The Great Dechurching
About nine months ago, I ran across the book entitled The Great Dechurching. I didn’t even know “dechurching” was a word! But there it was right on the front cover! The book is a sociological study asking the question, “Why is it that 40 million American Christians have left church in the last 25 years?” The authors delineate four different categories of Christians: (1) Cultural Christians (2) Dechurched mainstream evangelicals (3) Evangelicals and (4) Black, indigenous, or “people of color” Christians.
The book was both disturbing and encouraging. It was disturbing because it highlighted some uncomfortable realities. For example, 68% of dechurched evangelicals said their parents played a role in their decision to quit church. Five reasons were given (See pgs. 9-10):
(1) Their constant emphasis on culture wars
(2) Their lack of their joy, kindness, or generosity
(3) Their inability to listen
(4) Their inability to engage another point of view
(5) Their racial attitudes or actions
It was encouraging because the authors continued to give examples of how we could invite people back to church. In other words, many of those who have left are open to coming back.
The authors also noted that the key in many cases was discipleship! And discipleship in their minds involved EQ (Emotional Intelligence). In chapter 9, they described “relational wisdom” as necessary to regaining the trust of many of those who have left. By relational wisdom they meant self-awareness, God awareness, and others awareness. My friend Pete Scazzero defines emotional maturity as self-awareness and the ability to love others well. As cultural power for Christians continues to shift, ministry leaders must grow in their ability to disciple people through the loss of that power. The authors emphasize our place as exiles. Older Christians feel like America is shifting underneath their feet and their reactivity to those shifts, and the anxiety flowing out of it, has pushed their children away.
Another interesting reality drawn out in the book is that the higher the educational level the more likely people were to either remain in a church, or to return once they left. This counter-intuitive reality means that for most educated Americans, Christianity actually makes sense.
Towards the end of the book, the authors said this, “If we wish for people to return to the church, we need to make sure that we are building churches, and institutions, that are healthy. A healthy local church will be one that strives to be increasingly growing in our true, good, and beautiful gospel”. (pgs. 195-196)
There’s obviously a great deal that I could say in this review. However, what I want to leave you with is the reality that VitalChurch Ministry is set up to address the very issues brought out in this book. We focus on the gospel as central, we promote emotional health, we avoid political controversy, we seek to make discipleship the main focus of attention. We will continue to do all of this and more to bring as many people into a life transforming relationship with Christ as we can.
