Why aren’t people coming back?
A letter to pastors and churchgoers who wonder what happened to the prepandemic church they knew.
Dear friend,
I am going to assume you’re a positive person who enjoys people, radiates goodness, and thrives on hope. I’m also going to assume you’re familiar with discouragement. So, tell me if I have this much right: sometime in the last year you looked out over the sanctuary and congregation you love, and you wondered, What happened to the people? Why did so many kiss congregational life good-bye?
If you’ve contacted any of these absent parishioners, you may well have learned that they’re doing just fine. Their weekends are active and full. They either endured COVID or escaped it altogether. They sound healthy and well. The topic of church may have surfaced briefly when you spoke, but it didn’t seem to be very high on their priority list. So what should you do?
