112 Million Christians Unchurched
USA: 12 million with a personal relationship with Jesus, but no church "Many American preachers and TV evangelists speak of a revival apparently sweeping the nation," report Fred Jackson and Allie Martin of Agape Press. But is the 'revival' happening in an unexpected manner? Perhaps even outside the Church?
A recent study by George Barna shows that traditionally church-bound Christianity, almost inconceivably, seems to hinder rather than encourage revival. The Barna Research Group's study discovered that the number of adults in the USA no longer attending church has almost doubled since 1991, from 39 million to 75 million. The adult population grew 15% over the same period.
"It is mainly the men," says Barna, "who make up 55% of those who have left churches. Around half of churchgoers in the USA claim to have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour," as do 12.5 million, or around 16%, of those who no longer attend church.
"Out-of-church Christians"
The USA is apparently not the exception to the rule. David Barrett, author of the World Christian Encyclopedia, estimates that there are already 112 million 'out-of-church Christians' around the world - 5% of all who call themselves 'Christians'. He expects this number to double by 2025.
"Why are tens of thousands of committed Christians leaving the Church? Is it a 'movement'? What is causing this global phenomenon?" asks New Zealand author Andrew Strom, who mentioned the problem during a radio show in March 2003, and wrote a short message about it in an e-mail discussion list. He was not prepared for the response: "I was overwhelmed by e-mails from committed Christians who love Jesus and have left their churches - all over the world!" His book on the subject, so far only available on his web page (see below) has become very popular among Christians who initially believed that their desire to serve Jesus outside established churches was strange, and that they were alone in their situation.
"It's the leaders who leave"
New Zealand pastor Alan Jamieson, author of the book "A Churchless Faith", has been studying this phenomenon for years. To his surprise, it is not the 'normal churchgoers' who are leaving the church for reasons of faith: 94% of the Christians he has interviewed who are currently without a church were in positions of leadership or responsibility, such as Deacons, Elders, Sunday School teachers - and 40% of them were once in full-time ministry. Many of them said that they left the church not because they had lost their faith, but exactly because they did not want to lose it. For many people who cannot conceive of anything other than the traditional church-oriented Christianity, the movement is unsettling or even frightening. It may well be one of the most exciting developments in recent years. It will certainly have lasting consequences for the Church, because if the leaders are leaving today, what will the 'followers' do tomorrow?
Source: Barna Research Group (www.barna.org) and Andrew Strom's book (http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~revival/00-Out-Of-Church.html)
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