I got the e-mail this morning.  The, “I just don’t feel fed” e-mail.  I assume a number of you have too.  In this case they are claiming that the are attending another church, but frequently they stop attending all together.

Lifeway just published a study on why people leave the church.  The most interesting findings to me include…

Labeled as the “formerly churched,” 59 percent of those who left the church did so because of “changes in life situation.” This was the dominant reason found in the survey conducted to better understand why people leave the church.

More specifically, LifeWay Research Director Brad Waggoner pointed out two life-situation reasons why adults stop attending church. According to the study, 19 percent of the formerly churched “simply got too busy to attend church,” and 17 percent said “family/home responsibilities prevented church attendance.”

and

80 percent of the formerly churched do not have a strong belief in God, which the study indicated may account for their higher priorities of work and family over church. Also, among the top 10 reasons adults leave the church, only two were related to spiritual causes, the report highlighted, with 14 percent saying the church was not helping them develop spiritually and another 14 percent saying they stopped believing in organized religion.

You can read the rest of it here should you be so inclined.  http://www.christianpost.com/article/20061015/25250.htm

Thanks to http://christianmind.blogspot.com/ for the link.