Why 30 Million Are Fed Up With Today’s Church

Approximately 30 million people are “done” with today’s church, according to new research by sociologist Dr. Josh Packard, but they aren’t necessarily done with God.  

“They are giving up on an institution that they experience as irrelevant if not an impediment to their spiritual growth. While space does not allow a full examination of his work, two facets are particularly critical,” Presbyterian minister Patrick Vaughn writes in his analysis of Packard’s report. 

“The Dones value community. Indeed, they deeply experience God in and through relationships with their brother and sisters. But sitting in rows and looking at the back of other people’s heads, as my wife has long argued, cannot nurture relationships!

“This yearning for community first led the Dones to join the church, and to a significant degree that is exactly what they discovered: people like themselves in search of meaning and purpose whose faith connected them to one another. They did not and do not seek conformity. They enjoy a variety of opinions and perspectives and desire opportunities to discuss these openly. They want to be held accountable even as they want to know the embrace of love in times of struggle and suffering.” 

Packard’s research focuses on how religion drives people away from church but not from God.  

Packard authored Church Refugees with fellow researcher Ashleigh Hope about Christians who fall away from their churches because of the inner turmoil and politics.  

The two investigated the state of the American church through The Dechurched Project for those who left their congregations over institutional religion rather than flaws in their relationships with God.  

According to World Religion News, the project revealed the dones:  

• The Dones long for a communal experience, which they say is missing from the church. The judgmental nature of the churchgoers hamper their sense of community and communal harmony.  
• The Dones feel stifled by the bureaucratic nature in which church works. They feel it does not give freedom to do what they love most – serve Jesus. They feel, without the authority of the church, they can progress more spiritually.   
• The church leaders are another reason for the Dones’ exit from the church. They feel they must find their own answers about God and His mysterious ways, through struggles and dialogues – not through some sermons and lectures given by church leaders.   
• The Dones also feel that church emphasizes more on the moral issues like drug abuse and sexual activity and completely undermined the more pressing issues like poverty, equality and unjust economies.

Are you a religious “done”? Why or why not? Sound off!