why do people stay with/leave a church?

Taken from churchrelevance.com:


QUESTION:
Do you have any statistics that show the top 5 reasons why people stay or connect with a church? - Debbie :: California

ANSWER:
In recent years, there have been several research studies hoping to discover what motivates church attendance. I previously blogged about research from LifeWay Research and Gallup. Both of those studies offer good insights but can be general.

My favorite resource on the topic is Thom S. Ranier’s book Surprising Insights from the Unchurched. It discusses the following three surveys.

Top 13 Reasons that Unchurched People Choose a Church
(research conducted by Ranier)

1. 90% - Pastor/Preaching
2. 88% - Doctrines
3. 49% - Friendliness of Members
4. 42% - Other Issues
5. 41% - Someone Church Witnessed to Me
6. 38% - Family Member
7. 37% - Sensed God’s Presence/Atmosphere of Church
8. 25% - Relationship Other than Family Member
9. 25% - Sunday School Class
10. 25% - Children’s/Youth Ministry
11. 12% - Other Groups/Ministries
12. 11% - Worship Style/Music
13. 7% - Location

Top 9 Reasons that Church-Attenders Choose a Church
(research conducted by the Barna Group in 1999)

1. 58% - Doctrine/Theology
2. 53% - People Caring for Each Other
3. 52% - Preaching
4. 45% - Friendliness
5. 45% - Children’s Programs
6. 43% - Helping the Poor
7. 36% - Denomination
8. 35% - Like the Pastor
9. 26% - Sunday School

prayer.

"Prayer is not made so that God can find out what we need, because Jesus tells us, "Your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matthew 6:8). God wants us to pray because prayer expresses our trust in God and is a means whereby our trust in him can increase. In fact, perhaps the primary emphasis of the Bible's teaching on prayer is that we are to pray with faith, which means trust or dependence on God."

-Wayne Grudem

give it away.

The following is a reply from Steve Sellers to a question about Campus Crusade's biggest ministry opportunity:

"I think the greatest opportunity for us as an organization is in giving the ministry away.

I feel God is calling us to take all that we have and using it to empower others to do ministry.

Home Depot has the saying, "You can do it, we can help." I often think about how that phrase applies to us.

Too often we think of ministry as what we do. But what we ought to do is work with others and tell them, "You can minister, we can help."

The question then becomes, "How do we give the ministry away? How do we help people own it so when they are out in the workplace, campus and inner city, they minister to those around them?"

Instead of just thinking about what we do as staff members and how the professionals do ministry, we need to make it simple, motivational and exciting so the average person is able to take the lead and do it on their own.

Right now, with the economy the way it is, people are worried about home foreclosures. Their families are struggling, people can't make their payments and they're losing their jobs.

We can try to run out and do more ministry, but we can only do so much on our own. The real answer is to help people learn how to minister to those around them who are going through these trials.

Campus Crusade for Christ has about 500,000 donors who give regularly to the ministry. Instead of thinking about how we can make our 5,000 staff members more effective, we need to enlist 500,000 people in ministry and help equip them to minister in the context that God has placed them in."

this world.

From John Piper’s biography on Wikipedia:

“On January 11, 2006, Piper announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. According to a letter sent to his church, he and his doctors believed that the cancer was fully treatable. Piper's reaction to his diagnosis was: "This news has, of course, been good for me. The most dangerous thing in the world is the sin of self-reliance and the stupor of worldliness. The news of cancer has a wonderfully blasting effect on both. I thank God for that. The times with Christ in these days have been unusually sweet." Piper underwent successful surgery on February 14, 2006.”

The “stupor of worldliness.” Wow, I love that he calls it what it is, and I hate that I am in that stupor more than I should be. Aren’t we all, though? It's bad when we are, but what's worse is when we think we aren't.

the desk.

I am typing this from my old laptop, which is sitting on allison's desk in the office of our little white house. I thought, now that people have stopped living with us over the summer, maybe I could use the office/guest bedroom as an office. But I gave away my old hand-me-down desk. Allison is allowing me to use hers. She is very nice. So is the desk.

The desk is a key piece of furniture in my eyes. I need a place to focus, peace and prayer- there will be many, many prayers said aloud, and in silent, at this desk. Depends on the day. Depends on the hour of the day, really. Or even the minute. Raising support is such a rollercoaster somedays. Most days. Speaking of frustrations, no word on when the new laptop will be fixed. Hoping soon. And hoping free.

Hm. Well, for now, back to singing along to a burned cd whirring in the background, and back to work. It's a nice desk, and I think it will serve me well while I am here.

t-shirts.

I saw a guy with his wife and two children in a coffee shop the other day. He had on a t-shirt with a screen-print image of a gun that said "Guns don't kill people. Abortions do." Wow. I have no idea if he is a Christian and I'll probably never see him again. I couldn't not stare at his shirt and wonder if this guy enjoyed the kind of reactions he probably gets from people. Such a harsh statement for an issue that is really raw. I don't really even know what to write.

big brother.

A loyal fan for the last several years, this season included, I've seen my fair share of strategies played out on the tv show big brother. I'm going out on a limb here to say that I predict Michelle to win BB11. She's intelligent, friendly, flies under the radar, doesn't get dragged into drama, (and stays quiet when she does), and is an all-around good player. I think she has a super good shot.

Atheist Spokesman for Campus Crusade for Christ?

A few days/weeks ago I posted a link to a video on youtube. The video featured Penn Gillete (1/2 of Penn and Teller) talking about his encounter with a Christian who was trying to share with him. He's a devout Atheist, but had some interesting things to say about prosthelytizing.

In this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS7oFvoESo8
Penn tells about a letter that Campus Crusade sent him asking for use of his videocasts. Very interesting to hear his point of view. It is obvious he respects Christians that are firm and vocal about what they believe, though he does not believe the same thing. What a good lesson I've learned from his interactions with Christians- not only for how I should act around people in terms of bringing up spiritual things, but also for how I should treat others who disagree with me.

The Goodness of God

I can find these lyrics no where on the Internet, so I thought I would write them out:

My God is a giver, an overflowing river,
pouring His lavish love on us.
Season after season, we give Him every reason
to stop- but He never does.

Oh, the goodness of God is flooding my heart with peace
Oh, the goodness of God is bringing me to my knees

My God is a Father, who ransoms sons and daughters
pouring His costly love on us.
His greatest treasure given so we could be forgiven;
His son crushed to make us whole.

Oh the Goodness of God is flooding my heart with peace
Oh the Goodness of God is bringing me to my knees

We say we believe You are good
We believe You are good
We believe You are good
We believe You are good

We say we believe You are good
We believe You are good, You are good
We say We believe You are good
We believe You are good

Oh, the goodness of God is flooding my heart with peace
Oh, the goodness of God is bringing me to my knees

penn video!

Here's the link to the Penn video I've told a lot of people about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JHS8adO3hM&feature=fvsr

justification.

In the opening talk at CSU this summer, Tim Keller talked about the Gospel, and why it's super important to have in us as Christians. At the beginning he mentioned an analogy from his wife of a coke machine [aka Christian]; you can put the quarters [Gospel] in it [us] but you won't get a coke [Fruit] unless you pound it [pound it] until the money [message] get to the center [center] of the machine [heart]. Clever analogy to me.

Keller's passage of discussion was Romans 3:21-28 and free justification, a "sharp edge of the Gospel we tend to blur." Keller claims that on this concept, the quarters don't drop for many of us, including some of his congregation members. This could be a reason why effects of the Gospel aren't present in a Christian's life.

He then goes on to make a distinction between righteousness form God and self-righteousness, explaining that when we nowadays use the term righteousness, people often mean/interpret it as self-righteousness. The two are not synonyms. We must present righteousness when we present the Gospel.

The next term Keller explains/defines is 'VPR:' validating performance record. When you go to a job interview, you state your work accomplishments. When you go to a grad school interview, you state your intellectual accomplishments. I used to find my identity in my resume (definitely a VPR). I tried for years to no longer find my worth and belonging in what I accomplish, but I never really understood what to find it in besides "Christ." I mean, He is who I should find my identity in, but I never really knew what that meant and no one would really explain it.

In the past, children would inherit their VPR from their parents' job and take over the family business. Now, we live in America and we have the freedom to do whatever we want in terms of an occupation, and Keller says this had led to everyone developing their VPRs, saying 'look what I've done, you must accept me.'

So, people believe that, if there is a God, he must work on the same system of meritocracy (I had to look that word up: advancement based on achievement/ability). We don't get out our work record or academic record with God, we get out our moral record- "God, I deserve to get into heaven because look at how good I am." This element is generally accepted widely by many, many people, and one that we tend (I tend) to revert back to. And it's very, very dangerous.
Keller warns us to be incredibly clear and upfront about this with people. When we explain the concept of praying a prayer to someone who is interested in coming to Christ, they may automatically think that, if they are really sorry for their sin, if they really surrender all of themselves to God, if they really promise to do better next time and mean it, then their VPR is confession and surrender, and God will finally come in to their lives because of it. How awful to think that God will now come into my life and bless me because I prayed the prayer and figured out the real VPR. This is typical Pharisee fashion.

Cue Paul's message in Romans 3:21: "But now, a righteousness from God apart from law has been made known..." "For the first and last time in history," we are given a perfect record, through Christ. And we just need to live for Him. No way can we say to God- look at how sad I am for my sins, look at how committed I am to you, etc etc etc. This is the end of our struggle for validation!

I have no idea who Sydney Pollack is, but Keller quotes him as saying that although the gruelling movie making process was wearing him down (in his old age and poor health), he couldn't justify his existence if he stopped. "Every time I finish a picture, I feel like I've earned my stay for another year or so. I feel like...I'm a worthwhile human being...but then it wears off I have to go out and make another movie."

Same deal, Keller says, for a guy whose blog he was reading one day: a father who was a writer who is very unsuccessful and generally bummed about his books not selling, career going nowhere. But then Keller says the guy writes on his blog 'but then I look at my two little girls and know they need their father, and my life is justified.' No matter his purpose/feelings, there are thoughts of people out there whose VPR is their kids (uh, hello Jon & Kate?) Your kids cannot be your justification.

Everybody does this. I do it. And every knows there is something wrong with them in this area. Adam and Eve knew something was wrong with them and they had to control it. Every one is trying to find a justification for their existence. And it's not right. What do you do when your children are your justification and they go off the rails? You cannot bear it, because your self-worth is tied up in them. What do you do when your ministry, to put it bluntly, sucks? If you are devastated by your lack of success in ministry, maybe your ministry isn't just for Jesus, it's for you and your own righteousness.

Have your coins been dropping?

Boundaries.

Last night I was reading 'Boundaries' (Cloud & Townsend) before bed when I got a text message. In order to see who it was from and what it entailed, I had to get up. I really didn't want to, and was slightly annoyed at the text, but then realized maybe it was someone who really needed something. So, I got up to get my phone. By the time I had phone in hand, I was audibly laughing; here I am reading "Boundaries" and yet I stop something important that I am doing because someone might need me. Hilarious!

By the way, the text was a friend with an answer to a question I had asked earlier. So my annoyance was then directed wholeheartedly at myself! :)