Church Dropout

Last night on KJLH Beyond the Pulpit with Pastor Xavier Thompson pastor of Southern MBC, they discussed the topic "Church Dropout" with special guest pastors of our city, Pastor L A Kessee of Bethany Baptist Church and Pastor Melvin Von Wade of Mt Moriah Baptist Church both in Los Anageles, Ca. Good listening piece of material from seasoned pastors on the subject at hand.

Why do people stop attending and being committed to church?

Here are a few of the responses from callers and guest (that I can remember):

1). Lazy pastors and preachers

2). Church has become a distraction for some people. The caller explains that for them church politics, fighting, etc is too much to handle and therefore resolves that staying home is better to getting closer God.

3). Churchless Christianity- people who use TV, internet, and radio as they're church fellowship

4). Pastor Wade says church dropout is due to "church frailty".

5). Rev Melvin Wade Jr says that the church is not bridging the generational gap to reach young people. When God led the people of Israel to the promise land with Moses they crossed a Red Sea but with Joshua they crossed the Jordan River. Two different bodies of water but headed in the same direction.

6). Entertainment - the church has allowed the entertainment world to enter into the worship service to compel men, women, boys, and girls to come to Christ.

7). Mixed priorities of what's important

8). Lack of developed leadership resulting in senior leadership staying too long as the church's pastor.

9). Under-developed leadership, lack of training, or lack of mentorship in young preachers. Therefore, throwing them into the fire before their time.

10). This one is my thought on the issue....lack of sincere reverence in the church. I believe our reverence for God has lost its sincerity. And churches that strive to maintain reverence are labeled as traditional for which I take exception. I love contemporary, exciting, lively, enthusiastic, zealous worship. However, I believe we can't allow our contemporary worship overshadow our reverence for God. There has to be a limit where we don't push the envelope so far that God is pushed to the back of the line. God is to be the centrality of our worship whereby leading us to worship Him in spirit and truth. In laymen's terms, watch how we treat God in our worship service. Both saved and unsaved attendees need to know that they are in the presence of God.

What's the solution? Writing my thoughts to publish soon