I was reading some results from a Barna Group study of “churchless” in the USA. In the past decade, the number of churchless people has increased 30%. About 75% of the churchless attended church at one time… Barna calls them “de-churched.”
I have a theory: people are leaving churches because of a lack of truth. Many churches replace Jesus’ truth with their own ideas. Yet manmade theology does not have the power to affect people’s lives in a positive way. Only the truth of Jesus and the presence of His Spirit can do that. Without the truth and Holy Spirit, people give up and leave.
It’s just my theory… what do you think?
CJ Penn's Online Writing Hangout 
December 16, 2014 at 8:05 am
Totally agree. The power of the Holy Spirit is more incredible than what man can do.
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December 16, 2014 at 9:24 am
I think that churches focus on attracting people to the church in the way the world would attract people and I think churches should focus on the truth of the Gospel and people will be attracted to the truth .The financial pressure should be ignored. Start small and grow by the strength of the conviction of the truth.
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December 16, 2014 at 9:48 am
Perfectly said. Thank you.
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December 16, 2014 at 10:26 am
Well said! I agree manmade truth has replaced the real truth of God’s word. Yes, only the Holy Spirit and the truth of Jesus has the power to change a life. However I believe the true believers are leaving the “main line church” and going to where they can be fed. I am one such person. We need to continual pray that God opens the eyes of the blind:) God Bless! I enjoy your posts.
Learning Beside You,
Lisa;)
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December 19, 2014 at 2:07 pm
I can’t answer for anyone else but I spent nearly 20 years between churches. Why I left? I thirsted for answers and asked questions. Faith that cannot stand questions is no faith at all. I was helped to feel that there was no room for a bright, inquisitive young woman in a Christian church, so I left. Why I came back? I found a much more, welcoming, open minded church. A place where all God’s people are wanted rather than divided.
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January 8, 2015 at 10:50 pm
This is amazing. I absolutely agree! There’s a reason for everything usaid. Jesus has established a church when he came, where all the truths and His teachings have been practiced and kept until the end of the Apostolic Age, when Rome conquered Israel, and one by one the truths have been changed. This has been prophesied to happen by the prophet Daniel in his book. see Daniel 7:25. Since truths have been abolished and changed, no other church since then has kept the perfect truths established by Jesus. So it is written he will come again. See Hebrews 9:28. According to secrets and the prophecies in the Bible Jesus has secretly come again. How will the people recognize Him.? Ask how did the apostles recognize Him in 1st coming…. There’s much to say, but yeah, if You seek u will find. Jesus came again and restored all the lost truths and revealed the last secret in the Bible. Please find Zion prophesied from the beginning, there you will find the church taught by the Root of David. God bless u😊
english.watv.com
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January 9, 2015 at 7:02 am
Thank you for your great comment.
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January 8, 2015 at 11:01 pm
http://english.watv.org
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January 11, 2015 at 7:12 am
Wow, we are similar and on the same timeline. C.S. Lewis begs his readers in The Screwtape Letters not to leave a church but to “stick with it” regardless of anything, but I have found going to church lessens instead of strengthens my faith. Like you, getting up and communing with God (Him writing through me to me) has been the most wonderful experience of my existence so far. I am glad He called me. How nice it is to find a kindred soul out there! (My other blog is called Ask, Seek, Knock and encourages people to read the Bible and ask Him for the truth every time they do).
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January 11, 2015 at 10:54 am
It always feels good to find someone who feels the same way I do. Thanks so much for commenting. I know I’ve seen your Ask, Seek, Knock blog. I’ll see you there again soon.
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January 11, 2015 at 11:08 am
By the way, how do I get to your Ask, Seek, Knock blog? I couldn’t find a link on your Ink Pastries blog. Please send me a link. Thanks a lot, CJ
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January 11, 2015 at 7:50 am
P.S. Studying Exodus carefully, I see there is a major fork-in-the-road when God tells the Israelites to prepare to meet Him on the mountain and when they do they are so afraid of His Majesty and Glory that they tell Moses to keep interceding for them. God was ready to “tabernacle” with them all, and instead, they wanted a “tabernacle” they could see and priests to intercede. They wanted religion, not a one-on-one relationship, and this describes a lot of Christians today. This is so similar to the Israelites wanting meat (God gives it to them to the point it comes out their noses and kills them) and them wanting a king (they get Saul) instead of God’s leadership. Often when we want the wrong thing, God gives it to us so that we will learn by experience that it is NOT what we really want. Anyway, just sharing something God has shown me in my travels with Him, in the Bible. We are so blessed to be able to learn from the experiences of those in the Bible, and yet some still don’t get the message. And the best story of all about religion vs. one-on-one with God is 1st Kings 13. When we “turn to get the pat on the back” from men, vs. going on knowing we did right by God (sometimes alone), we suffer.
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January 11, 2015 at 10:57 am
WOW! What fantastic insight from the Old Testament. I hadn’t seen that before. Thank you so much for sharing this. Do you have this in a blog post? If so, I’d love to share it. Thank you again and I hope you have a great day.
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