What has amazed me (speaking of my community) is the extent to which members change churches. I have seen a large but declining church get a new pastor who brought exciting changes, which resulted in gaining members from other congregations – only to have many of these leave a couple of years later as a newer church is established. I know many of these people and the reason for leaving has rarely been doctrinal disagreements. (I think for the most part it has been “better” programs, a different approach to “doing church,” and perhaps personal disagreements). We have had several churches spring up and grow, but it appears that this growth is in terms of gaining members from other churches rather than reaching people for Christ. We have more churches than any time before, but if the culture is any indication we may have less Christians. Of course, we are ultimately living in a consumer based culture. It wouldn’t be difficult to spend one’s entire life “church shopping” and never truly belonging (with any sense of commitment) to a local church. We seem, as a whole, discontented and a little restless.
