’s easier for me to do that than look at how I could address some of these issues in a Godly way.

1) Yes, some of this could be selfishness, but the church is the place people come to be spiritually fed. In order for them to learn that “meeting someone else’s need also meet’s mine” the church has to disciple and show them this. Often we call this selfish when in reality we dropped the ball on discipleship.
2) and 8) Many churches are horrible at assimilation. Same people do all the work, new people are just expected to watch. How can we better engage people in Kingdom work?
3 and 9) Just because these statements are judgemental doesn’t make them untrue.
4) This one a lot of times is a taste issue, but it also could be a reminder for Pastor’s to continually improve their communication.
5) Change needs to happen, but churches who do change well (explaining the change, not implementing it to quickly, making change a part of vision) will do better.
6) and 10) We’re all hypocritical at times, but it’s a problem when we act like we’re not.

Some people are just going to leave, some are going to make up excuses. We can’t dwell on them, but it might be good for us to at least try and learn from those excuses. Not so we can bring those people back (it’s better to let them go), but so we can continually strive to be a place where people are brought into the work of God’s Kingdom and grow in Him."

Some food for all of us to think about. You can read more at And the #1 Reason People Leave Your Church is…

I will be attending graduate class at Valley Forge Christian College next week. Hopefully, I will have some good thoughts to share as I am challenged to think through my faith next week.