Church Refugees: There isn't anything for me to do in church that's meaningful

Not Utilizing People Properly

There are more than likely people in the pews who can teach people but churches do not utilize those people and then they leave. In every church I've been in, the people who leave are always the ones I think would be the best leaders and teachers. It's exactly what the book church refugees is saying! People who are passionate and on fire end up leaving because they're not allowed to do anything meaningful.

Sorry but we will not be helping Non Christian Children since that will not grow our church

I love what one woman named Katie  said. She said she wasn't going to let the church get in the way of her calling.  Katie wanted to start an art therapy program in her church to serve the neighborhood. The church vetoed this idea because the children weren't Christians and the program did not have an evangelical focus. Even worse the majority of the children in that neighborhood were Muslim. So Katie ended up starting her program and leaving her church. Her program has won numerous awards for civic engagement.

Why would a church want to lose a person like that? Why would you want to lose Someone who is a doer and takes the initiative to get it done?

Katie's program to help neighborhood children was shot down by church leaders because it would be helping non Christian children and the church did not see how it would help their bottom line by growing their membership. Call me crazy but let's just say that this program was freely giving their time and energy to the neighborhood children and people were being helped.

Some of the children and maybe some of their families may want to know more about the Lord. They may want to know more about who these people follow because they're so kind and loving.

I think the leader of the religion said: By your LOVE men shall know you are my disciples. Crazy thoughts I know but just an idea.

There's nothing for me to do there that's meaningful

That's what a man named Cole said about church and I agree. There is nothing meaningful or impactful for me to do there.

Then the question becomes, why?  My personal opinion is: most churches are in denial about who their most "faithful" members are.

The Walking Dead

Many of their most "faithful" members are walking dead people. They are asleep and not conscious. They sleepwalk through their lives and go through the motions of a service without being aware of the world around them. Many have simply disengaged from life and are dependent on church for their salvation so it doesn't bother them that their service in church is about pointless programs and eating chicken in the church fellowship hall.

They lost their fire a long time and ago and are now just going through the motions.

The "Dones" want to serve

When you have conscious people who are aware of what's going on outside of church world they want to start doing something about it within their faith community because faith to them is about service. The Done with church people are the done with meaningless and pointless activity.

As this book and all the books I've read on the subject discuss, the people leaving church aren't the “backsliders”. The people leaving are the doers. They're not the people that are just content to quote cliche scriptures, give church answers, attend church out of duty, and keep up appearances

The done with church people are the people who want to make an impact.  They want their lives to mean something. They want to be servants and not servants to keep the church doors open or pay the pastors' paycheck

I can tell you that when I was growing up in church they never preached about our lives having impact from the pulpit. We were never taught about purpose and living intentional lives. I didn't learn about that until after I became an adult.