Top 10 Reasons People Leave Your Church
Posted on 09. Sep, 2009 by Steve Swisher in Small Groups
Here are the top ten reasons LifeWay Research found why people switch churches:
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%)
SOURCE: The Biblical Recorder… Read more here.
In reading through the list, some of the reasons stand out to me. As a pastor I would look at some of the reasons people gave for leaving a church and conclude that there are probably some reasons not mentioned here. Not surprisingly nobody said, “I was being used by Satan to destroy the church and when someone called me out on it I left.” I think that’s probably what was meant by some of the folks who said, “Pastor was judgmental of others”.
But number one and two on the list were the stats that jumped out at me. It seems to line up with stats that report that if people don’t get involved in a small group they will eventually leave the church. I think that the number one and two responses scream out the need for small groups. Bottom line, if you’re not encouraging and pushing people to get involved in small groups you might as well push them out the door.
Finally, what’s with the 16% that said the pastor was not a good preacher? Uh…most pastors I know don’t get much better or much worse at preaching over time. Why join a church that has a pastor that can’t preach and then a few months later leave because he’s not a good teacher? Not sure I follow that one. I’m guessing it probably is a reflection of their lack of involvement in small groups. Sunday morning preaching isn’t enough to sustain someone’s spiritual growth. My guess is that the preaching was good for them when they were new Christians, but as they grew in their faith they were yearning for more depth and interaction with the Bible. Then, since it’s the pastor’s job to cater every message to their specific spiritual needs (which by the way a small group can actually do) and the pastor didn’t adjust his preaching to meet your spiritual growth needs, you left.
I told our church members last month, that if they weren’t going to get involved in a small group then don’t expect to grow and don’t expect to be happy here in 6 months. It just won’t work without small groups. Think of it this way, there are 168 hours a week. The average American spends about 46 hours at work, 31 watching TV, about 5 hours with the family, and less than 2 hours at church on Sunday mornings assuming they have perfect attendance for the year. Basically without small groups we’re spending about one percent of our waking hours focused on spiritual growth and expecting that one percent to grow us into the image of Christ. Fat chance. The answer isn’t finding another church, it’s finding a small group!!!
Here’s another posting about what to do with people who leave.
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