Burning Down The House

Too many Christians are taking to heart the words of the Talking Heads, they’re Burning Down the House. Over the past few years I have been reading study, after study, after study. Most simply share the WHO; this group is leaving the church. But none have gone deep enough into the WHY. I tend to think the reason is because if we did go deeper into the WHY, we would find that we truly are Burning Down our own House.

I mean, even Lifeways, the publishing are of the SBC, never really goes too deep into asking WHY. When you do, I honestly get a feeling that the questions they ask are designed to push the Corporate line. We know that Millennials are leaving, or not even starting to attend, WHY? We can get a ton on antidotal responses to the WHY, but nothing real, noting hard, noting that pushed the church to see that they are the Firer Starters, the ones Burning Down the House.

Please note, I’m not saying we never look at the WHY. When we do, it is pure fluff, surface stuff like, “They don’t feel like the church is building community” – but we need to know how people actually feel, “I got treated like shit every time I went in the building.” If the church is truly interested in knowing why people are leaving, or not interested in starting to attend, the church needs to hear honest, direct, gut level, intentional answers – ones that shock us, ones that honestly speak the hearts of others – not ones that clean up emotions, but ones that allow us to feel the sting of an honest, open wound. Some may not like it, but there is no way anything will change if we sugar-coat the answers.

We need surveys that actually go deeper; deep down into the real reasons people leave. You see, I have a gut feeling that people leave because of the Institutional Church, and the Corporate Jesus(R) they push from the front are not helping them deal with life – but that is just antidotal on my end.