12 Witnesses

Here are some more stats from Lifeway Research, this time on Church switchers. There are two types of folks who leave church, those who switch and those who quit. Last time, we were talking about kids who graduate church, but this time we are talking about those who just leave YOUR church.

Of the Switchers, there are also two groups. The first are those who are moving away from your church to live in a different place. The second group, and the focus of these numbers, are leaving because they no longer like the church. Here are the top ten reasons folks in this situation leave your church:

1. The church was not helping me to develop 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 seemed 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%)

I break these down into 3 separate categories.

Pastoral shortcomings (1*, 2*, 4, 9 & 10) - I had someone not long ago say, “It all rises and falls on leadership.” While this gentleman was a devout Christian, he was a businessman. He was also a man who had left my church before I arrived, and it was our first meeting. We were specifically talking about our church, so I think this is a good word for all pastors. Who you are, what you do and the way you do it - the work ethic, skill and attitude you bring to your job - really matters in the health of your church.

Congregational shortcomings (1*, 2*, 3, 6, 7 & 8 ) - I have adopted a new slogan for our church that has come to reflect our attitude, but also is intended to communicate the appropriate attitude to the congregation: “Welcome home.” This is a place where people need to feel welcome, no matter what their problems are. It is to be a place where we seek God’s movement and invest in the lives of others.

Change (5) - Transitioning churches, and churches who are trying to accomplish their Biblical mission are always transitioning, are places where change is the norm. I remember my Church Growth Evangelism class at SWBTS. Calvin Miller was the new professor there and he spent the semester giving us practical insights into growing a church from the church he had actually grown in Omaha. One of the things he said of the church he planted and grew was that he intentionally made change the norm. People can’t get tied to things that aren’t around long enough to become habits. Sometimes, he said, they would scrap good and functional programs and replace them with things that were less functional just to maintain the norm of always changing. Why? Because change is against our nature, for the most part. We prefer the routine and churches can turn inward and selfish when the routine becomes the primary comfort level.

On the other side of change, though, too much is too much. I have gone into a situation where I walked in, pushed all the buttons and pulled all the levers as soon as I walked through the door. That created havoc and a lot of stress and tension. The guy after me was seen as a stabilizing force and it was good for him, but it hurt me pretty badly - and a fair number of church members were hurt there as well. Here, 9 months into my pastorate, I am taking things slowly. At this point, some in the church are asking me to move a little faster. I know I am at the right speed when some are asking for more and some are happy where they are.

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* - numbers applied to both the pastor and the congregation.

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