Leaving Sundays: A look at Church Refugees

Leaving Sunday is my research project for 2016 since this year I have decided to become one of the Done with Organized Religion or known as the Dones.  The Rise of the Dones with Organized Religion is an important story in the 21st century mainly for the church because as each book I’ve read so far has shown, it’s not the pew warmers that are leaving.  Nope they are content to sit on the pews, do nothing, and hope they don’t go to Hell or they just pretend to go along with it so they don't upset the status quo.  

Pew warmers are not the people who are active and passionate about church.  In fact, the people that tend to stay are the consumer Christians that pastors like to complain about.

The book Church Refugees takes a look at who these dechurched people are.  This book makes it clear they are doing a sociological study and it’s not a study to bash church. In fact, their hypotheses about the who and the why of people leaving church were wrong.  They thought it was because of postmodernism, work, sin, etc.  It wasn’t about any of those things.

Here are some interesting facts about dechurched people

• They attended four churches before giving up

• They aren't the pew warmers. They are the leaders and volunteers

• The people in this study  were better educated and had higher income that the normal church population

Pew warmers are there to consume  resources and not give anything...They certainly aren’t interested in sacrificial giving.  The people that leave church aren’t the pew warmers, backsliders, or undesirable people. They are the types of people that you would WANT in a church.  They are successful, engaged with the community, and willing to step up and work hard for what they believe in.

Church Refugees further illustrates this point:

The. Story that emerged from the data is that people with access to alternative ways of reaching their goals of community and social engagement are opting out church .

I  agree with this. I think for many people church was the place they found community and sense of identity but now there are more places and groups where people can form communities.  I know for many black people church used to be  central to their social life and was a resource for many.  

Church was a familiar welcoming center of Fellowship when many Black people first migrated from the South to the North.  It's where people met lifelong friends and formed relationships now there are many more resources for people to bond with others that they may actually like and have real connection with.

Of course we know the church was an instrumental part of the Civil Rights movement and spawned many of its greatest leaders.

I never saw church as a community when I was growing up because I did not care for most of the people I knew in church and I didn’t have much in common with them.  

As an adult trying to be a part of a church community, I felt awkward, out of place, and not wanted.  I thought it was easier to form organic and real relationships with people outside of church.

I suppose I am a church refugee because I do think it would be nice to have a great and thriving faith community that I would feel passionate about and want to serve in, but I just don't see that happening with the current way church is set up.