This project is noteworthy because it consists of wide-ranging, current data targeting a specific problem—what the authors call “dechurching” Americans—former church members who no longer attend church. This decline is critical and unprecedented in the history of this country, and it requires a careful and urgent response from Christian leaders.
This book is also distinctive because its two primary authors are ministry practitioners. Jim Davis and Michael Graham, who minister at Orlando Grace Church near Orlando, Florida, team up with social scientist Ryan Burge, a professor at Eastern Illinois University and also a bi-vocational pastor.
The book combines analysis of recent trends with pastoral wisdom rooted in the Bible and a confessional Protestant approach. In fact, the authors spend a whole chapter talking about the need to be both “confessional” and “missional.”
By confessional, they mean giving priority to the teaching and preaching of doctrine and theology from the pulpit (and other mediums), in a way people understand. Confessional preaching grounds listeners deep in biblical truth, even the narrower confessional teachings of a given Christian tradition or denomination. By missional, they mean equally prioritizing evangelizing non-believers and keeping them through deep, teaching-based discipleship.
This feature alone makes the book stand out from so many in this genre. That characteristic led Reformed Theological Seminary President Ligon Duncan to say in his endorsement, “Instead of the mere pragmatism that often characterizes projects like this, the authors offer theological, confessional, and catechetical recommendations with ecclesiological convictions.”
Many pastors never pick up a book like this. They assume it will include more of the same pragmatism that sells books but never seems to foster healthy, biblically-faithful, and outward-reaching congregations. If you fit that skeptical category, you need to get this book. It will be like fresh air. You won’t agree with everything the authors say, but you’ll find great benefit in this volume.
The book surveys five types of formerly churched individuals to ascertain why they left the church and what could be done to get them back: 1) cultural Christians; 2) dechurched mainstream evangelicals; 3) exvangelicals; 4) dechurched BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color); and 5) dechurched mainline Protestants and Catholics.
Cultural Christians
By far the largest group, 52% of the dechurched are “cultural Christians.” Their attitude is “one of apathy with a hint of nostalgia.” (42). These individuals demonstrate little evidence they were ever genuine believers. Only 22% of them affirm the statement “the Bible is the literal Word of God.” They have what the authors call a “low orthodoxy score” but scored higher on the “prosperity gospel” measure.
Members of this group remain religiously active into their late 20s, but the pressures of work and family life gradually lead them to stop going to church. The fact that their initial attachment to Christianity was more cultural than theological and spiritual makes it easier for them to slip away.
This group is the second wealthiest and most educated group of the dechurched (next to ex-mainline Protestants and Catholics). Though they tend to be center-left politically, their nostalgia for their conservative upbringing is evident. For example, 59% of this group were favorable toward the desire to “restore our Christian nation” (45).
But morally, cultural Christians are a “somewhat malleable group,” scoring low on their views on morality compared with the other dechurched categories (46). Cultural Christians “were nominal to begin with in the depth of the knowledge of [Christian] basics. Christianity also no longer conferred to them any benefit in terms of career, social standing, or credibility” (49).
This group tends to be frustrated by what they perceive as their parents’ substituting politics and the “culture war” for their faith, and their parents’ “refusal to listen.” But what did members of this group say were their reasons for quitting church? The top reasons are as follows:
Friends don’t attend
Inconvenience
“Suffering changed my view of God.”
Gender identity/sexual freedom
Moved away
Clergy scandals
“I worship online.”
Sermons not relevant to life
Racism in the church
Other priorities
Doubting God’s goodness and existence
Most of the reasons this group left church are “social and experiential” (48). For most of them, what they need is “your dinner table. They probably won’t oblige your nudge or invitation to return to church, as they need more relational connectivity than that” (50).
One interesting part of this chapter is the section “Why Cultural Christians Can Be a Good Thing.” The authors draw on the biblical analogy of the “forecourt of the temple,” where people went who were interested but not fully members. They draw upon historical teaching from Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck for this idea.
The authors quote the Westminster Shorter Catechism regarding the “outward and ordinary means of grace” being “all his [God’s] ordinances [things God ordained], especially the word, sacraments, and prayer.” They rightly point out: “two-thirds of the ordinary means of grace—prayer and the Word—are fully available to anyone, regardless of where they are in their faith journey.” Thus we need to “extend the forecourt,” finding ways to show hospitality to this group to draw them into what the Spirit is doing in the church (50).
But how do we keep people from becoming dechurched cultural Christians? When they were in the church, this group lacked several things, most importantly “authentic friendship and sincere community” with the church and its members. They tend to come from “biblically and doctrinally shallow expressions of evangelicalism.” Their understanding of and commitment to the basics of the gospel, Christian morality, and Christian doctrine are very thin (52).
The authors suggest the best way to keep people from becoming cultural Christians is deep, authentic relationships and community combined with fostering biblically faithful and healthy local congregations “that clearly teach the Bible and catechize on the creeds and confessions” (52). The last thing dechurched cultural Christians need is to be lost in a crowd and served a thin gruel of shallow, culturally driven, non-doctrinal church life. That’s what produced them in the first place.
Dechurched Mainstream Evangelicals
Of this group, 20% have converted to Roman Catholicism, and 21% identified with some other expression of Christianity than evangelical (60). They trend center-right politically and are much more likely than churched evangelicals to believe we are living in the end times and to accept prosperity gospel.
This group, interestingly, has a more favorable view of evangelicals and scores higher on orthodoxy than churched evangelicals. “Their dechurching is simply because a wide variety of circumstances have gotten them out of the habit,” things like “COVID-19, travel baseball, divorce, a new baby, or moving” (58). Their main reasons for leaving church are:
Moved away
Inconvenience
Divorce/family change
COVID-19
“I didn’t fit in with the congregation.”
Not much love from the church
The good news about this group is that 100% are “actively willing” to return to church. Here are the main things they said would get them back:
New friends
“God tells me to go back.”
Finding a church they like
Feeling distance from God
“Missing” church
A good pastor
Spouse wants to
Lonely
“I find a church that takes both doctrine and ethics seriously.”
“I find a church that cares about justice and compassion.”
Exvangelicals
These individuals said they will never return to an evangelical church. The group is 65% female and 35% male, older (54 years old on average) than the average dechurched person, and typically less wealthy and educated than other dechurched people. They tend to vote center-left but “are the most critical” of any of the groups of “socialism, Marxism,” etc. They tend to be the most non-partisan, independent, and politically disinterested (69–70).
Another surprise is how orthodox exvangelicals are in their doctrinal affirmations. They are the second highest of all the groups of dechurched people who still claim to be Christians. But they feel both secular institutions and the church have “let them down.” They have “fallen through the cracks” both in America and in evangelical churches (73).
The main reasons they left the church are:
Didn’t fit in with the congregation
Moved away
Didn’t experience much love from the church
Inconvenience
Negative experiences with church
Disagreed with church’s/clergy’s politics
No longer believed what the congregation believed
Here are the things they indicated would lead them to return to church—even though most said they never will:
“God tells me to go back.”
“I find a church I like.”
A good pastor
Feel distance from God
Find a church that cares about justice and compassion
A sense of community
“Missing” church
Spouse wants to
“A miracle”
Survey responses indicate these individuals would be drawn to a church that does not play up partisan politics, is compassionate, values mental health, and expresses “understanding, empathy, and care from pastors and laypeople alike.” This group needs church people “who will commit to establishing authentic, long-term relationships with them even before there is enough substance to invite them to church events” (77).
BIPOC
The survey seemed to indicate that BIPOC (black, indigenous, or other people of color) people who are dechurched have different backgrounds and needs than the other groups. They represent 14% of those surveyed who left evangelical churches. This group is overwhelmingly black and male, with an average age of 52, and about 38% of them live in the Southeast. This is also the most mobile group, reflecting the largest percentage of people who recently moved.
This group trends slightly more center-left politically, but surprisingly, 57% of them agree the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was “an effort by patriots to protect and restore a Christian nation,” and 54% believe the “racial problems in the U.S. are rare, isolated situations.” BIPOC respondents also tend to be relatively orthodox compared to the majority of the dechurched. Why did they say they left evangelical churches? (87–92)
Struggled to fit in/belong
Found community online or at work
Wanted to enjoy benefits of surplus finances
“My faith was not my own, borrowed from family.”
Life got busy.
Bad experiences with church/evangelicals
College education caused doubts.
Lack of people my age
“I wanted to explore my sexuality.”
Particularly interesting with this group is what they said their parents could do to try to get them to return to church. The main things are:
The main things they said could make them return are:
New friends/loneliness
Child/spouse wants to
Sense of community/“friends invite me”
Feeling distance from God
“Missing” church
Supernatural phenomena
“Don’t have better options on Sunday morning”
Mainline Protestants & Catholics
The Catholics in this group are 48% female, while the mainline Protestants are 68% female. The authors explain, “we would have expected greater doctrinal disagreements between dechurched mainliners and dechurched Catholics, but we didn’t see much difference on several key doctrines” (105).
The orthodoxy score on both these groups was like the cultural Christians and dechurched BIPOC groups—much lower than dechurched mainstream evangelicals and exvangelicals.
Why did they leave the church? Their main reasons are:
Moved away
Other priorities for time/money
Didn’t fit in with congregation
Differed with politics of church/clergy
Doubted Christianity
Inconvenience
Clergy scandals
Divorce/family changes
Didn’t experience much love from congregation
“Faith just wasn’t working”
The main things that could get them back in church are that the church cares about 1) salvation; 2) dialoguing about important questions and strong church education/training; and 3) helping society through outreach and service programs.
This chapter compares this group to two other groups: 1) overall evangelical dechurched and 2) still- churched evangelicals in a number of standards they seek to follow.
On things like avoiding “discrimination based on race,” the overall evangelical dechurched got much lower scores than dechurched mainline Protestants and Catholics and still-churched evangelicals. However, dechurched mainline Protestants and Catholics were equally motivated to “help the poor and oppressed” (69%) as the overall evangelical dechurched (71%), while evangelicals who still go to church are much more likely (86%) motivated than any dechurched groups to provide for the poor (113).
Regarding aversion to things like lying, stealing, and being greedy, the overall dechurched evangelicals scored the lowest, the dechurched mainline Protestants and Catholics were in the middle, and the still-churched evangelicals were much higher (in the 90s%). When it came to avoiding abortion, dechurched mainline Protestants and Catholics were in the 40s%, overall dechurched evangelicals at 59%, and churched evangelicals at 77%. Overall dechurched evangelicals and dechurched mainline Protestants were more concerned about pornography (65% and 68% respectively) than dechurched Catholics (54%), but 84% of evangelicals who still attend church regard it important to avoid pornography (113).
When it came to regular prayer, dechurched mainline Protestants and Catholics and overall dechurched evangelicals scored in the 60s-70s% while still-churched evangelicals were at 92%. Yet regarding the importance of regular Bible reading, dechurched mainline Protestants and Catholics emphasized it the least (30s%), with the overall evangelical dechurched coming in at 55% and evangelicals who still attend church at 82% (113).
In the next issue, I’ll introduce what the authors say about ways to deal with the problem of the dechurched. Then, I’ll offer 22 strategies any kind of church can employ to keep people from becoming dechurched and to reintegrate dechurched people.
About the Writer: J. Matthew Pinson is president of Welch College: welch.edu.
