the back door | exodus of believers from the institutional church system
CALLED OUT
“Leave the church you are attending. Leave the rock band you are playing in. Join up with this motley bunch of believers meeting in homes…”
His voice was cutting into my mind with the precision of a sharpened knife. Those words were not what I expected to hear, but without a doubt, they came from the Almighty. While not spoken audibly, the message was so powerfully impressed into my subconscious, and so free from manipulation, guilt or condemnation, I knew it was the voice of Jesus.
I was a lonely 19-year-old misfit, learning to play electric guitar in a band; learning graphic design at a polytechnic. I had been following Jesus for some nine years, and considered myself a committed Christian. However, I was proud of attending a large, cutting-edge city church. I didn’t fancy having to humble myself. But when the Son of God speaks forcefully into your heart, you have no option but to obey. I broke up with the rock band, and never went back to the Baptist church in town. Instead, I joined a dozen Christians who simply fellowshipped from house to house; without any agenda; without even a name. The immediate result to obeying God was unspeakable joy – this euphoria lasted for months; the direction of my life changed forever.
Fast forward 30 years. There is now a world-wide flow of Christians leaving the church. Before we proceed, this oxymoronic statement needs some clarification. The question must be asked: ‘how can a Christian leave the church?’ A true, baptised Christian is part of the universal Body of Christ, The Church. (If it’s possible to leave this, then he or she would become an unbeliever.)
So, what we are dealing with in this article is the concept of Christians forsaking the institutional form of Christianity that usually meets on a Sunday. It’s commonly referred to as the ‘organised church’, or the ‘religious system.’
CHURCHLESS
It is interesting to note that, in New Testament times, the original Greek word for church, Ecclesia meant ‘the called-out ones’. Certainly, the Lord called me out of the four walls of the traditional church I had known all my life. But this was not an isolated case – this is fast becoming a global phenomenon. Since the late 1990s, there has been a growing groundswell of Christians leaving their churches. According to the most quoted Christian in America, George Barna, in his book Churchless:
In the early 1990s, about 20% of American adults were ‘churchless’.
In the early 2000s, about 30% of American adults were ‘churchless’.
By 2015, the churchless made up nearly half the population of USA, at 43%.
However, Barna makes an important distinction between the church-less, and the de-churched. He suggests that approximately 33% of the American population are de-churched.
Do the maths. The US population is currently about 318 million. 33% of this figure is a whopping 105 million de-churched Americans. Realistically, though, the exact numbers are difficult to quantify purely using census figures – and mainly because the de-churched are ‘off the radar’.
Barna’s earlier book, entitled Revolution, documented this frightening fad. The author predicted that by 2025 only 35% of American Christians would still be participating in traditional forms of church.
More recently, this epic exodus has spawned more books on the subject. Pastor David Sawler has written The Goodbye Generation – a conversation about the church’s youth and the young adult retention crisis. He quotes the Barna research group:
Among adults aged 55+ who went to church as kids: 68% still go (to church) regularly.
Among adults aged 35+ who went to church as kids: 53% still go (to church) regularly.
Among adults aged under 35 who went to church as kids: 16% still go (to church) regularly.
David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, has penned You Lost Me – why young Christians are leaving church and re-thinking faith. David interviewed 8,000 people. He explains that “59% of young adults (18-29) with a Christian background have left the institutional church.” That statistic represents millions! According to this author, “More than half of all young people are distancing themselves from church.”
An ex-Kiwi, living in the USA, has a more shocking statistic, and even more damning explanation: “Why do 80% of youth leave church after leaving high school? I think they leave church because they are not part of The Church.” Ray Comfort blames false conversions, saying that these folks were never really Christians in the first instance. He also thinks that well-meaning parents have inoculated their teenage children against real faith.
These are the hard, cold facts. The landscape of Christianity as we knew it is fast changing, whether we like it or not. For some, this is a hard pill to swallow.
MISUNDERSTOOD
Church leaders see this unparalleled exodus as a dangerous and unbiblical trend. If you stop attending their services, many will glibly parrot Hebrews 10:25, which warns “…not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is….” However, it appears the writer of Hebrews was dealing with Jewish believers undergoing harsh persecution. Perhaps they thought if they stopped meeting publicly, then they couldn’t be identified so readily as Christians, and might escape persecution.
Many ministers also like to quote another verse from Hebrews: “Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account.” (Hebrews 13:17 ). While I believe in strong leadership, using random verses of Scripture to guilt-trip or manipulate the saints into submission is far from Christ-like. And this theme of submission has been abused by many in leadership to further their own agenda.
The most important point here, is that these Bible verses do not necessarily relate to our modern expressions of ‘church’. One should never overlay a snippet of Scripture onto a radically different situation, and in a totally different cultural context. That is called proof-texting.
From my own experience, in leaving four churches, after some years of involvement with their music teams and home-groups, it baffled me as to why no-one cared that I left. No-one phoned, emailed, or visited me. I just disappeared off the radar, out the back door of the church. This is a common grievance from church leavers. Perhaps those ‘on the inside’ feel shaken, and are allergic to asking the hard questions. A more troubling trend is for pastors to use fear, guilt and shame to marginalise those who have ‘deserted the flock’.
Psychologist David Riddell describes ‘whip words’ as those labels designed to strike fear into the hearts of a group of people, so they will not step out-of-line. No pilot wants to be branded a ‘cowboy’; no teacher wants to be discovered ‘not teaching the curriculum’. No Christian wants to be known as a ‘spiritual butterfly’, or a ‘back-slider.’ Other whip words include ‘divisive, lone rangers, or deceived.’ You may have heard ministers say that ‘so-and-so has a critical spirit; a bitter root; they are not a team player; they are in rebellion; they are hurt, etc. These labels are not only unhelpful, they are grossly inaccurate. These self-righteous assumptions and finger-pointing are a kick in the ribs to those already suffering spiritual abuse. True, many church leavers have been hurt, but for the vast majority, this is not the over-riding factor in their decision to depart the organised church system.
EXODUS
Let us now examine why millions of Christians are abandoning their congregations. What are their real reasons? Many books have researched these reasons which, though varied, have recurring themes.
Researcher George Barna, in Re-Churching the un-Churched, informs us that “relatively few un-churched people are atheists. Most of them call themselves Christians and have had a serious dose of church life in the past.”
More revealing is Pastor Allan Jamieson’s ground-breaking study of 100 church leavers in New Zealand. His first book was A Churchless Faith. This is a brief summary of Jamieson’s study:
94% of the church leavers had been leaders, such as deacons, elders or Sunday-school teachers
40% had been full-time Christian workers
For many, they left church, not because they had lost their faith, BUT BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO SAVE IT
The vast majority of church leavers interviewed said that no-one from their church had discussed with them why they had left
Josh Packard and Ashleigh Hope have recently published Church Refugees which underscores this dilemma:
“The de-churched typically struggle with the decision to leave for a long time. Some put up with spiritual abuse on a regular basis before finally leaving. Many see leaving the church as THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE THEIR FAITH.”
“While everyone’s story is unique, there are some common tensions that emerge among the de-churched:
They wanted community … and got judgment
They wanted to affect the life of the church … and got bureaucracy
They wanted conversation … and got doctrine
They wanted meaningful engagement with the world … and got moral prescription
“Refugees are people who’ve been forced from their homes for fear of persecution. That, in a nutshell, describes the de-churched. They feel they’ve been forced to leave a place they consider home because they feel a kind of spiritual persecution and it would be dangerous, spiritually, for them to remain. They tell stories of frustration, humiliation, judgment, embarrassment, and fear that caused them to leave the church. They remark time and again that they worked diligently for reform within the church but felt the church was exclusively focused on its own survival and resistant to change.”
Prophetic author Andrew Strom enlightens us: ‘they have not given up on Christianity … today’s church has given up on them.’ In 2003 Strom published an intriguing article, Out-of-Church Christians, where he revealed that “the surprising thing is that they were often the most committed kind of Christians – praying, insightful, deep-thinking. Yet they have grown tired of ‘playing the game’ inside our church system and have opted out. Often their involvement goes back many years. In fact, they had commonly been leaders of various kinds.”
This eye-opening revelation is backed-up by other research, particularly the 2015 book Church Refugees, which interviewed over 100 church leavers:
“Almost without exception, our respondents were deeply involved and devoted to their churches up until the moment they left. They were integrated into leadership structures
and church life, often organising daily life around the church and attending some kind of church function two or more times a week. They’re the kind of people who are drawn to activity. They’re the ones who, prior to leaving, showed up at worship every week and tithed. They organised and participated in small-group activities, Bible studies, worship planning, church councils, elder teams, and a plethora of other activities and services that are the lifeblood of churches big and small. They’re the opposite of the free riders who consume church resources but contribute little.”
From reading countless emails from those saints who have left their churches, it is ironical to find their real reasons for leaving:
Hunger for God
Spiritual abuse
Distaste of church politics
Controlling leadership that is authoritarian, manipulative, greedy, and partial
Being ostracised, alienated or ignored for not conforming to the pastor’s vision
Needs not met
Not allowed to minister - The priesthood vs. laity split
Tithing, and too much emphasis on money
Performance-oriented Sunday services
Pastor-driven, rather than Spirit-led meetings
Tired of programs, which have become more important than people
Sick of church-growth techniques and building funds
Predictable, boring or irrelevant meetings
SPIRITUAL HUNGER
It is important to recognise, however, that the common denominator amongst all of these wandering disciples was their over-riding hunger for God. Their primary justification for abandoning ‘the system’ was their desire for intimacy with God – they couldn’t see Him moving inside the church ‘machine’. Below are some lyrics to my song ‘Man of Sorrows’ which reflect this thought.
The pastor’s preaching up a storm The people go along He promises prosperity, but I sense something is wrong
I hear the clash of cymbals The symphony of tongues I cannot hear the Still Small Voice Just the crash of drums
One free believer has lamented: “I get so sick of preachers raving on about the awesome presence of God in the place, when, in reality, there’s little more than a lot of hot air coming from the front.”
When a pastor creates an idol of the church building program; when they portray pride and self-glorification, calling themselves ‘The Lord’s Anointed’; when they beat their sheep into submission, or fleece the flock by using Old Testament verses … our ‘yuk meter’ goes off, and we leave.
Caveat: If you are a pastor, you have the most difficult job in the world. I do not envy your position. In today’s consumerist church climate, a minister is likely to last about five years. This article is not about bashing leadership, or being anti-church. Rather, this discussion is centred on why the most dedicated church-goers are opting out of ‘the system.’
INTO THE WILD
Sometimes, one must be ‘on the outside’ to see what’s really going on. So, another common factor in these believers’ testimonies, is that they feel called into a spiritual wilderness, where they can ask the hard questions in order to deepen their faith – and be alone with God.
Actually, spending time in the wilderness is a very Scriptural concept. Most of the Biblical heroes were tested and trained in the wilderness, including Moses, David, the Prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus and Paul.
After seven years ‘in the wilderness’, Andrew Strom says “I believe God took me out of the church system, because of the faults in me. He desires to save us from ourselves.” Strom continues to define this part of the Christian experience: “The wilderness is a valid place for people who are being broken, trained, and moulded by God. The wilderness is not the answer in itself – it is a waypoint. There is much truth in the concept of God using the wilderness – not so much as to get people out of the system – but rather, TO GET THE SYSTEM OUT OF THE PEOPLE.”
So, this ‘out-of-the-Body’ experience is not all negative. It’s a time of purging, de-toxing, cleansing, preparation, and testing. It appears that God is training many of his seasoned veterans for something new.
However, Andrew Strom warns against the dangers of getting too comfortable in the ‘wilderness.’ The children of Israel loved the wilderness more than the Promised Land, so most of them died in the desert. Spending the rest of one’s life in a spiritual wilderness is not Scriptural, and the Bible depicts only one type of Christianity: corporate. Past revivals have also been a corporate experience, with no room for lone rangers.
Another danger of those ‘on the outside’ of the religious system is spiritual pride and elitism. Some ‘free believers’ have become so set against religion, that they are ‘religiously non-religious’. These dogmatic folks criticise any Christian work that is ‘organised’ or has ‘leadership’. They champion meetings with no leaders, but fail to recognise that the early church had strong leadership, organisation and structure.
MOVE OF GOD?
Finally, we must ask the inevitable question: is this exodus a new move of God?
Strom: “It seems that there is a tremendous groundswell of dissatisfaction occurring in the Church right now. Could it be that God Himself may be causing this, to prepare for a great change and reformation amongst His people?”
American pastor David Sawler sums up this thought: “Even though a lot of churches may close, The Church is doing incredibly well … God is up to something. He’s taking a lot of things that have held The Church back. We have so much money tied up in buildings. Maybe the best thing that could happen is if we lost them all.”
I will give the last word to the authors of Church Refugees:
“The de-churched are tenacious and resourceful, drawing on their immense networks, knowledge, and training to engage in meaningful activity. They’re finding ways to be the Church outside of the institution. But the Church will survive these challenges. Indeed, the Church … has survived much more significant challenges than those it is currently experiencing. The question is not whether the Church … will exist in 25 years. The question is entirely about what form it will take.”
To finish the chapter, here’s the words of a 20-year-old song writer:
Sunday morning, how absurd Empty songs full of empty words We say we are the Chosen Few Frozen in our pews
There must be more to Church Than looking at the back of someone’s head There must be more to God Than praying prayers and breaking bread I say we need Someone to raise us from the dead …
Cartoon by Mick Mooney | Searching For Grace.com
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