Soon-to-be defectors are sitting in the pews of America’s churches. Unless something changes, they’re going to join the Dones.
While conducting research on the phenomenon of the Dones—those formerly faithful churchgoers who have given up on the organized church—sociologist Josh Packard uncovered another sizable group—the Almost Dones.
Packard’s book Church Refugees describes the large group (31 percent of the U.S. population) that has stopped attending church altogether. But his newest study, Exodus of the Religious Dones, also found that about 10 percent of existing regular churchgoers are currently planning to join the Dones.
The Almost Dones cite some of the same reasons as the Dones for their disaffection with institutional churches—judgmentalism and stifling bureaucracy. But the research revealed some differences too. Packard said, “The Almost Dones are more likely to report being turned off by strong social and political stances taken by churches. Additionally, the Almost Dones are concerned that churches are not involved enough in their local communities.”
Another distinctive of the Almost Dones may surprise those who have speculated—wrongly—that church decline is only an issue among liberal-leaning churches. The research shows that the Almost Dones are much more theologically conservative than those who have already decided to leave. For example, Almost Dones are twice as likely to say the Bible should be taken literally, word for word.
Packard said, “In the coming years, the phenomenon of the Dones will affect evangelical and conservative churches more heavily than it will the mainline Protestant denominations or Catholic and Orthodox churches.”
The Almost Dones don’t want to leave. They’re not slackers. In fact, many of them say they’d commit to stay if their churches would become less spectator oriented and more action oriented. One of the Almost Dones told Packard her church just asks people to “listen passively and build up the kingdom of this church, not the kingdom of God.”
For the Dones, they’re not likely to return to any institutional church. For the Almost Dones, it’s not too late.
This is the main reason I don’t go. I don’t need to go to church to listen to politics.
I want to hear Jesus. Period. I’m 60 years old and there isn’t much you can say in one blurb in a 25 minute sermon that’s likely to change my mind.
I’m second you Robert!
José
I have to agree, I am fairly conservative, but you know Jesus wouldn’t be welcomed in either the RNC or DNC.
I’m curious how “strong social and political stances” is defined? It typically stands to reason that these non-denominational churches are as conservative politically as they are theologically, so where is the disconnect? Why do they want to leave a church that nurtures their political views?
Secondly, I disagree that churches shouldn’t be political. ‘Politics’ has to do with the matters of the public square, and Christians live within it every day. If we fail as the church to disciple people on political matters, they will follow not Jesus, but the god of this age. We would do well to remember Christians in the Jim Crow South stood idly by saying ‘render unto Caesar’ while people were denied basic human dignity, a cornerstone of our faith. We will continue to fail as a moral voice if we don’t disciple people by talking politically. The only real question is “whose politics”?
Honestly, I’m an Almost Done not because my church is too political, but it is not political enough. The church is silent on key social issues. And silence, sadly, too often equals assent to injustice and violence.
It breaks my heart to hear how divorce has entered our homes. Our church home and the secular home. It’s easier to quit than to let God grow us through learning times. As Gods people we need to become humble before the Lord and pray, seeking His face. For me my church family is like a hospital for Christians. I go to get refueled, encouraged, corrected so that I can go back into the world to do Gods work. Forsake not the assembling of yourself scripture says. We are a body with many members. God has placed us in a body to be that part. If one hurts the whole body should hurt. We are crippled if we aren’t working as a body. Seek God. Maybe He is directing you to a small church that is crying to the Lord for workers. The harvest is plenty but the workers are few. Please don’t judge all church families on one experience. Find where God wants you and do ALL for HIS glory.
Excellent comment…
Donna, I don’t intend for this to sound mean, and I realize you might not have intended it, but your comment comes across to me as simplistic, pious, and, ironically, judgmental (this is a big reason why there are “dones”). First you liken it to a divorce and then you imply that the “Dones” are quitters, when the research shows that they are/were the most committed members of the church. For you the church is a hospital, but for many others the church is a spiritually unhealthy place. You say “Please don’t judge all church families on one experience.” I would calmly suggest that you would do likewise. Please, if you have not done so, read the book and analyze the research for better understanding. Many “Dones” continue to meet with other believers in small informal groups and also find ways to serve in the community with Christian and non-Christian based organizations. The don’t just want to “plop, pray, and pay”. Perhaps you should broaden your definition of “church”.
Sorry Marc. I didn’t mean those very descriptive words you implied at all. Just trying to understand. God Bless in your walk.
I”d rather build the Kingdom of God than the empire of the church.
I wasn’t hurt by any church people to the point where I quit in disgust. It was more that every bastion of organized religion, with no exception, seeks to strengthen itself and use its membership to work for itself, and claim that Jesus blesses it. It doesn’t take long before any new believers there switch the focus of their faith from Jesus to church, and that is idolatry.
Me and about 20 others get together every Sunday, either in one of our living rooms, an office that one of us owns, or a nearby park. Then, after eating a LOT (especially me!), we give honor and praise to the Lord, and then build each other’s faith and trust in Him and love one another. No salaries for career ministers, no special buildings to pay for, no committees. Just the people of God in His presence. Am I to drop such a wonderful and pure time of ministry so that I can watch and $upport a dog-and-pony show???
What is wanted in place of church (Christian) meetings?
With all the anti Christian publicity in the world today, particularly at government level, maybe the Holy Spirit is taking the church ‘undeground’. WE have not given up on God; just the institution of formal church. There are still many churches teaching the New Covenant of Jesus and we pray they continue but many are gathering in smaller groups in homes, worshipping and studying the scriptures.
Donna Coman It turns out that there is a whole different kind of “church meeting” from what most American church goers have experienced. (This was true for me up to about 15 years ago.) I had assumed (without thinking about it) that, when “church” was mentioned in the bible, that it was the same thing I was experiencing every Sunday morning. That is, a group of people meeting in a church building to sit in pews and listen to a sermon and enjoy music by a choir or worship team. Pretty much a lecture plus short concert where the attendees are mostly spectators. This is the kind of “church” that the “Dones” or “Almost Dones” are leaving.
What’s the alternative? Turns out every “church” mentioned in the bible met in a home and functioned like a small spiritual family. Everyone participated. See 1 Cor 14:26. That was the normative biblical picture of church for Jesus, Peter, Paul, etc. Something like 10 million Americans have rediscovered that type of church. (Not to mention millions more in places like China, India, etc.)
Thru the week we do offer home studies, discussion time, prayer time. Sunday mornings is our time for the whole family to come together. Not good?
Donna, Those things are very good! The problem is that in most churches only 10 – 20% of the congregation are in small groups like you have described. The message that is usually communicated is “Come to church on Sunday morning. And, if you have time we would like for you to be in a small group.”
This is the opposite of the NT pattern. The small group (house church, see Rom. 16:3-5 for instance) was the primary expression of church. Then, all of the house churches in a region may have met together occasionally although not much is said about that except for Acts 2:46.
The Chinese church says it this way. “Every home a church. Every building a training center.”
Why is this significant? Because the essence of the NT church was participation and mutuality. See 1 Cor 14:26 again. This doesn’t happen well in an auditorium with 100 people let alone 1000. The opportunity to participate in meaningful ways is one of the main reason the “Dones” have left (or are leaving).
We are a small church family. Maybe that’s why I don’t see these problems others speak of. A building is just a building. Sounds like the structure of the meeting and size is what matters. Again I suggest the dones find a small church home to be a part of as one man stated he has done and is very happy. Reminds me of the small cell groups started about 20 years ago. God Bless Johnwhite. :0)
The dones and almost dones evidently have not accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior or they would be in a church with others that have done the same and want to serve Him. The Bible speaks very plainly that believers should join together in one accord and worship Jesus. If you are not doing that at least once a week, you are living your life for yourself and not for God and others. I really don’t have patience with church hoppers and church judgers. If they don’t like the way their church is going, stay and change it. I believe it’s more about laziness than anything else.
I use to think like you back when I was going to church. I couldn’t understand why some didn’t come to church every week and others who just quit going and disappeared. Now that I am walking in their shoes, I understand now. This is a complete change in thinking which in turn slowly or abruptly changes habits and the things I was enslaved to such as feeling I had to be at church every week along with other church activities.
Until a person breaks free of the realm of church as it is, you don’t even see how mentally enslaved you become to the years of being preached at. This mental slavery isn’t just something that happens with church but with many things in every aspect of life, including work and home.
This slavery I speak of is feeling compelled to meet the expectations of others and being driven by guilt if you don’t meet those. We can even become a slave to our own expectations. Church can be a mixture of both. In the realm of ‘group think’ you have people pushing these expectations on each other so it goes round and round. It’s hard to break free because a person can face group rejection. You can’t let other people have this kind of power over you. This is kind of a psychology lesson.
Life starts to go different when your not pressured and feel obligated to meet every expectation of others. You can pick and choose whose expectations you want to meet based on what is truly important. It gets good when you can even say no to your own expectation on yourself. Then your free and life gets better. There is no point to being tied down to so many none value-added things.
Kate, You rightly appeal to the Bible in making the point that believers should meet together regularly for church (worship and fellowship). The underlying question you must ask is, “What exactly is church?”
What I had missed for a long time was that the way we were doing church (building centered, clergy centered, sermon centered) was a significant departure from the biblical pattern. (“Scripture is our authoritative guide for faith and practice” Underline “practice”.) I had been in the current church system for so long that it never occurred to me that we were deviating from Scripture.
If what I’ve written makes you at least a little curious, I recommend you take a look at “Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices” by Frank Viola.
Let me speak frankly. First, why are you on this site? And 2ndly, Kate, you rush in where angels fear to tred. The one sin in the scriptures for which there is no forgiveness is taking righteous acts as works of evil. stop it.
Wow Kate!! I am a done, been saved (accepted Christ as my personal Saviour, been born again, been filled with the Spirit, all by the grace of God, I’m orthodox in terms of doctrine, been a Baptist preacher for 38 years, got disillusioned with the institutional/denominational church, left, meeting in house churches according to Acts 2 etc, love Jesus more than ever before, serving the poor and forgotten, etc. So I guess I, and millions others around the world (100 million plus in China – been there, seen it), are just lazy!?
Great post, Errol! What so many people don’t realize is that millions of Americans (9% according to the Pew Foundation) are thriving in house churches outside the institutional church.
Reblogged this on the journey is the life and commented:
Some very interesting thoughts. I want to encourage people to remember when reading thoughts about this, that people who are done with church for the most part are not done with Jesus or even the Christian community; their frustration lies in the INSTITUTION, the way we do church, the lack of community, the disconnect that a Sunday morning service lends itself too.
I encourage church leadership to stop defending and start listening. Stop thinking it is your job to fix everyone’s thinking and shove it into a box of “how we’ve always done it”. It is o.k. to change things up, do it different, just because we’ve worship a certain way since the days of Constantine, doesn’t mean it is the best or that it is still working.
God isn’t broken, but I do think think the way we continue to do church is……..
Dones and Almost Dones should check out the lost word of the Bible — ekklesia! https://stevesimms.wordpress.com/2015/07/09/the-lost-word-of-the-bible-ekklesia/
I totally agree I pastor a church in San Antonio Texas and I’m completely void of politics from the pulpit.
The closest I get to it is by encouraging people to go and vote.
The congregation is made up of both democrats and republicans, Get we all come together very nicely to support our community and one another.
My concern is are these Dones making their voice heard in their congregations before l
I do have a problem with people who leave the church without any kind of explanation
I believe that there is a confusion being expressed here over and over. “Dones” and “Almost Dones” aren’t leaving the church per se. Kate in the comments above stated this, “The dones and almost dones evidently have not accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior or they would be in a church with others that have done the same and want to serve Him. The Bible speaks very plainly that believers should join together in one accord and worship Jesus. If you are not doing that at least once a week, you are living your life for yourself and not for God and others.”
I’m a “Done” and I meet with other Christians several times a week for worship and service to the Lord. We simply left a weekly assembly packaged in a box and decided to BE the church that God called us to be. We left businessmen who meet as councils to decide whether we are allowed to listen to the Holy Spirit and obey God or not. This box with a pulpit keeps insisting that we make disciples, but has very few in the building who are willing to do any more than attend the weekly meeting and listen to what we should be teaching to others ourselves!
A small group of us meet and minister to more teenagers in the name of the Lord than our local church. We have “youth groups” bigger than our local church. In fact we have 3 of them. We have a coffee shop ministry that teaches the gospel to anyone in the marketplace who happens to want to join us in an informal environment while enjoying a meal or relaxing drink suitable for their whole families.
We meet in discipling groups every week. We visit the infirm, make hospital visits, give money and food to the poor, share resources so everyone has enough. We move and do as the Spirit instructs. No structure. No bylaws. Our marching orders come only by agreement with each other through the Holy Spirit. Everyone has a say. Total Acts 2 experience.
In the box church, pastors and councils really don’t tend to practice what is being preached. Christians in these environments usually need to get permission from a pastor before acting upon the urging of the Holy Spirit. If what God tells the believer what to do or how to serve does not match the parameters of structured plans and systems, then they are not given freedom to obey God.
This is your “Almost Done” Group. They want to serve, but a man or a council of men (and women) thwarts their plans (and that of God) more times than encouraging them. The word “no” is implied and heard just too many times. Over the years we have been taught to obey God and listen to the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey my commands.” So the most important orders all Christians have is love God, love others, and make disciples—teaching them all the commands you’ve been taught. How many of you sitting in the pews are actually doing any of that?