People are Leaving their Churches in Droves Today

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

Dubee

Member
I’m writing a book about the new phenomenon of people leaving their churches in droves these days. Similar to the Age of Enlightenment in the late sixteen hundreds and early seventeen hundreds when our Founding Fathers were writing up the Constitution. Thomas Paine’s book “Common Sense” helped our great leaders form new ideas about freedom - free speech, and freedom of religion. Did you know our first four Presidents were non-believers? Thomas Paine’s book “The Age of Reason” inspired them.

My question to you is, if you left your church, what was your reason for doing so? A bad experience? Not enough time? No longer a believer, or just tired of it? No judgement or preaching here. I left because of Thomas Paine’s book, “The Age of Reason”. I still believe in God, our Creator, and give Him thanks every day for all He has given to me. How about you?
 

I assume you mean leaving a church and not going to a different church. One of my sons no longer goes to church. I think he had negative experience with other church goers. When he moved, a bunch of people from the church he was involved with said they would help, but none showed up. He experienced "faith without works", which the book of James says "is dead".

On the other hand, I was out pushing snow this winter, and a guy from church drives by with his plow. He stops and comes back and plowed my driveway. And he helps a lot of others as well. Previous to this, he came out at 9 at night after his regular job, and spent an hour cleaning up the mess that the town snowplow left and he wanted no money. But I left a check and a thank you card in his church mailbox. I noticed a bunch of other cards in his box!
 
The few that still attend church, I believe, leave their faith at the door when they leave. Some attend church for the simple reason of "What can I get out of it." Internal politics, a self-righteous pastor that preaches anything but salvation, and cliquey parishoners can cause others to leave.
 

Michael Z said:
I assume you mean leaving a church and not going to a different church. One of my sons no longer goes to church. I think he had negative experience with other church goers. When he moved, a bunch of people from the church he was involved with said they would help, but none showed up. He experienced "faith without works", which the book of James says "is dead".

On the other hand, I was out pushing snow this winter, and a guy from church drives by with his plow. He stops and comes back and plowed my driveway. And he helps a lot of others as well. Previous to this, he came out at 9 at night after his regular job, and spent an hour cleaning up the mess that the town snowplow left and he wanted no money. But I left a check and a thank you card in his church mailbox. I noticed a bunch of other cards in his box!
Click to expand...
Thanks for your two stories. Much appreciated. Yes, a bad experience in a church is a common reason, and the man from a nearby church was very helpful and kind. That was nice of him to do that. There are a lot of good people out there.
 
debodun said:
The few that still attend church, I believe, leave their faith at the door when they leave. Some attend church for the simple reason of "What can I get out of it." Internal politics, a self-righteous pastor that preaches anything but salvation, and cliquey parishoners can cause others to leave.
Click to expand...

Yes, those are a lot of many reasons people leave their church. Thank you.
 
My aunt was a Christian all her life, and tried very hard to involve me in her church (but, not my half-siblings, for some reason).

In my early teens, I chose to go to different churches with friends .. Anglican, Catholic. I also went to the
Buddhist church, the occasional times my mother attended.

We chose not to indoctrinate our daughter into any religion as she was growing up. Her o/h, having been
a student at a Catholic school, and an altar boy, has turned to Buddhism.
 
At times, when I am weak, I struggle with my faltering beliefs. How could I not? There are billions of galaxies like ours, another billion or so Universes! And there is supposed to be a God who knows every hair on my head? Absurd!

Yet .. yet .. some unexpected Force touched me, communicated with me. No, not in words, but through making me aware of His awesome, loving presence on a daily basis.

He sent me to college (seminary) at the age of forty-two. I held down a night job while traveling sixty miles every day, for three years, to attend classes at a neighbouring town! No illusion can do that for such a prolonged period of time.

To the scoffers I would say, keep an open mind! Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And He is a great deal larger and more inclusive and loving than the God of narrow fundamentalists!

And, yes, He/She (since a Spirit is sexless) can even be found in the right churches. When you're really down, look for Him. He may just surprise you!
 
Last edited:
Dubee said:
I’m writing a book about the new phenomenon of people leaving their churches in droves these days. Similar to the Age of Enlightenment in the late sixteen hundreds and early seventeen hundreds when our Founding Fathers were writing up the Constitution. Thomas Paine’s book “Common Sense” helped our great leaders form new ideas about freedom - free speech, and freedom of religion. Did you know our first four Presidents were non-believers? Thomas Paine’s book “The Age of Reason” inspired them.
My question to you is, if you left your church, what was your reason for doing so? A bad experience? Not enough time? No longer a believer, or just tired of it? No judgement or preaching here. I left because of Thomas Paine’s book, “The Age of Reason”. I still believe in God, our Creator, and give Him thanks every day for all He has given to me. How about you?
Click to expand...
I left my church and I won't go back. The reason is small minded people, their cliques, their superior smug attitudes, the way they drove away anyone who remotely threatened their way of doing things. A small group ran all things and strutted around full of their own power. They made everyone else feel inferior and somehow not worthy. Over and over again they froze out younger folks who were enthusiastic Christians. I watched all this as an ordinary member of the already tiny congregation. I watched the arguments, the pain they caused. My anger simmered privately.

The covid crisis provided the perfect excuse to stay away.

I am a committed Christian, I can pray and read my Bible perfectly well on my own or with like minded friends. I expect the local church will close soon, they are all old and dying off. This is what happens if change and new blood is rejected, growth stunted.
 
Old Salt said:
At times, when I am weak, I struggle with my faltering beliefs. How could I not? There are billions of galaxies like ours, another billion or so Universes! And there is supposed to be a God who knows every hair on my head? Absurd!

Yet .. yet .. some unexpected Force touched me, communicated with me. No, not in words, but through making me aware of His awesome, loving presence on a daily basis.

He sent me to college (seminary) at the age of forty-two. I held down a night job while traveling sixty miles every day, for three years, to attend classes at a neighbouring town! No illusion can do that for such a prolonged period of time.

To the scoffers I would say, keep an open mind! Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And He is a great deal larger and more inclusive and loving than the God of narrow fundamentalists!

And, yes, He/She (since a Spirit is sexless) can even be found in the right churches. When you're really down look for Him. He may just surprise you!
Click to expand...
You felt the Holy Spirit. I rejoice to hear this because I know he is real.
 
I read recently that most of the people who have been leaving the church recently, are still searching for something spiritual. But whatever they are looking for was not provided by churches. It's just a claim. No data was included. Apparently outright atheism is gaining popularity, but still a small minority. I tend to believe the claim is true. Society is becoming more divided on issues, but churches seem to be slower in keeping up with the changing values.
 
When we moved to the south, the bible belt, everyone went to church. The first question people asked when meeting you was "where do y'all go to church".
Our children were in grade school and I didn't want them to be seen as heathens so we joined a church.
We soon found out that we all felt out of place. The youngest still went to Sunday school with her friends for a time.
Now we drive by that church and say " remember when we went to church that time?"
We did enjoy sunrise Sunday Easter service at Garden of the Gods when we lived in Colorado. More spiritual, less snake handing (just kidding....I swear)
My husband and I both "had a church" growing up and attended Sunday school but neither of us joined a church in our moves. Maybe if we stayed in our hometowns we would have attended more.
I have nothing against church and sometimes feel that we miss that community that church provides. I don't know, as we get older maybe we'll be drawn but not so far.
This doesn't mean we don't believe in God.
 
Rose65 said:
I left my church and I won't go back. The reason is small minded people, their cliques, their superior smug attitudes, the way they drove away anyone who remotely threatened their way of doing things. A small group ran all things and strutted around full of their own power. They made everyone else feel inferior and somehow not worthy. Over and over again they froze out younger folks who were enthusiastic Christians. I watched all this as an ordinary member of the already tiny congregation. I watched the arguments, the pain they caused. My anger simmered privately.

The covid crisis provided the perfect excuse to stay away.

I am a committed Christian, I can pray and read my Bible perfectly well on my own or with like minded friends. I expect the local church will close soon, they are all old and dying off. This is what happens if change and new blood is rejected, growth stunted.
Click to expand...
I feel so bad for you! And I can really identify with your struggles. I was Pastor to a church like yours and they sent me into a nervous breakdown and robbed me of my belief in organized Christianity! I swore at the time: Lord, I know that you have called me but the only way I will go back into this will be if you are unmistakingly calling me. I got a call, out of the blue, a few years later and ended up with three rural congregations that completely restored my faith in "Church!" They loved and supported me and my sick wife for ten years! During the last three years of my ministry I had to run to the city three times a week for dialysis yet not a sign of discontent in connection with a pastor who had turned into a part timer! 23 years later I still love those people!
 
Last edited:
hearlady said:
When we moved to the south, the bible belt, everyone went to church. The first question people asked when meeting you was "where do y'all go to church".
Our children were in grade school and I didn't want them to be seen as heathens so we joined a church.
We soon found out that we all felt out of place. The youngest still went to Sunday school with her friends for a time.
Now we drive by that church and say " remember when we went to church that time?"
We did enjoy sunrise Sunday Easter service at Garden of the Gods when we lived in Colorado. More spiritual, less snake handing (just kidding....I swear)
My husband and I both "had a church" growing up and attended Sunday school but neither of us joined a church in our moves. Maybe if we stayed in our hometowns we would have attended more.
I have nothing against church and sometimes feel that we miss that community that church provides. I don't know, as we get older maybe we'll be drawn but not so far.
This doesn't mean we don't believe in God.
Click to expand...
It is sad, because church should be a great way to enhance and grow faith. It so often does the opposite.
 
Old Salt said:
I feel so bad for you! And I can really identify with your struggles. I was Pastor to a church like yours and they sent me into a nervous breakdown and robbed me of my belief in organized Christianity at the time! I swore at the time: Lord, I know that you have called me but the only way I will go back into this will be if you are unmistakenly calling me. I got a call, out of the blue, a few years later and ended up with a church that completely restored my faith in "Church!" They loved and supported me and my sick wife for ten years! I had to run to the city three times a week for dialysis yet not a sign of discontent in connection with a pastor who had turned into a part timer! 23 years later I still love those people!
Click to expand...
That such an inspiring experience. I am glad for you.
 
As once said in a TV show ironically paraphrased....... "it not that the person does not believe in something but doubts they are taking attendance"
Some of the most distasteful people i know use church going like a get out of hell free card they attend but once out the door nothing follows....
More people might have realized that after not attending through covid and seeing they can still practice belief and faith without others in a room
 

Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top