Mature Christians Should Leave the Institutional Church?
There is a new book that might make it to Books That Influence This Blog. I have ordered it from Amazon and I am excited to start reading it. The book is Quitting Church: Why The Faithful Are Fleeing And What To Do About It
Quitting Church
Julia Duin is the religion editor for The Washington Times and a self-described born-again Christian (is that possible even possible? . . . ha ha).
Here is the product description from Amazon:
Duin brings two kinds of experiences to bear in this engaging little jeremiad: as religion editor for the Washington Times, she is in her element marshaling statistics, interviewing authors and clergy, and commenting on the trend of faithful evangelicals who increasingly vote with their feet by leaving their churches. But she’s also a self-described born-again evangelical herself, coping with the personal pain of not having a viable and permanent church home. Drawing heavily on research by pollster George Barna, Duin diagnoses a widespread dissatisfaction among evangelicals, who feel their churches do a decent job with new Christians but fall far short with mature believers. In particular, Duin shows, women and singles are leaving churches in ever-greater numbers. (As a single woman herself, she discusses her own experiences with being marginalized while successfully evoking a larger context through research and polls.) Duin has some prescriptions to help with these problems, including meatier sermons that address real issues; house churches and micro-churches that foster more genuine community; and even in-church matchmaking services to help singles who want to find a mate.
At the Wall Street Journal, Terry Eastland has written a review where he comments that Julia Duin calls church quitting an epidemic among evangelicals. He also writes:
She reports, among other things: a lack of a feeling of community among church members, inducing loneliness and boredom; church teaching that fails to go beyond the basics of the faith or to reach members grappling with suffering or unanswered prayer; pastors who are either out of touch with their parishioners or themselves unhappy, or who fail to shepherd their flocks, or who are caught up in scandal, or who try to control the lives of church members in a high-handed way. She claims that many churches have “inefficient leadership models” and that many, preoccupied with the care of families, neglect single people.
A “lack of feeling of community?” . . . “loneliness?”. . . “boredom?” . . . “out of touch?” . . . “scandal?” . . . “inefficient leadership models?” Really? Come on now, not in OUR churches . . . really? (sarcasm intended)
Apparently, Julia writes about “a best-selling evangelical author quitting his church and arguing that leaving the institutional church is something that “mature Christians” should do.” Who is that? Does anyone know? I really want to know who this “best-selling evangelical author” who quit his church was. If you know, tell me. (Of course, I can always wait to read the book but if you tell me that I don’t have to wait.) (OK, since posting this originally, I believe I have found the answer to that question. See here.)
My wife and I are church planters working in Japan, but currently residing in Canada until we go back to Japan in 2009. And so, I am totally excited to read this book – not because I want more ammo to bash the institutional but because books like these are valuable resources for us.
Can’t wait for the next Amazon box to arrive on my porch!
Comments
Hi Joel,
Julia’s experience with the evangelical church seems to be a good example of anecdotal data that does not fit the statistical trend (at least not it Canada).
For example, here are the statistics in Canada for mainline and evangelical churches from 1981-2001.
In 1981 the Canadian Mainline churches had 2,240,991 members and attendance of 965,534… In 20 years they dropped to 1,666,715 members and attendance of 723,673 in 2001 a … drop in attendance of 25% and a drop in membership of 26%. The average drop per year was roughly 1.25%.
The converse situation has happened with the Evangelical churches in Canada. In 1981 they had
974,295 members and attendance of 758,383… In 2001 they had 1,341,897 members and attendance of 1,130,237… a growth of 38% in members and a 49% growth in attendance. This translates into an average growth per year between 1.9% and 2.45% depending on the measurement.
Like Julie, I can point to lots of people who have become dissatisfied with Church and have left. But I can point to many more who have come and stayed. Overall in Canada, in the last 20 years church attendance is actually up. This is the first time that this has happened in a long time. This has been driven by the fairly rapid growth in the evangelical church, much of which has been offset by the decline in the mainline church.
Again, I would stress that this is Canadian data. I reference further data for the U.S.
in a post at Eclectic Christian.
If you focus in on a single denomination like the Southern Baptists, Julia’s analysis would hold true. But then that would neglect other evangelical denominations (such as the various Pentecostals) that are growing significantly.
Just another quick thought. As I reread my last comment, it sounds like I am trying to invalidate Julie’s experience. I apologize if it came across that way.
The hurt that Julie experienced is experienced many times over throughout many denominations. Many have left the church because of it.
In the same way that I warned about taking these individual experiences and generalizing, I need to be careful not to take the broader statistics and pretend that all is well in the evangelical church.
On balance the evangelical church in Canada is growing, but two percent growth is only keeping up with the population increase. Perhaps if we paid a little more attention to the Julie’s in our churches we might see God work in much greater ways.
Hi Joel, The author Julia could be talking about is Spencer Burke. Have you read his book yet? The Heretic’s Guide to Eternity. I read it quite a few years ago (maybe 2005), but it was very good.
Thanks for adding to this conversation, Eclectic. I appreciate the Canadian statistics and I am surprised at the growth (even if it is small) of the evangelical churches in Canada.
At the same time, I do not think that “Quitting Church” is something that is only happening in the U.S. I have talked with many Canadians who would agree with Julia’s report as quoted above. As you have commented though, we here in Canada can not just assume that the trends in the U.S. are the same as here at home.
Thank you.
Lietofine, thanks. I have seen that book a number of times and wondered if I might enjoy it. Now that you have recommended I will add it to my “To Read” list.
Hey Joel,
Just thought I would let you know (through your blog) that we just quit church. A decision that was very tough to make because we understand what the ramifications are. Being in a small town, there is a chance our kids will be excluded from activities, we would be excluded from social activities and the worst part is that we may be viewed as ‘walking away from the faith’.
But the tension became too great between ‘being’ the church and just meeting on a sunday morning. To call yourself the church and not be anything like it, is similar to any politician that speaks one thing and does another. Who believes you anymore?
Whether the statistics show it or not…I’m one that quit the institutional church.
Mr. Christy, so you’ve officially quit church. I assume that you haven’t given up on your faith or God or anything like that. You’ve just given up on the institution of Christianity and you believe that salvation is, indeed, found outside of the church as well?
Hey, I think you should start a blog about your own personal experiences – what events led up to your decision, the effects on your family life and your own spirituality, how others react to your decision, how your children understand it, etc. It would be an interesting blog to read and one that I’m sure many others would benefit from. What do you think?
Just to confirm that I know quite a number of Christ followers who have left the institution in the last 5 years in Canada. I would be one of them. It has been amazing to see how many of us have made connection through many different avenues. Most “house churches” in our area do not advertise but somehow seem to connect with people looking for “more than sitting in a pew on Sunday”. I have read just a little of the book and feel one of the areas she does not cover is the mystery of God. There are so many of us that have been frustrated by glib answers to apparent contradictions not just in the scriptures but also in the institution. For some reason the church wants to have all the answers and forgets that a God whose essential nature is love is mysterious and relational. He knows the answers but, I think, does not tell us because we could not handle it – something like the movie Bruce Almighty where he just says yes to every prayer request even though many of the prayers are in total contradiction to each other. Thanks for the opportunity to add to your discussion.
OTW, thanks for your comment. I have finished reading the book now and appreciate your insight about the mystery of God. For some reason, many churches do try to have all the answers . . . you are right. This is one reason why I started to feel that church life is not really working for us. I am comfortable with ambiguity in my relationship with God but so many in the church feel threatened by it. “I don’t know” is simply not an acceptable answer in many circles. I just had a conversation with a new friend on the weekend about this very thing. We have both been on similar spiritual journeys over the last several years and we both left the “answers to everything” theology and have been forming a new one where we have learned to embrace and appreciate the mysteries of God.
Are you part of a house church somewhere in Canada? I am curious to know if you are near us geographically. Send me an email if you want and let me know where you are!
lietofine, After reading Julia’s book I think that this “well-known evangelical” might be John Eldredge.
How amazing that I found your blog. I typed in some sort of mumble about a trend of Christians leaving churches and there you were. Well count me among those who are on the edge of the leap. My husband and I see our financial resources used to prop up a building rather than reach the lost or supporting the persecuted Christians in many nations. We see our time swallowed up by committees and panels. We rarely hear what we feel needs to be said from the pulpit and the moving of the spirit is organized out of the Sunday service. I yearn for a small honest worshipping home group and am just about to take the big step and leave the walls of the organized and inefficient church! My children can go to Christian clubs and as part of homeschooling their friends are carefully chosen and the Bible is part of their everyday learning. I am not sure what the loss would be, to be honest. I was about to post about this dilemna in my own blog but know my pastor and the group of women I teach on Mondays are avid readers and I don’t want to show my hand yet. So thanks for the venue!
Cynthia, welcome! Sorry for taking so long to reply – I sort of took a long hiatus from this blog but have since been motivated to keep going. Yes, we yearn for the same things! It is difficult to show our hands sometimes in this regard. My wife have to be careful how we talk to certain people because they can easily misunderstand us and then become defensive, even though we are not attacking them at all! We just want to talk openly and candidly with our friends but for some reason not many are open to talking this way. It’s an “untouchable” for some. I hope this blog will help!