The Whereabouts of Sheep

A Review of The Great Dechurching by Jim Davis & Michael Graham, with Ryan P. Burge

Attrition rates in the church are staggeringly high. About 40 million adults in America used to attend church but no longer do. Let that sink in. According to the authors of The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back?, “More people have left the church in the last twenty-five years than all the new people who became Christians from the First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, and Billy Graham crusades combined.” This pattern suggests that the next generation will have even fewer built-in churchgoers, which means, “we are currently in the middle of the largest and fastest religious shift in the history of our country.”

This creates an uncertain yet exciting moment for the church. The Great Dechurching helps make sense of what we are seeing and offers some helpful principles for considering how churches might thrive in this changing environment.

Who’s Leaving?

Dechurching, when “someone who used to go to church at least once per month but now goes less than once a year,” affects every theological tradition and denomination. The authors help us make sense of the growing body of data on this demographic by breaking it down into understandable categories.

A multifaceted picture emerges, with people dechurching for a variety of reasons, including everything from simply falling out of the habit or leaving due to politics to very intentional exits due to traumatic experiences or abuse. The book’s analysis is salted with personal anecdotes from the authors’ lives and short fictional vignettes of figures who embody specific reasons for leaving. This approach of weaving data, analysis, anecdote, and story together makes the content concrete and easy to follow. A few points that surprised me most were how old many of the dechurched are (revealing that these trends have been building for a while) and how those with higher education levels tend to remain in church (which goes against the stereotype of the elite, college-educated agnostic or atheist who is “too smart” for religion).

What Might Bring Them Back? 

Another surprising finding is that the dechurched remain largely open to spiritual things and to returning to church, and the authors provide suggestions that might assist in bringing them back. Two helpful mnemonic devices are as follows. One is the three Cs. We should attempt to comprehend where the dechurched are coming from and what it is they are really saying and believing. Then we should try and commend some aspect of their belief structure that resonates with truth. And then thirdly, we can offer critique and an alternative.

The authors also suggest using the religious-sociological framework of belonging, belief, and behavior for understanding why people have left and what might draw them back. A church that unifies these three Bs in its doctrine, practice, and life together stands the best chance of being a place where the dechurched are willing to reconnect. All this reveals the importance of relationships, personal invitations, and hospitality in bringing people back.

The authors also remind us that we need to get used to exile status, but this too is an opportunity. “We aren’t saying we should desire or seek persecution or exile, but we will need to embrace it when it comes. . . . Now that the tide is turning and we are in the largest and fastest religious shift in the history of our country, the need to prepare for and embrace exile will serve to advance the gospel in our generation.”