Why don’t people go to church?
June 3rd, 2009
I have spent the day preparing my presentation on, ‘The Bible in the Digital Space’ for the Christianity in the Digital Space conference in July at Durham University. As part of my prep I have been thinking a little about why people don’t go to church. So to assist this, I placed up on Twitter and Facebook the following,
‘ Interesting question: Why don’t people go to church? Thoughts?’
Within a couple of hours it had more than 50 responses. So I thought I would post the same question here and invite your comment:
‘ Interesting question: Why don’t people go to church? Thoughts?’
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14 Responses to “Why don’t people go to church?”
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There are lots of reasons of course but perhaps one is that there’s a greater awareness that God is at work in the world and can be encountered there, not just ‘in the sanctuary’ so people don’t feel the necessity to go to church to meet God.
It bores the crap out of them.
I agree with Janie. I think the main reasons are a.) a lack of community. They often only have surface-level relationships, the kind that you can experience just as well as when you are at the grocery store. We need each other and in a deep way. Many churches don’t foster relationships, they hold lectures. b.) a lack of something to be excited about. Most churches are about maintenance. The reason to go for people is to “maintain” their holiness, their appearance of being a Christian to their friends, their relationship with God. We need a cause. We need to know that we are part of a movement, something bigger that is stirring in the heart of the divine and reverberating throughout our community and into the world.
There is a lack of intellectuality in my church. To many rituals, to much religion. I miss the spirit of God and the intellect, which God created us with.
Why not also explore the alternative question: ‘Why DO people go to church?’ Church is by no means a lost cause, as you imply. A response to the negative version of your question might be,’Because many, perhaps most, church leaders, are not equipped to imagine a different way of doing church (most churches simply adopt secular management approaches). I warmly recommend Alan Roxburgh’s ‘The Missional Leader’ (Jossey Bass) for ideas on shaping church communities where people want to be. Interestingly, a certain style of Scripture engagement is the engine that drives it!
Church is supposed to be like a strong cross… a large vertical beam of worship and the presence of God, and a horizontal beam of fellowship and community… Many churches are like a plus sign. Think about it. Small vertical beam, small horizontal beam… lots of hype and service.
Trying not to be cynical, trying to be submitted to where and who God has placed me in… but I’ve also been pretty frustrated.
Go to church.
Sit down.
Stand up.
Three fast.
Two slow.
Sit down.
Stand up.
Pray a little.
Sit down.
30 minute sermon.
Stand up.
Give offering.
Sit down.
See you next sunday.
Go home.
What’s wrong with this picture???
I think a real obvious one is that many Christians don’t believe that church is a place to go. They believe it defines who they are. So the language is changing and it is profoundly affecting the behavior. If church is not a place to go but who I am, now what? If the church places got burned at once how would we church? Could we function as a Christian community in worship and growth and witness without the building, choir and 30 minute monologue. Many people are finding a profound sense of Christianity, free from the building… many, many
We are currently not going and the reason is a lack of hospitality. We moved to this city and attended the same church for two years. Pretty much nobody, including the pastor, bothered to learn our names and when we would see people out and about the town they wouldn’t say hello or return our hellos.
Making friends is not the reason we go to church but when peple are so unfriendly it makes it hard to be motivated…
A lack of Biblical Christianity. The early church in the book of Acts had boats! They had Fellow-Ship, Disciple-Ship, and Mentor-Ship! They met in homes daily. There focus was personal relationship. Because that is teh focus of teh Gospel. Today church is a big building where a group of people meet weekly for a lecture on how to relate to God but they don’t relate to eachother. There is a lot of focus on programs and messages. where is the purity of worship? Where is the Power of the Holy Spirit the church once had? Where are the saints shining the light of the Gospel by living the Love of Christ to eachother and a lost world. Where are the disciples who have studdied under the Master and can confidently lovingly and intellectually give a reason for the hope they have within them?! And Woe to me because I myself am too often part of the problem! I get lazy and let religion swallow up my faith. Lord help ME!
I don’t know why ‘they’ don’t go, but here’s why I don’t go any more(despite a long history of active service in the christian community).
I don’t feel free to drop in and out - I feel the pressure to stay, join, volunteer, do a job, give money, support others, make tea, lead, etc. (I’d like to go and sit, rest, rejuvenate)
I don’t feel welcome to be me and be accepted as me. (I feel the pressure to conform or play a more sanitised role. I swear, I’m gay and that’s not generally good enough (for people within the walls, however the level of authenticity and connection I have with those outside on the margins is very strong).
I don’t like being in a large group of people - it is not intimate to me and in my experience it has engendered a generic ‘christian’, superficial mob mentality (how can we possibly really know, support and encourage one another? - at best you clique or subset with people - is THAT church?).
I’m not committed to a text - I enjoy many sacred texts from various cultures that point me away from a self centred life and point towards a fuller and more balanced life that will contribute to the world.
I don’t hold a denominational or probably even exclusively Christian viewpoint, my journey has taken me on a rough ride and the places of soulful wilderness I’ve been to do not seem to have a place or resonance in the church.
Worship (to me) is never far from me, it is not a frame of mind I need to get in to, it just is - the divine is all around, all the time. I can sit on my front verandah and marvel at the sky, the breeze and the birds as I draw breath and feel the almighty waft over my lips and melt into my soul with every inhalation. I can do that unexpectedly as I drive to work. I haven’t found a group/church where I can be that connected without clutter, pressure or judgement.
Some people may stay away from churches because they fear that they will be met with judgement rather than love. They might perceive churches as “Clubs for the (self)Righteous”, rather than hospitals for sinners.
Some might stay away out of fear of showing themselves up as ‘ignorant’ because they don’t know the liturgies, prayers or hymns. Also little things like when to stand up and when to sit down, etc., can seem worrying to someone not used to churches and what goes on in them.
Many people don’t go to church every week because they don’t have a good enough reason to go. Not all who go to church don’t have a good enough reason either - many don’t even know the reason why they are there. For some of these people going to church is like buying a certain brand of toothpaste - they buy it because they always have - they clean their teeth and go to church because they went last week, and the week before, and the week before….
First, I wish to thank those who took time to respond to the question. This sharing has helped me to understand the decline in church attendance.
I am Catholic and I go to church because I have “God-ache” and I go to satisfy a need for a spiritual community. An observation I have made is there is too much sterility in what is presented as meaningful worship, communal prayer, and the breaking of bread with one another….pius prattle abounds and is dispiriting. Having said that, I have a responsiblity to personally grow in the understanding and exercise of my faith. To this end,a prayer group and study group have helped me not to lose sight of my relationship with the Lord and all my brothers and sisters.
There must be lots of reasons for going or not going to church.
One of the posters above said they gave up on church because people were unfriendly.
I belong to a great church where a lot of people are great friends.
Equally there are introverts and people with mental illness or depression who belong to the church family. I don’t think they should be used as an excuse by some people.
There are people who come to church whose body language CLEARLY says, ” Leave me alone”, I find they’re the ones who sit there for a year, ignore opportunities to get involved, and then clear off because other people are ‘unfriendly’.
We’re dealing with a generation of individualists who have not got the interpersonal skills to feel comfortable in groups, so church MUST create opportunities for individuals to hook up. Cafes, email, blogs, small issue based groups and courses.
Church also has to communicate the pathways into belonging and participating more clearly. Sometimes the inner circles remain closed to joiners.