The Great Dechurching, Part 2: How do we get people back to church?

We now review the second half of The Great Dechurching. The authors begin on a couple of positive notes.

First, surprisingly, millions of the dechurched are still orthodox in their doctrinal beliefs. They believe the Bible is the Word of God, that Jesus is the Son of God and died an atoning death and rose from the dead, and that he will one day return. Second, a large portion of the dechurched said they plan to return some day or they would like to return given the right circumstances. The dechurched have to be persuaded that church attendance is part and parcel with doctrinal orthodoxy. The authors make a rather remarkable statement: “Many of the dechurched people in our lives don’t need to be convinced that regular church attendance has value; they need to be encouraged to do what they already know they should.”

So let’s look at nine steps that can be taken to get them back:

1.   Invite people back to church: “If there is one single application from our research that you walk away with, please let it be this: invite your dechurched friends back to a healthy church with you. The majority of people who have dechurched are willing to return.”  That’s right. The research shows that a great majority of the dechurched are very open to returning.

2.   Give people a sense of belonging. What would be the primary factor getting them back? Friendships with people in the church. Churches need to focus on how to make their congregations relationship friendly. Check the video below on this topic.

3.   Pastors should focus their pulpit ministry on things that will help the unchurched. Preach the Gospel. Many of the dechurched have never been truly born again and need to have a personal experience with Christ. Preach the importance of Christians gathering together.  Take people deeper in their knowledge of the Bible. Nothing will help more.

4.   Strike a healthy balance between discipleship and outreach. It is important to be missional—to reach the lost. It is also important to train and equip the people who already attend. Churches need to do both. But striking a balance can be difficult. Each set of congregational leaders need to devote a lot of time and prayer to this and decide where the balance is for their church.

5.   Focus attention on retaining your children. This is a long view aspect of dealing with dechurching. Parents need to be trained in best practices for raising children to go to church. There is a lot of literature on this and I link some below. Closely related, develop a pro-family atmosphere that will encourage parents to have more children. There is a flood of online discussion about this right now, especially since the greatest threat to western civilization is the birth dirth—people are not having children. Birth rates are at their lowest point in the history of the human race. It doesn’t take any special genius to know that congregations with larger families have a healthier future.

6.   The authors have a chapter called “Embracing Exile.” Don’t worry about being culturally marginalized or condemned by the wider society. Who cares what the cultural elite think. In fact, embrace our status. It certainly didn’t hurt the early church and it won’t hurt us. It’s part of being a Christian.

7.   Don’t be surprised, wounded, or discouraged when people leave. Every pastor faces this crisis if he has a ministry that lasts longer than a half hour. Laymen in the church need also to develop a thick skin. People will depart from your church for a host of reasons. You cannot take it personally. You must rise above it. You have to focus on the people who are there, not those who aren’t.

8.   Pray. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is still the number one factor in church growth. Be patient while you pray. Many times I have seen churches laboring away for years or decades when all of a sudden, like a mighty rushing wind, the Spirt blows in and brings real revival. Wait for it. Don’t try to manufacture it.

9.   The church simply needs to do the things the church has always done. As I have told my students at both secular and Christian universities, the Christian church does the best job of creating community of any institution in the history of the world. Christianity is labor intensive. It takes a lot of man-hours to produce disciples. Anyone raising children knows it takes tens of thousands of hours to produce a functioning adult. The same is true for a functioning disciple of Jesus Christ. Be prepared to put in the long hours necessary to raising up the saints, just as a parent understands that it will require long hours to raise a child to maturity.

I hope all this encourages you. Please check out the links below. I think you will find them helpful. May the Lord bless you this day in a mighty way.

More: The Great Dechurching: Why Forty Million Americans Have Stopped Going to Church; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1vYclo5GFU

 “Why I Changed My Mind About Christianity” https://studio.youtube.com/video/5XnXgq-Cbgs/edit

The Great Dechurching on Amazon

The best prevention of dechurching is the Christian home:

https://mereorthodoxy.com/how-do-our-kids-stay-christian

Following are some outstanding videos from Reach Keep that address the steps above.

Reach Keep is the best site on the web for practical ideas on building the local church: https://www.youtube.com/@user-vw3to9lx3b

How to have an excellent nursery in your church: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKu3-WJsWss&t=82s

Getting the dechurched to come back: “Invite-How to Get Normal People to Come to Church” - https:// youtu.be/0X51Xcbbrrw

Giving visitors and new members a sense of belonging-Making Your Church a Fertile Landing Ground- https://youtu.be/sWp31pt-2lI

For pastors, making their pulpit more effective: The Pastor and His Preaching- The 9 Fundamentals of Pastoral Preaching; Overview https://youtu.be/Z0aId9b2lAU

The importance of Focusing on Children- “Why Older Pastors Often Struggle to Attract and Retain Younger Families in Their Local Church”; https://youtu.be/ dMHO0GuJjzs